JCU JCU Medicine: Interview Discussion

[dartcity]

I don't have enough points to private message, but private message me and I can discuss my circumstances

Also in the same situation (non-standard, non-rural NSW, with 6.9 GPA from an MPH and decent supporting letters). I would also be keen to understand how I can improve my JCU application (i also cant private message for some reason)

 

[jonesbbqandfoot]

Hello,

The other day I received an interview invite for JCU medicine of which it will be my third time interviewing with them.

JCU is my dream medical school, however; this will likely be my last time applying as due to costs and time I feel it would be most logical to solely focus my efforts into postgraduate medical admissions following this cycle.

About me and my experiences with the interviews so far:

I am a non-standard, non-rural QLD applicant.

The strategy i decided on for my first interview was to try and keep things as genuine as possible and not over prepare as to not come across as scripted. I used the information from Benjamin's post to practice, and practiced with my family. On the day, I found i could not control my nerves enough to be able to form effective responses. My impression of my performance was not good, ultimately and understandably leading to no offer.

The strategy I decided on for my second interview was the opposite of my previous one. In order to control my nerves, I decided it would be best to expose myself to as much practice and preparation as possible. To do this, I decided on purchasing tutoring to simulate nerves, and practiced with people I did not know extensively. Additionally, I decided to create an anecdote bank of all my experiences and drew out key dot points of my reflections and learning about these. I then went through all of the question's, scenarios, and debate points on this forum thinking about how I would answer them, followed by writing down key points that represented the main ideas I wanted to touch on. I also exhausted many of the online webinars, information about JCU's mission/program from online, and even visited campus to meet students/get a vibe for the place with my brother (a jcu medical student).

I found that this preparation allowed me to control my responses much more and I felt I was able to respond as well as I could have to the questions I received on the day. However, this did not translate into an offer either.

I am hoping to receive any guidance regarding different strategies and approaches I can try this time around to best improve my chances of admission.

Many thanks

would u mind sharing your GPA and atar for fellow non-standard applicants (non-qld non-rural) so we can have an idea of what marks we need for an interview.

I am also non-standard, non-rural QLD but unfortunately did not receive an interview. Would you mind sharing your GPA and nature of your supporting letters so I have a better idea of what JCU are looking for? Thank you!

same here, i think no first year students received offers as far as I k, I had a friend with a 7.0 GPA 99.85 atar and impressive LOS and still didt get an invite. I'm assuming since first years have not yet finish a whole year that's why?

 

[aaronash]

Glad to hear it's still a relevant thread & sorry you didn't find it earlier - I didn't have time to put it up until after my final exams.


700 is about how many first round interviews have been offered for the last few years. JCU gets thousands of applications because of the lack of UMAT requirements. For 2015 they have 2,920 total applications for JCU MBBS with 1,957 of them being first preference applications via QTAC. This data is available here: https://www.qtac.edu.au/ArticleDocuments/196/All_Tables_Semester_1_2015.xlsx.aspx under Table 3B / JCU Continued / Health / Medical Studies / Bachelor of Medicine & Surgery

There were a total of 213 offers with 169 acceptances last year and the remainder of the ~200 cohort total made up by international students who are offered earlier in the year + deferrals from previous years offers & students repeating first year. I had some specific stats on the percentages that metro/outer regional/rural/remote students make up from a Government report but I seem to have forgotten what the document is called.

I'm unsure how many second round interviews they offer but I think it's around 150 - they offer ~700 over 10 days (70/day) and only have 2 days of second round interviews.



This is correct - usually the Dean of Medicine or the Vice Chancellor makes the calls themselves. I am hesitant to give a strict date because all it does is makes people reading the forum stress out more than they need to and the dates are very fluid. They WILL leave a message and you CAN call them back at which point they'll be happy to talk to you. The phone call is supposed to be a helpful/comforting part of the JCU admissions process & I'm very wary that a lot of people read this thread so am not going to give exact dates. I will say that if they've said they call before Christmas then that's very, very early - in previous years it's typically been early-mid January.

OP results come out on the 19th of December and most other states also come out that week. Keep in mind that they still need to conduct the second round interviews for students with better than predicted results before they can figure out their cut-offs. Second round interviews are held on the 7-8th of January as per this document on Page 2 at the bottom right: https://www.jcu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0013/122215/jcu_106048.pdf

Here is the thread from 2015 JCU offers and the page when calls were first noted: JCU 2015 Med offers !!!

Is this still true (red) - does the Dean call you after interview and atars if you did well?

 

[jonesbbqandfoot]

Is this still true (red) - does the Dean call you after interview and atars if you did well?

quite sure its just an email and a notification on qtac

 

[aaronash]

quite sure its just an email and a notification on qtac

Right, but would that come through before offer rounds?

 

[A1]

Is this still true (red) - does the Dean call you after interview and atars if you did well?

I'm not sure whether he called last year, but up to 2-3 years ago he did.

This is not just after interview & ATAR. It's *a few days* before the official QTAC offer round. Apparently by that date JCU already completes the list of offers to send to QTAC. But note QTAC will "eject" some of these JCU offers (without JCU pre-knowing) if they get say UQ being a higher pref.

The Dean calling is basically to congratulate in advance. He doesn't have time to call them all though, we had a good fun time trying to work out how he chose whom to give the call.

 

[jaeminjyoo]

Hi, does anyone know if they still do debating in the medicine interview? Also is there an interview for dentistry at JCU? Thanks

 

[Benjamin]

Hi Jaeminyjoo,

The summary I wrote for the interview at the start of this thread is still very much accurate with the interview still focusing on why medicine / why JCU, teamwork and leadership experience, conflict & ability to cope in rural environments & then a discussion topic from a choice of 3. I believe the teamwork/leadership/conflict/rural is explored with questions & then also with 2 x vignettes / scenarios as it was when I did the interview back in 2015.

The "debating" section is not necessarily about whether you can prove a point or not but rather about whether you can hold a conversation about a topic / respond appropriately to being challenged and/or utilize the other person's viewpoints in your discussion. It is not a debate in nature but more of a conversation.

Typically the topics are somewhat controversial / have reasonable arguments from multiple different perspectives.

Hope that helps.

Ben

 

[kiwikillaz]

Congratulations and good luck to all those who just received 2nd round invites! Flick me a message if you have any questions about it, (content removed).

 

[himiko_sky]

Hi, do we have any records of people who got second round JCU interviews getting in? Are they treated any differently?

I received a second round invite today, I am trying to weigh up whether to go through with it, or add an extra Griffith medicine course instead (my ATAR is above the cutoff, but I have passed the recommended due date on 8 Dec, although the hard deadline is 29 Dec).

Please help!! So unsure of what to do

I am a QLD nonrural resident if it helps.

 

[A1]

Hi, do we have any records of people who got second round JCU interviews getting in? Are they treated any differently?

I'm sure many non-standard applicants have got a place offer after doing a 2nd round interview. If they can then school leavers can too.

2nd round interviewees are not treated differently, since they + 1st rounders are all considered together in the January offer round.

 

[himiko_sky]

I'm sure many non-standard applicants have got a place offer after doing a 2nd round interview. If they can then school leavers can too.

2nd round interviewees are not treated differently, since they + 1st rounders are all considered together in the January offer round.

Thank you so much

Sorry to be a bother, but does anybody know of an interview group where I can practice JCU specific questions? Apologies if it's already listed on here, I am still finding out how to navigate the forum.

 

[himiko_sky]

Hi, I know that in general our responses to each question should be around 1.5 minutes. But for the debating section, can it be a little longer? I'm really having trouble narrowing my responses down, especially when I have to consider both sides of the debate. Will they allow me to speak for a little longer here? Thanks!