Doctor or Pharmacist

[slothpomba]

@ Shiny: If I study Pharmacy, I cant apply post-graduate for medicine at Mel Uni because they are different course.
@Paul: I dont like Deakin personally. Monash requires interviewing I guess?

It doesn't really matter (no offense intended of course) what you don't like. All medical programs in Australia are accredited by the government and Australian Medical Association (afaik) , so, its all pretty much the same.

I'm not sure how long it takes to get citizenship but you might want to look into that.

IF you intend to stay in Australia and practice pharmacy you should know of the current situation, you can read more about it here - Pharmacy future job prospects . To the best of my knowledge, it still hasn't resolved. There is still an oversupply of pharmacists. Don't let that stop you if you actually care about pharmacy but in my observation, a lot of the cohort does not do it for that reason alone, they do it for money/prestiege/parents, if you want these things, then pharmacy might not be the most optimal choice right now.

[Jenny_2108]

As an aside though, it should still be possible via pharmacy. You should be able to enrol solely in anatomy units in other universities to satisfy the pre-req. Just do them as Summer school some time during the pharmacy degree. Don't take my word on this, but I recall my brother looking it up and finding some way around it. However, he eventually realised it'd just be easier to go elsewhere to do Medicine. Anyway, look it up yourself if you're actually interested in doing this - I don't know much more than this.

I remember medicine requires anatomy, biochemistry and physiology. How can it be possible via pharmacy if I just enrol anatomy units?

@ kingpomba: I'm considering pharmacy and medicine. I just think of doing pharmacy first then if its possible, I will do post-grad of medicine. Salary isnt a big prob for me because I only wanna do the job I like, not matters high or low money

[Russ]

You can do the subjects to qualify for the Melbourne MD separately to your course. They'll be expensive but since you're an international then your entire course is going to be expensive and the extra cost of these subjects isn't going to make a substantial difference

I think GAMSAT for local students only?!?

International as well. You can sit the MCAT instead iirc, but you have to have one of them

[Jenny_2108]

Whats the difference between GAMSAT and MCAT btw? Is it still enough time for me to do it?

[Russ]

MCAT is the American equivalent. It's a different exam but it's the standard for a lot of international places apparently.
And you can't sit any of these exams until you leave high school and start your uni degree, they're for graduate medicine courses.

[shinny]

I remember medicine requires anatomy, biochemistry and physiology. How can it be possible via pharmacy if I just enrol anatomy units?

Because pharmacy already covers biochemistry and physiology. The only one it doesn't cover is anatomy, hence the need to do it external to the course.

[paulsterio]

Pretty much, what I would recommend is trying out for MBBS at Monash, you have to sit the UMAT (or maybe it's the ISAT for international students, I'm not too sure regarding how this works), if you don't get into MBBS at Monash, I would probably recommend doing Pharmacy at Monash and then applying to Deakin or Monash Gippsland after your Pharmacy degree.

Both these degrees have issues regarding employability later on though, as Shinny pointed out - there's the issue of internships (which is essentially a growing issue) and Pharmacy, well, there'a an abundant number of pharmacists in Australia at the moment.

I'm considering pharmacy and medicine. I just think of doing pharmacy first then if its possible, I will do post-grad of medicine. Salary isnt a big prob for me because I only wanna do the job I like, not matters high or low money

Yeah, but getting a job is an issue as well, it's not just about the high/low salary, it's about actually getting a job to begin with, which is difficult.

But to reiterate, I'd say put MBBS at Monash as your first preference and then Pharmacy. Just a bit of advice though, most of my friends who truly wanted to study medicine and put in the time and effort eventually got into medicine somewhere in Australia, the truth is, Monash is very competitive, but there are universities around Australia where the competition to get into medicine isn't as harsh. I know friends who have gotten into medicine at the University of Adelaide, Flinders University, Tasmania, Griffith, JCU, UQ...etc. pretty much all around Australia.

Generally speaking, Monash and UNSW are the toughest to get into, University of Adelaide is tough but a little easier, whilst UQ is easier than that. If you get a good ATAR but a not-so-good UMAT, then Griffith, JCU, Flinders are the ones that don't take UMAT at all (or don't take it into consideration much).

[Jenny_2108]

Does MBBS at Monash have internship as well?
International students take ISAT but its not easy either, my friend got very high percentile and couldnt pass the interviewing so he chose Sydney Uni. I'm afraid that I couldnt get into MBBS though. I heard my career adviser said this year Monash looks at GAT as well. Is it true?
Btw, whats the ATAR requirement for MBBS at Monash, UNSW, Uni of Adelaide, UQ?

[shinny]

Does MBBS at Monash have internship as well?

Yes, every Medicine course in Australia does. It's not really a part of the course itself; it's part of the registration process.

I heard my career adviser said this year Monash looks at GAT as well. Is it true?

Haven't heard about this but I've got doubts.

Btw, whats the ATAR requirement for MBBS at Monash, UNSW, Uni of Adelaide, UQ?

ATAR requirement is quite difficult to say. They balance up the scores between your ATAR, UMAT and interview, so it really depends on the other two. I've got friends with 95 ATARs who got in first round. Others with ATARs under 90 who are enrolled in the rural programs. That being said though, a large majority would have over 99 I'd think. Point is, it's possible to get in with much lower if you've got a strong UMAT or interview. I don't know as much for the other universities, but when I had my UNSW interview, they sent a letter which basically said 'with the ATAR you achieved, you must be in the top x% of people in the interview stage to get a spot'. I recall that my 99.70 said that I'd have to beat 50% of applicants.

[pi]

I heard my career adviser said this year Monash looks at GAT as well. Is it true?

Haven't heard about this but I've got doubts.

Check this http://www.monash.edu.au/news/releases/show/1126

But having a strong GAT for entrance into medicine means next to nothing as the there are three other criteria (ATAR, UMAT, interview) and I'm not sure if the Monash MBBS has a defined "Middle Band" or not.

[shinny]

I heard my career adviser said this year Monash looks at GAT as well. Is it true?

Haven't heard about this but I've got doubts.

Check this http://www.monash.edu.au/news/releases/show/1126

But having a strong GAT for entrance into medicine means next to nothing as the there are three other criteria (ATAR, UMAT, interview) and I'm not sure if the Monash MBBS has a defines "Middle Band" or not.

Not sure if you're using that as proof or just a indicator that it might be true, but just a heads up that that's from 2007.

[pi]

That was just for information for Jenny But I believe they are still using it http://adm.monash.edu/admissions/aptitude-tests.html#GAT

But I highly doubt it will help medicine entrance at all though.

[shinny]

That was just for information for Jenny But I believe they are still using it http://adm.monash.edu/admissions/aptitude-tests.html#GAT

But I highly doubt it will help medicine entrance at all though.

Ah right. The article said they were only trialling it so I thought they took it away. Guess it's there now. Don't think it really matters though - the middle band is such a small number of people.

[Russ]

Monash uses the GAT for courses that require an ATAR only (ie not the MBBS). There was a thread a while ago about getting 'bonus points'

[paulsterio]

ATAR requirement for medicine is one that's quite hard to define because they take based on a range of criteria, I know that the median ATAR at Monash would have to be somewhere above 99, I'm thinking around 99.30 - 99.40, maybe pi knows, but I'm not too sure.

It will be a little lower at UQ and University of Adelaide

If you're looking at JCU or Griffith, I've heard that 99.35 is the cutoff for Griffith and that even though JCU have interviews, if you get around 99.15+ you should be in safely.

Moderator action: removed real name, sorry for the inconvenience