Hey everyone, I graduated from high school a while ago and am about to complete my bachelor's degree next year. I was considering applying to medicine in Australia. I know I could have written the GAMSAT exam and apply to postgrad programs but I was unable to write the GAMSAT exam. However, I am writing the UCAT exam, if anyone has any information on what universities I can apply to and how grading works, please let me know. Thanks!
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Non-standard Medicine Entry
- Thread starter qwerty1234
- Start date
Given you’ve specified ‘in Australia’, I just wanted to check whether you’re a local/domestic applicant or an International student...
Also: look here to answer your questions...
NZ and Aus Entry Pathways to Medicine
What pathways to Medicine are available in Australia and New Zealand?
medstudentsonline.com.au
[Undergrad] - (2023 Updated) Med schools Selection Criteria Y12s & Non-standards
Hi - Welcome to MSO. Join us and post up your questions you'll get lots more useful tips than just from this table. __________________________________________________________ Hope this helps sort out the different requirements to get an undergrad/provisional Medicine place in Aus. For dentistry...
medstudentsonline.com.au
I'm from New Zealand, so I think I'm a domestic student. Also, thanks for the links!
Michelle Soo
Member
Hi everyone,
First of all thanks for everyone who offers their time and effort into answering these questions. I truly appreciate your help. (I looked around the website and I cant find the answer to this which is why i am asking here.)
My background
Briefly - I got a "bad" ATAR (around 90) in 2018 and also a bad UCAT score (63) that same year. I decided to do the typical med science route and did Pre-medicine at the university of Wollongong in 2019. However - I absolutely bombed that year. I didn't have any interest in uni in my last semester as my sister passed away in the middle of this year, it was just a lot to handle at once. I failed 2 subjects and barely passed the rest. I couldn't defer. In addition travelling from my house in north west Sydney to Wollongong was mentally and physically draining. I couldn't do it for another year so I changed my degree.
I have now begun Health Science at Western Sydney (2020) - and I really enjoy this degree. I am doing a lot better in terms of mental health and so my marks have really been improving a lot this year. I am averaging around D/HD's mostly.
My question is this: Will universities count my low Pre-Med GPA as well as my high Health Sci GPA (therefore bringing down my GPA total)
Or will they only look at the prior year of study to calculate GPA.
Many thanks for your help.
First of all thanks for everyone who offers their time and effort into answering these questions. I truly appreciate your help. (I looked around the website and I cant find the answer to this which is why i am asking here.)
My background
Briefly - I got a "bad" ATAR (around 90) in 2018 and also a bad UCAT score (63) that same year. I decided to do the typical med science route and did Pre-medicine at the university of Wollongong in 2019. However - I absolutely bombed that year. I didn't have any interest in uni in my last semester as my sister passed away in the middle of this year, it was just a lot to handle at once. I failed 2 subjects and barely passed the rest. I couldn't defer. In addition travelling from my house in north west Sydney to Wollongong was mentally and physically draining. I couldn't do it for another year so I changed my degree.
I have now begun Health Science at Western Sydney (2020) - and I really enjoy this degree. I am doing a lot better in terms of mental health and so my marks have really been improving a lot this year. I am averaging around D/HD's mostly.
My question is this: Will universities count my low Pre-Med GPA as well as my high Health Sci GPA (therefore bringing down my GPA total)
Or will they only look at the prior year of study to calculate GPA.
Many thanks for your help.
Hello!
Firstly, I'm very sorry to hear about your sister's passing. Condolences from MSO to yourself and your family.
I think the answer to your questions is... it depends!
JMP will use the GPA from your most recent enrolment, so they will only consider your Health Sci GPA. WSU don't make it all that clear whether they use just the recent degree or a combo of all if you've done less than 3 years FTE. It would be worth an email to WSU to see how they would calculate things. I'm also not 100% sure how GPA is calculated at JCU, again, an email to them would be useful.
You can exclude UNSW from your calculations altogether due to your ATAR, unfortunately. They continue to factor it into your application at a 50:50 ratio with your GPA and yours is too low to ever be competitive.
All that said, this is NOT something you really need to focus too greatly on. It is not something you can change beyond what you have already done (switching degree and maintaining a D/HD average), either WSU and JCU will use it or they won't, and there's nothing you can do about it. All you can do, going forward, is prepare for UCAT (note: you mentioned you've done UCAT before, but you will actually have done UMAT in 2018, so the new exam is different and you should definitely have a look at how it is administered and what the content is), and keep up your grades.
Good luck!!
Michelle Soo I’ll echo LMG’s sentiment above: very sorry to hear about the passing of your sister. Trying to manage university studies at the same time would’ve been an incredibly difficult thing to go through, and I’m glad to hear you’re doing so well now in your current degree.
I’ll just add: if you’re considering graduate entry then your most recent three years of full time study will be considered - so, when you complete the health science degree the results from the initial pre-med degree won’t be included.
And, of course your degree choice is completely up to you, but I feel I should link this post to you anyway:Common pitfalls to avoid for year 12 school leavers and other medicine applicants
You’re in a good position in that you’ve only just started your new degree and the credits would likely be transferable if you did choose to transfer to something else.
I’ll just add: if you’re considering graduate entry then your most recent three years of full time study will be considered - so, when you complete the health science degree the results from the initial pre-med degree won’t be included.
And, of course your degree choice is completely up to you, but I feel I should link this post to you anyway:Common pitfalls to avoid for year 12 school leavers and other medicine applicants
You’re in a good position in that you’ve only just started your new degree and the credits would likely be transferable if you did choose to transfer to something else.
Michelle Soo
Member
Thanks guys, this is really helpful.
I will be sitting the UCAT this year and so its reassuring at JMP may consider the GPA without pre-med dragging it down. I will enquire about WSU and update this thread for others' reference. If UCAT doesn't work out I will continue this degree and look at other options including perhaps graduate entry.
It's reassuring to have a supportive and knowledgable group of people such as yourselves to help clear these things out. Many thanks to you both!
Just to reiterate, JMP will definitely only use your current degree. Score around or above a credit average and you don’t have to worry about GPA any further, it’ll all be down to UCAT to land yourself an interview there.
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As long as you haven't completed any degree, WSU will look at each of your tertiary enrolments (or ATAR) separately to see if any one of them meets the threshold.
If any of them does you've met this hurdle, though obviously still need UCAT and interview.
if you have actually completed a degree, WSU looks at this in preference to any incomplete studies.
(at least, this was what they did in 2019)
Edit: You have to have done at least 0.5 FTE in an enrolment for it to be considered - the threshold GPA starts at 6.5 for 0.5FTE and goes down the more of the degree you've done
If any of them does you've met this hurdle, though obviously still need UCAT and interview.
if you have actually completed a degree, WSU looks at this in preference to any incomplete studies.
(at least, this was what they did in 2019)
Edit: You have to have done at least 0.5 FTE in an enrolment for it to be considered - the threshold GPA starts at 6.5 for 0.5FTE and goes down the more of the degree you've done
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Michelle Soo
I'm adding to this info that you need to complete a full year of study load (1FTE) this year. Less than 1FTE JMP will use your previous GPA. If previous was also less than 1FTE they revert back to ATAR which isn't enough in your case.
Michelle Soo
Member
You can apply to a select few medical schools in the UK. I'm not entirely sure of the requirements to do so, but you can check the UCAT ANZ website for more information. Also to note, when you apply to UK medical schools, you apply through UCAS (equivalent of TISC/VTAC/UAC etc.) and also these unis tend to use personal statements as well so be properly prepared for that.
errandpanda
Lurker
hi! im a 2019 hs graduate who is currently study psychology at unsw and i graduated with an atar of 92 (eas due to family circumstances) and i have a hd wam right now - just wondering whether I have any chance of getting into med at uws, unsw or jmp as a non school leaver with my low atar as i understand some unis still use atar
Very nice WAM
with regards to your chances, UNSW will be out of reach even with EAS. You need a minimum of 93 ATAR to even be considered (realistically you’d need at least 99+ for a chance with a near top UCAT mark).
WSU and JMP yes yes yes you’re in the running for that. these unis take your GPA rather than WAM. Judging by your HD WAM, youd definitely satisfy the GPA requirements for JMP (4.7+) and the WSU requirement (5.5+ for non GWS applicant/5.2+ for GWS applicant).
*EDIT: See LMG’s message below for the correct GPA requirement for WSU*
for JMP, the cut off for interview was 90%ile UCAT and WSU was kind of funny as we don’t know how they use the marks. See the thread on interview invites from last year to see if you can figure out what WSU did to invite applicants! What we know so far is that they heavily weigh VR.
question: have you considered grad entry Med?
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Given you’re in first year, the GPA requirements for WSU are slightly higher than suggested to you above.
6.4 if you do 1 FTE semester
6.2 if you do 1 FTE year
Ohh my bad! I read the word ‘graduate’ and didn’t read high school after that!! VR skim reading has permanently ruined me
Yep Panda, LMG speaks the truth. my answer was given to you under the impression you were a university graduate. My bad
Hi guys,
I understand that one of the requirements that all of the non-standards have, with the exception of WSU (?), is that they require 1 FTE of study in order to be eligible to apply.
I studied 5 units at OUA (6.8 GPA) in 2017 and 3 units at Monash (6 GPA) in 2019, giving me a total of 1 FTE. My question is, would any of the non-standards accept a combination of my studies in order to meet the 1 EFT requirement? I'd be looking at applying as a rural student. Also, I don't have an ATAR as I didn't finish Year 12.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
I understand that one of the requirements that all of the non-standards have, with the exception of WSU (?), is that they require 1 FTE of study in order to be eligible to apply.
I studied 5 units at OUA (6.8 GPA) in 2017 and 3 units at Monash (6 GPA) in 2019, giving me a total of 1 FTE. My question is, would any of the non-standards accept a combination of my studies in order to meet the 1 EFT requirement? I'd be looking at applying as a rural student. Also, I don't have an ATAR as I didn't finish Year 12.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
In general, applicants do not need 1FTE to be eligible for non-standard universities, as ATAR is used instead in these cases. However, given you’ve said you don’t have an ATAR, that complicates things for you.
Your best bet would be to contact the admissions offices of the unis you’re interested in directly to confirm as I don’t recall having anyone else in your position here in recent years.
JMP and JCU are probably your best bets, so you could start there with your enquiries. It would be worth asking WSU, too, I think. Though Bond and UNSW continue to use ATAR (for different lengths of time) even once you’ve started Uni so they might be out of reach.