UQ/Ochsner or Griffith?

[echeveria234]

Hello!

I got accepted to the UQ/Ochsner and Griffith MD Programs (Griffith as an international student), and I am debating which offer I should take. I was wondering if anyone would be willing to offer any suggestions with regards to the questions I have below:

1. For those who are currently or had been an international student at the Griffith MD Program, how is the program going for you? Are the first two years pass/fail and is the faculty friendly to students? How are the third and fourth clinical years?
2. The major concern that I have with the UQ/Ochsner program is the fact that the third and fourth years are located in New Orleans, which generally isn't the safest environment to live in. Plus, with the recent mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, I'm only concerned the situation will only get worse.
3. How difficult is it to secure an internship after graduation in Queensland and to get PR after internship? If I were to pursue a medical career in Australia, how difficult would it be to do so?

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[mcat_taker]

Hello!

I got accepted to the UQ/Ochsner and Griffith MD Programs (Griffith as an international student), and I am debating which offer I should take. I was wondering if anyone would be willing to offer any suggestions with regards to the questions I have below:

1. For those who are currently or had been an international student at the Griffith MD Program, how is the program going for you? Are the first two years pass/fail and is the faculty friendly to students? How are the third and fourth clinical years?
2. The major concern that I have with the UQ/Ochsner program is the fact that the third and fourth years are located in New Orleans, which generally isn't the safest environment to live in. Plus, with the recent mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, I'm only concerned the situation will only get worse.
3. How difficult is it to secure an internship after graduation in Queensland and to get PR after internship? If I were to pursue a medical career in Australia, how difficult would it be to do so?

If you want to maximize your chances of securing a US residency then UQ/Ochsner is a no brainer. You can still apply for Australian internships if you decide you prefer it there. Brisbane is also a better place to live for 2 years then the Gold Coast which is a bit of a touristy part of Australia (Brisbane is also very safe, known as being safer then the Gold Coast). New Orleans is also a great place to live with a lot of culture and fun events going on, a great restaurant scene, beaches just a few hours away, and an enriching experience in its own right even if you decide not to stay in the gulf south after you graduate. You will get great medical training in New Orleans at Ochsner.

Griffith might provide a fine medical education, but they are a newer medical school and thus do not have much of a track record of putting people into US residencies. You will likely be on your own in your attempt to match in the US without much support from admin compared to UQ and fewer international students to lean on for support as well. If your only goal is to stay in Australia then I suppose it doesn't matter.

If your major concern is just the safety in New Orleans then its a no brainer. You can't predict which city these mass casualty events will happen in. In terms of crime- I have never had a problem in New Orleans in 2 years here and I've never felt unsafe. If you aren't walking into bad neighborhoods at night then I don't see how it makes a difference (and thats pretty tough to do considering everyone drives around here). Choose a decent part of town to live in. The safety of New Orleans is not really anything I've ever had on my radar as an issue. Plus you'll be in the hospital 80 percent of your time in New Orleans anyway.

If you have any inkling of wanting to practice medicine in the US, UQ/Ochsner gives you by far a much better chance for that.

 

[echeveria234]

Thanks @mcat_taker! Due to lifestyle factors and personal reasons, I generally prefer practicing medicine in Australia ultimately in the future. Do you (or others) know the process and how difficult it would be to complete my medical training in Australia right after graduation vs completing my medical training in the U.S. and then moving to Australia?

 

[mcat_taker]

Thanks @mcat_taker! Due to lifestyle factors and personal reasons, I generally prefer practicing medicine in Australia ultimately in the future. Do you (or others) know the process and how difficult it would be to complete my medical training in Australia right after graduation vs completing my medical training in the U.S. and then moving to Australia?

Not sure. Thats beyond the scope of my expertise. The difference between Australian training is that each year you have to reapply for an additional year of training. You are never guaranteed all your training like in the U.S. once you get residency here. In general it seems most people who want an internship get one at least in QLD but you might be anywhere in the state, no guarantee its a major metropolitan area and you still need to reapply for a training job each year. But it is stressful seeing my friends go through it where you might be waiting until the last minute for a spot to open up. You might be moving around more for your training. Then visa issues to deal with. All stuff I'm not really familiar with. The competitive fields are probably more competitive there, because there are fewer spots than in the U.S. in those fields. Generally once you are fully trained in the U.S. I believe it is a lot easier to move anywhere else to practice. But in order to practice in the U.S. you must complete a U.S. residency no matter what.

You say this now, but you have never practiced in Australia so how do you know you would prefer it? It is very different. Training there takes much longer because it isn't compressed into a 3-5 year residency like it is here. In the U.S. you go right into your specialty without having to rotate around in different fields. Some people like that. Others prefer the lifestyle in Australia where training is more relaxed but spread out over more years. Generally we are much more hands on as students here in our 3rd-4th year with more autonomy. In Australia, the training wheels stay on longer which can be frustrating- more shadowing. Australia can be a great place to move to and live and I have several friends that are moving there from UQ-O to train BUT at the same time I know people who disliked living there and much preferred being in the U.S from a practicing medicine standpoint. In general you will have much better infrastructure and technology here but again I don't want to generalize too much because I don't have the expertise to compare directly. Its just very different- for example in Oz as a junior doctor you draw a lot of your own labs which takes up a lot of time and here we have nurses do all that type of work. There pediatricians and OBGYNs play a much different role then they do here in the sense that GPs treat a majority of kids and not pediatricians unless they are complicated and get sent to a pediatrician. Midwives deliver most uncomplicated pregnancies there with OBGYNs only delivering higher risk ones. Just little things like that I've picked up on and spoken to people about that is very different then it is here.

I would urge you to give it a lot of thought as UQ-O is a great program and a fine achievement that you have gotten that acceptance, especially with how difficult med school acceptances are to come by. I don't want to sway you one way or the other If you are set on moving to oz then do what you think is best. I personally would not want to live on the Gold Coast for 4 years which doesn't seem to offer as much as a city like Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney. Also as an older student I liked that UQ-O had a greater diversity of ages in the class. Griffith will be mostly Australians coming out of a 3 year undergrad degree. I found a lot of comfort in the sizable international cohort of UQ/UQ-O. But that's me personally. And Brisbane was a fantastic place to live too!