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Non-standard Medicine Entry

Hey guys! Thought I'd create a thread for us uni students who are hoping to do med next year. As we're a minority, it'd be good for us to have a space to ask questions about applications and stuff. To my understanding, the only undergraduate universities that take non-school leavers are:
- UNSW
- WSU
- JMP
- JCU
- Bond
- Curtin (for Curtin students only + grads elsewhere)
- UTAS (but it’s complicated - see their website)

Feel free to introduce yourself with what course you're studying, atar/gpa, umat and what your plan of action is to get into med next year! Also if you have any questions this is a good place to put them.

(Edited by A1 : Deleted UTAS as no longer available and clarified Curtin. Re-edited because UTAS do take uni students, but only from their own BMedRes degree, which might be some people here).
(Also edited by LMG to change title to Non-standard in an attempt to standardise our terminology, and added undergraduate to first paragraph because there are many graduate entry universities not included here).
(Edited again: UTAS now use GAMSAT for those with a degree and have a BBioMed pathway)
 
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jk2

Member
I'm currently studying Medical Science at UNSW. My atar is 95.45 gpa 6.0. If I get over 90 percentile in UMAT do I have a chance at WSU?
 

A1

Rookie Doc
Moderator
I'm currently studying Medical Science at UNSW. My atar is 95.45 gpa 6.0. If I get over 90 percentile in UMAT do I have a chance at WSU?

WSU cutoff vs overall percentile isn't linear because WSU doesn't count the three sections equally, overall percentile does. 90th %ile (179-180 marks) is seldom enough unless you get most of the marks in S1+S2 for example 66+66+48, whereas 65+65+50 would be borderline, 64+64+52 no go iirc. Take a look in this post > 2018 Entry Interview Invites - Collated
 
Hey! I'm a first year undergraduate student and I'm just a bit confused as to how I would go about applying for medicine this year. Do I need to make a new UAC account to apply or do I just use the same account from high school?
 

Yamster

Dental Moderator
Emeritus Staff
Hey Qwerty,

I believe that you do indeed have to make a new application each year. You can however transfer documents from an older application to a newer application using the form found at the bottom here: FAQs - UAC

Hope that helps.
 

DrDrLMG!

Resident Medical Officer
Administrator
I have generalised the thread title so it can be of more use as we move out of UMAT season and towards application season.
 

MSP

Banned
That probably depends on whether you used your UAC account earlier this year for a transfer or for an equity scholarship. Best bet is to contact UAC and ask them - they will get back to you very quickly. And then post the response here for people to see who have had the same issue.
 

Eliden

Year 4, B MedSci, MD @ UON
I just watched the UAC non standard applicant video. Looks like we have to declare all previous tertiary study. My bachelor degree GPA (started in 2002 and completed in 2009) is appalling as i was young and stupid and didn't show up to multiple exams. My completed grad dip GPA (2014) was decent though, around 6.6.

I am really only interested in JMP. Their entry hurdle is credit GPA in a grad dip so no issue with that. Their policy states they consider the most recent uni study only. I thought this might mean that i would avoid having to show my previous study but it seems i will have to list it on the application. How likely is it that UoN will dig around my shameful academic past and will it influence them? Has anyone receivfed an offer in spite of previous uni study that was less than stellar?
 

Crow

Staff | Junior Doctor
Moderator
I just watched the UAC non standard applicant video. Looks like we have to declare all previous tertiary study. My bachelor degree GPA (started in 2002 and completed in 2009) is appalling as i was young and stupid and didn't show up to multiple exams. My completed grad dip GPA (2014) was decent though, around 6.6.

I am really only interested in JMP. Their entry hurdle is credit GPA in a grad dip so no issue with that. Their policy states they consider the most recent uni study only. I thought this might mean that i would avoid having to show my previous study but it seems i will have to list it on the application. How likely is it that UoN will dig around my shameful academic past and will it influence them? Has anyone receivfed an offer in spite of previous uni study that was less than stellar?
As you’ve pointed out, they only consider most recent study, so don’t worry about the previous study to that. For JMP GPA is simply a hurdle requirement anyway - the weighting is on UMAT s1 score to receive an interview and then solely on interview performance after that for an offer. As such, you definitely don’t need to be concerned with your old studies as you’ve met the hurdle requirement in your grad dip.
 

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DrDrLMG!

Resident Medical Officer
Administrator
I just watched the UAC non standard applicant video. Looks like we have to declare all previous tertiary study. My bachelor degree GPA (started in 2002 and completed in 2009) is appalling as i was young and stupid and didn't show up to multiple exams. My completed grad dip GPA (2014) was decent though, around 6.6.

I am really only interested in JMP. Their entry hurdle is credit GPA in a grad dip so no issue with that. Their policy states they consider the most recent uni study only. I thought this might mean that i would avoid having to show my previous study but it seems i will have to list it on the application. How likely is it that UoN will dig around my shameful academic past and will it influence them? Has anyone receivfed an offer in spite of previous uni study that was less than stellar?

Yes, can confirm. I received a JMP (and a WSU and UTAS) offer last year, despite my undergraduate GPA being mid 5s. I've since done an honours year, a doctorate, and then a grad dip, and that's all JMP (and WSU and UTAS) cared about. I declared everything on UAC and it made no difference. I also got a UNSW interview (that I didn't attend), so it didn't seem to affect UNSW either (though probably because I had a doctorate, rather than a grad dip, but I don't know that for sure). For reference, my UMAT was 198.
 

Eliden

Year 4, B MedSci, MD @ UON
Yes, can confirm. I received a JMP (and a WSU and UTAS) offer last year, despite my undergraduate GPA being mid 5s. I've since done an honours year, a doctorate, and then a grad dip, and that's all JMP (and WSU and UTAS) cared about. I declared everything on UAC and it made no difference. I also got a UNSW interview (that I didn't attend), so it didn't seem to affect UNSW either (though probably because I had a doctorate, rather than a grad dip, but I don't know that for sure). For reference, my UMAT was 198.

Well done. With results like that overall, they would have been crazy not to take you. My bachelor GPA was much worse than mid 5s sadly. Probably 2s or 3s. I literaly did not show up to about 8 final exams. Gave up on subjects and didn't bother to withdraw. That degree was an absolute mess. I did go back and finish it some years after i started (got around a credit average for the remainder). I knew my GPA was a write off so i didn't feel like i needed to overachieve. By that point i just wanted to finish.
 

Q3

Regular Member
How hard do you think it will be to achieve and maintain a GPA 6.5 in a bachelor of pharmacy with honours.
Kind regards

That is the wrong question to be asking. The right question is, is that degree something that you will enjoy and does it have viable career opportunities assuming that medical school does not work out? Remember that the majority of applicants are rejected and every one of us should have a back up plan should medicine not work out. Nobody should assume that it is a given that they will be accepted.
 
Of course I see it as a viable career o just want to help people I was wondering if anyone thinks it would be hard to maintain the gpa, my uai was only 62.5 and I worked my are off in a science degree to get a 1st semester average of 6.5. So that I could get in to pharmacy. And trust me I don't assume o will get in as I have many hurdles to jump such as my criminal record as well but I am bot gonna let anything stop me I will fight for it . It was more just a genereal question
 

Q3

Regular Member
Of course I see it as a viable career o just want to help people I was wondering if anyone thinks it would be hard to maintain the gpa, my uai was only 62.5 and I worked my are off in a science degree to get a 1st semester average of 6.5. So that I could get in to pharmacy. And trust me I don't assume o will get in as I have many hurdles to jump such as my criminal record as well but I am bot gonna let anything stop me I will fight for it . It was more just a genereal question

How did you make the link between studying pharmacy and helping people? What is the connection there?
Maintaining a high GPA is not hard so long as you like what you do and you are strong in the relevant subjects.
 

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Mana

there are no stupid questions, only people
Administrator
Of course I see it as a viable career o just want to help people I was wondering if anyone thinks it would be hard to maintain the gpa, my uai was only 62.5 and I worked my are off in a science degree to get a 1st semester average of 6.5. So that I could get in to pharmacy. And trust me I don't assume o will get in as I have many hurdles to jump such as my criminal record as well but I am bot gonna let anything stop me I will fight for it . It was more just a genereal question

It's very difficult to gauge how 'difficult' getting a certain GPA will be because this is dependent on many factors, including how easy the courses you are doing are, how lenient the markers are and how intrinsically intelligent you are.

Obviously people have varying levels of intelligence, and the ATAR isn't a totally accurate marker of this BUT it does at least appear to have a reasonable correlation. Going by this, if you had an ATAR in the 60's you're probably going to have to work intensely hard throughout to maintain that kind of GPA.

Re: criminal record - as far as I know you are legally required to disclose this when you practice (and most likely when you are applying as well). The presence of this pretty much places you at the very bottom of the merit list and will cause problems for your future practice - even if you were to get a perfect 7 GPA you could still be passed over for a place - you'll find that in terms of selection, universities are usually not amenable to selecting people with criminal records for degrees with significant contact with patients (and/or restricted Schedule 8 drugs which you will need to be able to work around as a pharmacist).

You are of course welcome to try, but you should have a very good non-healthcare backup as a career option.
 

DrDrLMG!

Resident Medical Officer
Administrator
It's very difficult to gauge how 'difficult' getting a certain GPA will be because this is dependent on many factors, including how easy the courses you are doing are, how lenient the markers are and how intrinsically intelligent you are.

Obviously people have varying levels of intelligence, and the ATAR isn't a totally accurate marker of this BUT it does at least appear to have a reasonable correlation. Going by this, if you had an ATAR in the 60's you're probably going to have to work intensely hard throughout to maintain that kind of GPA.

Re: criminal record - as far as I know you are legally required to disclose this when you practice (and most likely when you are applying as well). The presence of this pretty much places you at the very bottom of the merit list and will cause problems for your future practice - even if you were to get a perfect 7 GPA you could still be passed over for a place - you'll find that in terms of selection, universities are usually not amenable to selecting people with criminal records for degrees with significant contact with patients (and/or restricted Schedule 8 drugs which you will need to be able to work around as a pharmacist).

You are of course welcome to try, but you should have a very good non-healthcare backup as a career option.

Depending on the type and recency of criminal conviction, it may be very difficult to obtain a Working with Vulnerable People Card, which is a requirement for studying medicine.
 

Q3

Regular Member
As pharmacists help people. Science is my strongest point in particular biology and chemistry.

I am saying this for your own good, but your answer sounds like you have done 0 research as to what the job entails. If you 'helping people' is the only reason you can give as a reason for choosing that profession then that tells me you need to do some more research.
 
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