• Welcome to MSO!
    We are an online community for current and prospective medical, dental and allied health students and early career professionals from Australia and New Zealand.

    Please read: About MSO | Annual Welcome and Important Information | MSO Rules

    Quick Links To Forums
    Tests/Interviews: UCAT | GAMSAT | Interviews
    Entrance Discussion: Graduate Medicine | Undergraduate Medicine | Dentistry

  • Register with us

    Please consider registering on MSO. Benefits of registering are:
    • Able to post and participate in the forum
    • After 10 posts: Private Message Other Users
    • After 25 posts: Access to the Chatbox
    • After 100 posts: Custom user titles and Ad-free experience

    If you would like to get involved with MSO or have ideas, suggestions, comments, criticisms or other feedback please Contact Us

Non-standard Medicine Entry

Hanna.S said:
Thanks for your help! So if I achieve a GPA of 6 or higher and a competitive UCAT is it possible to get into an Australian Med school?
Click to expand...

As a non-standard applicant with two years FTE under your belt, you’re eligible to apply to JMP, WSU, UNSW, JCU, and Bond.

A GPA of 6 or slightly above would definitely be competitive for JMP and Bond, and possibly for WSU and JCU.

Bond would further depend on your financial situation (as it’s VERY expensive). No UCAT used.
JCU would further depend on your written application. No UCAT used.
UNSW would also take into consideration your ATAR (50/50 with GPA). Generally speaking you’d be wanting a GPA between 6.50-7.00 to maintain competitiveness for UNSW (assuming you’re not rural, and have a high ATAR).
 
LMG! said:
As a non-standard applicant with two years FTE under your belt, you’re eligible to apply to JMP, WSU, UNSW, JCU, and Bond.

A GPA of 6 or slightly above would definitely be competitive for JMP and Bond, and possibly for WSU and JCU.

Bond would further depend on your financial situation (as it’s VERY expensive). No UCAT used.
JCU would further depend on your written application. No UCAT used.
UNSW would also take into consideration your ATAR (50/50 with GPA). Generally speaking you’d be wanting a GPA between 6.50-7.00 to maintain competitiveness for UNSW (assuming you’re not rural, and have a high ATAR).
Click to expand...
Thankyou so much! Will try and apply to all of them :)
 
Jenga118 said:
Just wondering, do non-standards apply via TACs?

Because I was wondering whether they would be included in the first round offer statistics from tisc, for Curtin Medicine.

Or would it only be people from the equity or rural pathway?

TISCOnline - Application and Offer Statistics - 2019/2020

www.tisc.edu.au www.tisc.edu.au
Click to expand...
Yes, non-standards apply via TACs as well. Not sure if non-standards would be included in first round offers though. Looking at the link you provided, it seems so to me.
 
Jenga118 said:
Just wondering, do non-standards apply via TACs?

Because I was wondering whether they would be included in the first round offer statistics from tisc, for Curtin Medicine.

Or would it only be people from the equity or rural pathway?

TISCOnline - Application and Offer Statistics - 2019/2020

www.tisc.edu.au www.tisc.edu.au
Click to expand...

Iirc TKAO received an email from Curtin saying WA-applicant offers will only be released in late January. Although it didn't explain I believe the reason is Curtin wants to wait until after the interstate interviews (21-22 Jan) then make offers together, so that both local/interstate are subject to the same offer cutoff.

A further interpretation from that is Curtin accepts rural applicants from WA only. They don't need to wait for comparison against interstate interviewees so their offers were released in the TISC Dec round. The stats show 34 offers with 25 WACE + 9 non-WACE, I read that as 25 WA rural Y12s plus 9 WA rural non-standards or Curtin course switchers.
 
A1 said:
Iirc TKAO received an email from Curtin saying WA-applicant offers will only be released in late January. Although it didn't explain I believe the reason is Curtin wants to wait until after the interstate interviews (21-22 Jan) then make offers together, so that both local/interstate are subject to the same offer cutoff.

A further interpretation from that is Curtin accepts rural applicants from WA only. They don't need to wait for comparison against interstate interviewees so their offers were released in the TISC Dec round. The stats show 34 offers with 25 WACE + 9 non-WACE, I read that as 25 WA rural Y12s plus 9 WA rural non-standards or Curtin course switchers.
Click to expand...
Can confirm that yea. Just food for thought: is it possible that Curtin considers its course switchers as mature aged entrants? Because if so, then they would be considered as WACE applicants according to TISC (right at the top of the page it says: 2019 WACE Students: includes mature age and school leaver applicants.). This would however mean that in order to be a curtin course switcher, one would need to apply through TISC and I don't know anyone who has experience in Curtin's course switching system.
 
TKAO said:
Can confirm that yea. Just food for thought: is it possible that Curtin considers its course switchers as mature aged entrants? Because if so, then they would be considered as WACE applicants according to TISC (right at the top of the page it says: 2019 WACE Students: includes mature age and school leaver applicants.). This would however mean that in order to be a curtin course switcher, one would need to apply through TISC and I don't know anyone who has experience in Curtin's course switching system.
Click to expand...

If you take the whole term 2019 WACE it means the mature age must have done some subjects and got their WACE in 2019. If so then the Curtin course switchers wouldn't be categorised as 2019 WACE.
 
A1 said:
Iirc TKAO received an email from Curtin saying WA-applicant offers will only be released in late January. Although it didn't explain I believe the reason is Curtin wants to wait until after the interstate interviews (21-22 Jan) then make offers together, so that both local/interstate are subject to the same offer cutoff.

A further interpretation from that is Curtin accepts rural applicants from WA only. They don't need to wait for comparison against interstate interviewees so their offers were released in the TISC Dec round. The stats show 34 offers with 25 WACE + 9 non-WACE, I read that as 25 WA rural Y12s plus 9 WA rural non-standards or Curtin course switchers.
Click to expand...

Yes, that is correct - Curtin detail it (the changed dates for offers and reasons) on their website for 2020 applicants.

https://study.curtin.edu.au/wp-cont.../TISC-2020-Critical-Information-Summaryv3.pdf
 
TKAO said:
Only 'rural applicants, equity applicants and Curtin course switcher applicants ' got offers in the 23rd of December, the rest will get offers in Jan.
Click to expand...
Yes, that's what they advised in that particular notice.
(And January being the 31st)
 
Jenga118 said:
So if the offers by Curtin are direct, my preferencing of TISC is irrelevant?
Click to expand...
As I understand it yes. This is because they will still send you an offer, even if you already accepted another offer through TISC. Since once you accept an offer through TISC, TISC will no longer send you another offer, it must mean that Curtin is sending it directly to you making TISC preferencing irrelevant.
 
qwerty1234 said:
Hey guys! Thought I'd create a thread for us uni students who are hoping to do med next year. As we're a minority, it'd be good for us to have a space to ask questions about applications and stuff. To my understanding, the only undergraduate universities that take non-school leavers are:
- UNSW
- WSU
- JMP
- JCU
- Bond
- Curtin (for Curtin students only + grads elsewhere)
- UTAS (for current UTAS BMedRes students only)

Feel free to introduce yourself with what course you're studying, atar/gpa, umat and what your plan of action is to get into med next year! Also if you have any questions this is a good place to put them.

(Edited by A1 : Deleted UTAS as no longer available and clarified Curtin. Re-edited because UTAS do take uni students, but only from their own BMedRes degree, which might be some people here).
(Also edited by LMG to change title to Non-standard in an attempt to standardise our terminology, and added undergraduate to first paragraph because there are many graduate entry universities not included here).
Click to expand...

I hope this is the right thread to post on :/

I have just finished my Masters with a fairly disappointing GPA of 5.

For arguments sake, let’s say I do really well on the UCAT. Which unis are my best options or are likely to accept me with such a GPA ?
Have any of you been able to get a spot with a similar GPA as a postgrad/non standard stream?
I’m in QLD but happy to live anywhere that will have me.
 
TT89 said:
I hope this is the right thread to post on :/

I have just finished my Masters with a fairly disappointing GPA of 5.

For arguments sake, let’s say I do really well on the UCAT. Which unis are my best options or are likely to accept me with such a GPA ?
Have any of you been able to get a spot with a similar GPA as a postgrad/non standard stream?
I’m in QLD but happy to live anywhere that will have me.
Click to expand...

Was yours a masters by research or by coursework? For WSU it will make a difference, it appears they have no minimum GPA requirement for a completed masters by research, but unfortunately they require a 5.4 GPA for completed masters by coursework.
In NSW, for undergrad I know that JMP (Newcastle/New England) will gladly accept you with a 5 GPA as a non-standard, so long as you get 90%ile+ in the UCAT and perform well in the interview. They focus heavily on the interview so its a good option for you. UNSW has extremely high academic standards for its applicants unfortunately, so it may not be a valid option for you. For other undergraduate schools around Australia, I'm not sure.
 
bigyikes said:
Was yours a masters by research or by coursework? For WSU it will make a difference, it appears they have no minimum GPA requirement for a completed masters by research, but unfortunately they require a 5.4 GPA for completed masters by coursework.
In NSW, for undergrad I know that JMP (Newcastle/New England) will gladly accept you with a 5 GPA as a non-standard, so long as you get 90%ile+ in the UCAT and perform well in the interview. They focus heavily on the interview so its a good option for you. UNSW has extremely high academic standards for its applicants unfortunately, so it may not be a valid option for you. For other undergraduate schools around Australia, I'm not sure.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your response.
Masters by coursework unfortunately.
im from QLD and if was your look to sit the UCAT this year and apply to Unis like JMP but also include other Unis around Australia that accept UCAT for non standards, do I still apply directly to these Unis when they open enrollment or is therea different process? I understand UCAT registration opens in March and test starts July 1st but when do you apply for Unis with preferences?
I’m all sorts of confused 😐
 
Last edited by a moderator:
TT89 said:
im from QLD and if was your look to sit the UCAT this year and apply to Unis like JMP but also include other Unis around Australia that accept UCAT for non standards, do I still apply directly to these Unis when they open enrollment or is therea different process?
Click to expand...

Normally you would apply to the TAC (UAC, QTAC etc) for all med schools in a state, however in your case it's very limited. As non-standard you are eligible to specifically five schools JCU JMP WSU UNSW Curtin (I never include Bond as a viable option), but GPA 5.0 practically rules out all except JMP. There may be a small chance with Curtin with a top UCAT score but I'm not really sure.
 
A1 said:
Normally you would apply to the TAC (UAC, QTAC etc) for all med schools in a state, however in your case it's very limited. As non-standard you are eligible to specifically five schools JCU JMP WSU UNSW Curtin (I never include Bond as a viable option), but GPA 5.0 practically rules out all except JMP. There may be a small chance with Curtin with a top UCAT score but I'm not really sure.
Click to expand...
Thank you 🙏
 
TT89 said:
Thank you for your response.
Masters by coursework unfortunately.
im from QLD and if was your look to sit the UCAT this year and apply to Unis like JMP but also include other Unis around Australia that accept UCAT for non standards, do I still apply directly to these Unis when they open enrollment or is therea different process? I understand UCAT registration opens in March and test starts July 1st but when do you apply for Unis with preferences?
I’m all sorts of confused 😐
Click to expand...
I just remembered that if you're willing to down the postgrad pathway and do the GAMSAT, Sydney University will consider you, given they only use GPA as a hurdle, so long as you have a 5 GPA, they will rank you purely on GAMSAT score and interview performance.
 
This post has been written on behalf of someone I know:

“I’m embarking on an undergraduate degree in Engineering this year 2020 and would like to apply as a non-standard undergraduate applicant for medicine in 2021. I’m new to the process and am only armed with the knowledge that one has to prepare for the UCAT. I will be applying under the Rural Entry Scheme. I am non-indigenous. I am Australian. My ATAR is 95.
Could someone on the forum offer to outline my options?
I also have learned today from the web that I have to apply as a current student with UAC & also apply directly to the varied medical schools. When does this take place?
Also, is the GAMSAT required?
If someone has been through this process and could offer some advice, I would appreciate it. Thank you.”
 
Eleanor Rigby said:
This post has been written on behalf of someone I know:

“I’m embarking on an undergraduate degree in Engineering this year 2020 and would like to apply as a non-standard undergraduate applicant for medicine in 2021. I’m new to the process and am only armed with the knowledge that one has to prepare for the UCAT. I will be applying under the Rural Entry Scheme. I am non-indigenous. I am Australian. My ATAR is 95.
Could someone on the forum offer to outline my options?
I also have learned today from the web that I have to apply as a current student with UAC & also apply directly to the varied medical schools. When does this take place?
Also, is the GAMSAT required?
If someone has been through this process and could offer some advice, I would appreciate it. Thank you.”
Click to expand...

Has the person in question actually looked at the forums here? All this information (plus so much more) is outlined here in detail over and over again, including by people who have been through the process and have already offered advice. Starting by reading though this thread would be useful.
 
bigyikes said:
I just remembered that if you're willing to down the postgrad pathway and do the GAMSAT, Sydney University will consider you, given they only use GPA as a hurdle, so long as you have a 5 GPA, they will rank you purely on GAMSAT score and interview performance.
Click to expand...
Yeah I’m sitting both so fingers crossed at least one of them gets me over the line. Thank you.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top