potential International student from Singapore,looking to ask about medical schools in Australia

[jedrek]

Hi guys,well I have read the International students thread and realised that the TS discourages International students from going australia due to internship purposes. However,my mind remains rooted towards becoming a doctor in Australia as I guess that's the most international student friendly continent close to home now,haha.

Well,I am just curious of these schools in general and how are these schools' treatment to IS ,culture and medical education.

I want to sub-classify them into 2 categories

Undergraduate
Adelaide
Newcastle
Monash
UWA
Flinders

Postgraduate
Melbourne university(going to be a little burn in the pockets here)
ANU
University of Sydney

Will be applying this year and the year after(if I fail,possibly consider postgraduate after that?),before I come over here.

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[realaircanada]

your best bet is to use the search function and search for info on each school since there are a lot of threads going already and people generally do not want to repeat themselves a bunch

 

[jedrek]

yep,i did that already,just want to find out more from you guys,your personal opinions. Any useful threads around here that can help me?

 

[xm105]

I'm graduating this year from unsw so i hope this lends some credence to my observations.

assuming you're confident of getting into a med sch in straya, it is important to look beyond your immediate future as a student.

firstly, regarding the internship issue, the situation aint peachy but its not as dire as some of the other threads here make it out to be. in the last two years, all of the internationals i know who wanted to stay on in australia have managed to get a position. however, the offers tend to come really late, anywhere between october and december. offers from singapore's MOH come in before that, so are you willing to turn that down and hold out (with no guarantees) for an australian offer? but then you'll only graduate in 6-7 years time, and a lot may have changed by then. the overall student numbers are said to plateau this year so it may be that you'll have no problems getting a job.

international students tend to get positions in the regional hospitals, which may be far from the major cities. having grown up in a city state, are you able to adapt to country life? it may be worthwhile doing a rural term during your clinical years to experience what you're getting yourself into.

starting your career away from the major tertiary hospitals (in the big cities) will negatively affect your postgrad training to a certain extent. training positions in all specialities are fiercely competitive as it is. the intern crisis will only spill over to become a registrar crisis.
to put things into perspective:
the earliest one can realistically expect to get into surgical training is pgy5 after all the srmo terms.
last year, there were 50 radiology and 25 ophthalmology training positions.
even GP training was oversubscribed with 2000 applicants for 1600 positions.
all up the unis graduated >3500 new drs

of course, individual circumstances will vary, i know of an international who got an internship in sydney CBD. and if you do the right terms, get to know the right people, and do enough research, you may very well be a consultant in the big city before 35. but conversely, the worst case scenario may be that you're stuck on a farm in the middle of nowhere as a GP registrar or still trying for whatever college.

as a junior dr or even a registrar, its not uncommon to have to move around the state or country as you take up different postings. you'll be in your late 20s to early 30s and may be thinking about starting a family, how will this affect your partner and children?

what makes you so set on practising in australia? its good that you're browsing these forums and asking these questions so that you can have a realistic expectation of what you're getting yourself into.

 

[DukeNUSMedSch]

Hi guys,well I have read the International students thread and realised that the TS discourages International students from going australia due to internship purposes. However,my mind remains rooted towards becoming a doctor in Australia as I guess that's the most international student friendly continent close to home now,haha.

Well,I am just curious of these schools in general and how are these schools' treatment to IS ,culture and medical education.

I want to sub-classify them into 2 categories

Undergraduate
Adelaide
Newcastle
Monash
UWA
Flinders

Postgraduate
Melbourne university(going to be a little burn in the pockets here)
ANU
University of Sydney

Will be applying this year and the year after(if I fail,possibly consider postgraduate after that?),before I come over here.

Hi Jedrek,

If you are a Singaporean, do consider options to study Medicine in Singapore.
Cheers,
Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School

 

[qldking]

Hi Jedrek,

If you are a Singaporean, do consider options to study Medicine in Singapore.
Cheers,
Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School

Sounds like a scam.

 

[s5260205]

Sounds like a scam.

Well not really. Duke-NUS is a very credible program in Singapore. The only catch is that you would be required to serve in Singapore for 5 years after your residency. After that, you are free to go anywhere else in the world, but then again medical training in Singapore is not universally recognised and there is a lot of loops to jump through if you want to practise in another country, say Australia for example. The program is great only if you are okay with working in Singapore for your professional, medical career.

 

[pitman]

I don't know this to be the case, but I'd imagine that Duke would be in a position to help get residency spots to at least a few of it Duke-NUS grads. And by name alone, it would be a plus to have graduated from there over many other int'l schools. Kinda like Cornell Qatar (all of whose grads applying for US residency gets them).

 

[s5260205]

I don't know this to be the case, but I'd imagine that Duke would be in a position to help get residency spots to at least a few of it Duke-NUS grads. And by name alone, it would be a plus to have graduated from there over many other int'l schools. Kinda like Cornell Qatar (all of whose grads applying for US residency gets them).

I seriously considered Duke-NUS before but the affiliation between NUS and Duke is minimal. Duke-NUS only has the name and the curriculum of Duke's medical school. There is no formal rotations in the US, and graduates of the program must stay in Singapore for residency. Only extremely rarely are students allowed to apply to US for residency (need to be approved by the Ministry of Health since it funded the program). Cornell-Qatar is arguably a much better program with the prospect of staying in US to practise. Several other similar programs exist in Israel (Ben Gurion, Technion, etc.) with formal affiliation with US med schools and third year clerkships in US as well.