The journey to Medical School

My father grew up in a small village at the outskirts of Bangladesh as one of 16 children. Which meant they all had very little after sharing. But my dad was passionate about education, which lead him to getting a degree and grow out of poverty. First hand experiencing the value of good education, dad worked hard to provide my siblings and me access to quality education.

My brother went to Canada for university and he insisted I went abroad as well. It was exciting, but scary to decide just by going through university websites where I should be spending the next decade of my life. Especially cause I wanted to pursue medicine and after a little research I realised how segmented medical education is around the globe. Different names (MBBS, BMBS or MD), duration of the course ( 4 years, 5 years, 7 years), entrance exams ( UMAT, GAMSAT, MCAT). I was lost!

Being a 17 year old just finishing high school, you’re already a few strikes down worrying about which country or university you should choose and when hoping to pursue medicine, this becomes much harder. (Sympathy for anyone in that process)

Everyone I knew from school was going to US, UK or Canada and wanting to do something different, I decided on Australia. Researching on the good medical schools there, I found that for studying medicine I would need to do a bachelors degree first. (Clearly I hadn’t researched well since now I know there is Monash, James Cook and a few others that offer medicine for students right after finishing school)

After graduating from school, in the dream to pursue medicine, my first step was doing a Bachelors of Biomedicine majoring in Neuroscience from the University of Melbourne. My first year at university was tough, I hated most of it. During my lectures I spent stalking my friends on Facebook who chose medical schools close to home to get an idea about how my life would be if I chose that instead. Also, the course I was doing was not medicine and instead about learning general sciences; I could not see the point. Don’t get me wrong it is a great course, I learnt heaps but back then I was just young and all I wanted was to study medicine. Also, halfway during the course things became great, because I met some amazing people and could call them friends.

Completing it last year, I was very lucky to get accepted into Deakin medical school where I am a proud first year student. I just finished my first semester and absolutely loved it, especially the clinical parts of the course. The parts that make me feel like a doctor already; hanging stethoscope around your neck, placements at operation theatres, etc.

It has been a long journey but a meaningful one. I learnt heaps and met awesome people on the way who changed my life. For now, I am excited to fold this next chapter in life.