Nontrad Med School Australia vs USA

[Weebit]

Hello, I am new here on SDN and this is my first post, although I have lurked in the shadows for well over a year now.
I have some questions about country differences and chances for internship. So, here it goes!

I am an American, and an Australian permanent resident (married to a citizen). I wish to pursue medicine with the aim of eventually working in the USA. I have a B.S. in Sociology with Anthropology minor, and have started taking post baccalaureate classes at my alma mater until I could figure out what to do next.
One of my biggest issues with going after my dream of medicine is of course financial. As you other nontrads know, it is hard to fund the post-baccalaureate courses, and even when we complete them we do not have any guarantee of getting into a med school, which makes it a very risky venture financially. I should probably add that I am not interested in DO schools.

Since I am an Australian resident, I can go to medical school at the cost of Australian resident tuition, which ends up being only around $40k for all 4 years. Australia also does not have course prerequisites, with the only requirement being that you do well on the GAMSAT and have good grades. This is the single biggest reason I would want to go to an Australian school. The other reason is, my husband is doing his undergrad there and I really don't wish to be apart from him for such a long time. However, I am very concerned about what happens AFTER. I know FMG's have a rougher time landing residency slots in the USA, and I am worried that I will be rejected for going to a foreign school, especially since I am American-born I fear they would see me as a lower quality applicant because I resorted to a foreign school. I am also concerned that Australian schools may not prepare me adequately for the USMLE.

On the other hand, I am willing to take out the enormous loan required to get me through post bacc studies in the USA, if it means I will have a good chance of getting into school here. My fear is, that I will pay all this money and then be cast aside in favor of some traditional pre-med student. While I generally have A's from my undergrad, I have struggled with math and unfortunately only have B/B+ for stats and calculus. I fear this will make me significantly less attractive to adcoms in the USA, even if I ace all my other classes. Is this a legitimate worry, or is math not that big a deal?

Thoughts?

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[ChE04]

Math isn't a big deal, but it would be easier to divine your chances at getting into a US MD school if you could share your undergraduate cumulative and science GPAs. As you know, going to med school outside of the US is a gamble if your goal is to practice in the US.

 

[advair250]

Why not do your GME in Australia, and then practice there? Australian schools have generally done much better than Carib schools in securing US residencies.

 

[Weebit]

ChE04 - My undergrad cum. GPA was 3.55, with a 3.8 in my final year. Due to financial aid restrictions, I have only been able to take a couple classes so I don't have my core sciences yet (taking Chemistry 101 right now, with the intent of taking more classes later should I receive an A, just finished calculus and got a B), but Anthropology science courses are all A's (epidemiology, global health, human evolution etc.). My GPA would be much higher but because I switched schools during my undergrad, they didn't take my GPA into account for my first 10 classes on my transcript.

advair250 - I was wondering about that. I wasn't sure if I should go that route or how likely it would be for me to get into a US residency after doing med in Australia. I am also concerned about the USMLE, as I doubt Australian schools focus on it the way American ones do. I don't know how much of a curriculum difference there would be.

 

[DrMidlife]

My GPA would be much higher but because I switched schools during my undergrad, they didn't take my GPA into account for my first 10 classes on my transcript.

Med school admissions in the US don't care one bit how your college calculates GPA. You have to report every class you ever took at any college, and every college class is included in GPA calcs. Transfer credit is totally ignored. A GPA appearing on a transcript is totally ignored. (DO schools, for the record, disregard previous attempts when you repeat a course, in GPA calcs.)

Look for posts from Winged Scapula. She's an SDN founder who did med school in Australia several years back and is a surgeon in the US.

It's definitely harder to get a residency from a non-US med school, but I would argue that UK Commonwealth schools are far better than the Caribbean or Eastern Europe for matching in the US. The highest achievers, of course, don't ever have much trouble, but you have to be honest with yourself about your capabilities. Generally you'll have to reconcile your financial and emotional wherewithal, possible extra years after med school to get your US rotations and boards done, and your ability to nurture professional relationships in the US from far away. If you add requirements to the puzzle, such as "must get residency near NYC" or "want to have children during med school" or similar, then imho that's not compatible with doing Aussie med school with the intent to practice in the US.

You'll want to entirely bypass the recruitment services that work to get US & SEAsian students and their parents' money into UK Commonwealth schools. You can use them to get lists of schools, but do your own research and find recent grads doing residency in the US for real info. Also make sure to consider graduate-entry programs, not just the right-after-high-school programs.

Best of luck to you.

 

[Weebit]

Thank you all for getting back to me so soon!

I will try to find posts by Winged Scapula. I appreciate your help

 

[ChE04]

Thank you all for getting back to me so soon!

I will try to find posts by Winged Scapula. I appreciate your help

You should also try to PM the SDN poster Pholston, who is a current Austrailan medical student intending to do a US residency, and has written pretty extensively on Step 1, etc. As far as your GPA goes, it looks like you would be in pretty good shape for US allopathic programs, providing you jump through the appropriate hoops.

 

[Weebit]

That gives me hope, I was concerned my GPA may not be competitive
Will do, Thanks!

 

[malaika]

I like this thread

 

[theSmurfette]

There's also the University of Queensland program that's affiliated with Oschner in Louisiana. You do your 1st & 2nd year in Oz and then your rotations in the US (New Orleans or Baton Rouge)

http://www.mededpath.org

 

[Scottish Chap]

Hello, I am new here on SDN and this is my first post, although I have lurked in the shadows for well over a year now.
I have some questions about country differences and chances for internship. So, here it goes!

I am an American, and an Australian permanent resident (married to a citizen). I wish to pursue medicine with the aim of eventually working in the USA. I have a B.S. in Sociology with Anthropology minor, and have started taking post baccalaureate classes at my alma mater until I could figure out what to do next.
One of my biggest issues with going after my dream of medicine is of course financial. As you other nontrads know, it is hard to fund the post-baccalaureate courses, and even when we complete them we do not have any guarantee of getting into a med school, which makes it a very risky venture financially. I should probably add that I am not interested in DO schools.

Since I am an Australian resident, I can go to medical school at the cost of Australian resident tuition, which ends up being only around $40k for all 4 years. Australia also does not have course prerequisites, with the only requirement being that you do well on the GAMSAT and have good grades. This is the single biggest reason I would want to go to an Australian school. The other reason is, my husband is doing his undergrad there and I really don't wish to be apart from him for such a long time. However, I am very concerned about what happens AFTER. I know FMG's have a rougher time landing residency slots in the USA, and I am worried that I will be rejected for going to a foreign school, especially since I am American-born I fear they would see me as a lower quality applicant because I resorted to a foreign school. I am also concerned that Australian schools may not prepare me adequately for the USMLE.

On the other hand, I am willing to take out the enormous loan required to get me through post bacc studies in the USA, if it means I will have a good chance of getting into school here. My fear is, that I will pay all this money and then be cast aside in favor of some traditional pre-med student. While I generally have A's from my undergrad, I have struggled with math and unfortunately only have B/B+ for stats and calculus. I fear this will make me significantly less attractive to adcoms in the USA, even if I ace all my other classes. Is this a legitimate worry, or is math not that big a deal?

Thoughts?

Sounds like you have four very good reasons to stay in Oz (low residency tuition, husband is there, may be easier in your specific case to gain admission, won't need to take more classes). Seems like there is only one good reason to apply to a U.S. medical school (easier to win a U.S. residency).

Keep in mind that the programs in Oz won't train you for U.S. style healthcare and you're completely on your own for the USMLE series. Neither is insurmountable if you are determined and remedy those issues when the time comes. Also, after your intern year, you're probably going to retain maybe 30% of the stuff you learned (in medical student level detail) from medical school. This is enough to make you safe. Candidly, medical school is where you get your union card. Residency teaches you how to be a doctor, and you have the rest of your life to refine your skills if you are diligent (and you'd better be in case you ever take care of me or my loved ones!). It's the same even for U.S. graduates...

Good luck.