University of Sydney 2021 Thread

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I'm a UQ stan just passing by but I'll leave my 0.02. Maybe they're changing the start dates so that the whole class has to re-accept their offers and confirm they're in the country. That way, the students who don't meet the second condition will be unable to accept the second offer and the school can say it didn't defer them, they just didn't meet the new enrolment requirements?
They haven't even started giving out offers; it was announced that the first wave of acceptance will be given out on Oct 7 for international students, so that is kind of weird.

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Did you receive an unconditional offer already? International students aren't supposed to receive an offer until October. Did you apply as a domestic student? If not, my guess is you probably ended up on the wrong email list somehow...
 
@TheIndianHustler
1.
It's your life and the choice is yours. We were also told the same thing by USyd that electives are in 4th year but it is in fact in 3rd year for entering class of 2019 (like you said, how can one be in the program and not know about it...). USyd might have changed it back to 4th year for the cohort after us, but bottom line is "USyd does what they want and they can't be trusted". talk to the student you spoke with again and ask specifically about electives timeline for the 2019 entering class. Again, you can say oh that's just for the 2019 class. 2021 class will be fine- well, maybe, maybe not- USyd is volatile and you shouldn't count on it.

2.
I see where you're coming from. That's the elective program not the pacific bridge program. The global health office is no longer existent. Ask the people you spoke with, specifically bring up pacific bridge program (as opposed to elective program) and they'll tell you. I did mention that electives "could be" in 3rd years for you (and definitely "is" in 3rd year for us) so you won't be eligible for a handful of them right? When I applied, under "Canada" and "US", there were more than 3 schools per country. that's what it looks like now: Sydney elective placements. (if the GHO is even still a thing)

3.
Self-explanatory. If you want to think that Australia will miraculously open up hundred of int spots to accomodate international students, I can't change your mind. Future is unpredictable. Maybe they will

4.
Again, choice is yours. I'd rather pay more to get a job than pay $450k and not have a job.

As a recent int'l USyd graduate with an internship in NSW, I'll throw in my 2 cents here.

As mentioned, the USyd curriculum is changing, and the SMP has its downsides but I think overall it is trying to change and evolve for the better. Obviously things get done not for everyone's liking. Like how as a 4th year this year, I had to do these extra assessments and hoops to jump through while my colleagues over at WSU essentially did their final exams in March and were just cruising for the rest of the year.

The Bad:
2 very valid points made, there is a new cohort of domestic students from Macquarie University, they will be graduating their inaugural class next year. This will mean less spots for international students. You can do your own research with HETI, but currently mostly everyone gets a spot SOMEWHERE. It might be not Sydney CBD (the majority are not) as you envisioned, but a mix of private/public/interstate spots usually gets people somewhere currently. With an extra school this will be harder for sure, which means you might have to travel interstate (WA, QLD), but if you do that, you will get a spot.

The pacific bridge program is very much alive, but it doesn't really matter whether it is or isn't. It isn't very hard to set up your own electives in Canada. Sign up for the electives portal, pay some money, pick your electives, pay more money and that's it. It's more like getting the electives you want, family med is filled up very quickly. Pacific bridge program, OGH etc., just makes it easier (you pay less fees, things are setup for you). But doing it yourself really isn't that hard long as you act early enough. Going to the US isn't hard either, many schools need you to have done step 1, but there are also plenty of great schools that don't need that (Mount Sinai, Harvard etc.), fees are higher, and no centralized portal. The biggest issue is more like how this pandemic will pan out (ie. Current 3rd years got their oversea electives cancelled), but if you're going into med next year, things should have blown over by then.

The Good:
The research component is getting shorten into one term, this is a good thing imo. Instead of a MD project that drags for 3 years, you can do this in a term and get it done with. Assessments are also changing from less MC and evolving with more clinical judgement etc. This is a good thing. Clinical immersion is changing, we had this AiM (Assistant in Medicine) program that alot of us 4th years partake (basically becoming an intern earlier, it was funding from the government to help out with the pandemic) which was great. There are talks of continuing that in some capacity.

The Ugly:
Australia is always a gamble, as people have mentioned things are volatile. And getting an MD degree is very much the easy part. Gaining internship is the next harder part but even that is...doable. Even more volatile is getting PR to actually get onto a specialist training pathway. 450k is still a gamble.
 
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