Hey guys, I have been lurking around this forum for a bit. I am currently a first year biomed student in UoA but due to personal circumstances, I did not manage to secure a good GPA thus will most likely not get an interview offer this year. I am currently weighting my options for my undergrad degree and I am looking between physiology, biomed and psychology. By any chance can anyone doing these degrees in UoA could give me a brief overview of what it's like in your degree, or give me any suggestions for other degrees I could consider? That would be wonderful thank you very much.
An additional question I would like to add on is I was hoping if there are anyone who tried to apply for Aussie med with a UoA degree? Can you please share your experiences? I do know that I would have to sit the GAMSAT, but I am interested in what degree you did, possibly your GPA etc. Thank you! Tbh I have no idea where to post this question but I am putting it here hoping that some of you are trying to Aussie too! Thanks a lot! ~a struggling premed for who knows how long.
I am not applying to Aussie so have no experience there, but I think I can give some advice regarding your major. I graduated UoA with a BSc in Biomed, however I was also able to graduate with Physiology if I wanted, and I majored in Psych for a bit (it's complicated, but basically I did my BSc over four years and did extra papers, I advise against this lol).
In terms of Biomed versus Physiology, they're relatively similar, but it really depends on your area of interest. For example, if you like neuroscience, you could do either. But if you like reproductive biology for example, then Biomed is the way to go. At 300 level there are way more papers you can choose to do in Biomed (e.g. cancer biology, immunology, reproductive biology etc) compared with the compulsory ones in physiology (you can choose 3 of 5, and I wouldn't advise doing any more than 3 MEDSCIs because they're tough). For Physiology, I did 311, 312, 316 and 317. I loved the papers individually but doing them all was rough.
In terms of Psych, I majored with Psych for a short time so I have a little experience here too. I did all the first and some of the second year papers, but never got around to doing any of the third year ones. If you're interested in psych, and want some 'easy' A+s (you still have to try!) then Psych is a good option.
However, it's important to consider if you don't get into Medicine, what qualification will get you down a pathway you're happy with, and potentially into an area of research you're interested in. I did Biomed, including a range of Physiology and Psych papers, so I got the best of the three worlds in that sense. However, doing Physiology might make it difficult to add Biomed papers, and doing Psych might make it difficult to add Biomed or Physiology papers. So, in my view, Biomed is the one that would allow you to get a taste of everything