New Zealand Medical Schools as American

[soulmuziq]

I have searched quite a bit and even sent UA an email regarding wanting to study and practice medicine in NZ as an American. However, I wanted to ask some people here who have the experience of applying as well.

To be clear, I wish to practice in NZ, and have no intention of returning to the states to get a license. This is a personal and family health decision which I will follow through 100%. I only mentioned this because alot of foreign schools are used by U.S. prospective medical students as a gateway to come back.

I wanted to ask what are some matriculant GPA/MCAT requirements that have been accepted to NZ medical schools. I also wanted to know if there was anyone who had a very low gpa and MCAT score that made it.
Personally my gpa is 3.0 and MCAT 509

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[bulaian]

My bad, I reread the email response I got from the University of Auckland and I misunderstood the requirements: you can apply for the graduate entry given that you've undertaken a relevant degree at a recognised institution.

"International applicants may compete for a limited number of places in the MBChB programme once they have completed the first year of their BHSc or BSc (Biomedical Science) programmes at the University of Auckland, or their entire degree (for Graduate Entry).
They will be assessed on the basis of their academic achievements and an interview.

• International First Year applications close 1 October and interviews (on-campus) take place in early December. UMAT is required.
  
  
• Graduate applications close 1 October and interviews (on-campus) normally take place in early December. Telephone (Skype) interviews are conducted for overseas based applicants. UMAT is not required.
  
  
• Graduate applicants must have completed a relevant degree such as Biomedical Science from a university recognised by the University of Auckland Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences."

Sorry, probably didn't help with your questions.

*****

I was curious so I had a look at the entry requirements for Auckland on their website. I'm sure you know already but their website also states that "international applicants may apply under the same categories as domestic applicants", so you'd have the same requirements as the locals except UMAT isn't required for internationals, as in the e-mail. I believe they don't look at MCAT either. So to land you an interview, you'd just need to be concerned with the minimum GPA requirement, which is a 6.0 or a B+ average on the NZ scale. Granted I'm not familiar with neither the NZ grading scale nor the conversion from US to NZ scale, but I'm not sure a 3.0/4.0 will be sufficient for an interview offer. I guess that's why you started the thread, but I don't know of any respectable medical school that considers applicants who don't meet the minimum GPA requirement.

Try e-mailing admissions with your stats and see if they can inform you whether or not you meet minimum requirements when converted to an NZ grade. If they can't tell you until you apply and they sort through applications, then just apply anyway and hope for the best.

Still didn't directly answer your question but there's my 2 cents.

 

[soulmuziq]

My bad, I reread the email response I got from the University of Auckland and I misunderstood the requirements: you can apply for the graduate entry given that you've undertaken a relevant degree at a recognised institution.

"International applicants may compete for a limited number of places in the MBChB programme once they have completed the first year of their BHSc or BSc (Biomedical Science) programmes at the University of Auckland, or their entire degree (for Graduate Entry).
They will be assessed on the basis of their academic achievements and an interview.

• International First Year applications close 1 October and interviews (on-campus) take place in early December. UMAT is required.
  
  
• Graduate applications close 1 October and interviews (on-campus) normally take place in early December. Telephone (Skype) interviews are conducted for overseas based applicants. UMAT is not required.
  
  
• Graduate applicants must have completed a relevant degree such as Biomedical Science from a university recognised by the University of Auckland Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences."

Sorry, probably didn't help with your questions.

*****

I was curious so I had a look at the entry requirements for Auckland on their website. I'm sure you know already but their website also states that "international applicants may apply under the same categories as domestic applicants", so you'd have the same requirements as the locals except UMAT isn't required for internationals, as in the e-mail. I believe they don't look at MCAT either. So to land you an interview, you'd just need to be concerned with the minimum GPA requirement, which is a 6.0 or a B+ average on the NZ scale. Granted I'm not familiar with neither the NZ grading scale nor the conversion from US to NZ scale, but I'm not sure a 3.0/4.0 will be sufficient for an interview offer. I guess that's why you started the thread, but I don't know of any respectable medical school that considers applicants who don't meet the minimum GPA requirement.

Try e-mailing admissions with your stats and see if they can inform you whether or not you meet minimum requirements when converted to an NZ grade. If they can't tell you until you apply and they sort through applications, then just apply anyway and hope for the best.

Still didn't directly answer your question but there's my 2 cents.

Thank you for the reply. In addition to your info, univ of Auckland replied to me several times to all my questions, so I have a solid understanding of how this whole thing works now. The faculty there seem amazing and were very helpful. It may take me awhile since I decided to do an SMP, but I def know what I need to do in order to apply to medical school there.

 

[HealingGrace]

So what did you find out?