Canadian looking to study in Australia

[seemomstudy]

Hello

I am interested in studying medicine in Australia or New Zealand. I am currently in my second year so I have some time but I want to be prepared when the time comes to decide which schools I will be applying to. I have two main questions...

1. What are the general prerequisites for applying to Australian/New Zealand med programs? (i.e. 1 year org. chem)

2. Do any universities offer any child care/family services and do any offer subsidized child care for international students?

Also if I were to study overseas I would like to stay in my country of study. Does anyone have any experience with the immigration process in either Australia or New Zealand?

Thanks!

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[rayjay]

The boards are literally overloaded with questions like this...

1. with the exception of Melbourne, I don't think any schools have a pre reqs. Melbourne requires anatomy, biochemistry AND physiology and they are strict about it. You have to have an MCAT for all and almost all require 8/8/M/8 minimum with some schools allowing a 7 in ONE section only provided the overall score is 24M+

2. I don't know

3. the residency situation it tricky. some schools will pull your offer if you get residency before starting. some schools will allow you to transfer over to a subsidized place from an international place. check medinoz.com for more info

 

[cosycatus]

no subsidized childcare ( why would any government subsidized the child care fees of the person from ANOTHER country, if u think about it.) Plenty of paid childcare services around though.

Not some schools. It's all schools; If u get a PR before enrolling, your place will definitely be pulled, since the local quota is different from the international quota. Some schools might even pull your place if u get a PR before completing medical school ( as lyndal from Wollongong like to point out ). Other schools are more benevolent and will probably let you continue as a full fee paying student and graduate. Tat's the case for Flinders, Sydney, ANU, UQ etc etc ....
On the other hand, if u are talking about getting residency AFTER completing medical school, well, it depends if u can land an internship here. Which as Lyandal likes to point out, is looking increasingly shaky at the moment and more so in 4-5 years time since there's a huge flood of medical students graduating. But assuming u land an internship ( and hence a job), getting PR isn't hard for a doctor, esp if u are willing to serve in an area of need ( read, rural areas without many docs)

 

[lyndal]

no subsidized childcare ( why would any government subsidized the child care fees of the person from ANOTHER country, if u think about it.) Plenty of paid childcare services around though.

Not some schools. It's all schools; If u get a PR before enrolling, your place will definitely be pulled, since the local quota is different from the international quota. Some schools might even pull your place if u get a PR before completing medical school ( as lyndal from Wollongong like to point out ). Other schools are more benevolent and will probably let you continue as a full fee paying student and graduate. Tat's the case for Flinders, Sydney, ANU, UQ etc etc ....

On the other hand, if u are talking about getting residency AFTER completing medical school, well, it depends if u can land an internship here. Which as Lyandal likes to point out, is looking increasingly shaky at the moment and more so in 4-5 years time since there's a huge flood of medical students graduating. But assuming u land an internship ( and hence a job), getting PR isn't hard for a doctor, esp if u are willing to serve in an area of need ( read, rural areas without many docs)

cosycatus - Its not that I "like to point out" all these things for any reason other than being as transparent as possible.

I hate to disagree with you, but as i have explained to you on other forums before, there are no longer full fee paying domestic places in medicine for domestic students at the schools you have mentioned. So despite what you may have been told in the past, if you become an Australian citizen or permanent resident in an MBBS program tomorrow under the current government you cannot be given a full fee paying place. It is nothing about benevolence, the law does not permit it - full fee paying domestic places were banned in Bachelors courses for medicine by the Labor government in 2009. And if you are an Australian citizen you cannot stay on an international place. It has nothing to do with quotas, again the law forbids Australian citizens or permanent residents to hold international places. The exception to these rules are Bond (which is a private university) and the new Melbourne MD program (which is classified as a Masters degree and therefore has FFP places for domestics- and this has created significant publicity within the medical student community). What schools can do is swap you to a domestic government funded position but ONLY if there is one available, exactly as rayjay has said in his post. THIS is why I advise people to discuss their position with their school before they make immigration decisions like this to be sure there is a commonwealth supported place available for them. We have never had to deal with this issue, and I hope we never have to, but it is a complex legal position that I want to ensure applicants understand the situation, even though it seems that you don't.

And again, the squeeze on internship positions is a well-known fact and applicants need to understand it Don't get me wrong, I would really like to encourage students to come to Australia and study, I think its a wonderful experience and a great opportunity, however students need to be completely informed. Becoming an Australian citizen or PR during your medical school time does not change your internship ranking, you are prioritized based on your residency status at enrollment. I am really hopeful that the situation will be completely different by the time you graduate, but I don't have a crystal ball and can only confirm what the situation is as we are being advised by the state and federal governments.

Now the things I will agree with is yes, heaps of childcare and yes, if you do get an internship then the path to immigration status should be relatively straightforward.

Cheers all - let me know if I can assist in any other way.

Lyndal

 

[pitman]

Becoming an Australian citizen or PR during your medical school time does not change your internship ranking, you are prioritized based on your residency status at enrollment.

Hi Lyndal,

Unless there's been a federal law made in the past couple years superceding state practice, I don't think this is the case in Qld -- all that's mattered in the past is whether you have PR by the time you apply for the internship Ballot (in the final year of med).

 

[lyndal]

Hi Lyndal,

Unless there's been a federal law made in the past couple years superceding state practice, I don't think this is the case in Qld -- all that's mattered in the past is whether you have PR by the time you apply for the internship Ballot (in the final year of med).

Ah OK, I apologise if this bit is NSW specific, I may be incorrect on that one. FWIW in NSW then it is based on enrollment residency status not graduation. For Qld then I stand corrected

 

[revex]

Lyndal,
Thank you for making yourself available to offer your expertise insights!
I am medical student in US, doing a Ph.D while on leave
I have great interest in NZ and Oz. My question is whether you could offer any insight into transition as scientist vs physician and/or combined practice.
Any insight is appreciated.

 

[BoyInTheBubble]

Hi Lyndal,

Unless there's been a federal law made in the past couple years superceding state practice, I don't think this is the case in Qld -- all that's mattered in the past is whether you have PR by the time you apply for the internship Ballot (in the final year of med).

Pitman,

are you sure??

My understanding was that your placement is based on your status at the beginning of medical school.

Looking at the Qld Health Intern page, I could not find any statement addressing what happens if a student switches. I do know that under UQ's funding scheme, if you become a domestic you must still pay the international full-fee for all 4 years, but this is likely an entirely unrelated issue.

 

[pitman]

Pitman,

are you sure??

My understanding was that your placement is based on your status at the beginning of medical school.

Yes, I am sure. The criterion for Priority 1 in Qld is Australian citizenship or PR or NZ citizenship, at the time of application. It used to be just Australian citizenship or PR at the time of application.

Details of the Qld ballot here:
http://www.health.qld.gov.au/medical/interninfo.asp

 

[kaitagsd]

Hi all, sorry to barge on this thread with a question of my own but I am also a Canadian undergrad student at the moment and felt this is an appropriate place to ask my question.

Are there any Australian medical schools that only look at/calculate certain years of my undergrad GPA? I had an extremely horrible first year (failed most courses), went to college for two years, and came back to UBC and managed to pull a 76% average this year. Though optimistic about getting even higher grades and scoring high on the MCAT in my subsequent two years, I would appreciate a realistic response on my chances of doing well in the admissions process if I were to apply after my undergrad. Any information on whether my poor grades in the past being potentially not included, overlooked or excused would be greatly appreciated.

 

[rayjay]

Did you look at the admissions websites of any of the schools first? I don't mean to be "that guy" but you need to do that before you ask questions here. Every Australian school (that I know of) look at year 2,3,4 (or year 3,4,5), essentially the last three years of your degree. That being said, your earlier years will not be counted towards your admissions gpa. Some schools weight is as well so if you do well (85+) it can mathematically trounce even your 76, slightly.

Just a question though. I'm not stellar student either but if you failed "most" courses in college how are you going to do well in a university environment? I a UBC grad myself and it's not an easy school. Was your 76 in science courses or all arts courses? I'm not sure if the universities consider that but youll want to email the individual schools and ask. Were your poor grades because of a particular reason? Family, health, work? You need to address those in general before you proceed with the mcat. It's a daunting exam and you really only want to write it once.

 

[kaitagsd]

Thank you for the reply. I actually did not check the admissions sites but did scan several forums for my answer, guess I should have just checked directly with the schools.

I failed most courses in UBC first year in engineering and had to withdraw. I took two years of college and got readmitted. My 76 average is from my second year of electrical engineering, which I just finished.

I acknowledge that it would be fairly difficult to maintain a competitive GPA for most Canadian schools as well as balancing the time for good ec's, that is why I am considering Australian Med schools as well as switching to biomedical engineering instead in hopes of gaining better ec's.

I am more confident of my academics now, except I know my first year is a major, inexcusable dent in my transcript and cgpa, hence I was curious whether that would affect my chances greatly and whether I should just give up, though I feel a little more relieved now.

 

[lithiumforce]

Hey everyone, sorry to thread hijack, but could somebody explain to me how you go from a Canadian gpa to the 7.0 australian scale? I know most schools require 5.0 out of 7.0, what exactly does that mean for me?

Thanks!

 

[kaitagsd]

Hey lithiumforce, I'm pretty sure this will help you:
http://gamsat.acer.edu.au/images/documents/gmac_guide2012.pdf

Check out page 32. I go to UBC at the moment so I use column A. Kind of boggles my mind that I am already a 6.5 with a mid 70s average this year, while in terms of competitive Canadian GPAs then my average is utter crap .

 

[guy30]

Hey everyone,

Sorry to bump an old thread but I'm hoping to convert my 4 point gpa scale to the Australian 7 point scale just to give me a rough idea at where I stand for admissions. However it seems that ACER isn't offering the gpa calculator this year and the link above no longer works (along with the pagingdr.net one posted in a different thread previously).

I've tried looking around the net but havn't found anything other than some posts that said a 2.7 is roughly about equivalent to a 5.5? I'm assuming I can't just do a straight conversion. Does anybody have a conversion guide handy they can post or perhaps even a copy of the pdf that was in the link above previously?

Thanks!

 

[pitman]

Hey everyone, sorry to thread hijack, but could somebody explain to me how you go from a Canadian gpa to the 7.0 australian scale? I know most schools require 5.0 out of 7.0, what exactly does that mean for me?

Oddly enough, the calculation used to be straight-forward. I.e., at UQ, if your gpa was on a 4-point scale, they would simply do: gpa/4 * 7 to translate to Australian. It may still be that some schools do this, as there are no nationwide rules governing such matters for internationals.

 

[rayjay]

Hey everyone,

Sorry to bump an old thread but I'm hoping to convert my 4 point gpa scale to the Australian 7 point scale just to give me a rough idea at where I stand for admissions. However it seems that ACER isn't offering the gpa calculator this year and the link above no longer works (along with the pagingdr.net one posted in a different thread previously).

I've tried looking around the net but havn't found anything other than some posts that said a 2.7 is roughly about equivalent to a 5.5? I'm assuming I can't just do a straight conversion. Does anybody have a conversion guide handy they can post or perhaps even a copy of the pdf that was in the link above previously?

Thanks!

There is really no point in doing this. I don't know of any Australia schools that will convert. Flinders, UQ and USyd looked at my Canadian GPA on a 4.0 scale to determine my application GPA. I emailed them prior to applying to ask the same question and they told me they would use my Canadian GPA. If your school reports percentages like UBC does, they like that too. When Dr. Edwards was on admissions for Flinders he asked for my percentage grade when he found out I was from UBC. A percentage I guess is a little more universal. I wouldn't bother trying to convert. If I converted my GPA was somewhere in the high 6's which looked great, but on a 4.0 scale it was nothing impressive.

 

[Uzr]

I noticed a 2.7 GPA (Cdn scale) requirement as well. I'm just wondering if it's worth applying to an Australian one if you're a bit under this (but if you get a decent mcat score). Also, do they give any consideration to university? I've gone to UofT so would they give a UofT applicant with a lower GPA more consideration over say a UofWindsor applicant (Not saying UofT is better or anything but the averages tend to be lower). Or do they only consider this within Canada?

And lastly, if your GPA is below the minimum requirement but your high school avg was in the 90s then would it be possible to use the high school one to apply (4 yr old transcript though) or will it only be most recent program done?

 

[marble30]

I noticed a 2.7 GPA (Cdn scale) requirement as well. I'm just wondering if it's worth applying to an Australian one if you're a bit under this (but if you get a decent mcat score). Also, do they give any consideration to university? I've gone to UofT so would they give a UofT applicant with a lower GPA more consideration over say a UofWindsor applicant (Not saying UofT is better or anything but the averages tend to be lower). Or do they only consider this within Canada?

And lastly, if your GPA is below the minimum requirement but your high school avg was in the 90s then would it be possible to use the high school one to apply (4 yr old transcript though) or will it only be most recent program done?

I think the GPA thing is pretty flexible. I personally know a few people whose gpas were a tad below 2.7 but some schools are willing to give some leeway on that. It's the MCAT score that is fixed - it's 24M+ or nothing. As for which university...I don't think they really care about that. Seems like all universities are considered equal in this regards.

For high school - no graduate-entry program ever considers high school grades (undergrad entry programs like JCU do). They usually only consider all your university grades.

 

[Phloston]

The University of Queensland in Australia has probably the most relaxed application process possible FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS. If you're international, your application rides almost entirely on your MCAT. There are no interviews and no recommendations nor personal statement required. UQ also states on a PDF containing information about the medical program that GPA isn't too significant since it's hard to judge its value based on international variation. So once again, your MCAT is everything. As far as I'm aware for our particular cohort here at UQ, our low was 24M and the high 43T, with a mean of 30. I also do believe that the MCAT does correlate strongly with performance in medical school.