(HELP) need help deciding on which uni to pick medical science at + Q's about post grad med (2 Viewers)

[akhan324]

My main options are UTS, Usyd, and UNSW.
I have a few questions,

1) does the medical science degree say at UTS give u a lower chance of getting into post-grad med as opposed to say at UNSW

2) UTS doesn't have med, Usyd does but wondering about UNSW, do they take GAMSAT or only need UCAT for the indirect entry scheme, i don't understand UNSW post grad tbh (pls explain)

3) In general where is med sci better, I've heard UTS has a higher satisfaction rate so i'm leaning towards that

If you have personal experiences, pls share

 

[dasfas]

I know this isn't what you asked for but you need to hear this

Medical science is a very poor choice of degree if you want to do PG med.

1) It is kinda hard, so will tank your GPA which needs to be high for PG med applications

2) Doesn't even prepare you that well for PG med entry (GAMSAT) as the GAMSAT is mainly humanities essay writing/reading comprehension and the science section does not test content, but rather skills.

3) Leaves you with literally zero job prospects after graduation.

Common pitfalls to avoid for year 12 school leavers and other medicine applicants

Alternate title: "Ways to screw yourself over as a medical school applicant that you didn't know about" Hi everyone, As I suspect my activity on the site is likely to decrease a whole lot starting next year, I thought I would put together a whole lot of what I believe are a lot of important...

medstudentsonline.com.au

I am going for PG and I transferred out of my biomedical science major in my second semester having realized this. I highly highly recommend you read the post above to help make your decision.

If you are thinking of which PG uni to apply for, this is (roughly) how it works

USYD takes your GAMSAT score and then if you scored high enough, they will check your GPA for tiebreaking. They then send out interviews based on your rank. This process is different for other "GEMSAS" unis such as Melbourne and ANU etc.., where they weight the GPA and GAMSAT equally and then rank you to determine which people to send interview offers to.

The uni you went to in UG is largely irrelevant. It is possible they consider it in the weightings but nothing has ever been officially stated so it's likely that they just use your raw GPA/GAMSAT.

I don't think UNSW has a PG med scheme - what you could do is do your first year of uni, re-sit the UCAT and try to make it into UNSW med.

With regards to which uni is better, USYD and UNSW are both more difficult courses. If you want to maximise your GPA, go to UTS.

I don't know anything about satisfaction rates. The teaching in biology has been reasonably good at USYD. It's possible that UTS has a more chill/less stressful vibe.

 

[akhan324]

Thanks for your reply. I don't really have any backup careers as I am so passionate about getting into med that I will work my ass off for it. What other degrees do you recommend if not med sci? I'm not scared of a challenge and I'm a pretty hard worker so I really doubt I'll tank my GPA in med sci but still if you could help me out with deciding on another degree, maybe that might be better.

 

[specificagent1]

I don't think UNSW has a PG med scheme

It appears that UNSW doesn't do post grad med but UNSW does have an alternative entry scheme for their own med sci students to apply for (and only them) called UNSW lateral entry but they only make 10 offers with this. Note that some people do see this scheme as just a money making scheme to put people into UNSW med sci

 

[icycledough]

It appears that UNSW doesn't do post grad med but UNSW does have an alternative entry scheme for their own med sci students to apply for (and only them) called UNSW lateral entry but they only make 10 offers with this. Note that some people do see this scheme as just a money making scheme to put people into UNSW med sci

Just expanding on this, I believe they will choose 20 applicants based on their WAM and UCAT (applying a 50:50 split on this). Then, they will have 10 medicine spots based on the interview, UCAT and WAM. So it isn't a guaranteed pathway, but if you do get an interview, then you have a 50% chance, which is really good odds.

The two links below explain it in much more detail

Different entry schemes for UNSW med: https://med.unsw.edu.au/study-us/un...-apply/local-applicants/special-entry-schemes

Lateral Entry Scheme (one specific entry scheme): https://med.unsw.edu.au/sites/defau...Entry Scheme for UNSW Medicine_March 2020.pdf

 

[akhan324]

Just expanding on this, I believe they will choose 20 applicants based on their WAM and UCAT (applying a 50:50 split on this). Then, they will have 10 medicine spots based on the interview, UCAT and WAM. So it isn't a guaranteed pathway, but if you do get an interview, then you have a 50% chance, which is really good odds.

Could you please explain what a WAM is? is it similar to the GPA?

 

[icycledough]

Could you please explain what a WAM is? is it similar to the GPA?

Yep, it's basically UNSW's version of a GPA. Not sure why they use it when pretty much every other uni uses a GPA as it makes it quite difficult to convert from one to the other if you are looking to transfer universities

 

[specificagent1]

Yep, it's basically UNSW's version of a GPA. Not sure why they use it when pretty much every other uni uses a GPA as it makes it quite difficult to convert from one to the other if you are looking to transfer universities

I thought most unis are using WAM as their calculations now?

 

[jimmysmith560]

To elaborate on the differences between the Grade Point Average (GPA) and the Weighted Average Mark (WAM):

The GPA is an average of all grades a student receives in their course (e.g. high distinctions, distinctions, passes, fails and so on). Each one is given a numerical value and the values are then averaged. Popular GPA scales include the 4-scale and the 7-scale.

The WAM is a more precise measurement of a student's academic performance because it is an average of all of the student's actual marks (eg: 78, 85, 63, 48 etc.) combined with the year level weighting.

In terms of Australian universities, universities that use the GPA include:

• Australian National University (ANU)
• University of Canberra (UC)
• Australian Catholic University (ACU)
• Charles Sturt University (CSU)
• Southern Cross University (SCU)
• University of New England (UNE)
• University of Technology Sydney (UTS)
• Western Sydney University (WSU)
• Charles Darwin University (CDU)
• Bond University (BU)
• CQUniversity (CQU)
• Federation University of Australia (Fed Uni)
• Griffith University (Griff)
• James Cook University (JCU)
• Queensland University of Technology (QUT)
• University of Queensland (UQ)
• University of Southern Queensland (USQ)
• University of the Sunshine Coast (Sunshine Coast)
• Carnegie Mellon University (CMU - American university with a campus in Adelaide)
• Flinders University (Flin)
• University of Adelaide (UoA)
• University of South Australia (UniSA)
• University of Tasmania (UTAS)
• Monash University (MON)
• RMIT University (RMIT)
• Swinburne University of Technology (SUT)
• Victoria University (VU)
• Edith Cowan University (ECU)
• University of Western Australia (UWA)

Universities that use the WAM include:

• University of Canberra (UC)
• Macquarie University (MQ - WAM replaced GPA from 2020)
• University of New South Wales (UNSW)
• University of Newcastle (UoN)
• University of Sydney (USyd)
• University of Technology Sydney (UTS)
• University of Wollongong (UoW)
• University of Adelaide (UoA)
• Deakin University (DU)
• La Trobe University (LTU)
• RMIT University (RMIT)
• University of Melbourne (UM)
• Edith Cowan University (ECU)
• Murdoch University (MU)
• University of Western Australia (UWA)

Unsure/uncertain/unknown:

• Torrens University Australia (TUA)
• University of Divinity (UD)
• Curtin University (CU)
• University of Notre Dame Australia (UNDA)

 

[akhan324]

Yep, it's basically UNSW's version of a GPA. Not sure why they use it when pretty much every other uni uses a GPA as it makes it quite difficult to convert from one to the other if you are looking to transfer universities

hey do you know about usyd post grad needing a biology prerequisite is that true?

 

[zizi2003_]

Thanks for your reply. I don't really have any backup careers as I am so passionate about getting into med that I will work my ass off for it. What other degrees do you recommend if not med sci? I'm not scared of a challenge and I'm a pretty hard worker so I really doubt I'll tank my GPA in med sci but still if you could help me out with deciding on another degree, maybe that might be better.

you can look into psych
i'm planning on doing post-grad med as well, and choosing the psychology pathway because doing med sci would land me no career pathway in case I don't pass GAMSAT.

 

[specificagent1]

you can look into psych
i'm planning on doing post-grad med as well, and choosing the psychology pathway because doing med sci would land me no career pathway in case I don't pass GAMSAT.

neither will psych. You need your honours and masters to be accredited at the bare minimum and that is also a very competitive path

 

[zizi2003_]

neither will psych. You need your honours and masters to be accredited at the bare minimum and that is also a very competitive path

yeah ik lmao
even tho its takes 4+ years, it's still better than doing med sci for 2 years and having no career pathway

 

[specificagent1]

yeah ik lmao
even tho its takes 4+ years, it's still better than doing med sci for 2 years and having no career pathway

takes like 8 years bahhaha 3 years undegrad, 1 year honours, 2 years masters, 2 years placement before you can be fully independent

 

[specificagent1]

it's still better than doing med sci for 2 years and having no career pathway

This is true tho. Also i thought med sci was 3 years?

 

[zizi2003_]

takes like 8 years bahhaha 3 years undegrad, 1 year honours, 2 years masters, 2 years placement before you can be fully independent

yes ty for telling me smth i knew
im thinking of doing GAMSAT in my third year and if i pass, then i'll do MD. If i don't pass, i'll continue with psych
either way, i have interests in both.

 

[zizi2003_]

This is true tho. Also i thought med sci was 3 years?

yeah but i think some like MQ have 2

 

[specificagent1]

yes ty for telling me smth i knew
im thinking of doing GAMSAT in my third year and if i pass, then i'll do MD. If i don't pass, i'll continue with psych
either way, i have interests in both.

sounds solid. I just wanted to make the point that it's also a commitment and not something you can hope is just there to fall back on

 

[zizi2003_]

sounds solid. I just wanted to make the point that it's also a commitment and not something you can hope is just there to fall back on

yeah absolutely !!
med really is a huge commitment

 

[specificagent1]

yeah absolutely !!
med really is a huge commitment

med is like a very very very bigggggg commitment. kinda crazy