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UoO: Alternative ('Other') Category Chat/Enquiries

also out of interest to any people who are already mums, when is the best time to have kids during medical school?

Congrats! Every year has a small group of, generally other category entrants, who are mums and dads.

The opportunity for a gap year between 3rd and 4th year is an obvious choice if you're looking to have a child and take time out. But you can take a year out between any year for a good reason (like having a baby).

It might be possible to time your pregnancy for the summer break, but you never know how it's going to effect you or how the birth is going to go, and these things rarely work to a schedule.

One woman, a friend, in my year had her first baby just before the semester break, and is back at class already. I'd say she's pretty exceptional though.
 
It's my understanding that there's a totally separate 'lateral' entry pathway for maxfac hopefuls. They start medicine at 4th year.

Wouldn't have the foggiest how one applies for lateral entry sorry, but if she contacts the med school for more info then I'd say that'd be a much better bet.

Yeah that's my understanding. They have their own program and you need to apply - it's probably through the specific professional college.

I think it's more common for graduate medics to do the dent bit than the other way around these days...
 
Posting on behalf of a friend who would like to apply as a alternate.

Background: registered physiotherapist for three years
Studied at AUT with one year post graduate study.
Currently working in musculoskeletal physio in private practice in NZ.

Advice from any physios that applied via this category?
 
I was introduced to this forum by a friend while I was in the process of applying for the Alternative Category. I’ve found it very useful, so I thought I would add my 2c for those looking at applying in the future.

Like others here I have been privileged enough to be offered a place in 2018.

A bit about me:
- Otago grad: BSc and PGDipSci (in anatomy), and an MSc (in biomed) – average grades in the BSc, which improved in postgrad.
- Have had 6+ years (semi) clinical experience in both private and public hospital settings
- Been a demonstrator for three years in the MBChB anatomy labs, and for various other undergrad papers.
- Some volunteer experience over the last couple of years, accompanied by a variety of extracurricular interests/activities (like most others here I imagine)
- Currently working in health research in the hospital/university.

My overall perception of the Alternative Category is that it is very subjective/qualitative (not that this is necessarily a bad thing). I found it hard to know exactly what the committee were explicitly looking for, and also what 'importance' they placed on various attributes or experiences I had had.

Despite this, however, some of the best advice that I believed helped me was being told to make whatever I had done sound as unique as possible. For me it was about emphasising why my specific combination of experiences had made me a suitable applicant, and the personal statement played a vital role in doing this. I had about 5 different people look over mine before I submitted it, from clinicians to teachers. I found a range of perspectives gave it a rounded tone, which I think is crucial for the Alternative Category. I also made sure to justify not only the reasons/features of medicine that made it desirable to me, but also what I had done in other lines of work/study/life to experience those features, and how they related to medicine.

For the interview I asked for the names of the panel members a couple days prior, and briefly checked out their background. My interview was about an hour (though felt like 5 mins) and was very ‘textbook’ in format (questions about my CV, situation based problems, and ethical dilemmas). Classically pretty much none of the questions/topics I had prepared for came up. I was thrown a couple ones like “Do you think you can study for another 5 years”, which I found weird as I thought the answer was rather obvious given the fact that I was applying. Overall I thought I did pretty poorly, although we were able to have a good couple of laughs and chats about random stuff, which must have counted for something. I also made sure I had a question ready for the end - I asked whether they thought a Waikato Medical School would solve the rural GP shortage. They immediately flipped the question, asking what I thought without even answering themselves, which I found pretty funny. Everyone on the panel was really lovely and seemed genuinely interested, and it was a pretty relaxing environment all things considered.

If you’re considering applying I definitely recommend touching base with the administrative team – I couldn’t speak more highly of Nicola Hoodless and Joanne Fitzgibbons, they are incredibly lovely and helpful! I also realise a lot of what I have said is nothing new, but I guess it just reinforces how useful the info from past applicants is on here.

Happy to answer any questions anyone may have, and sorry for the long-winded spiel haha. See you all next year :)

PS. Some stats I was told after I was interviewed: 130+ people applied this year, and 44 were offered interviews. I was under the impression they can accept all, none, or anything in between of those 44 applicants, but I can’t remember if I was actually told this or whether I heard it from another source.
 

Centauri

Lurker
Hi everyone, now that HSFY grades have been confirmed, I thought I would share my alternative category experience.

I got a provisional offer in the 2016 cycle for a place in 2018. BIOC192 was the paper I had to do, and thankfully I have made the grade.

My background is physical sciences. I have a BSc(Hons) in Physics from Otago and MSc in Medical Physics from Canterbury. I've been working as a Medical Physicist at Radiation Oncology, Dunedin Hospital since 2012. Oncology medical physics is a highly specialized subject with a very small workforce (only around 70 medical physicists in the whole country), so it is quite normal if you have never heard of this occupation. Here is a link to career nz for anyone that wants to know what it is: Medical Physicist

Prior to my current job, I've worked as a hotel room attendant, commercial cleaner, math demonstrator, and lab supervisor. All while I was at uni. I have zero volunteer/community work experience (I told them that when asked during the interview).

Now on to my alternative category application:

Simply put, I treated it like a job application. I wanted to go to med school to acquire the skills that would enable me to do the job of servicing those in need. My whole application was pretty much based on that.

The cover letter (statement) was a joy to write, because I had been thinking about why I wanted to do Medicine since my third week working at Dunedin Hospital (4 years in the making! April 2012 ~ April 2016). It felt really good to finally let it all out. I was really happy with my statement because it was 100% me on an A4. I didn't write what I thought would get me in, I wrote why I wanted to enter medicine.

Here are some of the more bizarre questions I got asked in the interview:
  • You've made it to the second year class, most of your classmates had just got out of the highly competitive/combative HSFY environment. You're in a study group and one of them is very bossy and controlling. Irritated classmates come to you (the mature student) for help, how would you handle this situation?
  • You're a GP starting your new job in Lumsden. You're the only doctor in town. What's the first thing you would do?
  • What do you enjoy the most in your current job? Is there anything in particular that frustrates you in your current job?
My uni grades were solid but not amazing. They were mostly in the 70-89% range. Two C in 400 level physics, kind of balanced out by three A and an A+ in 300 level math papers. B+ in physics honors dissertation, A+ in medical physics MSc thesis.

My advice for future applicants:

In my opinion, if you struggle for ideas to write the statement, then you're not ready to apply. Think more carefully, give yourself another year. You only have one shot at it, don't risk it. Good statement is probably more important than good grades (again, just my opinion).

Don't use any discontent you might have with your current situation as a reason to enter medicine (E.g. I've already plateaued in my current field)

Be yourself in the interview. It is a relatively long interview, and it is very easy for an experienced interviewer to spot inconsistencies. You'll be a lot more relaxed and confident if you aren't constantly searching for the "right answers" in your head.
 

Clav

Otago MB ChB PGY2
Good write up and congratulations on getting through the year! Will see you next year :)
 

Jacky666

Member
Congrats to everyone who got through the other category! :clap: You guys have told some amazing stories of your journey which gives me a flashback of good memories :) I hope you guys enjoy the ELM journey for the next 2 years. It's exciting, fun and lot of new interesting things might come along. But I guess when I reflect back, having a good group of friends in ELM could go a long way in making things work. Good luck everyone!
 

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I'm about to kick off the study journey - Physics 102 at Canterbury Uni summer school.. Then onto some more first year papers at Otago next year.
Anyone else doing papers at summer school?
 
Nice! Does that count for PHSI191 or is this just a prep paper for you?

It counts for PHYS191. I took a physics paper at Canterbury way back when - PHYS113, but unfortunately it wasnt an equivalent paper as it missed two topics PHYS191 has. So I opted to take PHYS102 and get a paper ticked off.

The maths is kicking my butt though! Its been so long since I've done even simple pythag, integrals, differentials, so if anyone has any resources that might get me up to speed on that I would really appreciate it. It is all remote at this stage, and self paced, which is an interesting test for me to fit into my work and training schedule.

Heads up for returning students in 2018 - maybe brush up on some 7th form maths? It has been a good 11 years since I did first year!
 

Clav

Otago MB ChB PGY2
It counts for PHYS191. I took a physics paper at Canterbury way back when - PHYS113, but unfortunately it wasnt an equivalent paper as it missed two topics PHYS191 has. So I opted to take PHYS102 and get a paper ticked off.

The maths is kicking my butt though! Its been so long since I've done even simple pythag, integrals, differentials, so if anyone has any resources that might get me up to speed on that I would really appreciate it. It is all remote at this stage, and self paced, which is an interesting test for me to fit into my work and training schedule.

Heads up for returning students in 2018 - maybe brush up on some 7th form maths? It has been a good 11 years since I did first year!


That sounds much harder than PHSI191 which is really just basic algebra with no calculus and a tiny smidgen of trig :(


I have tons of resources for 191 which I'd be happy to share with you, not sure how relevant it would be though. I would recommend checking out bozeman science, AK lectures & khan academy on youtube.
 

Stuart

Administrator
Emeritus Staff
Hi adventuretime,

Are you sure you need to know integrals and differentials? That sounds like 200-level physics to me. I don't know the paper but if it's anything like PHSI191 at Otago, seventh form mathematics is not required. You can go over the very basic highschool algebra and that's it.
 
I don't think I need to know too much about them, but its just the concept of how they go about deriving calculations etc... Just sat down to start the lectures and got a little overwhelmed haha. It is a semester 2 paper, so its probably quick to advance on the topics already covered in first semester.

Luckily my Chem degree has gotten me out of CHEM191, but does CHEM191 provide a good foundation for further topics in second semester?
 

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Stuart

Administrator
Emeritus Staff
I don't think I need to know too much about them, but its just the concept of how they go about deriving calculations etc... Just sat down to start the lectures and got a little overwhelmed haha. It is a semester 2 paper, so its probably quick to advance on the topics already covered in first semester.

Luckily my Chem degree has gotten me out of CHEM191, but does CHEM191 provide a good foundation for further topics in second semester?

Hi,

I will have to go on their website to check out your physics paper.

With regards to CHEM191, when you say further topics in the second semester, do you mean for HSFY or for further CHEM papers?
 

Clav

Otago MB ChB PGY2
CHEM191 has a little bit of information relevant for BIOC192 but you can easily do BIOC192 without doing CHEM191.

I would say that the most relevant stuff in CHEM191 is the acids/bases/buffers topics for physiology later on & maybe a tiny tiny bit of the redox stuff, but again, you can tackle those without having done CHEM191.
 

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