i am looking right now at medical schools in australia but evryone that i called ( bond, adelaide, melborne) didnt know whether or not my degree would be accredited in california. secondly all the programs were very short in length (about 5 years) does this prove that maybe the australian schools arnt that great or something that i really dont need to focus on going to? also does anyone know the probability of getting into an australian school with these stats 4.4 gpa, 1320 sat, 550 hours of volunteering, and numerous clubs where i am president in 3 of.

-thanks

Not sure about undergrad stats for admissions (and what the h*ll is a 4.4??), but there is no particular issue with California res -- the state does not discriminate against schools that are truly international, i.e., those that are recognized by their own country for practice.

I had thought UMelb and Adelaide were 6 year programmes. At any rate, both are superb, UMelb with better rep/cred and quality of students. Not sure about Bond, it's the first truly private med school in Oz and is too new to assess.

-pitman

"all the programs were very short in length (about 5 years) does this prove that maybe the australian schools arnt that great...etc"

are you okay? don't you realise that the SAT was a piece of cake comparing to the pre-U qualifications of other places like Singapore, Hong Kong, UK, and including Australian year 12? that's why you need to do 3/4 years of pre-med prior to med school!

from first hand knowledge, the SAT is equivalent to Form 5 (3rd last year of high school, mind you) in singapore/Hong Kong. Form 7 (or A-levels) in singapore/HK is equivalent to the 2nd year of american/canadian colleges! likewise, australian year 12 is also more advanced than the SAT. their medicine lasts 5 to 6 years cuz they started uni at a much more advanced level than the american counterpart. look at the singaporean/new zealand/HK/UK..etc high school syllabi and be amazed!

FYI, i was allowed to do year 3 at UofT (toronto) after finishing my A-level exam in singapore. please note, i'm not a bright student. it's just that our curriculum is a few years ahead of the canadian system.

sorry i sounded too harsh. i didn't mean to.

this thread reminded me of something that happened a few years ago. when my friends and i looked at the SAT workbooks in high school in singapore, our eyes almost poped out! it was soooooo easy...any singaporean students can testify this. so can the british students, or aussie students.

if those who did SAT started med in the UK/singapore, they will have no life in their first year just to pass the courses. hard enough for the locals, not to mention those who did SAT....

Hypochondriac,

The SAT isn't designed to test a particular level of high school education, it's effectively an IQ test, with some achievement thrown in for good measure. There's no way to compare it to A-levels, etc. The score shows how one has done compared to others, so I'm not sure what you mean by it being "so easy". A 1300+ score is damned good and approaches the ave for any of the Ivy's.

The so-called Achievement Tests and Advanced Placements exams do however test particular topics (e.g., English, chem, bio, Phys, comp sci, history...). For example, getting a score of 4 or 5 in 3 or more AP exams will usu allow one to skip a year of uni, even Harvard (assuming acceptance).

btw pre-med is not required for either the undergrad or GEMP programmes in Australia. But the US premed uni courses for competitive candidates are much more difficult than A-levels (taking the MCAT following A-levels would be suicidal)

-pitman

yeah, i was referring to the AP level

the US premed uni courses at 3rd/4th year level are more difficult than the A-levels, but not the first 2 years.

Keep in mind that US premed is 2 uni semesters each of bio, chem, orgo, phys. They can all be done within the first 2 years of uni. With a good AP exam score in any of them from high school, a semester can be waivered, so many finish earlier (successful US med candidates are usu at the top of their science classes in high school and will thus take and do well on more AP exams, unlike in Australia, where science isn't required). But no one claims those courses/requirements are all that "advanced", arguably they're there as requirements merely to prove ability to master cumulative basic sciences once in med, which aren't inherently more difficult than premed, and some (orgo II and most the phys, in particular) is not really ever used again.

There are also different tracks for the above science courses in the bigger unis -- the "dumbed down" versions for psych majors et al, the intermediate level sufficient for premeds, and the advanced (typically math-intensive) ones for engineers, mathematicians et al.

-pitman