Medical studies in UK, US and Australia?

Question

I am a Singaporean student who has just finished his GSCE A levels and I'm checking out my options in studying for a medical degree overseas. My first choice would be NUS, but assuming I cannot get in there I'll be going overseas.

I need help in finding a suitable university, preferably in the above mentioned countries. My main concern is cost (living expenses, tuition fees etc.) and the actual degree. I am actually quite confused about which universities offer medicine as an undergraduate program and those which offer it as a graduate program. In those countries which has it as a graduate program, do I apply for pre-med then med? or do i apply for both at one go...?

yea. so I'm mainly confused about the whole undergrad, post-grad thing. could someone please explain it to me, preferably giving links to other sites for further explanations? THANKS LOADS!!

Answer 1

Do you want to become a medical doctor? In the US typically one does 4 years of undergrad then applies to medical school, which is also 4 years. Medical school (as is dental school, vet school, law school ect) is considered to be a professional program. Graduate school if for those who want to do research (so you would go to graduate school if you wanted to pursue a Master's degree or PhD). Many Medical schools offer combined degree programs where you can work on your MD and PhD or MS at the same time. In general, medicine is not offered as an undergraduate program. Some schools have pre-med programs where you just take the general medical school prerequisites (biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, calculus). You could do basically any major like biochemistry or microbiology as long as the prerequisites are met. Lots of Med schools in the US want applicants to stand out, so even majoring in some business related field or somethign aside from science (if this is interesting to you) is possible as long as all the prerequisites are met.

As far as cost of living, in the united states in general avoid california, massacheusettes, new york, rhode island, connecticut and new jersey. Also major cities. These have very high costs of living. Aim for the South or MidWest (like alabama, georgia, north carolin, Indiana, Illinois and states in those general area-the schools will be able to give you more specific info on cost of living). Tuition and fees will vary depending on the school. Expect alot though, I know that lots of the private schools (like Yale, Brown, Harvard) and State schools attended by people who are not residents of that state charge on average 35,000-45,000 a year. I don't know how much more this would be for someone not from the US.
Here is a link to the associateion of medical collages, you should be able to find a list of allt he medical schools in the US, and then go to their webpages to see what their requirements and fees are and who to contact if you have more questions. (once again, you would apply to medical school later in your undergraduate career)
http://www.aamc.org/
Hope I wasn't too confusing.