PLEASE Help About Medicine! (1 Viewer)

[Lordsion]

I really want to do medicine. i have a few questions which i cannot find after searching BOS for 40 minutes.

• What is the general UMAT score needed for medicine? <<<<
• What UNI is the easiest to get into (if any) for medicine?
• My UAI will Be around 90.
• I Know armidale and Newcastle does apllicants with UAI > 90.
• I am a rural student.
• And i am willing to go to ANY UNI in the country. I live in NSW.
• I have brought all the ACER UMAT materials - but i dont want to buy the UMAT preperation that is > $ 300.
• I Know that postgraduates usually have 15 places available for them. Do i (as in is it hard and just a waste of a degree - whilst i could be doing pharmacy) have ANY hope doing this alternate route?

Any answers or suggestions for my situation? I really really want to be a surgeon - and i need a medicine degree first!!!

I would appreciate ANY comments.

My second choice is pharmacy or psychology.

 

[partelephant]

I would consider a UMAT score in the mid 180s to be competitive. But obviously the higher the better (and people have gotten in with much less).

The "easiest" uni to get into depends on your personal strengths. i.e. Do you do well in interviews but struggle academically or do you have a top notch UMAT, etc. If you are a strong interview performer, schools such as UWS, UNCLE and Adelaide (from what I can remember) put much greater emphasis on the Interview, provided that you meet certain academic thresholds.
From memory, Adelaide's threshold is about 90, UNCLE's is about 92.8 and UWS' is 93 for GWS students, otherwise 95. However a lot depends on whether you're eligible for any rural schemes or disadvantaged student schemes.

Bond is a private uni with lower requirements but you will be forking out a fair amount of money.

Don't know what you mean by postgraduates having 15 places reserved for them. I assume you're referring to the fact that UNSW reserves 15 places each year for people to transfer from their own Med Sci degree to the Med course. There is obviously stiff competition for this though as a lot of people are attracted into doing Med Sci at UNSW in the hopes of snaring this carrot. Theres always graduate entry medicine but you have to sit the GAMSAT. (But there are quite a number of schools offering this)

Edit: Sorry, reread your post and see that you're a rural student. This gives you a greater chance. I know, for example, that 25% of UNSW's intake has to come via the Rural Student Entry Scheme

 

[Wooz]

Just how rural are you? What's your postcode and how far is your next regional centre or the population of where you live? If you don't mind me asking.

Also for graduate medicine(not post-grad) their aren't any rural places reserved. Only provisional offers at uni's such as UQ, ANU and Usyd through their combined scheme but they do not base provisional entrance on rurality or disadvantage but academic ability.

The greatest chance of getting into medicine for a low 90's uai for a rural student would be UAdel, UWA, UNSW, JCU(wih the desire to studey trpical medicine, yet ur after surgery), UNCLE and UWS.

Bond will still want 95+ uai plus an average umat mark and money up front!

If your considering another country and have the money their's New Zealand with Auckland and Otago Uni but you must do a year of health science then apply and do umat. Can't really go to other countries apart from some commonwealth countries as their are issues with accreditation once you come back and yeah it would be a long while not to mention you'd have to fork out 250k+.

Just try your hardest in the hsc and umat and try to get into somewhere, worry about the rest a little later, esp with grad medicine.

 

[Lordsion]

Just how rural are you? What's your postcode and how far is your next regional centre or the population of where you live? If you don't mind me asking.

Also for graduate medicine(not post-grad) their aren't any rural places reserved. Only provisional offers at uni's such as UQ, ANU and Usyd through their combined scheme but they do not base provisional entrance on rurality or disadvantage but academic ability.

The greatest chance of getting into medicine for a low 90's uai for a rural student would be UAdel, UWA, UNSW, JCU(wih the desire to studey trpical medicine, yet ur after surgery), UNCLE and UWS.

Bond will still want 95+ uai plus an average umat mark and money up front!

If your considering another country and have the money their's New Zealand with Auckland and Otago Uni but you must do a year of health science then apply and do umat. Can't really go to other countries apart from some commonwealth countries as their are issues with accreditation once you come back and yeah it would be a long while not to mention you'd have to fork out 250k+.

Just try your hardest in the hsc and umat and try to get into somewhere, worry about the rest a little later, esp with grad medicine.

Thanks for all the advice.

My postcode is 2443 - i live between sydney and brisbane on the mid north coast. Closest are on map i live is Port Macquarie which is 30 mins away.

Also the subjects i do are:

Maths Advanced
English Advanced
Chemistry
Biology
Business Studies
Economics

I have a huge dillemma. I get in the 90's with all subjects apart from maths which is in the 50 - 60's. I hate maths - it is so depressing cause i give everything 1000% but i cant with maths due to teacher, pace of work (we go to a new focus everyday), and classroom setting - so i get upset.

Can i drop maths and not have it affect my chances into med? or pharmacy?

I read it is a required so i feel as if i am forced to do crap in a crappy subject that wont count towards by HSC/UAI (as my lowest scored subject) just so a university can see i done it in my HSC year hence i am allowed to apply for med course and pharmacy.

I will be able to focus on school, stress less, not get upset, and get even better marks in my other subjects if i do drop it and do 10 units - but then i will have to make sure that i wont stuff up in those 10 units - but i wont cause all my other subjects are easy as pie to me - and i cant stuff up as much as i did in maths already.

My assesments (two) so far this year has been (1) 69% (2) 36.75 %
In comparison in economics (1) 100% (2) 95 %, Chem (1) 14/15 (2) 29/30

 

[Lordsion]

I would consider a UMAT score in the mid 180s to be competitive. But obviously the higher the better (and people have gotten in with much less).

The "easiest" uni to get into depends on your personal strengths. i.e. Do you do well in interviews but struggle academically or do you have a top notch UMAT, etc. If you are a strong interview performer, schools such as UWS, UNCLE and Adelaide (from what I can remember) put much greater emphasis on the Interview, provided that you meet certain academic thresholds.
From memory, Adelaide's threshold is about 90, UNCLE's is about 92.8 and UWS' is 93 for GWS students, otherwise 95. However a lot depends on whether you're eligible for any rural schemes or disadvantaged student schemes.

Bond is a private uni with lower requirements but you will be forking out a fair amount of money.

Don't know what you mean by postgraduates having 15 places reserved for them. I assume you're referring to the fact that UNSW reserves 15 places each year for people to transfer from their own Med Sci degree to the Med course. There is obviously stiff competition for this though as a lot of people are attracted into doing Med Sci at UNSW in the hopes of snaring this carrot. Theres always graduate entry medicine but you have to sit the GAMSAT. (But there are quite a number of schools offering this)

Edit: Sorry, reread your post and see that you're a rural student. This gives you a greater chance. I know, for example, that 25% of UNSW's intake has to come via the Rural Student Entry Scheme

Would Adelaide uni be bias towards adelaide applicants since i live in NSW?

 

[partelephant]

I don't think Adelaide would be allowed to favour applicants from South Australia, and especially since you will be a rural applicant. In fact, when I went down to Adelaide for my interview, I was told by a family friend about the uproar that was surrounding the fact that SO FEW South Australians were getting spots compared to interstaters.
Also, the interviewers shouldn't ask where you're from and unless you say something blatantly obvious, they won't know. However, I won't rule out completely the chance of unspoken or even subconscious bias if they do find out.
I know a lot of people who got into Adelaide (myself included) that were from NSW so shouldn't make TOO much of a difference (if any).

Oh and as far as I'm aware (or can remember), Maths is not a prerequisite for any undergrad Medicine course in Australia. The only required subjects are English and Chemistry in some cases, such as Monash. It's just that most people generally do some form of maths.

 

[bubbly89]

No Adelaide is very friendly towards non-Adelaidians, in fact there are a large propotion of interstaters at Adelaide university compared to places like UNSW, and Monash. So much so that people complained about it a few years ago.

Things you should know

The rural program at Adelaide only includes people who live in rural South Australia.

Try if you can to get about 90.1 as that is the cut off for rural kids for Newcastle/Armidale, once you're past that then they don't care.

Don't forget to apply for JCU, they love their rural kiddies.

 

[Lordsion]

No Adelaide is very friendly towards non-Adelaidians, in fact there are a large propotion of interstaters at Adelaide university compared to places like UNSW, and Monash. So much so that people complained about it a few years ago.

Things you should know

The rural program at Adelaide only includes people who live in rural South Australia.

Try if you can to get about 90.1 as that is the cut off for rural kids for Newcastle/Armidale, once you're past that then they don't care.

Don't forget to apply for JCU, they love their rural kiddies.

So what UAI is JCU - i know it is 96, but is it lower for a rural person like me in NSW? I cant find that info anywhere.

ANd when you say that it (adelaide Uni) only includes people from rural south australia - does that mean i can still apply though with a UAI around 90? or i cant now as they only accept SA?


Thisis confusing - it seems like an impossible task to get into medicine - it is something i really want to do!

 

[Wooz]

So what UAI is JCU - i know it is 96, but is it lower for a rural person like me in NSW? I cant find that info anywhere.

ANd when you say that it (adelaide Uni) only includes people from rural south australia - does that mean i can still apply though with a UAI around 90? or i cant now as they only accept SA?


Thisis confusing - it seems like an impossible task to get into medicine - it is something i really want to do!

Info like cut-offs are not normally revealed esp since JCU mainly looks at your application and interview.

Also bubbly89 your wrong, all placements:

Q: Why can't the University of Adelaide reserve places for South Australians?

A: This would be unconstitutional. By law, the University must accept applications from all states and territories and cannot discriminate in favour of local students. Almost all candidates from interstate apply to more than one university but only about half of the South Australians who apply for entry into Medicine in Adelaide have applied elsewhere.

http://www.adelaide.edu.au/news/news23841.html

Most of Uadel rural places go to people from other states. I'll try to dig up the article later.

Thanks for all the advice.

My postcode is 2443 - i live between sydney and brisbane on the mid north coast. Closest are on map i live is Port Macquarie which is 30 mins away.

Also the subjects i do are:

Maths Advanced
English Advanced
Chemistry
Biology
Business Studies
Economics

I have a huge dillemma. I get in the 90's with all subjects apart from maths which is in the 50 - 60's. I hate maths - it is so depressing cause i give everything 1000% but i cant with maths due to teacher, pace of work (we go to a new focus everyday), and classroom setting - so i get upset.

Can i drop maths and not have it affect my chances into med? or pharmacy?

I read it is a required so i feel as if i am forced to do crap in a crappy subject that wont count towards by HSC/UAI (as my lowest scored subject) just so a university can see i done it in my HSC year hence i am allowed to apply for med course and pharmacy.

I will be able to focus on school, stress less, not get upset, and get even better marks in my other subjects if i do drop it and do 10 units - but then i will have to make sure that i wont stuff up in those 10 units - but i wont cause all my other subjects are easy as pie to me - and i cant stuff up as much as i did in maths already.

My assesments (two) so far this year has been (1) 69% (2) 36.75 %
In comparison in economics (1) 100% (2) 95 %, Chem (1) 14/15 (2) 29/30

Your rurality is classed as "outer regional Australia" so your rurality is pretty low-moderate so you will not recieve that much consideration.

 

[bubbly89]

Wooz, when I said that the rural program only included people from SA, I meant that there is only one rural program and that is the South Australian Bonded Agreements, in which you can only apply for if you live in South Australia.

Apart from that there is no rural program whatsoever. Or at least there wasn't last year.

This is the breakdown of places from the application guide

The University of Adelaide Medical program quota for 2008 is expected to be approximately
150 places including the following sub-cohorts:
unbonded Commonwealth Supported Places (CSP) (up to 10 available for tertiary transfer
applicants)
Medical Rural Bonded Scholarship (MRBS) (CSP) (only available to school leavers)
Bonded Medical Places (BMP) (CSP) (up to 10 available for tertiary transfer applicants)
Australian Fee-based Enrolment places (AFBE) (up to 10 available for tertiary transfer applicants)
South Australian Bonded Medical Places (SA-BMP).
Not more than six places will be available for applicants under the University’s Special Entry
and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Access Schemes for which special conditions apply.

The universities that do have rural schemes ask for evidence that you actually lived in a rural area- Monash, UNSW, Newcastle, JCU, UMelb, etc. ask for this evidence. Adelaide doesn't, add this to the fact that no where on the website does it say you have an advantage if you live in the country unless you're from SA, and I believe my info is accurate.

All the hullabulub about all there places going to interstaters is a bit skewered, they ususally work off the basis of the main round of offers, in which a large percentage of places do go to interstate people. What they don't take into account many interstaters won't take that offer up if they get an offer closer to home, I count myself and about five others in that category. So eventually the amount of interstaters who do take up offers ends up being a lot less then what is portrayed.

So what UAI is JCU - i know it is 96, but is it lower for a rural person like me in NSW? I cant find that info anywhere.

ANd when you say that it (adelaide Uni) only includes people from rural south australia - does that mean i can still apply though with a UAI around 90? or i cant now as they only accept SA?

JCU technically does not have a cutoff, but JCU as a university takes great pride in the fact that they have the large percentage of applicants that are rural (50%) and indiginous... (something big). When I got my offer from JCU last year (they tell you over the phone before chrissie) I said flat out,
"I thought I screwed up that interview"
I walked out thinking "how am I going to tell Mum that she just wasted a plane ticket on that"

Anyway what was his response

"yeah.... we make a decision on a case by case basis... "

JCU is known for bias in certain people's favor, they pick who they want to interview from that form and the form makes it pretty obvious what they are looking for. Questions like

"why do you want to study at a universitiy that prides itself on tropical and rural medicine?"

etc.

The cutoff for Adelaide is for everyone, citysiders/country etc. its not a hurdle though, like it is at newy.

 

[Wooz]

Wooz, when I said that the rural program only included people from SA, I meant that there is only one rural program and that is the South Australian Bonded Agreements, in which you can only apply for if you live in South Australia.

Apart from that there is no rural program whatsoever. Or at least there wasn't last year.

This is the breakdown of places from the application guide

The universities that do have rural schemes ask for evidence that you actually lived in a rural area- Monash, UNSW, Newcastle, JCU, UMelb, etc. ask for this evidence. Adelaide doesn't, add this to the fact that no where on the website does it say you have an advantage if you live in the country unless you're from SA, and I believe my info is accurate.

Should of been more specific about it as I thought u had stated all rural progams at Uadel were now SA tiered, I thought u were mentioning the 11 MRB places which it stils has and not the SA-MBS.

 

[msomana]

Adelaide does consider your rurality to my knowledge - they give you bonus points to your TER for rurality:

http://satac.edu.au/uniwebS1A/Sect04/adelaide.asp?NavBar=Section4#FairwayAU

They also give you bonus points for specialist maths and languages and whatnot. So yes, they do consider your rurality, and there are people in my course with TER's of 87 or less.

 

[siddharthlaha]

Adelaide does consider your rurality to my knowledge - they give you bonus points to your TER for rurality:

http://satac.edu.au/uniwebS1A/Sect04/adelaide.asp?NavBar=Section4#FairwayAU

They also give you bonus points for specialist maths and languages and whatnot. So yes, they do consider your rurality, and there are people in my course with TER's of 87 or less.

Specialist maths... is that like the equivilant of MAths ext1 in New south wales?
And if so how many UAI points would you get?
But i heard Med doesnt take bonus UAI/TER points?

 

[kloudsurfer]

Info like cut-offs are not normally revealed esp since JCU mainly looks at your application and interview.

Also bubbly89 your wrong, all placements:

http://www.adelaide.edu.au/news/news23841.html

Most of Uadel rural places go to people from other states. I'll try to dig up the article later.


Your rurality is classed as "outer regional Australia" so your rurality is pretty low-moderate so you will not recieve that much consideration.

It depends on the uni,

Once you have an RRMA of 3 (1 being inner city and 7 being woop woop) or above, you are considered rural. At some unis, at least at UNSW, rurality is wieghted, so you are at more of an advantage the higher your RRMA rating.

Howver at UNCLE, you are either rural or not, it doesnt matter if you havean RRMA of 3 or 7, you are all considered equally.

Dont know about any of the unis outside NSW though...

I dont know what RRMA your postcode is though. Theres a website somewhere but i cant be bothered finding it. But as long as its 3 or greater,you are considered rural and have increased chances.