Hello, i think i may be able to help with the radiography part. I'm currently in my final year for radiography at Monash. First of all i'm not too sure which uni u're getting into but in melbourne radiography does not need umat however there is special requirement such as filling in forms as to why u want to get into the course etc.
First of all, a lot of people get confuse wat radiography is....... this is not the same as radiologist who are medical doctors who had studied medicine and go on to specialise. Radiography are professionals who produce radiologic images such as x-ray, CT, MRI, ultrasound, screening (fluoro + contrast)...... although MRI and ultrasound requires further training.
Some people may say that it is boring (but so is dentistry and oral cause u only look at teeth hehe) because all we do is acquire images and are not doctors....... radiographers are alllied health practioners just like physio, chiro, speech patho etc. I personally dun find it boring because we actually had more contact with the patient than radiologist as most of them usually only do reporting except in special cases such as biopsy, angio therapy and diagnosis where one has to insert a catheter which means basically anything that's invasive require the radiologist.
Not too sure about other states, but here in melbourne it's still in demand currently...... most final yr students this yr obtain an internship at either major hospitals or private hospital/clinics. Myself got into MIA which is one of the biggest private radiology in Australia. There are still plenty of places avaiable eventhough most of the students have already acquire an internship esp in rural clinics however this no. changes every yr.
Most people usually get employ at the places where they did their intership. You get paid during your internship as well however at Monash we only do it for 1/2 yr whereas RMIT is full yr. You get paid about $17 an hr as an intern but more if u're in private. However public hospital get salary packaging which is a special tax thing....... google it if u want to knwo more. So both public and private pob end up being the same pay. Obviously the pay increasess ones u're qualify and there a grading system to it e.g. u'll start off with grade 1 when u're newly qualify then grade 1 yr 1 after that but most people usually go up to grade 2 after a few yrs mainly because they had other training such as CT, angio, fluro etc.
U need to keep in mind that this is in melbourne hence if u're in NSW it best to enquire it from others as different states will have diff pay and structure.
Hope this helps.
