Hi guys,
I’m currently an international freshmen undergrad student at NYU Abu Dhabi.
For some context:I have a full scholarship here, and NYUAD is a very prestigious school with a ~ 2% acceptance rate.
However, I’m not happy here and I want to transfer.
I know 100% for sure that I want to do medicine and become a physician (most preferably in the US, if not Australia), and after coming here it has become clear that international students usually don’t (more like can’t) go to US med schools and rather go to med schools elsewhere in the world, like Singapore.
I feel like it’s not worth it to work my butt off this liberal arts college school where the focus isn’t even on STEM, so I was thinking about applying to and going to UNSW as a first year student with the medicine program that would give me an MD after 6 years.
However, I don’t know much about UNSW in general.
How is it regarded in Australia?
With a UNSW MD, would I be able to intern/ work at a good hospital in cities of Australia even as an international student?
Would I be able intern in the US after getting a MD in UNSW?
Or is it better to just stay in NYUAD and get a MD in med schools elsewhere, even if that takes 2 years longer + more work?
Any advice would be appreciated!!
THANK YOU IN ADVANCE.
Are you referring to the University of New South Wales in Australia or some school in the USA. No, as an international student, you have almost zero chance to be admitted to a Med school in the USA. US med school acceptance of international students is less than 1/10 of 1%.
It’s is neither the best nor the worst medical school in Australia. Its domestic grads get decent placements. However, international grads [of any Australian med school] are highly restricted in their ability to get internship positions in Australia.
US residency program directors are unlikely to be familiar with the nuances of Australian med school rankings and won’t care. PDs will simply see it as a non-US program.
Australia has severely restricted the number internship/post grad training positions open to internationals. Most will be in rural general practice without the option for further specialization. Getting into a specialty training program is difficult in Australia since the focus in on producing general practice/primary care physicians; it is virtually impossible for internationals. Non-citizen/non-PR physicians cannot participate in the national medicare system (national healthcare) for a minimum of 10 years after being granted a medical license. (Five years if you work in a area of high medical need.)
Also if you enter med school in Australia as an international, you cannot change your residency status during med school. This means you cannot claim to be a PR or citizen to gain a more favorable status for internship placement–even if have earned your Australian PR or citizenship.
If you take and score well on the USMLEs (which Australian med schools will not prepare you for-- the Australian medical education curriculum doesn’t cover all the topics that the USMLE tests ) and register with ECFMG, you can apply to US residencies; however, without substantial US clinical experience (or an international reputation in your specialty), your chances of matching into a US residency are generally poor. Even with good STEP scores and CE, you be limited to less competitive specialties (FM, general IM, neurology, pathology, possibly general surgery) in less desirable areas. (Rural or impoverished inner city areas)
The above is true if you attend any medical school that is not in the US or Canada.
Could you be more specific about what you don’t like at your school. Is it the curriculum, or something more that you find unsatisfying…