USyD and MCAT

[Clancom]

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Hey guys, just want to ask for some stats bout USyD regarding the MCAT for acceptance.. I had an 9, 8 , 11 O for the MCAT, 3.8 GPA and was wondering if I needed to do stellar in my MMI to get accepted?

Anyone got accepted with these similar scores?
thanks for your help!

 

[Meddie83]

Your MCAT isn't bad, but it is maybe a little on the low side. Your GPA is good though. No matter what I think you need a solid MMI score though. I'd think you had a good chance.

 

[shan564]

The GPA is irrelevant as long as it's above about 2.7. The MCAT score will be 50% and the interview will be the other 50%. The applicant pool is small enough so that it'll vary significantly from year to year... so you might want to take it again (you have 8 months before the next application cycle).

 

[JohnnyRockets]

Unfortunately USyd does not count GPAs in making a final decision for applicants. They use your interview score and MCAT/GAMSAT. A 28 is a bit low for Sydney, most successful USyd applicants have a 30 or higher, for the WS they only require an M so anything higher does not mean a thing. I would say you have a good chance at UQ assuming you apply early, Oztrekk starts taking applications in March. I know its only a difference of a couple of points but there is a world of difference between a 28 and a 30 in the eyes of admissions committees.
You might have a chance at new programs like ANU and Wollongong, but for USyd, it might be a stretch, unless you have amazing interview skills.

 

[gmacpac]

I am not sure why USyd is a preference when UQ costs 10k cheaper. Can someone elaborate on this???

 

[Peter59]

I am not sure why USyd is a preference when UQ costs 10k cheaper. Can someone elaborate on this???

I am not sure why UQ is a preference when Wollongong costs 5K cheaper. Can someone elaborate on THIS???

 

[gmacpac]

I am not sure why UQ is a preference when Wollongong costs 5K cheaper. Can someone elaborate on THIS???

No good reason except UQ was the first AU school I became aware of and applied to. By the time I found out about other programs, I already had an acceptance and I didn't want to bother with another app. Therefore, I never bothered checking fees of other programs. 😀

 

[Peter59]

Your answer is very honest. I like it.

 

[gmacpac]

Your answer is very honest. I like it.

Thanks. It's always good to be truthful 🙂

Now that I do think deeper into the process. I guess if I had to filter programs I would choose them based on whether I wanted to be a clinician ONLY or a clinician/researcher.

If I was to choose only the clinical medicine route, I wouldn't care which program I got accepted in. As long as the program was in AU, and was affordable, it would've been good enough for me.

On the other hand, if I wanted to be a clinician/researcher, I would choose UQ over other programs because of its established history of research medicine. Following the same logic, I would still chose UQ over USyd because UQ is cheaper than USyd even though USyd is also a good research institution.

Sorry for taking this post on a tangent, but I think the above breakdown may be of use to future AU med school applicants.

 

[Clancom]

My rationale is that sydney is bigger than UQ.. probably contains a bit more fun than UQ? I'd imagine that sydney would be pretty big..

 

[gmacpac]

My rationale is that sydney is bigger than UQ.. probably contains a bit more fun than UQ? I'd imagine that sydney would be pretty big..

Sounds good.

I guess ultimately the differentiating factor depends on the type of lifestyle one wants to live while in medical school. In my humble opinion, academia is not much different between UQ and Usyd.

 

[Clancom]

Yup, I believe too that they both have similar level of education. In the end, the students have to go through the same test anyways.. Just that I rather be living in a bigger city, and sydney is the biggest + most populated city in Australia.

 

[JohnnyRockets]

There is not that much difference between USyd and UQ, USyd is obviously a bit more expensive since its in a larger city. The class size though is smaller, 270 vs 400 students per year, still USyd is fairly big but probably about the same as most major North American schools.

If you check Times Higher Education Supplement, both UQ and USyd rank among the world's best universities in terms of biomedical research and education.

 

[JohnnyRockets]

Also I can tell you from experience that Queensland is very redneck compared to Sydney which is more cosmopolitan. Being Asian I feel more comfortable in Sydney than in QLD. The idea of being required to do rural rotations in QLD was a big turn off. Brisbane itself is not so bad, and its not like living in the US South, but some parts of that state are not so friendly. There was one restaurant in northern QLD that refused to serve people who did not speak English.
Sydney to Queensland is like comparing California to Iowa, still not bad, but QLD is not as liberal as Sydney.
You should read what a rugby player from Sydney had to say about Queenslanders, he called them a bunch of nutbag rednecks.There is a huge world of difference between Aussies who live in big cities compared to rural and regional areas.

 

[Clancom]

Yea, that is what I am worrying about for QLD.. just a bit afraid of their stereotypes and probably some racism that is unspoken of. BTW Johnny, was wondering if you can give me some description of how living is like @ Sydney? e.g., the people, the place, fun...etc? Thanks for your help!

 

[JohnnyRockets]

Sydney is almost a replica of San Francisco, to most people in academia, that is a good thing. Its fairly liberal, multicultural, has a large gay and lesbian population. Melbourne is the other cosmopolitan Aussie city. Queensland, the Southeast portion encompassing the Gold Coast and Brisbane is not so bad, but I heard a lot of bad things about smaller cities in the North and how they treat ethnic minorities. An Aboriginal Australian was arrested in a small Northern Queensland town for public drunkeness and was found dead the next day. This pattern is not different from the US, in America most liberals dread the Deep South, in Australia its known as the Deep North, or Northern Queensland. A lot of people I know in Sydney will never say a nice thing about Queensland except that they have nice beaches.

 

[JoeNamaMD]

Honestly I have been living in Brisbane for several years and I have had no problems. There are no rednecks here but there are bogans and yobbos, that is a term for an unsophisticated Aussie, they are actually harmless and occasionally entertaining. This one guy, his motorbike caught fire and he tried to put it out by throwing whiskey on it, crazy stuff but no harm or evil intended. Sydney also has a lot of very rough areas, when I visited a couple of years ago, a middle aged man was stabbed to death near a pie shop by two teenagers. Some gang also exploded a small bomb at a rugby match in Sydney, no one got hurt but it scared the hell out of people, there was also some disgruntled supermarket worker after being injured in robbery at gunpoint, he threatened to blow up the store but wound up setting his own house on fire, the police found explosives in his apartment. So please get the idea that Sydney is Disneyworld out of your head.

Redfern and King's Cross are pretty shady areas, KC has a lot of prostitution and other bad elements. They are like the Aussie version of the ghetto. Still there are plenty of nice areas in Sydney.

For the most part its a nice city but it does have some problems like most major cities.