JCU JCU Medicine: Interview Discussion

[Crow]

Hi. Can anyone tell me if the 2nd round of interiews are for school leavers who missed being given a 1st round interview? I'm a non-rural applicant (from Brisbane) and my school predicted an OP2 but I received an OP1 so wondered if there is a chance I might now get an interview in Jan?

That’s correct, the second interview round is mainly reserved for those who achieved a higher academic result than what their PAA said (thus making them eligible for an interview when they originally weren’t). Your chances of receiving an interview will still be highly dependent on the quality of your written application, though. Good luck

 

[DrDrLMG!]

They shouldn't be - either way you'd still be considered as a non-rural applicant (unless you've spent nearly 10 consecutive years living rurally, in which case living in Townsville for whatever extra number of years you'd need - which is an RA-3 location - could give you a rural classification). On the topic of studying biomed or similar - please read this thread: Common pitfalls to avoid for year 12 school leavers and other medicine applicants

Unless JCU is different (it may well be); rurality is generally 10 years cumulative or 5 consecutive, not 10 consecutive.

 

[Crow]

Unless JCU is different (it may well be); rurality is generally 10 years cumulative or 5 consecutive, not 10 consecutive.

Nope, I 100% meant cumulative, whoops! Edited my post.

 

[unemeerkat]

That’s correct, the second interview round is mainly reserved for those who achieved a higher academic result than what their PAA said (thus making them eligible for an interview when they originally weren’t). Your chances of receiving an interview will still be highly dependent on the quality of your written application, though. Good luck

Thankyou - I just have to keep my fingers crossed now?

 

[tm2001]

How heavily does JCU weight atar?? I kinda bombed english and managed to drag my atar to 97.9 instead of the high 98 I was expecting. My careers adivsor submitted 98.5 as the estimate but idk if that even makes a difference to the outcome. I think my interview and application went well but being from sydney do I even still have a chance ?

 

[Saintz11]

How heavily does JCU weight atar?? I kinda bombed english and managed to drag my atar to 97.9 instead of the high 98 I was expecting. My careers adivsor submitted 98.5 as the estimate but idk if that even makes a difference to the outcome. I think my interview and application went well but being from sydney do I even still have a chance ?

I believe that Interview and "Rural Connectedness" are 'weighted' more, but I could be wrong.

 

[Crow]

How heavily does JCU weight atar?? I kinda bombed english and managed to drag my atar to 97.9 instead of the high 98 I was expecting. My careers adivsor submitted 98.5 as the estimate but idk if that even makes a difference to the outcome. I think my interview and application went well but being from sydney do I even still have a chance ?

I believe the information booklet suggests that academic performance and interview performance are ranked “equally” (obviously with rurality ultimately being the most important factor) but the link to the booklet on the website currently isn’t working, so I can’t confirm that sorry. Regardless, though, the interview is scored in a way that creates a much greater variance in the final selection score than a few ATAR points does - this is why we see applicants with ATARs in the high 99s miss out while those with ATARs below 98 have been made offers in the past. In this regard, interview is the much more important factor than ATAR is.

I believe Benjamin has stated that offers are calculated with the following formula: rurality x ATAR + interview score.

The place offers will be made based off your actual ATAR, not the ATAR listed on the PAA by your careers advisor.

The rurality score is a combination of your rurality based on where you went to school, as well as how likely the interviewers decided you would be to work rurally based on your responses in the interview.

While we have had place offers from non-rural applicants with ATARs similar to yours, last year the lowest MSO-reported ATAR to receive a place offer (as a non-rural student) was 98 - though this doesn’t necessarily mean there weren’t applicants with lower ATARs, as the sample size was very small. I suspect with a 97.9 your interview performance would’ve needed to be of a pretty high standard, but a place offer definitely is still possible. In saying that, I’d definitely have a back-up plan, as statistically speaking, unfortunately the most likely outcome is that you won’t make it in (JCU interviews more than 4x the number of applicants than positions available, meaning 70%+ interviewees miss out).

Wishing you the best of luck, anyways - hopefully you defy the odds!

 

[tm2001]

I believe the information booklet suggests that academic performance and interview performance are ranked “equally” (obviously with rurality ultimately being the most important factor) but the link to the booklet on the website currently isn’t working, so I can’t confirm that sorry. Regardless, though, the interview is scored in a way that creates a much greater variance in the final selection score than a few ATAR points does - this is why we see applicants with ATARs in the high 99s miss out while those with ATARs below 98 have been made offers in the past. In this regard, interview is the much more important factor than ATAR is.

I believe Benjamin has stated that offers are calculated with the following formula: rurality x ATAR + interview score.

The place offers will be made based off your actual ATAR, not the ATAR listed on the PAA by your careers advisor.

The rurality score is a combination of your rurality based on where you went to school, as well as how likely the interviewers decided you would be to work rurally based on your responses in the interview.

While we have had place offers from non-rural applicants with ATARs similar to yours, last year the lowest MSO-reported ATAR to receive a place offer (as a non-rural student) was 98 - though this doesn’t necessarily mean there weren’t applicants with lower ATARs, as the sample size was very small. I suspect with a 97.9 your interview performance would’ve needed to be of a pretty high standard, but a place offer definitely is still possible. In saying that, I’d definitely have a back-up plan, as statistically speaking, unfortunately the most likely outcome is that you won’t make it in (JCU interviews more than 4x the number of applicants than positions available, meaning 70%+ interviewees miss out).

Wishing you the best of luck, anyways - hopefully you defy the odds!

Thanks Crow. Fingers crossed as I really did love the uni when I went up there. Going to be praying till January

 

[Jason990090]

Do they look at whether someone has finished an entire degree with or just the GPA?

Because I've done my whole med sci degree now with a 6.2 which I was told converts to an OP of 2. Someone with a 7 Gpa (but in first year under grad) looked at equally to me right?

I should have applied a couple years back in first year when my GPA was 6.5 regrets man

Also can someone also explain the tiers of rurality. Like RA 1 , RA 2, etc

Thanks guys. Really appreciate the help.

 

[Crow]

Do they look at whether someone has finished an entire degree with or just the GPA?

Because I've done my whole med sci degree now with a 6.2 which I was told converts to an OP of 2. Someone with a 7 Gpa (but in first year under grad) looked at equally to me right?

No, as long as you have at least 1FTE year of study I believe one’s GPA would be looked at the same as someone with a completed degree (but if there was a tiebreaker between two non-standards then the one with the completed degree would presumably be given the place offer). For the purposes of entry into JCU medicine your GPA won’t be converted into an OP or ATAR, as you’re in a separate applicant pool to school-leavers; the conversion would only happen for courses where you are competing for positions with other school-leavers.

Also can someone also explain the tiers of rurality. Like RA 1 , RA 2, etc

Applicants can be categorised according to where they have lived (or in the case of JCU, where they went to school). An RA-1 applicant is someone who has lived in a metropolitan area for the majority of their life, an RA-2 applicant has lived in an inner regional area for 5 years consecutively or 10 years cumulatively, RA-3 = outer regional, RA-4 = rural, RA-5 = remote. RA ratings are assigned by the government based on the population size of the area; less populated = more rural/remote.

JCU applies a formula for place offers of rurality x ATAR + interview score to rank applicants for selection, so that an RA-5 applicant has a greater chance of selection than an RA-4 applicant, who has a better chance than an RA-3 applicant etc. (This makes sense as someone who has lived remotely for a significant portion of their life is much more likely to work rurally/remotely once they’ve graduated and thus address the country’s workforce distribution issues - this aligns with JCU’s mission as a medical school).

You can use this site to check a location’s RA-classification: DoctorConnect - Locator

 

[Jason990090]

No, as long as you have at least 1FTE year of study I believe one’s GPA would be looked at the same as someone with a completed degree (but if there was a tiebreaker between two non-standards then the one with the completed degree would presumably be given the place offer). For the purposes of entry into JCU medicine your GPA won’t be converted into an OP or ATAR, as you’re in a separate applicant pool to school-leavers; the conversion would only happen for courses where you are competing for positions with other school-leavers.

Applicants can be categorised according to where they have lived (or in the case of JCU, where they went to school). An RA-1 applicant is someone who has lived in a metropolitan area for the majority of their life, an RA-2 applicant has lived in an inner regional area for 5 years consecutively or 10 years cumulatively, RA-3 = outer regional, RA-4 = rural, RA-5 = remote. RA ratings are assigned by the government based on the population size of the area; less populated = more rural/remote.

JCU applies a formula for place offers of rurality x ATAR + interview score to rank applicants for selection, so that an RA-5 applicant has a greater chance of selection than an RA-4 applicant, who has a better chance than an RA-3 applicant etc. (This makes sense as someone who has lived remotely for a significant portion of their life is much more likely to work rurally/remotely once they’ve graduated and thus address the country’s workforce distribution issues - this aligns with JCU’s mission as a medical school).

You can use this site to check a location’s RA-classification: DoctorConnect - Locator

cheers mate, really helpful. Are you a current student at JCU or a graduate?

 

[Crow]

cheers mate, really helpful. Are you a current student at JCU or a graduate?

I’m not a student at JCU - I just interviewed there last year. I’ll be starting medicine at a different uni in January after going through the graduate entry pathway.

 

[MedBrun]

I’m not a student at JCU - I just interviewed there last year. I’ll be starting medicine in January after going through the graduate entry pathway.

Starting Medicine at JCU?

 

[DrDrLMG!]

Starting Medicine at JCU?

JCU don’t have a graduate entry pathway. Just school leaver and non-standard.

 

[Jason1112]

i got an offer for engineering which i wanna use as a plan b, but only have 10 days to accept it, but i wanna wait and see if jcu will take me which wont be known till the 16th, what do i do? defer the engineering offer or? can i accept then decline later?

 

[DrDrLMG!]

i got an offer for engineering which i wanna use as a plan b, but only have 10 days to accept it, but i wanna wait and see if jcu will take me which wont be known till the 16th, what do i do? defer the engineering offer or? can i accept then decline later?

Accept your engineering offer. As long as you decline before census date, you will not have to worry (though best to decline as soon as you can so the next person in line can get your engi offer if/when you get your JCU one). Best of luck.

 

[Jason1112]

Accept your engineering offer. As long as you decline before census date, you will not have to worry (though best to decline as soon as you can so the next person in line can get your engi offer if/when you get your JCU one). Best of luck.

is the census date after jan 16th?

 

[DrDrLMG!]

is the census date after jan 16th?

Yes, it’s after semester has started.

 

[Jason1112]

can you have more then one scholarship at jcu? and can you apply every year for a scholarship if you missed out on the closing date? e.g deans scholarship

 

[DrDrLMG!]

can you have more then one scholarship at jcu? and can you apply every year for a scholarship if you missed out on the closing date? e.g deans scholarship

You'd need to read the conditions of the specific scholarship. Some will be for school leavers only, which would rule you out of applying once you had a tertiary study record. The conditions will likely be listed on JCU's scholarship page.