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Dentistry Entry Discussion and Questions

Dentine

Member
Not sure if this is the best place to post for counsel, but I see there are heaps of learned people in here, with lots of experience and wisdom Re: dent transfers, and I would be extremely grateful for some opinions.

I completed a Bachelor of Agriculture Science at Melbourne University last year. Though I had initially aspired to become a Vet (and have recently received offers to both Unimelb, and CSU), my exposure to rural communities and anxiety about the future of Vet as a profession in Aus, has me thinking of changing to Dentistry.

Foolishly, due to the nature of the Unimelb Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine selection, which only considers marks for 2nd and 3rd year subjects, I was incredibly negligent in my first year. Though my second and third year marks were fairly strong (~79 average) I have ended with a Wam of 72.4.

I am wondering what recourse or passage others would suggest for me to achieve a transfer to Dentistry?

Presently I am considering my options, and am contemplating spending 2019 in a Bachelor of Biomedicine or Bachelor of Health Sciences at La Trobe, shooting an 85+ WAM there in my first year (which I believe is viewed as a GPA of 7 across every other institute in Australia), sitting the UCAT/UMAT and applying to: La Trobe (internal transfer), Griffith, Charles Sturt, Adelaide, UQ, and University of Otago. Does this seem like a viable passage, or is there a better alternative I should be considering?

All of these are viable options, you may as well sit the UMAT* and increase your chances when applying next year. Also note that most dent courses, particularly JCU etc will require rural exposure and a number of graduates do work rurally for some time due to the high city numbers.

Alternatively (or both), you could sit the GAMSAT and apply to UWA, UOM and USYD graduate entry dent courses, though with a 72ish wam which I'm guessing would equate to low 6 GPA? would require a high GAMSAT score across the board. Your best bet in this instance would be USYD as they only require the 5.5 hurdle.

*Edited by LMG!: UMAT is not longer in existence. Next year is the UCAT and I don't believe CSU are listed as part of the UCAT consortium, so we aren't sure what they'll be using. UoO, UQ, UWA, and UAdel will be using UCAT for dent entry: Universities | UCAT Consortium
 
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MrWhippe

Regular Member
All of these are viable options, you may as well sit the UMAT and increase your chances when applying next year. Also note that most dent courses, particularly JCU etc will require rural exposure and a number of graduates do work rurally for some time due to the high city numbers.

Alternatively (or both), you could sit the GAMSAT and apply to UWA, UOM and USYD graduate entry dent courses, though with a 72ish wam which I'm guessing would equate to low 6 GPA? would require a high GAMSAT score across the board. Your best bet in this instance would be USYD as they only require the 5.5 hurdle.
Thank you for the reply. Yes I believe my GPA is about 6.2. If I completed a year of La Trobe Biomed + GAMSAT, would graduate dentistry universities look only at my Agricultural Science GPA, or would they look at a composite of my 1st Year Biomed and Ag Science for GPA?
 

Dentine

Member
Thank you for the reply. Yes I believe my GPA is about 6.2. If I completed a year of La Trobe Biomed + GAMSAT, would graduate dentistry universities look only at my Agricultural Science GPA, or would they look at a composite of my 1st Year Biomed and Ag Science for GPA?

No worries!

It depends where you apply - I think UWA will go back 3 years FTE from your La trobe degree and then count the final 2 years of your agriculture degree to make up 3 years, but this might have changed. UOM is through Gemsas and you will need to apply with a degree that is complete or will be due for completion during the semester that you are offered a place. In this case they would use your agricultural degree. USYD calculate your GPA using their own method through QAS - I'm not 100% sure but I think you also need to apply with a complete or due to complete degree ie the la trobe degree won't count.

Also worth mentioning that you could do an honours year which will become your 3rd year of your degree for UWA and UOM and likely USYD (removing your first year)
 

DrDrLMG!

Resident Medical Officer
Administrator
Thank you for the reply. Yes I believe my GPA is about 6.2. If I completed a year of La Trobe Biomed + GAMSAT, would graduate dentistry universities look only at my Agricultural Science GPA, or would they look at a composite of my 1st Year Biomed and Ag Science for GPA?

If they are like Medicine, then I believe they will use the GPA from your first completed bachelor degree unless you have a completed subsequent bachelor degree. So if you complete Biomedicine, they will use that, but if you only do first year, they'll use your Ag Sci GPA still as it's your only completed degree.
 

Dentine

Member
If they are like Medicine, then I believe they will use the GPA from your first completed bachelor degree unless you have a completed subsequent bachelor degree. So if you complete Biomedicine, they will use that, but if you only do first year, they'll use your Ag Sci GPA still as it's your only completed degree.

Yeh they are all pretty much the same as med - particularly UOM which also currently uses weighted GPA - UWA and USYD are unweighted.

Also note that unlike QTAC etc they don't rank all your scores and choose the highest if you have a number of qualifications, they only use your most recent 3 years of study - considering it fits the criteria of completion etc
 

nina1738

Member
just a question, after 3 years of griffith dental science, is it guaranteed entry to the masters of clinical dent? also how likely am I to get an offer for UQ dent?? thanks in advance !
 

Crow

Staff | Junior Doctor
Moderator
just a question, after 3 years of griffith dental science, is it guaranteed entry to the masters of clinical dent? also how likely am I to get an offer for UQ dent?? thanks in advance !
Yep, you’re guaranteed entry. I’ll leave the UQ dent chances to Yamster.
 

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DrDrLMG!

Resident Medical Officer
Administrator
just a question, after 3 years of griffith dental science, is it guaranteed entry to the masters of clinical dent? also how likely am I to get an offer for UQ dent?? thanks in advance !

Yep, you’re guaranteed entry. I’ll leave the UQ dent chances to Yamster.

Not Yamster, obviously, but with a GPA of 7.00, it would be as close to a certainty as possible (without actually being that because we draw the line at certainties here!), yeah?

EDITED. Whoops. UMAT! Ignore me :D
 

Yamster

Dental Moderator
Emeritus Staff
nina1738 - if you applied for the last 2 years with your UMAT score, you would’ve gotten in! Fingers crossed that they won’t rise this year!
 

MrWhippe

Regular Member
Cheers for the responses everyone!

Is there any insight into what WAM at La Trobe would be universally perceived as a GPA of 7? As far as I can tell from this graph, Gemsas suggests a WAM of 85 or above at La Trobe would be perceived as a GPA of 7 at Adelaide, Charles Sturt, Griffith, James Cook, UQ, UN/UNE (if I decided to pursue medicine), and WSU. Am I understanding this correctly?

Furthermore, what WAM would correlate to a GPA of 6.8, or 6.9? I'm trying to survey my options if I fall just shy of the 85 (a target that I expect to be achievable, but by no means an easy feat!)

I hope you get in Nina! I suggest you hold on to your notes this year. I just might be buying them off you when I hopefully join you in 2020!
 

Crow

Staff | Junior Doctor
Moderator
Cheers for the responses everyone!

Is there any insight into what WAM at La Trobe would be universally perceived as a GPA of 7? As far as I can tell from this graph, Gemsas suggests a WAM of 85 or above at La Trobe would be perceived as a GPA of 7 at Adelaide, Charles Sturt, Griffith, James Cook, UQ, UN/UNE (if I decided to pursue medicine), and WSU. Am I understanding this correctly?

Furthermore, what WAM would correlate to a GPA of 6.8, or 6.9? I'm trying to survey my options if I fall just shy of the 85 (a target that I expect to be achievable, but by no means an easy feat!)

I hope you get in Nina! I suggest you hold on to your notes this year. I just might be buying them off you when I hopefully join you in 2020!
You have misunderstood the information. A WAM can’t be directly converted to a GPA - a GPA is an average of the grades you received for every unit in your degree (a grade is given on a scale of 1-7). As an example: say you received a mark of 100 in one unit, and a mark of 79 in 15 other units. Your WAM would be calculated as 80.3, but your GPA would be 6.06. Huge difference in whether you would be competitive or not (depending on what you are applying for).

(The above is under the assumption that your university uses 80+=7 rather than 85+=7 - this may not be the case and you may have to calculate your GPA yourself).
 

MrWhippe

Regular Member
You have misunderstood the information. A WAM can’t be directly converted to a GPA - a GPA is an average of the grades you received for every unit in your degree (a grade is given on a scale of 1-7). As an example: say you received a mark of 100 in one unit, and a mark of 79 in 15 other units. Your WAM would be calculated as 80.3, but your GPA would be 6.06. Huge difference in whether you would be competitive or not (depending on what you are applying for).

(The above is under the assumption that your university uses 80+=7 rather than 85+=7 - this may not be the case and you may have to calculate your GPA yourself).
I see. Thanks Crow. If I'm to do 8 subjects this year, and they're all worth 15 credit points, how would I work out my GPA? Is there some theoretical calculator I could use?
 

Crow

Staff | Junior Doctor
Moderator
I see. Thanks Crow. If I'm to do 8 subjects this year, and they're all worth 15 credit points, how would I work out my GPA? Is there some theoretical calculator I could use?
HD = 7 = 85+
D = 6 = 75+
C = 5 = 65+
P = 4 = 50+

Give yourself a grade for each of the eight units based on whatever your overall mark was, then find the average (e.g. if you received 5 7s and 3 6s, your GPA would be [5x7 + 3x6]/8=6.625).

ETA: The above is assuming you only want the GPA for purposes of applying to undergraduate programs in QLD/NSW as your above post suggests. If you’re applying for graduate entry via GEMSAS then your GPA calculation will be different.
 

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MrWhippe

Regular Member
HD = 7 = 85+
D = 6 = 75+
C = 5 = 65+
P = 4 = 50+

Give yourself a grade for each of the eight units based on whatever your overall mark was, then find the average (e.g. if you received 5 7s and 3 6s, your GPA would be [5x7 + 3x6]/8=6.625).

ETA: The above is assuming you only want the GPA for purposes of applying to undergraduate programs in QLD/NSW as your above post suggests. If you’re applying for graduate entry via GEMSAS then your GPA calculation will be different.
Ah. I see. An 85 WAM is one thing, but a GPA of 7 seems to be another level again. Thanks.
 

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