Med School Abroad

[Guest Persistent]

Hey!

 

Is anyone thinking of going to med school abroad?? Either as a backup or even as their preferred choice??

 

I had applied to Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia two years ago and was granted a seat. I deferred it the first year and then declined the seat the next in hopes of getting into UBC. Anyhow, I have just sent in my application to their Early Decision Program and was wondering if anyone else has considered Australian Med Schools.

 

 

Happy Waiting.

 

PS. Unlike UBC, with Flinders the time from application deadline till offer letters/emails are sent out is only 2 months!!! Yay!!

[Guest Ollie]

This is easy for me to say since I'm already in med school in Canada, but I think it would be a much easier decision if it didn't come with the possibility of not being able to return to Canada to practice. I was not willing to go anywhere else for med school (even the US), so I thank my lucky stars that I got accepted in Canada. I have a couple of friends that went abroad (one Australia, one Carribean) and I hope that they will be able to come back!

[Guest Persistent]

Yes, that is definately the biggest concern for me. That is precisely why I turned down their offer two years ago. However, I have inquired into the status of their International (Canadian) graduates and a couple of them had gotten into Canadian residency spots. And the chances are increasing with time as Canada reconsiders its policy on Foreign Medical Graduates. The only thing is that you have to be smart and realistic about the types of residency you choose. As long as you know that the chances of you getting the "popular" ones is low then you'll be fine. For those who are interested in Family Medicine I believe by the time we graduate, entry into Canada would be a lot more likely.

 

Which School in Australia did your friend go to? And when did he/she start?

[Guest Burachan83]

Hi,

 

I'm from Vancouver and after a couple unsuccessful attempts at Canadian medical schools I started medical school in Australia at The University of Queensland this January (there are 30 Canadians in my year!). From what I've learned, if you're going to go overseas for med and you want to come back to Canada, FM is pretty much the only virtually sure residency you can match in. However, there are still plenty of residencies you can match in the US but this can provide complications if you later want to end up practising in Canada (more specifically, discrepancies in the length of training in the US compared to Canada and student visa issues). Personally, for anyone unsuccessful in getting into North America, who wants to come back to Canada and is deadset on Family Medicine, I would highly recommend going to a school in the UK, Ireland, New Zealand or Australia. If you are thinking of specializing, these countries are the next best thing after North America but just keep in mind you may run into hurdles getting back to Canada.

 

Here's a letter us Canadians at UQ received a month or so ago from Sandra Banner:

 

**************

Letter to Canadians in medical school outside of North America, from Sandra Banner (executive director of CaRMS):

 

 

Dear Canadian student,

 

This survey is the work and research of the Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS). CaRMS is a not for profit organization that manages the transition between undergraduate and postgraduate medicine in Canada. It is managed by a Board of Directors where 25% of the Board is made up of students or resident trainees and also includes Directors from all of the medical education organizations in Canada including the universities.

 

As you probably are aware, all jurisdictions in Canada are currently experiencing shortages of physicians. The federal government made a commitment to accelerate and expand the assessment and integration of internationally trained health care graduates. To-date all international medical graduates have participated in the second iteration of the match. However, there are discussions at the Provincial and medical school level to find a better way to integrate internationally trained graduates into postgraduate training.

 

For the last five years, CaRMS has been noting an increased participation of international medical graduates who left Canada to obtain their medical education. Those returning graduates who have participated in previous matches through CaRMS have been very successful (>80%) in obtaining a residency position .

 

The aim of this survey is to understand the career goals and practice plans of the Canadian students who chose to attend medical school outside of Canada and the U.S. and through the results to better inform the policy makers who wish to assist in integrating these students into postgraduate residency training in Canada.

 

A grant from Health Canada has made this study possible. Although Health Canada sponsored the study, they will not have access to the survey responses. Your completed questionnaire will be kept in the strictest confidence at CaRMS, and only nonidentifying data will be shared with the medical and government communities. CaRMS has been surveying students and safeguarding their privacy and information for more than twenty years.

 

This survey was pre-tested by Canadian students from abroad who were registered in the match this year. It takes about 10 minutes to complete. Please complete the survey by March 21, if possible.

 

If you have any questions about this survey or any aspect of this research, please contact me at srbanner@carms.ca.

 

Thank you in advance for your time.

 

Regards

 

Sandra Banner

 

CEO/Executive Director

 

Canadian Resident Matching Service

 

http://www.carms.ca

**************

 

Note that the >80% match rate is for all Canadians outside North America participating in the match for any residency. I suspect that the percentage for those going for Family Medicine and coming from a medical school in the Commonwealth should be higher than 80% (maybe 90-95%?)

[Guest Persistent]

Hi Burachan83!

 

Thanks for the info! What year are you in now? And, do you know anything about Flinders University School of Medicine? I am considering this University only because of a laziness factor. This is the only school that I will not have to re-write my MCAT for. :S

 

Any opinions?

[Guest Burachan83]

I have heard of Flinders and it has a good reputation here in Australia. It's got a small class size (about 30 is it?), which is very good. Here at UQ we have a class size of 330 (and you thought UBC was big!) and sometimes we have like maybe 2 tutors for 50 people during some of our practicals and there are times you wish the class size was smaller. I hear the administration is much friendlier at Flinders as well compared to USyd and UQ. Also, I'm not sure exactly why but apparently Flinders is especially go for international student looking to return to North America because it's easier to arrange overseas electives...I'm not really sure about this one, you should get more details from other people.

 

The only disadvantage is the actual city Flinders is in, Adelaide. I assume you're from Vancouver? From what I hear, it's a very small and quiet city and will be quite smaller than Vancouver. I'm in Brisbane (Australia's 3rd largest city) and my friends from Vancouver sometimes complain about how there's nothing to do here. Adelaide, being the 5th largest city, would be considerably smaller than Brisbane still.

[Guest Persistent]

Wow, 330 is quite the number!!!! Flinders has 30 International seats available. I believe the total is 80. From my research Flinders seems to have a very similar structure as UBC as far as PBL goes. 8:1 is the ratio for students and tutors. I do hear that Flinders' connections with N.A. is good when it comes to doing electives.

 

I'm beginning to regret not having accepted their offer two years ago! I hope I get in again!!!!

 

Have you heard anything about the Multiculturalism aspect (or lack thereof) in Adelaide. It has come up from a couple of different sources and I am a bit concerned as a south Asian. I lived almost all of my life in Canada and felt very comfortable with my identity due to Canada's awesome multiculturalism. I am not sure how I will be viewed or treated in Adelaide. Is this something I should be concerned about or have I simply been misinformed?

[Guest Persistent]

oh, one more IMPORTANT question...

 

What kind of financial support is available to you as a Canadian??

[Guest FungManX]

Hey Bura, just wondering what your gpa/mcat scores were if you don't mind.. I guess family practice is better than nothing at all! All I want is to be back here..

[Guest kellyl20]

I have relatives who are from Australia and are Australians.

Think that times are changing but there are still people there who still remember WWII or their children remember what their parents said. But in spite of this, Australia is still a hot spot for vacationers from Japan, :\

[Guest Burachan83]

What do you mean by financial support? Do you mean does the Canadian government cover some of our tuition like other countries do? I am not aware of any such support. With the current exchange rate, I am paying $30,000/year at UQ compared to $14,000/year at UBC so the tuition here is considerably higher but lower than an American university.

 

Getting into an Australian med school as an international student is considerably easier than getting into a Canadian med school as a domestic student. I only had an MCAT of 29S and what I consider a poor interview (I didn't do much prep for it because at the time I had my sights set on dentistry) and I had no problems getting into UQ, a school that is very tough to enter for an Australian. My gpa was about 86% but that is not a factor for entry into UQ (as long as you meet the minimum requirement, which is something ridiculously low). It is however for USyd. I'm not sure about Flinders but I think gpa is a factor as well.

 

In regards to multiculturalism, I can't speak for Adelaide because I have never lived there but I do know people in my class who have lived in Adelaide and from what they say yes it is a very "white" city compared to Vancouver and far less multicultural. In fact, if you research on Australia's history the country as a whole has quite a racist past (see White Australia Policy) compared to Canada and other than Sydney or Melbourne they may be a little "behind" Vancouver in terms of accepting a variety of cultural backgrounds.

 

I've only lived in Brisbane for 3 months so maybe I'm not in the position to comment, but I haven't really noticed any difference between Vancouver and Brisbane so far. Sure, you meet the odd jerk here or there but I've had similar incidents in Vancouver as well. In general, I have found the people here to be very warm and friendly. Let me put it this way: in Vancouver, you might get 1 out of 20 racist people. In Brisbane/Adelaide, you might get 1 in 10. Most people are fine and you might get a nut here and there but they are not representative of the majority of the Australian population.