University of Melbourne

[mchhuang]

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Hi

I just got an offer from University of Melbourne, and my VMCAS is still in process.

Is anyone from there? Or has anyone heard anything about the program? and how is its reputation and the quality of education? How is it over there?

I really want to know more first hand experiences about the school! THANX!!

 

[OneDay81]

Hi

I just got an offer from University of Melbourne, and my VMCAS is still in process.

Is anyone from there? Or has anyone heard anything about the program? and how is its reputation and the quality of education? How is it over there?

I really want to know more first hand experiences about the school! THANX!!

Wow! How fantastic! Try over on the veterinary forum to find current students. Good luck with your decision!

 

[Nexx]

Part of me wants to be helpful, the other part of me wants to ask why you are applying to random universities without knowledge about them and their program, let alone applying to med school and vet school?

Melb is a good school, quality of the education is good.

 

[mchhuang]

hey OneDay81 and Nexx, thanx for the reply

I did do some research about Australian schools, but I just cannot find any useful first hand insight about the school. I am still waiting on the reply from Murdoch and Sydney. Thanx!

 

[mchhuang]

It seems that many people choose Murdoch over Melbourne? Or it's just because I didn't find any Melbourne threads here?

 

[OneDay81]

Mchhuang-

I am curious about what your stats are. It appears you have a couple of different user names and have been pursuing admission to medical school for quite some time, so why the switch to vet med? Also, are you originally from the US?

 

[mchhuang]

Hi OneDay81,
I only have one username. And yes, I have applied to med school once and got rejected and I am tired of doing everything just for getting into med school. So I switched to vet med since this is my second choice.
my GPA was only a 3.0 and GRE is still on the way...

 

[OneDay81]

Hi OneDay81,
I only have one username. And yes, I have applied to med school once and got rejected and I am tired of doing everything just for getting into med school. So I switched to vet med since this is my second choice.
my GPA was only a 3.0 and GRE is still on the way...

What was your bachelor's in? sorry for all of the questions and not being much help. I plan on applying to Melbourne, Murdoch, Sydney and Massey (among others) next year so I am interested in learning about your stats. What sort of vet experience do you have?

 

[sunshinevet]

To be honest, if vet med is your "second choice" i would say chances of getting into Murdoch are low.
They usually require more competitive GPA's and a very, very strong personal statement with lots of vet experience.

Melbourne is a top quality university set in a wonderful metropolis. Atleast equal to any in the states, as are all the AVMA accred aussie schools.

Hi OneDay81,
I only have one username. And yes, I have applied to med school once and got rejected and I am tired of doing everything just for getting into med school. So I switched to vet med since this is my second choice.
my GPA was only a 3.0 and GRE is still on the way...

 

[mchhuang]

What was your bachelor's in? sorry for all of the questions and not being much help. I plan on applying to Melbourne, Murdoch, Sydney and Massey (among others) next year so I am interested in learning about your stats. What sort of vet experience do you have?

I was a Bio Sci major at UC Irvine, and I started working/shadowing at a vet hospital since 2009. I have some research experience in labs and volunteer experiences but not related to vet. I think they probably accept me because they just switched to a new 4 year program.... i dunno but I'm happy that i got accepted!

 

[mchhuang]

To be honest, if vet med is your "second choice" i would say chances of getting into Murdoch are low.
They usually require more competitive GPA's and a very, very strong personal statement with lots of vet experience.

Melbourne is a top quality university set in a wonderful metropolis. Atleast equal to any in the states, as are all the AVMA accred aussie schools.

Thanx for your honest opinion. I think you are absolutely right. I know my GPA is pretty weak and I don't have a long history for vet experiences either.

I was pretty excited when I saw the acceptance letter, then i came across this one blogpost
http://vetstudent09.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/oh-to-be-a-veterinarian/
in which he basically stated that he hated Melb. and how it only cared about money and stuff.

I just want to hear some people from U of Melbourne about their studying experience... but I can't seem to find anything concerning Melbourne here....or anywhere else...


oh, and being said, does that mean I have very low chance of getting into Dick vet or glasgow or edinburgh since they seem more competitive? What about UC Dublin?
what about Syd vs Melb?

and are you originally from Australia?
THanx!

 

[Nexx]

I REALLY hope you didn't apply to 7(+?) international universities for the hell of it without knowing anything about their programs and what is involved with moving overseas for school.

These are questions that you really should have had answered prior to applying for any school. Melbourne is a good school and has a good program, they are AVMA accredited and will prepare you well for practice. It would probably be good for you to take the time to travel over here to see the three universities and the country. You seem like you may be a tad impulsive in decision making (if that can be noticed in a few posts online). You'll be spending 4-5 years in a program well, I've seen people attend their first day of lecture and fly back home 2 days later -- expensive lesson to learn.

Anyhow be prepared to lay out at least $18k-$20k and having a lot of leg work to do in the next few months if you are planning on coming to any Australian university.

 

[mchhuang]

anyone from Melbourne like to share some personal experiences?

 

[OneDay81]

anyone from Melbourne like to share some personal experiences?

It's a new program so I doubt you will be able to read about any personal experiences... unless time travel eventually becomes possible... 😀

 

[AJen]

When I was visiting a friend in Melbourne I toured the vet school there. I found it to be extremely small and unorganized. I toured the downtown campus which consisted of one small veterinary building with a library and a few classrooms. I know that they have a large off campus area where 3rd and 4th year students go for hands on work that they said was much more modern. I was looking at going out of the country for vet school but I, personally, thought that Melbourne's program was too new and undeveloped to consider. Hope this helps...

 

[sunshinevet]

Melbournes vet school has been around since the 1930's - they're are just changing the structure of the program...

 

[tamsdivision]

anyone from Melbourne like to share some personal experiences?

Mchhuang, I was just offered admission to the DVM program as well. I'm from Canada. Have you made a decision yet?
I was studying in Australia for 6 months last year, and I just love Melbourne. I wasn't studying in the city, but visited and got a great impression!
I'm torn about my decision as well, maybe you'd like to discuss it further?
Good luck anyhow and hope to hear from you soon!

 

[CanadianHope]

I'm curious about the programme as well. I plan to apply in the spring when I have completed my undergrad degree for February 2012 entry.

 

[mchhuang]

Do you guys do a lot of written examinations?? i was looking over the syllabus for the classes in Melbourne, almost every class is graded based on a 2 or 3 hour written examinations.... ..

 

[mchhuang]

Melbournes vet school has been around since the 1930's - they're are just changing the structure of the program...

Do you guys do a lot of written examinations?? i was looking over the syllabus for the classes in Melbourne, almost every class is graded based on a 2 or 3 hour written examinations.... ..

 

[sunshinevet]

Do you guys do a lot of written examinations?? i was looking over the syllabus for the classes in Melbourne, almost every class is graded based on a 2 or 3 hour written examinations.... ..

Thats common for most vet schools in Australia. Most classes are graded on more than one exam though (1-2hr midsemester exam, 2-3hr final) sometimes with assignments. Is that not common in the states?

 

[mchhuang]

Thats common for most vet schools in Australia. Most classes are graded on more than one exam though (1-2hr midsemester exam, 2-3hr final) sometimes with assignments. Is that not common in the states?

It is normal.... but the written exam means it's all essay questions? or is there multiple choices and short answers?

 

[Nexx]

Most of our exams are short answer/short essay style. There is the occasional multiple choice exam. Generally speaking final exams are worth 50-70% of your final grade (unlike the 10-20% generally found in US undergrad programs)

 

[beebeean]

What was your bachelor's in? sorry for all of the questions and not being much help. I plan on applying to Melbourne, Murdoch, Sydney and Massey (among others) next year so I am interested in learning about your stats. What sort of vet experience do you have?

Hi OneDay!
Was your undergraduate GPA not that great?
No worries, my was absolutely ridiculous! I was surprised that I got into Melbourne and Sydney.
undergrad=2.59 Cell and Molecular bio
but I took 3 graduate level courses at Harvard Extension, and got As
Also did a ton of volunteering (Tufts wildlife, med's team at an animal shelter, SEANET, zoo keepers aid/**** shoveler!) switch jobs to be a research assistant where we do surgery on mice
Not sure if Melbourne gave a crap about my experiences, but I am sure Sydney did.
I hope you/anyone else are not discouraged by GPAs. 🙂
Good luck!!

 

[OneDay81]

My undergrad is a 3.5. I'm also starting on a second BS/finishing my prereq's in the spring, but I don't think my GPA will change much. I am registering to take the GRE in January and will start studying again as soon as I finish my Chem II course next month. Right now I have about 1800 hours of animal experience and 1000 veterinary, and I will start adding to that again in December. I'm hoping to get some research hours before application time, since that's the only area that I don't have any hours.

The downside to applying to these overseas schools is that my first BS is not in a biological/animal science field (sports medicine) so they would probably put me in the 5 year programs at the schools that have the 4 or 5 year options.

 

[sooDVM]

Hi guys. I've applied to the DVM but have to wait for grades to come out in December before I hear anything. Currently doing the B.Sc. prevet program at unimelb. They have told us (and this applies to everyone) they like to hear about experience but only take it into consideration in borderline situations. Academics (only science classes) are pretty much the only basis for acceptance. They weight the grades 75% to your final year and 25% for all the rest.

 

[beebeean]

Hey OneDay, I don't think your stats are bad at all. I would've been jumping if I had your GPA.. I think you could get into Sydney for sure, I donno about Melbourne, since they have some requriment about what undergrad degree you had. But you should try anyway, might not be that stricted. Also try Dublin
Oh, and for Sydney's 5 year program... if you look at the syllabus they teach chem, cell bio.. etc. as long as you took them as a undergraduate credit, you can get credits for them, and don't have to take it. Just keep all your syllabus and notes cause they want to see that.. (a good friend of my goes there, she got some courses waived)
And I heard schools in the U.S. like to see the change of major/interest. They like diversity.
Do you happen to be in the Boston area? cause we are looking for a research tech. you'll get excellent experiences here, we do laparotomy, endoscopy, biopsy on mice. really awesome stuff. (pay's not great.. if you are wondering)
let me know
-by the way, if I were you I would try to apply for 2011 entry. (not sure when the deadline is).
It's really not as hard as you think.... the worst that could happen is you waste 100 dollars / application. (oh and even tough resume, personal statment's not required, just put them in anyways)
Try to use AustraLearn.. it's a free service, they help you with your applications

 

[OneDay81]

Beebeean-

I actually just left the Boston area last year when I deployed over to the middle east, but now I am heading to Indiana (Purdue) for the spring semester when I return to the US next month.

I emailed Melbourne to ask if I was a candidate for the program given my major for my BS and they just copied and pasted the same information that's on the website, so that wasn't any help. I did have to take a few sciences (2 semesters A&P, Inorganic Chemistry, 2 semesters Bio, Physics, Biomechanics, etc) and it is a Bachelor of Science, plus I will have quite a few more biology/animal science/chemistry classes by the time I apply so we'll see... I suppose it's worth a shot. Technically I will still be in the military until February 2012 so I won't anticipate moving out of the country until after that time, so 2011 entry applications are out of the question. Plus I would like to get my feet wet again with the whole sitting in lectures, etc before I go to vet school. And I need more recent vet/animal hours. I volunteer at the SPCA out here walking/grooming/socializing, but that's the only thing since I enlisted in 2004 that I have to put on my application.

Thank you for the words of encouragement. I can't wait until next year when I can start working on my application and feeling the stress and excitement that everyone else is going through! 🙂