Medicine at Adelaide or Flinders?

A dilemma facing high achievers wanting to pursue medicine is whether to choose Adelaide University (which offers school leaver entry into medicine) or Flinders University (which offers a graduate route).

Many parents often ask “Why did some universities abandon the school leaver entry route to medicine? Which route is better?”

The answer is the same to similar questions such as:

• Should I choose medicine at Sydney University or UNSW / JMP / WSU?
• Should I choose medicine at UQ or UNSW / JMP / WSU?
• Should I choose medicine at Monash University or Melbourne University?
• Should I choose medicine at Curtin University or UWA? etc.

School leaver entry programs such as that offered by Adelaide University are far superior for several reasons, including:

1. Guarantee of entry: Flinders does not offer guaranteed places in medicine, even though many assume so. Even those who obtain a place in the double degree program (Clinical Sciences and Medicine) have to maintain a certain GPA to progress into medicine after their first degree.
    
2. Stress and uncertainty: You will have just finished a hard slog for your final high school exams. Do you really want to continue to do that for another 3 to 4 years? (An honours degree takes 4 years). You will also have to live with the pressure and uncertainty that you may not get in, in spite of your hard work. Only those with high GPAs and a high score in GAMSAT have a chance of getting into graduate entry medicine.
    
3. The dreaded GAMSAT: To get into Flinders University Graduate entry medicine, you will also need to sit the dreaded 6 hour GAMSAT test and perform well, to have a chance of getting into graduate medicine.
    
4. Restricted choices: For the graduate entry medicine pathway, you can only apply to one university (with six preferences) and will be interviewed by only one university through the GEMSAS. Medical schools have colluded in this manner so that it makes their job of selecting candidates easier. Unfortunately this is unfair to motivated students. With school leaver entry, there are no such restrictions on the number of universities you can apply to and be interviewed by.
    
5. Plan B: If you pursue your first degree at Flinders University and are then unable to get into medicine, you will have limited career options (other than a research career which has little job security).
    
6. Financial reasons: For those who like to look at things rationally, it takes at least two more years of study to complete medicine at the Flinders University (and other graduate medicine programs), compared to Adelaide University (or other 5 year school leaver programs). The average lifetime earnings of doctors in private practice is about $300,000 per year (Source: Australian Doctor 22 July 2011). So by giving up a place at Adelaide, you are incurring huge opportunity cost. Plus there is the cost of study – being at university for at least two more years, and other implications on your future, such as family.
    
7. Length of training: To become a fully qualified specialist, after graduation you will need to train for four to seven more years. The Flinders university degree will prolong your training. The additional one or two years more at Flinders University may not seem significant now, but the sooner you are able to start practising, the more experienced and employable you will become. Competition for everything is increasing in all aspects of life (for example, Registrar positions), so the quicker you finish your training, the better it is for you. Valuable time should not be wasted on acquiring a non-medicine irrelevant undergraduate degree if you are committed to pursuing medicine.
    
8. After graduating in medicine, once you have chosen the specialty you wish to pursue, you will need to sit exams while working as a Registrar. You will find this last hurdle easier to get through when you are younger (for example, by pursuing a school leaver medicine program) rather than when you are older with family commitments. Studying for exams is also less daunting when you are younger, for several reasons.
    
9. Focussed training: Some of the subjects that you will be studying in the first degree at Flinders University may seem irrelevant, as they are not focussed on medicine. School leaver medical programs offer focussed medical training and patient contact from week one.
    
10. Most professionals will tell you that the real learning takes place when you start work, not at university. Much of what universities teach is not particularly relevant to real world of work and they teach it because that is all academics know. Hence the adage “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach!”. University is a place for fun and five years of fun is enough for most people!
     
11. Prestige: In Australia, which university you go to doesn’t matter at all (unlike in other countries such as the USA). This is particularly so with medicine, because there are no national licensing exam to begin practising medicine. Even if you wish to work overseas, once obtain your registration as Medical Practitioner with AHPRA (all medical graduates automatically get this, unlike in the USA), it makes no difference which university you went to. Please see the blog: "University rankings and prestige: how much do they really matter for studying medicine?"
     
12. Through attracting better students who wish to pursue the school leaver entry pathway, Adelaide has dramatically improved its lead over Flinders University in medical school prestige. There is anecdotal evidence that School leaver medicine graduates perform better in terms of career prospects and their ability to get into ‘competitive’ specialties. Please see Medical schools ranking for more information. Furthermore, increasingly the prizes awarded to medical students by the Royal Colleges (e.g. RACP/RACS) are being won by Adelaide students with Flinders students further lagging behind every year.
     
13. Uncertainty of career choice: Some people claim that it is useful to study a basic sciences degree because you may not be sure that medicine is the right career for you – medicine is a very different career to science. Therefore, studying a year of science is unlikely to help you make this decision. Furthermore, after commencing medicine at Adelaide, in the unlikely event that you feel medicine is not for you (the drop out rate is less than 1%), you can always drop out after a year or two and pursue another degree with prior learning credits.
     
14. Travel distance: Some students are put off by the distance required to travel to Adelaide University (if they live near Flinders). But remember that you attend the university campus only for the first two years. For the remaining three years you are being trained in hospitals – you don’t go to the university campus at all. You can always live in the halls of residence if you reside a significant distance from Adelaide university. In fact, many students, even those who live near Adelaide University, find it convenient to live in the halls of residence provided by them to experience college life for at least a year or two.
     
15. Real reasons: There are at least three (real, as opposed to those peddled by the University) reasons why Finders has chosen to mimic the US graduate entry model. First, by keeping the students at university for two more years, income from fees is increased (the university obtains an additional $60,000 from each student). Second, due to government policies, universities are able to charge full fees ($70,000 per year+ for medicine) for their Graduate medical courses but are prohibited from doing so if it is a school leaver entry program. The university is therefore able to increase their income by about 70%. Third, by getting students into their Science programs, they are able to increase the flagging enrolments in these programs. Since the demand to get into medicine is high, the university is able to lure a large number of students (up to 1000) to commence their science programs, most of whom hope to get into medicine. Unfortunately, many students after completion of their Flinders degree will be unable to get into medicine or get jobs in that field, and will choose to stay on to pursue higher degrees. This not only further increases the university’s income but the university also gets postgraduate research students to boost their research profile and hence their international ranking.
     
16. Due to the fact that graduate entry medicine doctors are older (about 6 years older on average), they are likely to choose specialties which are easier to get into, and require shorter training, such as General Practice. Doctors from school leaver entry programs are more likely to choose competitive specialties such as Dermatology, Ophthalmology, Neurosurgery and Gastroenterology, because time is on their side, among other reasons.

In summary, Adelaide University’s (school leaver entry) medical entry program is good for you, while Flinders graduate entry medicine program is good for the University.

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