UNSW or USYD for Medicine? (2 Viewers)

[funnybunny]

at UNSW, if you choose to do arts/medicine, I don't think you do it concurrently. I think in year 3, you suspend your medicine enrolment and start doing Arts (not 100%...you should ask the uni about this). But this will then stuff you for medicine when you return cause you'll have forgotten everything you learnt in the first 2 yrs!.

 

[Bacilli]

Realistically, UNSW.

 

[Wooz]

In light of what everyone has said about my fierce interest in the Arts, I think that medicine will have to take precedence. I don't like the idea of doing graduate medicine because having geared up towards a medical degree all my life, there won't be anything much better than starting it next year. Even if doing arts/med at UNSW will come at the expense of some "exploration" time within an Arts degree, I do need to retain focus and that is, a job within medicine.

Say, does anybody know how many Arts electives you can choose if you were accepted into arts/Medicine at UNSW? If it's two or more, that would be fantastic - don't you take a year off to pursue this degree and then go back to med?

I am also considering ANU, since it's got such a great humanities reputation, but at this moment I think it is a little too far for me. I also think that it is not necessarily imperative for me to do Arts in order to pursue a career in writing later down the track; from what I have gathered, there is quite a bit of emphasis on "academic" literature and a snobbish attitude towards "mainstream" literature we receive in bookshops today? Can someone shed any light/elaborate on this issue? Jesus, my mouth is watering as I look to that list offered within Arts... ideally, I would like to pursue English, another language and history. Two of these three would be fine. Interestingly, because my Polish friend wouldn't say "Peter Skrzynecki" for me in Polish, I challenged her and said that I would learn Polish in uni just to prove her wrong. Lol.

ANU doesn't have that great of a humanities reputation in general(Sydney is best with a top ten world times ranking for humanities, MQ is quite good with modern history and cultral studies esp with M. Hughes-warrington), it does have a great rep for law, international studies, global studies, IR and politics. There is a provisional any undergrad course/mbbs at ANU though. I have a friend who's currently doing Arts/Law at ANU and she comes back home every weekend, it's only 3 hours to sydney by bus from Canberra.

 

[KFunk]

ANU doesn't have that great of a humanities reputation in general(Sydney is best with a top ten world times ranking for humanities, MQ is quite good with modern history and cultral studies esp with M. Hughes-warrington)

ANU is relatively strong in philosophy for an Australian uni (rating higher than USyd, for what it's worth). Broad assessments may be worthwhile if someone is doing, say, a generalist arts degree, but I think it's a good idea to check out specific departments when you have a definite interest area (of course, this is hard to do unless you've come across some of the people or 'literature' in the area).

 

[Wooz]

ANU is relatively strong in philosophy for an Australian uni (rating higher than USyd, for what it's worth). Broad assessments may be worthwhile if someone is doing, say, a generalist arts degree, but I think it's a good idea to check out specific departments when you have a definite interest area (of course, this is hard to do unless you've come across some of the people or 'literature' in the area).

Yeh, but most people who do phil at ANU wouldn't just to a genral arts degree but B Phil(Hons)

 

[KFunk]

Yeh, but most people who do phil at ANU wouldn't just to a genral arts degree but B Phil(Hons)

I could be wrong, but I'm fairly sure the B Phil(Hons) program isn't aimed specifically at philosophy students (think of it like an undergrad PhD - doctor of philosophy - where 'philosophy' refers to the general academic approach to acquiring knowledge). I remember reading that it's aimed at high performing students (99+?) who want special attention and advanced opportunities in their preferred field, which I think can be taken from anywhere within the humanities or the sciences. It's a pretty awesome looking degree all told.

 

[lil-gal-24]

Dear Zephyrio,
Upon stumbling into this forum i was interested to find a thread that presents the same dilemma i had been contemplating for a while-UNSW or USYD for Medicine?
Then much to my suprised, reading your first post reflected EXACTLTY my problem to the T.
THEN to find out that you will be doing your HSC in 2008 (the same year i'm doing mine) made me realise what a truly small world it is and how much competition i have in order to get into a arts/meds course. As i continued to read your posts i found myself unnerved by our similarities (i'm asian as well). DAM you!lolz. WHY? WHY?
See now i have to try and beat in my HSC so i'll get into my course, as if i didn't have enough pressure. LOLZ
So to you i hello twin, i wish you all the luck for your HSC year and perhaps by next year with some luck we'l be siting in the same course.
p.s. I was thinking of going USYD myself, it's just so convenient though hard to get in and as you've said it doesn't run the two courses concurrently. =(
so maybe UNSW... ok so i haven't decided yet...

 

[ssglain]

Hopefully ssglain helps me out a tad. XD (or lots).

Well, I feel obliged to make a response.

I haven't had the chance to read everything that's been said by the others, so please excuse me if I start repeating some things.

I'll frankly admit that I didn't particularly appreciate being asked "Why do you want to do Adv Maths? Why don't you just do an undergrad MBBS program? Why don't you want to graduate and enter clinical practice asap?". Neither will you, I'm sure - so I won't be probing around for your motives to study BA/MBBS and then attempt to dissuade you from heading toward this path. You are seeking advice to assist the making of a decision based on your personal situation (rather similar to mine, I must say) - not anybody else's.

Unlike you though, I didn't have as many choices because I wanted to combine MBBS with either BSc (Adv) or BSc (Adv Maths). UNSW no longer offers this combination and the best bargain that could be offered by the relevant faculties was for me to do 12 units plus the Independent Learning Project with maths/stats. This left USYD being the only option for me.

Let's clarify a few points before we go any further.
1. You said for UNSW: "The UAI needed is less than USYD, which requires 99.95". Be aware that the 95 UAI cut-off for UNSW is the barest minimum that also needs to be teamed up with a ridiculously high UMAT score of 213 to be accepted for an interview. As far as I'm aware, the average UAI of MBBS entrants over the past few years has always been around or above 99.50.
2. You mentioned the 2008 intake for USYD being 20 in total. This is incorrect. According to the Dean, the intakes are set at 20 for the science faculty (including both BSc (Adv) and BMedSc), 4 for the arts faculty and 4 for the music faculty.
3. There was talk in the first few replies about the advantages of studying a shorter program. Assuming that you are determined to do BA/MBBS, the programs at USYD/UNSW are of equal length (7 years).
4. I also noticed talk about the $10000 p.a. scholarship. USYD offers this scholarship to all entrants who have achieved a UAI of 99.95+, which means that all members of their Combined Medicine Program are eligible for it. UNSW offers a scholaship of the same value (the Scientia Scholarship) to all entrants who have achieved a UAI of 99.90+, with the exception that limited scholarships are available to MBBS students and if my sources are correct only two MBBS students (out of a dozen or so, I'd imagine) received the scholarship in 2007.

USYD's operation of the selection process isn't very open to hopeful applicants. I'll share my personal experience with you. I got a call on Dec 18 (two days before UAIs are release offcially) that invited me to attend an interview. So listen out for this call around the same time in 2008 because it is an indication of whether or not you've made the 99.95-100 club. I had my interview on Dec 20 and they called me on Dec 21 to make the admission offer. I was told to put USYD as my first preference asap. I think they do this to secure the students who might be still see-sawing between USYD and another university.

Strategically speaking, I would advise you to make the 1st preference for USYD followed by UNSW. Ultimately, USYD is still more difficult to get into than UNSW so your satisfaction of USYD's entry requirements automatically implies satisfaction of UNSW's requirements (provided that you have performed to reasonable standards in the UMAT and the interview). Had you put UNSW first, you will have no bargaining position with USYD when the offers are made because if you choose to decline UNSW's offer USYD is unlikely to have many vacancies left for the second round. On the other hand, putting USYD first means that you still have some room left to make the final call.

In my opinion, it's still a little too early for you to be having this dilemma because you won't be put in the position to make this choice until between Dec 21 - Jan 4, as was the case for me. In the mean time, focus on learning, diversifying your experiences and enjoying life.

 

[Zephyrio]

Oh, so you had UNSW as your first choice then?

 

[shuffleshuffle]

Previously this year, I faced your dilemma. UNSW or USyd? USyd had already called, assuring me of a place in their science (medical science)/MBBS program. After some musing and much angsting, UNSW won out for me. These are the reasons why I've chosen UNSW:

1. Less pressure: Think to yourself - what kind of person are you? Be honest to yourself. Do you have a tendency to procrastinate? etc.etc. etc. Personally, I had quite enough of studying after HSC year. If you go to USyd, you'll have to maintain a credit average to pass. If you don't, you won't even be able to progress the medicine stage. Now I know that lots of people think it's kind of ridiculous thinking so pessimistically (everybody manages to ask: "If you can get 99.95, how can you not get credit average?").

Life is unpredictable. You never know what's going to happen. You WILL be facing pressure at USyd, especially when you're fighting for a distinction average to maintain your scholarship. You really do not want to be somebody who panics after receiving a single crap mark (you know, the type of person who sees a credit and thinks "OMFG DEATH"). That was what made HSC suck, it wasn't because the course was hard or anything. It was more the pressure (stupid stuff like getting a lower mark than usual in an english essay and panicking that that would drag down your entire average). At UNSW, that pressure won't be as strong.

2. For me, 6 year vs 7 year thing was quite important. I'm not sure whether that matters so much for you, because you intend to do a dual degree, but that extra year mattered for me in med. After finishing undergraduate, you're looking at long years as an intern and then maybe another 6 years of specialist training. Then there's the years spent waiting for specialist training. In short, you'll probably be 40 when you finally leave the university (uni will literally be another home to you). If you could cut an year, then why not?

3. Starting clinical stuff. In Sydney, you get to the clinical in Year 4, after three years of another degree. In UNSW, you start the clinical straight away (again not sure for your dual degree situation). Do you want to gain more experience earlier? It's really all up to you.

4. Social stuff. You're going to have more of a social life at UNSW. Seriously, if you go to USyd, remember you'll be having all these provisional requirements, like that pesky credit average to maintain. That takes work. Getting a credit probably requires quite a bit of work. Balancing work, friends, uni commitments and studying is going to be difficult.


All in all, it's probably a bit too early to be thinking about such things. Getting into UNSW is just as tough as getting into USyd, because you're dealing with more than just a UAI. You have to scrape a decent UMAT (preferably >180s or above to be on the safe side of the fence) and a decent interview (which is actually easier said than done because there are so many uncontrollable factors like interviewer bias). (The USyd interview is more of a psycho check, seriously... out of 22 people interviewed, 20 people found a place and the main competition is for the science degree instead anyway).

PS. Granted, the money is nice. But if you do 6 years instead, you can earn all that money back by working as an intern (whilst the USyd suckers are completing their final year ).

PPS. Just put whatever uni you want first. You can change it anway lol.

Hope my essay above helped. Good luck*~