Australia as an option for this adventurous non-trad - thoughts?

[clever_smart_boy_like_me]

Hey,

I am just rolling thoughts around in my head as I sit on Queen's' waitlist. After 4 cycles, I am losing my patience with this process and feeling very stagnant and defeated. Trying to find ways to regain some control over my life and start moving forward... 

Something I have wanted to do is move to Australia. My partner and I have friends there, like the country and have no significant ties to Canada. I am looking at applying to Monash U's graduate medical program... primarily because my MCAT is out of date for all the other schools (and I am not prepared to retake it right now) and the next GAMSAT is in September. Potentially considering writing the GAMSAT so it doesn't mess up my MCAT for Canadian schools. 

What are my chances for receiving an offer - I can't seem to find stats for international applicants' matriculation percentages. How about chances for receiving an Australian internship/residency and completing my training and becoming a full doctor there? I am particularly interested in emergency medicine, ob/gyn, trauma surgery... I am not set on any State or city. I am open to rural as well.

I am likely going to scout out the country for 6 months to a year on a Working Holiday Visa if I don't get into Queen's and make sure I would be happy to live there, but I'm pretty sure already that I would be happy to be there forever if not quite a few years.

I really need to move forward in my life and I feel as though I can't because I am waiting cycle after cycle, putting pause on major life decisions I would like to start making.

Thanks for any words of advice/input/etc. 

[WeDayDream]

Give it a shot. Australia is a really good country. 

 

[Neurophilic]

5 hours ago, clever_smart_boy_like_me said:

Hey,

I am just rolling thoughts around in my head as I sit on Queen's' waitlist. After 4 cycles, I am losing my patience with this process and feeling very stagnant and defeated. Trying to find ways to regain some control over my life and start moving forward... 

Something I have wanted to do is move to Australia. My partner and I have friends there, like the country and have no significant ties to Canada. I am looking at applying to Monash U's graduate medical program... primarily because my MCAT is out of date for all the other schools (and I am not prepared to retake it right now) and the next GAMSAT is in September. Potentially considering writing the GAMSAT so it doesn't mess up my MCAT for Canadian schools. 

What are my chances for receiving an offer - I can't seem to find stats for international applicants' matriculation percentages. How about chances for receiving an Australian internship/residency and completing my training and becoming a full doctor there? I am particularly interested in emergency medicine, ob/gyn, trauma surgery... I am not set on any State or city. I am open to rural as well.

I am likely going to scout out the country for 6 months to a year on a Working Holiday Visa if I don't get into Queen's and make sure I would be happy to live there, but I'm pretty sure already that I would be happy to be there forever if not quite a few years.

I really need to move forward in my life and I feel as though I can't because I am waiting cycle after cycle, putting pause on major life decisions I would like to start making.

Thanks for any words of advice/input/etc. 

PM me if you'd like advice specific to your situation. As someone who's gone through 4 cycles over 5 years I may have something valuable for you.

[icewine]

I went down the Australian medical school route many years ago and am now a full fledged doctor working in Australia. If you had asked me say 10 to 15 years ago whether or not to go to an Australian school with the plan of staying long term I would have said yes. The rate limiting step at that time was getting an internship spot and back then international students were mostly successful in doing so.

Nowadays it would be remiss of me to give the same advice. I'm well removed from applying for internship and am a bit out of the loop but spots have tightened up considerably, with international graduates having a more difficult go of securing an internship spot. There are some initiatives such as the Private Hospital Stream training program that are meant to provide internship spots specifically for international graduates but I am not that familiar with the program in terms of the number of positions and locations.

Even if you are successful in getting an internship spot, entering a speciality training program is getting more and more difficult. In fact many would now consider entry into speciality training as the more significant hurdle as compared to getting an internship spot. Having said that, emergency medicine is not terribly competitive to get into. Rural GP training, depending on which state you apply to, is also not difficult to get into. Surgical specialities, on the other hand, are notoriously competitive with many prospective surgeons doing years of non-accredited "unofficial" surgical training.

Tuition for international students has also risen considerably. Tuition at the school I attended has almost doubled compared to when I was a student.

I was in a similar position many years ago, with multiple cycles/interviews and not being able to get over the hump and I can empathise with your situation. However it was a different training landscape when I headed down under and it was far cheaper to attend. To be honest I am not sure what I would do today if faced with the same circumstances. Barring any significant development such as becoming an Australian citizen, continuing to apply in Canada might be the better option.