Veon
Regular Member
Originally posted by ciaran@Sep 22 2007, 02:16 AM
Seems like people are offended by my apparent disrespect for dentistry, which was probably born out of ignorance. Regardless, I think people are taking my careless comments far too seriously.
...how?
I don't see why wanting to know whether my course would get me into dent/any related health/sci course is a problem. Maybe its because of the flippant way I referred to it, in which case do you now want me to refer to dent. as "The most esteemed and glorious profession"?
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I think with something like Dent/Med where the competition is so tight and people want to feel they have a good chance of getting what they want, it's naturally going to bring about a bit of cattiness and will lower the threshold for what we perceive to be foolish, as it indirectly takes a stab at the chances of prospective applicants; we stress all year about it and if we aren't going to get a spot in the course want right now, at least it'll have gone to somebody that didn't have the 'damn i didn't get med, hope i can at least get dent' attitude.
Further proof that the entire VCE/HSC system is all about pitting kids against eachother, bringing about anger and crushed hopes.
How many people took the UMAT this year?
How many got good scores?
How many are crushed?
The same will happen with the ENTER.
Nobody gives a ****, we get nonsense like 'oh it's all about you' and 'you can do what you want, you just have to work hard!' or 'don't worry try again next year' or 'well that's what happens when you have a limited number of spots, it's not our fault' or 'there's nothing you can do about it' as if that, or telling me to lighten up, will actually result in the alleviation of this worry.
All well and good when you're on the other side of year 12 and you've got what you want, but to current year 12s with exams looming and the potential deflation ahead, the whole thing becomes rather infuriating.
There are only a certain amount of spots, and that means to get yourself a spot you have to crush the dreams of hundreds also applying for that spot.
You need to crush thousands in the UMAT.
You need to crush a couple of hundred in the interviews, and you need to crush tens of thousands with the ENTER.
And so nobody looks past school as being anything more than a ticket to a spot in a course.
The victim here, of course, is as ever, the bright-eyed hopeful, who one day will become painfully aware that the mantra of 'follow your dreams' and 'you can do it if you want to' really means:
'slash and burn as you go, play the game and claw your way to what you want'.
It doesn't matter how smart or abled the cohort of year 12s is, perfectly capable students will miss out and their names will be put back into the barrel for a redraw next year, meaning there is more competition for the same number of spots (less, in fact) and so we perpetuate the cycle.
Get 100% on some tests and you are rewarded with a career.
Lovely world we live in.