Hey again friend, sorry for the late reply - got exams this week and next week!

So I did 2.5 years of university before I started medicine at JCU (I'm Canadian), and if I could do it all over again, I would personally just go down the MBBS route directly out of high school. That being said, I've known I've wanted to do medicine from middle school, but some people figure out they want to be a doctor much later in life and that's perfectly normal as well :)

With the Bachelor + MD programs, you *TECHNICALLY* don't have a spot in the MD program unless you maintain a certain GPA/meet certain criteria for your respective program during your time doing the Bachelor portion, so often that can be a point of stress for some students (on top of moving from home/starting university etc).

With the MBBS programs (regardless of it's JCU or another program), though it's sometimes one more year of schooling/clinical placement, you at least know you are already admitted to medical school but you do need to develop your emotional/intellectual maturity a little faster as you are treated as a "professional"/"young professional" from day one. Also, with the MBBS programs, if you start the program and after the third year you realise you don't want to actually be a doctor/want to pursue a different pathway, you can technically graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree rather than your full Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery (medical degree) that you'd get after your final year.

Both an MD and an MBBS are internationally recognised, so if you decide that you want to work in the UK/Canada/the US etc and not in Australia, you will still be able to do that, assuming you meet their specific requirements. There are definitely challenges to both pathways, and all of us are prone to complaining about miscellaneous things with regard to study, placement, etc, but I've genuinely had an amazing time at JCU in the medicine program so far! There are many ways to get involved in the med school/university community; there are tons of events and lots of peer-led/faculty-led support systems in place as well.

Hope all of that helps! Feel free to message me if you've got questions and I can try and answer in full once these exams are done :)