Chances for an Australian School?

[cheddaranime]

Hello Everyone!

I was wondering if anyone could tell me what my chances are for an Australian Medical School. I am an American Citizen living in New York. I am considering applying to the 5 year and 4 Year programs.

I double majored in Biology and Psychology with a minor in Neuroscience. My cGPA is a 3.3 and my sciGPA is 3.0. I just took the MCAT and scored 495. I self Identify as Male and Caucasian.

I have Loads of extra curricular actives:
1) Volunteer on an Ambulance (650+hours)
a) I have also been an officer for said agency (upper leadership) for 2 years
2) Shadowed a physician (300+ Hours)
3) American Heart Association CPR instructor (100+ hours)
4) American Cancer Society's Colleges against Cancer chapter on my campus
a) I have been on the Executive board for this club for 3 years
5) Minority Association of Pre-Medical Students
a) I have been an Executive Board for 2 years.
6) I am a research assistant in a lab studying host adaptation to HIV/SIV (100 + hours)
a) I have done 2 poster presentations at conferences
7) Due to my research my institution has made me an Undergraduate Research Ambassador

I am hoping the holistic approach to applications will help my chances.

Thank you for any advice you can give!

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[Domperidone]

as long as you meet minimum cut-offs you get in. that simple.

So grats. your chances are 100% you'll get into a medical school somewhere in Australia as long as you apply. that's what you want to hear right?

go to worldwidemed.co as a start. then follow the links to official admission sites. just apply to whatever you're eligible for, earlier the better. And you're in.

why is it that simple? the answer is that they need your money. long story short. they're not picky.

your loads of extra-curriculars, gender and ethnicity mean jack - it matters in America, but not off-shore schools that need full fee paying international students. you're all the same.

it's all about the

the question is more of, do you want a job afterwards? and where? if you want to work in the US - stay in the US. Apply for DO. Where exactly have you applied to in the US?

 

[cheddaranime]

I have applied two a couple MD schools and a few DO schools but with my stats my chances are pretty slim in the states. Thank you for the info regarding the Austalian programs

 

[Domperidone]

Yea I saw. MD & DO - What are my chances?

Well, I'd recommend UQ Ochsner if you really must go to Australia. that's if you meet requirements and they're still taking people.

But otherwise I'd agree with what gyngyn said, in response to your other thread. Chances for SGU or Ross?.

 

[bashwell]

Exactly what the above poster said. For better or worse, Australian med schools often have lower bars of entry for international applicants mainly due to being able to charge exorbitant fees for international students which I realise isn't fair to internationals but I'm afraid that's how it is.

That said keep in mind it's becoming increasingly difficult to come back to the US. Lots more med schools have opened up in the US and thus more graduates, but residency spots haven't increased as much. My understanding is the goal is to eventually have 1:1 (1 US MD/DO for 1 residency spot). But I don't know much about this so you'll have to verify this.

And have a look at NRMP Charting Outcomes (especially for US-IMGs). For example have a look at the 2017 Main Residency Match. See Table 1 on page 4. Look at the column of "% Filled" by "U.S. Seniors" (i.e., allopathic or MDs, and not DOs or IMGs or US-IMGs). The specialties with the highest per centage filled by "U.S. Seniors" or US MDs means it's far more difficult for others who are not US MDs to match. For example Dermatology is 92.3% so that means the remaining spots will be fought over by non-US MDs. (This isn't a set rule, but more of a rough guideline, because some specialties that seem to have a low per cent filled by U.S. Seniors are still difficult to match because there are only a few positions).

In any case, most US-IMGs and IMGs match in specialties which can't be filled by US MDs and DOs. That means you'll most likely match (if you match) into Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Neurology, Pathology, Psychiatry. Maybe Anesthesiology and Radiology (Diagnostic), but these are a bit more difficult. Otherwise, if you're not happy with any of these specialties, for example if you really want to be a surgeon, then you should do everything in your power to attend a med school in the States. And to be honest, even if you are okay with any of these specialties, it'll still be much harder to come back to the States from Australia (you have to be significantly better than US MD applicants as a US-IMG to match into the same specialty like IM), so again I highly recommend trying to get into a US med school first if your goal is to work as a physician in the States.

Good luck!

 

[mcat_taker]

Hello Everyone!

I was wondering if anyone could tell me what my chances are for an Australian Medical School. I am an American Citizen living in New York. I am considering applying to the 5 year and 4 Year programs.

I double majored in Biology and Psychology with a minor in Neuroscience. My cGPA is a 3.3 and my sciGPA is 3.0. I just took the MCAT and scored 495. I self Identify as Male and Caucasian.

I have Loads of extra curricular actives:
1) Volunteer on an Ambulance (650+hours)
a) I have also been an officer for said agency (upper leadership) for 2 years
2) Shadowed a physician (300+ Hours)
3) American Heart Association CPR instructor (100+ hours)
4) American Cancer Society's Colleges against Cancer chapter on my campus
a) I have been on the Executive board for this club for 3 years
5) Minority Association of Pre-Medical Students
a) I have been an Executive Board for 2 years.
6) I am a research assistant in a lab studying host adaptation to HIV/SIV (100 + hours)
a) I have done 2 poster presentations at conferences
7) Due to my research my institution has made me an Undergraduate Research Ambassador

I am hoping the holistic approach to applications will help my chances.

Thank you for any advice you can give!

UQ-O and UQ traditional are out with those scores. So is Sydney and Wollongong both of which require 500 minimum for an interview. You might have a shot at an interview with Griffith and Flinders as they only require a 492 MCAT provided that no section is below 123 (However, Griffith does not have a long track record of placing any grads back in the U.S. as they only recently started accepting internationals a few years ago and have a relatively small international cohort of only 25 or so). Flinders has taken internationals for a long time, but you will not get much USMLE support at either and will have to be pretty self sufficient in your studying and planning to get back to the U.S. That being said, both are fine institutions. Australian schools have gotten slightly more competitive in recent years with their MCAT requirements as demand from international students has increased. As Domperidone mentioned above, extracurriculars mean zilch to an international school. Also know that jobs are not guaranteed if you decide to forego the USMLE and try and stay in Australia as domestic students all get first priority and then whatever spots are left over are applied to by all the internationals. Also with recent Visa changes you may not be able to even stay.

Honestly though, I question your ability to get through medical school and board exams if the best you can get is a 495 MCAT. This is the most important exam you've taken to date and thats the best you can do? You can get into a medical school somewhere, whether its Caribbean, Eastern Europe, Australia, whatever, but that doesn't make it any easier to get through the difficult curriculum. Medicine is Medicine anywhere. My advice would be to retake the MCAT and score above 500. Otherwise you can apply to Griffith and Flinders right now and see what happens (although it is late in the application cycle and most seats are prob filled by now I think, but it doesn't hurt to check), if you don't get accepted you can simply just reapply the following year with better MCAT scores, but know that the road back to the U.S. won't be easy- especially with schools that don't cater towards the USMLE or international students. Ideally, you improve your MCAT score and apply to UQ-O which gives you the easiest path back to the U.S, or even the traditional UQ program as many of the international Canadian students will be trying to also get residency in the U.S. so you'll have a bigger support network to help you in your studies for boards to get back.