Depends - do you want to study for one less year (Griffith) but run the risk of landing yourself a bonded contract if you don't try hard enough in the first two years?
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Choosing Between Universities and Offers
- Thread starter bbydaisy
- Start date
If you’re getting a CSP at UQ then I’d take that. Otherwise, personally I’d go Griffith if you have no other factors influencing your decision. (GC > Brisbane
)Hi all, I have been wrestling with a quandary recently.
I had my interview at JCU last week and was really happy with what I saw there (course structure, people, facilities, proximity to hospital, clinical exposure from year 1).
I received my OP results and got an OP 2. This translates into selection rank 97 and I have 2 bonus points from Maths C, so I now have selection rank 99.
My UCAT was 3040 (97th %ile). This means that I should hopefully be in a good position to get an offer for provisional post-grad med from UQ. (Correct me if I'm wrong!)
Having read through various threads including this one [Undergrad] - Difference between undergraduate and graduate medicine? about undergrad vs postgrad courses, I feel that the undergrad course calls more strongly to me. The idea of all the assumed knowledge in the postgrad course is daunting, whereas starting with other school leavers on an equal footing sounds better. I know a couple of doctors who went to JCU and they had a great experience there. On the other hand, I read a bunch of bad reviews online, which sound a little concerning.
My problem is that I live in Brisbane and now don't know which uni I should place as first choice on my QTAC form. It would be much cheaper and easier to live at home and go to UQ, and until now UQ had always been my top choice, but my parents and I were really quite impressed by JCU, plus I'm super keen to just get started in an undergrad course if I get a JCU offer.
Ideally I'd love to have the option of knowing if I'd get offers for each uni, but QTAC will only give me the highest offer so I have to decide now if I want to put JCU above UQ.
Questions:
a) How likely am I to get a UQ provisional offer, with my results?
b) UQ is currently my top choice on my QTAC form. Left as it is, if I get a UQ offer, I'll never know if JCU would have offered me a spot, is that correct?
c) If I put JCU first and get an offer but then decide I'd rather stay in Brisbane, I can't reject it and get a UQ offer as they don't give 2nd round offers, correct?
d) The big question is - Which uni would you preference, UQ or JCU? Soooo many factors come into the choice!
Thanks for any help!
I had my interview at JCU last week and was really happy with what I saw there (course structure, people, facilities, proximity to hospital, clinical exposure from year 1).
I received my OP results and got an OP 2. This translates into selection rank 97 and I have 2 bonus points from Maths C, so I now have selection rank 99.
My UCAT was 3040 (97th %ile). This means that I should hopefully be in a good position to get an offer for provisional post-grad med from UQ. (Correct me if I'm wrong!)
Having read through various threads including this one [Undergrad] - Difference between undergraduate and graduate medicine? about undergrad vs postgrad courses, I feel that the undergrad course calls more strongly to me. The idea of all the assumed knowledge in the postgrad course is daunting, whereas starting with other school leavers on an equal footing sounds better. I know a couple of doctors who went to JCU and they had a great experience there. On the other hand, I read a bunch of bad reviews online, which sound a little concerning.
My problem is that I live in Brisbane and now don't know which uni I should place as first choice on my QTAC form. It would be much cheaper and easier to live at home and go to UQ, and until now UQ had always been my top choice, but my parents and I were really quite impressed by JCU, plus I'm super keen to just get started in an undergrad course if I get a JCU offer.
Ideally I'd love to have the option of knowing if I'd get offers for each uni, but QTAC will only give me the highest offer so I have to decide now if I want to put JCU above UQ.
Questions:
a) How likely am I to get a UQ provisional offer, with my results?
b) UQ is currently my top choice on my QTAC form. Left as it is, if I get a UQ offer, I'll never know if JCU would have offered me a spot, is that correct?
c) If I put JCU first and get an offer but then decide I'd rather stay in Brisbane, I can't reject it and get a UQ offer as they don't give 2nd round offers, correct?
d) The big question is - Which uni would you preference, UQ or JCU? Soooo many factors come into the choice!
Thanks for any help!
Hello! Sounds like a touch decision.
a) I’d be very shocked if you didn’t get a CSP offer from UQ - with your scores you’re in a very, very good position.
b) Yes and no - JCU do make courtesy phone calls to some applicants who they want to make offers to (irrespective of their QTAC preference list) so you could find out this way, however, they don’t call all of the applicants and there’s no apparent set method on who they choose to call. Essentially, you can assume that what you’ve said is correct as there’s no way to know if you’d get a call from JCU or not.
c) I believe that’s correct. You might be better off doing it the other way around (as JCU do offer a very small number of second round offers, or at least they have in the past), but that’s pretty risky and probably not the best way to go.
d) I don’t want to give my personal view to bias you as this should be your decision; however, it sounds like you’re very keen on JCU! You should do whatever you think is best - remember you’ll graduate one year earlier with JCU (so you’ll be earning money one year earlier) and that it has a fantastic program. I wouldn’t read into online reviews too much.
If JCU were to offer you a bonded position, then I’d take UQ if I were you, but if both were CSP then I’d go JCU. However, there’s no way for you to know unfortunately! Maybe someone in JCU admissions would be able to tell you if you contact them after they’ve started the phone calls in January.
Best of luck with your decision
Thanks so much Crow! I hadn't considered the idea of calling JCU admissions after they've started phone calls. Will do that.
I might re-order my preferences to
1) UQ Unbonded
2) JCU (same course code for bonded or unbonded)
3) UQ Bonded
and do a heap more thinking
I might re-order my preferences to
1) UQ Unbonded
2) JCU (same course code for bonded or unbonded)
3) UQ Bonded
and do a heap more thinking
Could you tell me what your personal view would be?
I just have a personal interest in rural health and JCU’s program interests me a lot (and if I had a choice between all the Aus undergrad med programs, that’s where I would pick). One year shorter than UQ, studying medicine for all 6 years rather than just 4 at UQ, HEAPS of placements (more and earlier than any other undergraduate program that I’m aware of), and I’ve had a number of friends go through the program there and loved it.
I’m in a tough dilemma. Just got my OP1 converted to an ATAR, which was 99.90. My UCAT was only in the 87th percentile. Griffith was my number one preference because I wanted to avoid being bonded. I’ve been offered an 18k scholarship at Griffith, but if I study at UQ my ATAR automatically qualifies for the Vice-Chancellor scholarship, valued at 60k. I called Griffith and they said that there 60k chancellor scholarship is reserved for 99.95s only. The University of Melbourne is tempting but want to stay in Brisbane. I’m not guaranteed provisional entry at UQ, but I can’t help but feel the cut off will drop (There were 200 less OP1s than last year and less UCAT sitters than there was for UMAT). Could anyone offer some advice please? Griffith GC is a 50 mins drive from my house, whereas, UQ 30 mins. If I gain entry into UQ, we are talking an extra 42k and I won’t have to drive as far or move out from home, but it’ll definitely be bonded and a year longer. Help
Personally I don’t see the cutoff dropping low enough at UQ for you to a land a bonded offer anyways (if you look at the cutoffs that have been required for interviews at other unis in Aus this year, if anything some of them have gone up rather than down). However, in the unlikely event that you do land a bonded UQ offer, I personally think you should still take a Griffith one for the chance at not being bonded. The additional 42k sounds like a lot now but in the scheme of things you’ll start working as a doctor one year later if you take a UQ offer, and that counts for at least 30k more than that 42k. I am guessing you’re located quite close to Nathan in comparison to the Gold Coast campus? You could do the first 2 years at Griffith in Brisbane and then the MD in Gold Coast - if you’re lucky you could land a QEII placement in Brisbane for your last 2 years at Griffith, meaning you’d only be located on the Gold Coast for 2 of the 6 years.
However, perhaps there are other factors at play? Up to you what you want to do!
Unfortunately I don't foresee the bonded cutoff for UQ dropping to 87th percentile this year, despite the smaller Queensland cohort. Other people can weigh in on this though. Do keep in mind that Griffith makes you compete for CSPs and BMPs on the basis of your first two years' of work.
D
Deleted member 37402
Guest
When universities like UON says that they make offers on the 10th of January 2nd round and a school leaver placed UON as their first preference on both rounds, (as advised on the interview day) does that means automatically UAC chooses this school leaver 2nd preference?
So to be specific: 1st preference is UON Bachelor of medical Science doctor of medicine and 2nd preference is a bachelor of commerce. Does UAC offers the bachelor of commence and then I say accept because who knows, I may not get an offer from UON?
Please someone reply, freaking out because due date to change preferences is today and I have a scholarship to accept for the commence gig if medicine doesn’t pan out come January 2020.
So to be specific: 1st preference is UON Bachelor of medical Science doctor of medicine and 2nd preference is a bachelor of commerce. Does UAC offers the bachelor of commence and then I say accept because who knows, I may not get an offer from UON?
Please someone reply, freaking out because due date to change preferences is today and I have a scholarship to accept for the commence gig if medicine doesn’t pan out come January 2020.
It's 12k/year for "Undergraduate and any subsequent related postgraduate study, such as Honours". I'm not sure the MD part automatically counts as subsequent related postgraduate, if not then it's 3 years = 36k.
D
Deleted member 37402
Guest
Sorry I wasn't clear, all this pertains to the December 1st round.
Just called them and the 12k per year continues into the Doctor of Medicine. I think I’m going to stick with Griffith as my number one preference. I don’t think an extra of study and the guarantee of being bonded is worth 42k. I just wish the Griffith Vice Chancellor wasn’t so damn high! I’m still over the moon about the Atar and 18k, but I can’t help thinking what if I did a little better to get the Griff VC.
The UAC Dec round 1 has come & gone. You are talking about the Dec round 2 vs the Jan round 1 and call one 1st round the other 2nd round.
I specifically point this out because one is *not* second to the other, they are independent rounds. The way UAC appears to work is, since JMP does not take part in the Dec round 2 UAC will offer you the highest pref you qualify for below JMP.
The JMP pref will only come into play in the Jan round 1 that it takes part in. It's that simple.
Why wouldn't there be more fake sitters for the UCAT? It's a new test format, and every tutor and their dog sat it to claim they're fit for teaching it.
I'm trying to sort preferences between Griffith/JCU/UQ/SCU – (concerned about Griffith being a 2-year accelerated course).
-does each trimester at Griffith carry a larger workload than JCU/SCU/UQ (or is it the reduction in holidays that facilitate the acceleration?)
-If you fail an exam at JCU – you can re-sit – is this also the case at Griffith/SCU/UQ?
-I’ve heard at JCU you just need to pass each exam/assessment (not sure what the pass % is though) to keep progressing (no GPA 5 requirement) – do you need more than a pass to achieve the GPA 5 for Griffith/UQ? Ultimately is it easier at JCU?
-Can you defer at any time at Griffith?
-Will students starting at Griffith GC or Nathan be able to do their MD at Sunshine Coast?
-Also thought the bonded return of service has now been reduced to 1 year across the country?
-does each trimester at Griffith carry a larger workload than JCU/SCU/UQ (or is it the reduction in holidays that facilitate the acceleration?)
-If you fail an exam at JCU – you can re-sit – is this also the case at Griffith/SCU/UQ?
-I’ve heard at JCU you just need to pass each exam/assessment (not sure what the pass % is though) to keep progressing (no GPA 5 requirement) – do you need more than a pass to achieve the GPA 5 for Griffith/UQ? Ultimately is it easier at JCU?
-Can you defer at any time at Griffith?
-Will students starting at Griffith GC or Nathan be able to do their MD at Sunshine Coast?
-Also thought the bonded return of service has now been reduced to 1 year across the country?
- A normal 3-year study load is 6 semeters of 4 units each. Griffith's is 5/5/4/5/5.
- I know you can defer Griffith before starting the course, not sure during the 2-year course if that's what you mean by any time.
- I believe you can request to do MD at SC campus.
- Where have you been hiding, we've talked about RoS from 2020 being increased to 3 years for months.
SCU and Griffith are technically the same thing; you'll just be studying the 3 year undergrad component at SCU and the MD in the Sunshine Coast, but through Griffith. I don't think you can directly compare Griffith with JCU and UQ. I would expect the first two years at JCU to be more intensive than the first two years at Griffith (or the first three years at UQ/SCU) because you start medicine from the get go at JCU whereas you do an undergraduate degree first at Griffith and UQ. Once you get to the final four years (the MD) at Griffith and UQ, you're essentially completing JCU's 6 year course in four years, so you'd expect the intensity to be significantly greater. For Griffith medical science students (i.e. the first two years before the MD), it is accelerated by both a reduction in holidays and an increase in workload (5 subjects in most trimesters instead of 4 like most other uni students).
A GPA 5 is a credit average, which is 65% or above. You could have any combination of subject results that come out at a 5, so long as it isn't below a 5 once you complete undergrad. However, your results will dictate whether you get a bonded or unbonded position at Griffith, so there is incentive to achieve high marks if you don't want to be bonded. Because JCU is a completely different program I don't think you can compare the ease in achieving marks between the three universities.
You can defer before you start undergrad, any time throughout undergrad and at the end of undergrad before you start the MD. Once you've started the MD I believe you are able to defer a year only if you have exceptional circumstances, but the school seems pretty flexible in that regard.
I don't believe so but you can ask Griffith and they may allow it.
This happened several years back but it has gone up to three years for 2020 entry, with some other changes which you can read about here if you like: [2020 entry and beyond] Guide to Bonded Medical Places
I'll let alexlipton or DNA answer the rest of your JCU-specific questions.