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

[pillmonkey]

To those who applied last year, how are the referees contacted?

I applied last year. All three of my references were contacted via email. Each of my references were told what was happening. They even get given a structure on what to write back to the university. Paragraph 1 (explain connection to the person, their own role), Paragraph 2 (specific info about the candidate. e.g. why they are amazing), Summary and Conclusion. If I recall they were contacted June 1st.
Can't be certain it will be the same this year though. Hopefully it helps. Good luck

 

[Asparagushead]

I applied last year. All three of my references were contacted via email. Each of my references were told what was happening. They even get given a structure on what to write back to the university. Paragraph 1 (explain connection to the person, their own role), Paragraph 2 (specific info about the candidate. e.g. why they are amazing), Summary and Conclusion. If I recall they were contacted June 1st.
Can't be certain it will be the same this year though. Hopefully it helps. Good luck

Thank you Pillmonkey and Clav.

 

[Asparagushead]

I applied the year before last, and I think mine were contacted by email from memory. Though my referees were generally quite busy people so they may have tried phone first and just had no luck.

I guess that's not really all that helpful to your question haha.

Did you apply through this alternative pathway or the HSFY?

 

[Clav]

Did you apply through this alternative pathway or the HSFY?

Alternative category

 

[Asparagushead]

Alternative category

You seem to be an active member of this forum so apologies if I am asking for information you've shared before. Any general advice for those of us applying this year?

 

[Clav]

You seem to be an active member of this forum so apologies if I am asking for information you've shared before. Any general advice for those of us applying this year?

Be honest with your personal statement/CV.

Try to really think of challenges you've faced/overcome for your personal statement and tie that in to why you want to do medicine. Why do you want to do medicine now vs 5-10 years ago? What can you bring to the course? Why Otago? etc.

Honestly just write down what you genuinely feel and that should be good enough, and don't be afraid to talk about emotional topics.

If you get the to interview stage I can offer more advice there until then, if you have any specific questions feel free to ask here or PM me

 

[Asparagushead]

Be honest with your personal statement/CV.

Try to really think of challenges you've faced/overcome for your personal statement and tie that in to why you want to do medicine. Why do you want to do medicine now vs 5-10 years ago? What can you bring to the course? Why Otago? etc.

Honestly just write down what you genuinely feel and that should be good enough, and don't be afraid to talk about emotional topics.

If you get the to interview stage I can offer more advice there until then, if you have any specific questions feel free to ask here or PM me

Thank you. I've been spilling every thought that comes to mind over the past few months and am in the process of putting the whole thing together. I want to send you a few questions via PM as soon as I figure how to do it.

 

[Asparagushead]

Thank you. I've been spilling every thought that comes to mind over the past few months and am in the process of putting the whole thing together. I want to send you a few questions via PM as soon as I figure how to do it.

It won't allow me to PM you for some reason.

 

[Clav]

I'll send you a message and then it should be ok

 

[Asparagushead]

I'll send you a message and then it should be ok

Thank you.

 

[mog]

Hi, i was wondering if anyone could help.

Does anyone know of anybody who made it through the alternative allied health category with less than the recommended 5 years experience?

My sister is an RN who wants to enter medicine- by the time the course starts next year she would have had 2.5 years experience acute adult and paediatric surgical wards and has surgeons offering to be her referees. She is unable to enter through the graduate entry as her degree is from a polytechnic not a uni- so therefore does not qualify. The other option is getting a special entry into HSFY to gain entry competitively.

As alternative only has a one off chance of entering, should she bother? as she has heard she will most likely not be considered at all due to her lack of experience? The other options is choosing to follow the HSFY route and if she is unsuccessful then she has her alternative entry to fall back on as her experience as an RN will continue to increase.

Thanks

 

[Clav]

I made it through with (at the time of application) 6 months experience but I did have two degrees so that may have overridden that, I'm really not sure. I would suggest she emails admissions and asks them if it's worth applying alternative with that much experience and if not, save it for later.

 

[pillmonkey]

Hi, i was wondering if anyone could help.

Does anyone know of anybody who made it through the alternative allied health category with less than the recommended 5 years experience?

My sister is an RN who wants to enter medicine- by the time the course starts next year she would have had 2.5 years experience acute adult and paediatric surgical wards and has surgeons offering to be her referees. She is unable to enter through the graduate entry as her degree is from a polytechnic not a uni- so therefore does not qualify. The other option is getting a special entry into HSFY to gain entry competitively.

As alternative only has a one off chance of entering, should she bother? as she has heard she will most likely not be considered at all due to her lack of experience? The other options is choosing to follow the HSFY route and if she is unsuccessful then she has her alternative entry to fall back on as her experience as an RN will continue to increase.

Thanks

Hello!
If you are applying through alternate allied health, I believe the five year recommendation has now been changed. I don’t think it’s on the website anymore. (Someone told me this, but I have not had a proper look)
But at the time of application I had 4 years post-registration and got in. And I know a colleague who only had 3 years and also got in and one with 3 years who didn’t get in.
Best email the admissions. Consider though if she does do the HSFY it would be difficult to balance it with full time nursing. Hope it helps. Good luck.

 

[Asparagushead]

Hello!
If you are applying through alternate allied health, I believe the five year recommendation has now been changed. I don’t think it’s on the website anymore. (Someone told me this, but I have not had a proper look)
But at the time of application I had 4 years post-registration and got in. And I know a colleague who only had 3 years and also got in and one with 3 years who didn’t get in.
Best email the admissions. Consider though if she does do the HSFY it would be difficult to balance it with full time nursing. Hope it helps. Good luck.

As far as I can see the recommendation is still on the website currently.

 

[Asparagushead]

Anyone else applying this year?

 

[twiila]

Anyone else applying this year?

I will be applying this year too! It was a real challenge to include everything I want to say on one page! What's your background?

 

[Asparagushead]

I will be applying this year too! It was a real challenge to include everything I want to say on one page! What's your background?

Fitting in your whole life story in one page is definitely not easy I'm in nursing currently, how about you?

 

[Asparagushead]

Did you use a word document or the template available on the otago website?

 

[twiila]

Did you use a word document or the template available on the otago website?

Awesome! good luck with your application my background is in clinical research, mainly in public hospitals.

For the statement I used the template that's provided, I think we have to use it for the application.

 

[Asparagushead]

Awesome! good luck with your application my background is in clinical research, mainly in public hospitals.

For the statement I used the template that's provided, I think we have to use it for the application.

Thanks same to you! I didn't realise that we had the template to use until I was ready to submit. Could fit so much more on the template! had to do some last minute editing haha