SWSydneytutor
Member
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2009
- Messages
- 45
- Gender
- Undisclosed
- HSC
- 2008
For interviews:
- UWS issues interviews on the basis of UMAT and predicted UAI. For students in the Greater Western Area, you need a UAI estimate in excess of 93 and a weighted UMAT, generally of 170+. For students living outside this region, you require a UAI estimate in excess of 95 and a UMAT of around the mid-180's. UWS does something weird to their UMAT scores but they value S1 way more than S3.
- For UNSW, your predicted UAI has to roughly match up with a given UMAT total, as seen here on their website: Faculty of Medicine - FAQ_local
- Although I wasn't eligible for UNCLE (as UNSW/UWS were placed higher on my preference list), they don't look at predicted UAI's but rather, your total UMAT score. The cutoff for an interview this year was 178 (around 89th percentile).
For admission:
- After you gain the UAI needed for UWS, it is no longer taken into consideration and only your UMAT + Interview performance counts. The interview accounts for 2/3 of your entrance score, while your UMAT accounts for the remaining third.
- UNSW is incredibly competitive - I'd say around 3/4 of their kids gain UAI's above 99. The UAI, UMAT and interview performance are given equal weighting, though if I was to advise anyone, how well you do in your interview counts for most. The reason here is that many people I know with amazing UAI's, within the vicinity of 99.90, did not get in. This would seem to indicate that either something was lacking in their UMAT or their interview performance. You see, if you stuff up (a little, mind you) your UMAT and/or your UAI, this does not exclude you from entry. Re: I know people who got into UNSW with UMAT scores around 170-180 (not "bad" scores as such, but not brilliant either) with UAI's around 98. However, stuffing up in your interview is bad news because it's much harder to claw your way up this way (just look at those with near perfect UAI's and didn't get in). So do not take the interview lightly - it is incredibly important.
- UQ (University of Queensland) look at both your UAI and your UMAT score. They do not conduct interviews. Your UMAT needs to be in excess of 50 for all three sections, and your UAI generally needs to be around the 97+ (99+ to be safe) in order to get in.
Some tips for entry into medical school: (Gems of advice given to me by doctors or medical students)
- Be realistic about your future career. A career in medicine is not sunshine daisies - and interviewers will expect you to have a fair indication that being a doctor is stressful. In other words, interviewers will frown upon those who come into interviews and paint their own little wonderful portraits of what it's like to be a doctor. Like any other career, there will be a lot of negatives. I would recommend joining med students online - for Australian and NZ med students to see what it's really like to be a doctor (one I know even said that he'd sacrifice half his pay for better working conditions).
- Don't be in it for the money or the prestige. It takes a long time to become a fully qualified doctor, and a long time before you start earning the big bucks so I would strongly advise anybody against going into medicine for the money. Also, being a doctor is not for everyone - like any job, if you are pressured into it because of its associated prestige, then chances are you'll end up hating your profession and find yourself having wasted years and years of your life to something you never really wanted to do.
- The UMAT is important. Universities place a lot of value on UMAT in general, especially section one. So get out those MENSA quiz books and the like, and start preparing! Don't be like me.
- So are your studies. It's a fact that getting into medical school is incredibly competitive and the reality is that many people who achieve 99+ do not get in. Just to give you an idea of the academic pedigree of medical students in NSW: the median UAI of those at UWS was 99, and 99.5ish for UNSW. Fact: many medical students are the cream of the crop and do get some of the best marks in the state.
There are a lot of sacrifices involved in medicine, so you really have to question your desire to do it.
Cheers brother.
EDIT: If there is any false or misleading information here, please advise me and I will change it.
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