Keen said:
I don't know, not meaning to offend anyone or anything. But I believe that if you want to do medicine and be successful at it you should have a strong interest in the sciences (an interest in learning new things and how things around us work) if you truly have these then an interest in subjects such as phsics, chem, biology would seem appropriate. So if you took humanities then I'm a bit surprised (sure there are reasons but generally you probably should have taken science subjects). But I don't think the unis really care as long as you have the prerequisites (which are usually English and Chem)
Keen
hey keen,
don't worry i'm not really offended i just wanted to stick up for those people who get into med and are into humanities. I am clearly one of these people, having done 4 unit eng, 3 unit germ, chem, and 2 unit maths. I love science and have always had a strong interest in the human body and disease but am also strongest at english etc. I feel like i wouldn't have gotten into med in the olden days where it was purely uai based but i think that the system has changed for the better. I guess I just feel a bit threatened by the vast majority of people who assumed that i had no chance of getting into med because i wasn't an absolute science whizz.
Although it is true that you must have some interest in science to study med (which is clearly a science) it is most important that you are a skilled communicator, as in most cases in medicine you deal with patients every day. Proficiency in english and other humanities is a good indicator of your ability clearly articulate your ideas and communicate.
While it is possible to improve your scientific ability through study and perserverence (this is my experience anyway...) it is (arguably) genuinely hard to improve your comminication skills, which are hard to simply 'learn'. I think that even though (as jang said) people who are better communicators are at an advantage in the interview, the interviewers are smart enough to discriminate between those who are bullshit artists and those who are totally committed to studying med - regardless of communication skills.
The system is designed to avoid people getting into med who may be geniuses at science and get freakish uais, but are robots and freak patients out. Or, people who are just doing med because they have high enough marks. So although it may discriminate and is often unfair, it is the only way to prevent this from happenning.
Thanks for letting me have my possibly irrelevant and long-winded rant.
Good night to you all
p.s i think unsw offers about 140 unbonded csp places?? i am probably wrong tho....
