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Choosing Between Universities and Offers

TKAO

oowah!
Valued Member
I'm currently filling out my TISC application and am a bit lost as to whether I should rank UWA provisional or Curtin as my first preference. Btw, I'm a NSW applicant so it's the same trek to WA for either university.

Could someone please advise me about any potential downsides to each degree (incl location of internships) or advantages? Thanks! :)
hahaha my WA expertise coming in kind of handy. This is from the perspective of someone also applying to tisc and not having gone to either. Anyway let's start:
Look and feel:
UWA is the older of the two, and has the 'sandstone' vibe of it all. Curtin is more of that new spacious style with newer ish facilities. UWA is considered 'north of the river' and curtin is 'south of the river' (the river being the swan river). In terms of length uwa is 3+3 vs. 5. That's an extra year at UWA. In terms of location, UWA closer to the city centre if that matters to you. You'll spend the first 3 years at the main campus in crawley, then your next 3 at the health campus 5 minutes away. This is compared to Curtin where the first 2? years are at their campus 10 ish minutes away from the city, and then the next 3 will be in midland (piss far away from the main campus - something like 30 minutes away). In terms of internship, I'm pretty sure they are on par in terms of which hospitals they are associated with (A1 please correct me if I'm wrong) and people don't really care which one you are from.

For me, I put UWA first. I'm a WA resident and while I do live closer to Curtin overall, the midland campus idea ticks me right off. It's super far away from my house. Something else that factors into my choice is that most of my highschool friends that are planning on staying in WA plan on going to UWA. This is because my school is selective and so my cohort is very spread out in terms of geography. UWA with its more central location makes it more appealing to more of my friends. While it is an extra year longer, I do see some value in doing an undergrad where I don't have to work as hard (or so I tell myself), but also having the option to do a second major at UWA in a completed unrelated field. Curtin doesn't have this option since it is undergrad.

For you - as an interstate person many of my considerations don't matter to you. I assume you don't have a significant amount of friends in WA and geography can be solved by living in between Curtin and their midland campus. I'd assume you'd want to return to your homestate and so spending one less year is a definite bonus. Plus, living near curtin is way cheaper than living near UWA so there is that bonus to consider too (on top of saving a year's worth of uni fees and rent). For all intensive (added by LMG!: I think you mean "intents and..." ;) )purposes, I'd recommend that you should put Curtin first, UWA second. You'd have really good chances at both though. Also, put curtin first so that you don't compete with me for UWA :p
 
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worldno8

Regular Member
hahaha my WA expertise coming in kind of handy. This is from the perspective of someone also applying to tisc and not having gone to either. Anyway let's start:
Look and feel:
UWA is the older of the two, and has the 'sandstone' vibe of it all. Curtin is more of that new spacious style with newer ish facilities. UWA is considered 'north of the river' and curtin is 'south of the river' (the river being the swan river). In terms of length uwa is 3+3 vs. 5. That's an extra year at UWA. In terms of location, UWA closer to the city centre if that matters to you. You'll spend the first 3 years at the main campus in crawley, then your next 3 at the health campus 5 minutes away. This is compared to Curtin where the first 2? years are at their campus 10 ish minutes away from the city, and then the next 3 will be in midland (piss far away from the main campus - something like 30 minutes away). In terms of internship, I'm pretty sure they are on par in terms of which hospitals they are associated with (A1 please correct me if I'm wrong) and people don't really care which one you are from.

For me, I put UWA first. I'm a WA resident and while I do live closer to Curtin overall, the midland campus idea ticks me right off. It's super far away from my house. Something else that factors into my choice is that most of my highschool friends that are planning on staying in WA plan on going to UWA. This is because my school is selective and so my cohort is very spread out in terms of geography. UWA with its more central location makes it more appealing to more of my friends. While it is an extra year longer, I do see some value in doing an undergrad where I don't have to work as hard (or so I tell myself), but also having the option to do a second major at UWA in a completed unrelated field. Curtin doesn't have this option since it is undergrad.

For you - as an interstate person many of my considerations don't matter to you. I assume you don't have a significant amount of friends in WA and geography can be solved by living in between Curtin and their midland campus. I'd assume you'd want to return to your homestate and so spending one less year is a definite bonus. Plus, living near curtin is way cheaper than living near UWA so there is that bonus to consider to (on top of saving a year's worth of uni fees and rent). For all intensive purposes, I'd recommend that you should put Curtin first, UWA second. You'd have really good chances at both though. Also, put curtin first so that you don't compete with me for UWA :p

Aw, thanks for your detailed reply! I think I'll pop down Curtin first, haha - would want to return to NSW asap.

Good luck for your application too - you did great in the UCAT. :)
 

DrDrLMG!

Resident Medical Officer
Administrator
which one is better? WSU or JMP. If you can get in both of them?which one r u going?

Don't forget JMP could mean Newcastle or Armidale, so it's not really a matter of JMP vs WSU, location-wise. As for course content, very few people have attended both Universities, and probably no one has attended both for Medicine, so we can't really tell you which is "better". It's up to you to decide what is most important (location, scholarships, other opportunities, cost of living) and decide from there.

Assuming you're in the privileged position of having a choice at all, that is... ;)
 

Intissar

Member
Hi, I need advice on what uni to go to

- USYD
I received an BMP offer for next year. I applied via the rural entry and as such my S3 GAMSAT scores are not as high as many other people that got in. Overall, I'm not sure if i could handle the difficulty of USYD Med. USYD is combining all medicine foundations into first year as well :/ so It's gonna be incredibly difficult. That being said i MUCH prefer living in Sydney over Tasmania plus its only 4 years. Also, I am completing a Biomed degree so I do have some background knowledge.

- UTAS
I also have a BMP offer for UTAS next year ( via guaranteed entry ). It's 5 years but way more manageable. I feel much more confident with UTAS but I don't really know what studying med is like :/ Also, I'm 21 so UTAS is more my age then USYD ( average age is 24 for first year )

Does anyone have any advice for picking between the two?
 

chinaski

Regular Member
If you would rather live in Sydney, then go to Sydney Uni - it means you'll be able to stay in NSW after graduation and work there (which would not be a guarantee if you went to Tasmania). I wouldn't assume Sydney's course will be "harder" than Tasmania, content-wise - the condensed structure may be more challenging but you'd be in the same boat as everyone else. Hypothetically, a high S3 score isn't a guarantee you'd find the course any easier in any case.
 

DrDrLMG!

Resident Medical Officer
Administrator
Hi, I need advice on what uni to go to

- USYD
I received an BMP offer for next year. I applied via the rural entry and as such my S3 GAMSAT scores are not as high as many other people that got in. Overall, I'm not sure if i could handle the difficulty of USYD Med. USYD is combining all medicine foundations into first year as well :/ so It's gonna be incredibly difficult. That being said i MUCH prefer living in Sydney over Tasmania plus its only 4 years. Also, I am completing a Biomed degree so I do have some background knowledge.

- UTAS
I also have a BMP offer for UTAS next year ( via guaranteed entry ). It's 5 years but way more manageable. I feel much more confident with UTAS but I don't really know what studying med is like :/ Also, I'm 21 so UTAS is more my age then USYD ( average age is 24 for first year )

Does anyone have any advice for picking between the two?

While I agree that you should largely choose the Uni you study at based on its location rather than course content (particularly given the implications of this beyond Med school and into internships etc), if you do want more info on the courses themselves, there’s been a couple of great summaries and then discussions about the USyd changes over at Paging Dr (I’ve seen them in the current offers thread, but there may be more), and I wrote up a bit of a review of UTAS first year here: UTAS MBBS: Overview

ETA: given the change in ROS for BMPs, if one of your offers is upgraded to CSP, you might want to factor that into your decision making, too. I know people at both unis who had this happen previously.
 

A1

Rookie Doc
Moderator
Hi! I was wondering if anyone could explain the deadline for accepting an offer on UAC? This is just because I'd rather go to Monash than WSU for a couple of reasons, but the WSU interview is late November whilst the Monash interstate interviews is late January. I don't want to be in the position of rejecting a WSU offer before I know if Monash has extended an offer or not.

You can accept every offer you get and decline it later in Jan-Feb. You can even enroll then withdraw before the census date mid-end March, no penalty.
 

Crow

Staff | Junior Doctor
Moderator
But WSU starts on late Feb to early March. Can you accept an offer then decline when uni has already started?
Yes, you just need to unenrol prior to the census date to avoid financial penalty.
 

A1

Rookie Doc
Moderator
But WSU starts on late Feb to early March. Can you accept an offer then decline when uni has already started?

Adding to Crow's reply, when WSU makes you an offer it's likely you're required to enroll within 2-3 weeks to confirm your acceptance. As soon as you receive another offer that you intend to go with you should not only withdraw your WSU enrolment but also advise WSU so they make a top-up offer to another applicant.

Some have been silly not doing this, it takes the school 1-2 weeks after semester starts to realise that student has not turned up. It's why we sometimes see surprise call ups after semester has started.
 

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TKAO

oowah!
Valued Member
Adding to Crow's reply, when WSU makes you an offer it's likely you're required to enroll within 2-3 weeks to confirm your acceptance. As soon as you receive another offer that you intend to go with you should not only withdraw your WSU enrolment but also advise WSU so they make a top-up offer to another applicant.

Some have been silly not doing this, it takes the school 1-2 weeks after semester starts to realise that student has not turned up. It's why we sometimes see surprise call ups after semester has started.
Wait so there is an off chance that the stars align and you accept your fate to take a gap year to try again next year, only to get called up by one of the med universities telling you that you can have an offer?
 

A1

Rookie Doc
Moderator
Wait so there is an off chance that the stars align and you accept your fate to take a gap year to try again next year, only to get called up by one of the med universities telling you that you can have an offer?

Yes, MSO's MD didn't get a 1st or 2nd round offer with (1st pref) Adelaide so she started with Flinders. A week after semester started Adelaide called her and she said good bye to Flinders.
 
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A1

Rookie Doc
Moderator
Thanks for the help. Do you also know when Monash offers usually come in for interstate students?

Apart from WSU & UTas making rural offers in Dec the med schools release their offers via the TAC main round 10ish January. The interstate/2nd round where applicable is 5ish February. Google UAC/VTAC offer dates you will see them.
 

MD

Emeritus Staff
Emeritus Staff
Yes, MSO's MD didn't get a 1st or 2nd round offer with (1st pref) Adelaide so she started with Flinders. A week after semester started Adelaide called her and she said good bye to Flinders.
Yes I managed to get the call at the end of O Week and started week 1 there, and there were still quite a few students getting offers for several weeks after me during term 1, like up to week 4?
 

DrDrLMG!

Resident Medical Officer
Administrator
Wait so there is an off chance that the stars align and you accept your fate to take a gap year to try again next year, only to get called up by one of the med universities telling you that you can have an offer?

You don’t need to be on a gap year to get one of these very late offers, you can have started an alternate degree and still be eligible for the school leaver spots you applied to. If this occurred (though keep in mind, these tend to be outliers in both instances, and shouldn’t be relied upon for future planning), you would just withdraw from the course you’d started and accept the Med offer. Piece of cake!
 

Otter

Member
Which course should I preference higher, University of Adelaide BMP or Flinder's University (provisional)? As a Victorian student, I am quite unsure of which is favourable.
 

DrDrLMG!

Resident Medical Officer
Administrator
Which course should I preference higher, University of Adelaide BMP or Flinder's University (provisional)? As a Victorian student, I am quite unsure of which is favourable.

If you're a chance of getting a CSP at Flinders, I'd personally be putting that above a BMP at UAdel due to the increased ROS requirements.
 

Crow

Staff | Junior Doctor
Moderator
Which course should I preference higher, University of Adelaide BMP or Flinder's University (provisional)? As a Victorian student, I am quite unsure of which is favourable.
Does Adelaide have two separate course codes on SATAC for CSP and BMP places? If so, I’d put Adelaide CSP and Flinders CSP 1 and 2 (whatever order you prefer) and then Adelaide BMP after that, if you aren’t really bothered either way. The bonded requirements have increased substantially for 2020 entry so a CSP is much more desirable than a BMP at this point, I would think!
 

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Intissar

Member
Hey Guys, so people have mentioned that choosing a uni based on location is important since it influences where you work afterwards. I know this is true for Internships but what about residency years and beyond? I'm choosing between Tasmania and Sydney and i figured I could complete my internship in Tas and continue afterwards in a bigger city like Melb/Syd. Is this difficult to do?
 

chinaski

Regular Member
Hey Guys, so people have mentioned that choosing a uni based on location is important since it influences where you work afterwards. I know this is true for Internships but what about residency years and beyond? I'm choosing between Tasmania and Sydney and i figured I could complete my internship in Tas and continue afterwards in a bigger city like Melb/Syd. Is this difficult to do?

More difficult than applying as an inside applicant, yes - workplaces tend to favour known quantities (this is especially so when vying for competitively sought-after hospitals within the major CBDs). Also bear in mind that NSW graduates go onto two year contracts, so the need for additional applicants for PGY2 jobs in NSW within Sydney is tight.
 
Another thing to remember is that there is a possibility you will need to move from Townsville (to Cairns/Mackay/Darwin) in the second half of your degree at JCU.
Hi, could you please clarify why JCU students would need to move from Townsville to Cairns/Mackay/Darwin?
 

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