Australian Vet School Help

[Greenzaranth]

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I've got a few questions I hoped that some of you might have answers to:

I've just been accepted to Murdoch and Sydney overseas for vet school, and like a similar post a couple days ago, would really like to hear people's opinions about each school. It's so hard to make an informed decision living 10,000 or so miles away 🙂 That last thread seemed to get off topic, so I thought I'd try again... Anything you know would be really helpful!

Second, has anyone here applied for the FAFSA for an Australian vet school; if so, did you list yourself as a graduate student? Since that degree is the equivalent of the US graduate degree in Vet Medicine? Also, did you list yourself as pursuing a graduate/professional degree, or an undergraduate degree?

Finally, does earning the BVSc make the graduate a "doctor"; I can't figure out if to be a doctor in veterinary medicine you need a DVM, or if the BVSc works, too.

Thanks for your help! This is soooo stressful figuring everything out!

 

[Hollycozza]

Hello!

I can't tell you about the international student aspects of the Aussie schools, but I'm a third year (local) student at Sydney.

Australian vets do call themselves "Dr" on the basis of a BVSc, so presumably you could continue to do so in North America, since it is effectively the same qualification?

Sydney is the most expensive place to live in Australia, and a few of my American classmates expressed surprise at just how expensive it is. Additional to this, the Sydney school is right in the middle of the city, whereas the Murdoch one is in the suburbs, which means that rent is much much higher in Sydney.

One advantage of Murdoch is that you may be able to skip a semester or even a year of the course on the basis of your previous studies, and this would save you a lot of $$$$$.

I know the price at Sydney for international students has risen quite a lot too, to AU$37,000 a year or something.....

Sydney is a great city and a great university though, however Perth is also lovely, so I don't know if my ramble is very helpful for your decision 🙂

 

[bubbles525]

For Murdoch you do fill out a FASFA and list yourself as a graduate student (I had the same questions). The financial aid office at Murdoch has been very helpful. You can borrow up to $8,500 USD in subsidized and $10,000 USD unsubsidized just like a US grad student. My total budget for Murdoch is $35,000 USD including tution and expenses, but not travel home becuase I'm unsure of how often or how much it will cost.

As to the "Doctor" thing there have been a few threads about it 🙂 The general consensus seems to be that one goes with the convention of the country you practice in. Fell free to jump in guys! So, if I remember correctly in England vets are not commonly called Doctor so even a vet form the US would not be called Doctor. So if you practice in the US since vets are called Doctor you'd still be refered to as Doctor.

Again, Ive found this site very helpful, and it should be updated more soon as the webmaster is taking exams this week. http://vetstudents.net/

Good luck!

I've got a few questions I hoped that some of you might have answers to:

I've just been accepted to Murdoch and Sydney overseas for vet school, and like a similar post a couple days ago, would really like to hear people's opinions about each school. It's so hard to make an informed decision living 10,000 or so miles away 🙂 That last thread seemed to get off topic, so I thought I'd try again... Anything you know would be really helpful!

Second, has anyone here applied for the FAFSA for an Australian vet school; if so, did you list yourself as a graduate student? Since that degree is the equivalent of the US graduate degree in Vet Medicine? Also, did you list yourself as pursuing a graduate/professional degree, or an undergraduate degree?

Finally, does earning the BVSc make the graduate a "doctor"; I can't figure out if to be a doctor in veterinary medicine you need a DVM, or if the BVSc works, too.

Thanks for your help! This is soooo stressful figuring everything out!

 

[Bullettime]

How long did it take for USyd to give a response back to you? And is it for the matriculation period 2007, or 2008?

 

[Nexx]

Bubbles, stinyexoticvet has it posted somewhere in her blogs about the BVSc. You are a "doctor" of "veterinary medicine" but you cannot sign your name as "DVM" you have to use the BVSc.

From the Murdoch website: you will have "eligibility to sit USA veterinary licensing examinations, Murdoch graduates are now considered in the same category as North American graduates."

Green, I listed myself as an undergrad (after all, I filled the thing out early in the year and I am still in school 😛) Whatever school you choose will decide your financial need and determine your award.

If you haven't already, get cracking on finding funding!!!! (Assuming you haven't already or that you need it) Remember that you will have to pay your tuition up front to secure a student visa. That means borrowing from family friends, or one LARGE short-term loan. I called Bank of America today about their "education maximizer loan" and Murdoch qualifies for it (I believe, I need to double check) and they will disburse money (so the rep told me) based on an acceptance letter--and that money comes to you. Granted I don't know how difficult it is to obtain.

To cover the difference between stafford loans and the rest of the money you need I recommend applying for a Graduate PLUS loan. They are credit based (a bit more forgiving), and are secured by the US government. There is a fixed interest rate that has up to 1% interest breaks upon repayment. I qualified for $25,000 with mediocre/good credit and some severe delinquencies still on my record from years ago.

And come over to vetstudents.net as bubbles suggested. I'm over there under "adbxr" (hi bubbles 😛) as well as quite a few other Murdoch students.

-j

ps. Hey bubbles, how long did it take you to get your 'acceptance package' after you received that first preliminary acceptance via australearn?

 

[Greenzaranth]

Thanks for your help so far!
I'm applying for the 07-08 year, and I turned in all my application materials the middle of August; heard back from both schools the first week in November.
For those of you who go to Murdoch: do you feel you get the same quality of education that a larger, more well-funded school like Sydney may offer?
And for you Sydney goers: do you feel the extra living expenses due to being in Sydney are worth the education?

Thanks everyone!

 

[Hollycozza]

Hi again,

Sydney is definitely a wonderful place to live with a vibrant social scene. Sydney has a population of four million, compared to Perth having a population of just over one million. Added to this, Sydney is in easy reach of most of the rest of the major populations in Australia, while Perth is one of the most or possibly even the most isolated major city in the world.

I was surprised by the calculation someone made of US$35,000 total for their costs, you would not get away with that in Sydney. The price of tuition at Sydney uni for international vet students as gone up to AU$37,000 a year, which means after this is subtracted from the US$35,000 figure you would have AU$8454 for all your other costs at the current AU$ value of US$0.77.

Given that rent in Sydney would probably cost you at least AU$150 a week, that would come to AU$7800, leaving $654 for all your food, text books, etc for the year, so this figure just doesn't add up for Sydney..... even for Perth I am skeptical but I am not sure how the tuition weighs up there.

It would be okay if you're planning to work here as well, international students can work up to 20 hours a week and full time over summer, and our rates of pay are pretty high, usually you would get at least AU$15 an hour.

(The US students in my year really got stung by the variable value of our respective dollars, as they moved here when our $ was worth only US$0.50, and then it quickly rose up to the 70 cents plus mark again, so be sure to build in some variation in your calculations!!!)

The quality of the degree is likely to be the same, and you might be able to save six months or a year at Murdoch, so if it comes down to economics, go for Murdoch.

Sydney is a really exciting and fun place to live though 🙂

 

[wtjvet99]

What Hollycozza said.
I'm an American but I attend Uni Melbourne, so I can't specifically help you for Murdoch or Sydney. Vet school here is going to cost you craploads. The tuition/fees itself is pretty much exactly the same if you went to a US school as an out-of-state student. What gets you is the cost of living and the plane ticket to and from the States. While it is possible to live on the cheap, eating ramen noodles and never going out, there is no fun in that. And at least in Melbourne, you don't get consession fares as an International student. That really burns! Besides, even the ramen is going to cost you .60 instead of .10! They tell me it's all due to "economies of scale" since the Australian population is about 1/10th of the US and so the importation costs are why the cost of living is so high. I think it is more because the average income is higher and their healthcare is better. But that is another discussion for another forum!😉

I am throughly embarassed by the amount of loans I will have to pay back, but it will all be worth it in the end, right?

Always error on the side of borowing too much, you can always use the possible overage for the next year and won't find yourself in the position I was in this year, which was trying to find alternate sources of funding while trying to keep the Uni from un-enrolling me from classes since I was about $10,000 short. Not. Fun.

And I wouldn't bank on working. The people I know who have tried to work while studying have struggled to fit it all in. One has failed and is repeating the year, thus costing her about AU$45,000 more than it would have if she didn't work and had concentrated on her studies and passed in the first instance.

 

[Nexx]

Keep in mind too, that the Australian Universities aren't THAT much more expensive than their US counterparts--especially if you go out of state or to a private University.

WesternU for example, isn't their tuition in the $20-30k range. Add that in with living expenses for California and you are pretty much on par with AU!

 

[ReinaDeLuz]

WesternU for example, isn't their tuition in the $20-30k range. Add that in with living expenses for California and you are pretty much on par with AU!

hehe try more like $35-36K ;-)

 

[Bullettime]

Did you recieve any notices that your application/application package was recieved by USyd?

Thanks

 

[bubbles525]

Maybe I'm being optomisitic but here are my calculations:

Murdoch tution: $33,000 AUD (from Murdoch website)

Cost of living per month from: $1,040 AUD (from vetstudents.net, though I have also seen the figure $250/week on other blogs form students at Murdoch.)

So total: $45,480 AUD

Conversion from XE.com : $34,907.92USD this morning, it was even better for me last month when it was .71 to 1.00.

I did not include travel becuase I am unsure as to how often and when I will be comming home. However I can tell you I have found a flight from LA to Perth for $910.10 USD on Air New Zeland, and you can get flights to LA from Boston (I live in MA) for about $110-150 on Airtran and a few other airlines, all one way. The round trip tickets I can find are $1,200-1,400.

Whereas the Financial Aid budget for the incomming class at Western (the only one I know off the top of my head becuase I was waitlisted there last year) is $58,000 USD (calculated tution + estimated cost of living; this figure is given to you from the school). And last year when I went to both the applicant information sesion and the interview the students said that the estimated cost of living was tight for them.

Hi again,

Sydney is definitely a wonderful place to live with a vibrant social scene. Sydney has a population of four million, compared to Perth having a population of just over one million. Added to this, Sydney is in easy reach of most of the rest of the major populations in Australia, while Perth is one of the most or possibly even the most isolated major city in the world.

I was surprised by the calculation someone made of US$35,000 total for their costs, you would not get away with that in Sydney. The price of tuition at Sydney uni for international vet students as gone up to AU$37,000 a year, which means after this is subtracted from the US$35,000 figure you would have AU$8454 for all your other costs at the current AU$ value of US$0.77.

Given that rent in Sydney would probably cost you at least AU$150 a week, that would come to AU$7800, leaving $654 for all your food, text books, etc for the year, so this figure just doesn't add up for Sydney..... even for Perth I am skeptical but I am not sure how the tuition weighs up there.

It would be okay if you're planning to work here as well, international students can work up to 20 hours a week and full time over summer, and our rates of pay are pretty high, usually you would get at least AU$15 an hour.

(The US students in my year really got stung by the variable value of our respective dollars, as they moved here when our $ was worth only US$0.50, and then it quickly rose up to the 70 cents plus mark again, so be sure to build in some variation in your calculations!!!)

The quality of the degree is likely to be the same, and you might be able to save six months or a year at Murdoch, so if it comes down to economics, go for Murdoch.

Sydney is a really exciting and fun place to live though 🙂

 

[Hollycozza]

Hi again,

It definitely could be okay for Perth as there is a big difference in cost of living (although Perth is getting more expensive on the back of a mining boom).

It also could get better if the value of the Aussie dollar falls, which it could as it is pretty high at the moment.

As a rough estimate of mimimum costs for Sydney

* Tuition $37,500

* Rent: realistically will not be much under $150 and is a lot more for some people, so approximately $8000

* Groceries: $5000 (maybe on the high side but I don't think it would be massively far out for me, given I like to buy fresh fruit and vegies and have a bit of a taste for nice cheese. I don't buy meat, which is also relatively expensive (or so I am told).

* Text books: $1000 (less than that in first year but more than that for me this year (third year)). You guys can also save money by ordering text books from home, they are much more expensive in Australia.

* Other miscellaneous entertainment etcetera: $1500

Thats all pretty rough but that would give you a figure of AU$53000 or US$40810 at current AU$ value.

Also I think at Sydney uni now the fees for international students go up a bit each year, so that is something else to consider. (They used to be fixed but, no longer).

Hope that is useful, cheers 🙂

Maybe I'm being optomisitic but here are my calculations:

Murdoch tution: $33,000 AUD (from Murdoch website)

Cost of living per month from: $1,040 AUD (from vetstudents.net, though I have also seen the figure $250/week on other blogs form students at Murdoch.)

So total: $45,480 AUD

Conversion from XE.com : $34,907.92USD this morning, it was even better for me last month when it was .71 to 1.00.

QUOTE]

 

[lazyjayn]

You can find cheaper tickets sometimes on kayak.com or expedia. It tends to be cheaper to fly to Oz/ NZ on mondays, and back on wednesdays. I dunno why. Flip around a bit, and don't be too picky with what airline. My one way to NZ last year was ~750 us all in. Round trip to come home, pick up some stuff, do some shopping was a little over $1000 us.

Getting there, there are a bunch of discount airlines in Oz. Somewhere (sorry, no links, I'm travelling, so no bookmarks) is a web site with every international discount carrier. You could probably google it....

SYD is cheaper to fly into (usually) than AUK, just because more airlines fly there.

Oh, yeah, and not only are school books cheaper in the US, but other books (paperbacks translate out to 12-18$ each, depending on the exchange), clothes, shoes. Anything but beans, white bread, and that nasty vegimite stuff. So don't forget to up your budget for that too.

j.