Non-standard Medicine Entry

[DrDrLMG!]

Thanks for adding this info.
It doesn't help Bindy though since ATAR is hurdle at JMP and Bindy is already way higher than needed.

Out of interest, if someone repeats subjects are the new grades used regardless or is it the best over the two attempts? Is it possible to drop down in ATAR by repeating subjects?

 

[Rei]

It is possible, coming from an accelerated student. They do not take best of 2 courses the most recent one is taken into consideration. Someone from my school dropped their biology marks from 94 to 92.

 

[A1]

Out of interest, if someone repeats subjects are the new grades used regardless or is it the best over the two attempts? Is it possible to drop down in ATAR by repeating subjects?

It depends which state. Iirc Vic & WA use "best of" for repeats, NSW use most recent.

You can safeguard against NSW's most recent by doing a different subject rather than repeat, since if it's lower than the current lowest subject marks it won't be part of the best 4, if higher it automatically displaces the lowest. That said, I'm optimistic that repeating a subject is easier plus doing just one/two subjects a year they should have more study time to improve.

There's also a risk of a lower ATAR even with the same aggregate marks if next year's cohort perform better than this year's. A bit like 2820 for UCAT 90%ile this year but 2840 next year. But this ATAR variation should be quite small.

 

[jinjja21]

Hi guys, I got an ATAR of 99.65 and unfortunately, my UCAT wasn't competitive enough. I'm from SA and due to the mathematic scheme at uni sa, I received some bonus points which bumped my selection rank to 99.95. I am looking towards undergraduate entry and hence due to my poor UCAT score, I have to take a gap year and give it a second round or I could enrol into health and medical science at adl uni and try internal transfer into their med course.

I am having a bit of a hard time making my decision as I have received an email from uni sa that I meet all the requirements to their medical imaging course which is also pretty competitive to get into. However, studying medicine was my long goal and I want to make the best possible decision without any regrets and I fear that my second round at UCAT wouldn't turn out alright.

I currently have two choices in mind.

1. do health and med sci at Adelaide uni and seek internal transfer AND also apply as non standard entry to uni such as (JMP, JCU, WSU, UNSW)
2. do medical imaging and apply as non standard entry to unis mentioned above

If anyone had any experience with non standard entry, I would extremely appreciate it if you could share your experience

Thank you so much in advance

 

[DrDrLMG!]

Hi guys, I got an ATAR of 99.65 and unfortunately, my UCAT wasn't competitive enough. I'm from SA and due to the mathematic scheme at uni sa, I received some bonus points which bumped my selection rank to 99.95. I am looking towards undergraduate entry and hence due to my poor UCAT score, I have to take a gap year and give it a second round or I could enrol into health and medical science at adl uni and try internal transfer into their med course.

I am having a bit of a hard time making my decision as I have received an email from uni sa that I meet all the requirements to their medical imaging course which is also pretty competitive to get into. However, studying medicine was my long goal and I want to make the best possible decision without any regrets and I fear that my second round at UCAT wouldn't turn out alright.

I currently have two choices in mind.

1. do health and med sci at Adelaide uni and seek internal transfer AND also apply as non standard entry to uni such as (JMP, JCU, WSU, UNSW)
2. do medical imaging and apply as non standard entry to unis mentioned above

If anyone had any experience with non standard entry, I would extremely appreciate it if you could share your experience

Thank you so much in advance

Of medical imaging and medical science (not medicine, but any other career stemming from medical science), which would be your preference?

Also, given you’ve limited yourself to the two options, does this mean you are ruling out the gap year possibility?

I am a non-standard student about to start fourth year. I was extremely fortunate to receive multiple non-standard offers, but there are many who don’t and end up completing their undergrad degree, which is why I asked that first question.

If you did start(/finish) imaging, I can confirm it would be a very useful and practical precursor to Med, should you eventually land an offer! It would also seem to be a pretty decent career in its own right.

And don’t forget you’re not just limited to non-standard schools. Once(/if) you complete an undergrad degree, all the graduate entry places open up to you, plus Curtin non-standard (and UTAS non-standard will also be up and running by then, adding another ~12 places into the mix). In fact, UTAS non-standard will be up and running by the second year of your degree if you start one.

Do you have a preference for which state you’d like to study/work in, or would you accept an offer anywhere in the country (knowing this would likely, though not definitely, also be the location of your intern year)?

Lots to think about, but it seems like you’re in a great position re. back ups and even by asking these kinds of questions. Good luck with your decision making!!

** I should clarify that I’m a non-standard with a completed degree but I didn’t even contemplate applying to Med until several years after I completed my undergrad so I’m in a slightly different boat.

 

[jinjja21]

Of medical imaging and medical science (not medicine, but any other career stemming from medical science), which would be your preference?

Also, given you’ve limited yourself to the two options, does this mean you are ruling out the gap year possibility?

I am a non-standard student about to start fourth year. I was extremely fortunate to receive multiple non-standard offers, but there are many who don’t and end up completing their undergrad degree, which is why I asked that first question.

If you did start(/finish) imaging, I can confirm it would be a very useful and practical precursor to Med, should you eventually land an offer! It would also seem to be a pretty decent career in its own right.

And don’t forget you’re not just limited to non-standard schools. Once(/if) you complete an undergrad degree, all the graduate entry places open up to you, plus Curtin non-standard (and UTAS non-standard will also be up and running by then, adding another ~12 places into the mix). In fact, UTAS non-standard will be up and running by the second year of your degree if you start one.

Do you have a preference for which state you’d like to study/work in, or would you accept an offer anywhere in the country (knowing this would likely, though not definitely, also be the location of your intern year)?

Lots to think about, but it seems like you’re in a great position re. back ups and even by asking these kinds of questions. Good luck with your decision making!!

** I should clarify that I’m a non-standard with a completed degree but I didn’t even contemplate applying to Med until several years after I completed my undergrad so I’m in a slightly different boat.

Thank you so much for the response!

I read on the adl uni website that they reserve at least 10 spots for health and medsci students to transfer into med which seems promising for me and hence the reason why this became the major branch of my option. However, not receiving an offer for internal transfer is still a possibility and in this case, I will have to seek other med schools that accept non standard entry and this also may not go well. Out of the 2 degrees (health and med sci VS med imaging), I am more interested in med imaging and I am ONLY considering health and med sci due to the 10 spot benefit.

I am also considering of enrolling into health and med sci, try internal transfer and IF it goes well, I'll get into adl med BUT if it fails, I was thinking of transferring into uni sa med imaging. I also completed two courses at adl uni with a grade of D and HD through the headstart program so there would be a less workload for me if I select health and med sci.

I had a look at the collated offers into med and I saw that there wasn't much offer received from non standard entrance so I was guessing that unis are more picky(?) and less favourable of non standard entry which is the main reason that I'm worried about doing med imaging.

Also, I just realised I made an error in my previous post. the 99.65 was through UES and I forgot to mention it. I really apologise.
Due to this reason, gap year is not an option for me as my raw ATAR is pretty low at 97.

 

[DrDrLMG!]

It probably seems like there’s not many non-standard offers reported but that’s really a reflection of the (relatively) few places on offer compared to school leaver places.

WSU (historically) and JMP traditionally offer more places to non-standard applicants than school leavers, and the yearly cohorts are routinely skewed towards non-standard applicants. This is likely due to the added perspective Uni and other life experiences beyond year 12 provide and the flow-on benefit of this on interview performance.

The 10 places on offer for UAdel is a tiny portion of the total number of people competing for them. Your odds are not very favourable and I personally wouldn’t be putting that ahead of a degree that I was really interested in as a back up career (others may have a different opinion).

 

[jinjja21]

It probably seems like there’s not many non-standard offers reported but that’s really a reflection of the (relatively) few places on offer compared to school leaver places.

WSU (historically) and JMP traditionally offer more places to non-standard applicants than school leavers, and the yearly cohorts are routinely skewed towards non-standard applicants. This is likely due to the added perspective Uni and other life experiences beyond year 12 provide and the flow-on benefit of this on interview performance.

The 10 places on offer for UAdel is a tiny portion of the total number of people competing for them. Your odds are not very favourable and I personally wouldn’t be putting that ahead of a degree that I was really interested in as a back up career (others may have a different opinion).

I havent completed chemistry. Does this mean that I have to meet the chemistry pre req for the university during my first year of medical imaging?

 

[Goldilocks]

What kind of GPA would be needed to be competitive for UNSW with a 97.55 ATAR? (Provided good UCAT score).

 

[DrDrLMG!]

I havent completed chemistry. Does this mean that I have to meet the chemistry pre req for the university during my first year of medical imaging?

I’m not sure which uni you’re referring to but yes, if you’ve not done Chemistry and it’s a pre-requisite, you will need to complete a suitable unit or foundation course. You should conte t the uni directly to find out exactly what they need if you’re going to do it as a bridging course as they all seem to require slightly different things. When I was applying, the bridging course I did was fine for UTAS but not for JCU as an example.

 

[DrDrLMG!]

What kind of GPA would be needed to be competitive for UNSW with a 97.55 ATAR? (Provided good UCAT score).

We don’t make these kinds of predictions based on multiple hypotheticals as it’s ultimately meaningless. UNSW themselves proved that this year by significantly changing up their admissions procedure and we are yet to see how it plays out. Once you’ve sat UCAT next year, we will open a thread dedicated specifically to answering these questions, but we don’t do it this far out and with so many unknowns in the picture.

 

[aw190702]

Would I be able to apply to non-standard unis with an incomplete Bachelor of Physiotherapy (honours)? I have found information regarding bachelor degrees without honours, however not sure what the rule is with honours degrees. TIA

 

[bamber g]

Would I be able to apply to non-standard unis with an incomplete Bachelor of Physiotherapy (honours)? I have found information regarding bachelor degrees without honours, however not sure what the rule is with honours degrees. TIA

Yes you can! I’m currently doing a B. Med health sciences with honours and I applied this year. Some unis have requirements for how many units are needed ie 0.75 full time year equivalent or 1 FTE though.

 

[Crow]

Would I be able to apply to non-standard unis with an incomplete Bachelor of Physiotherapy (honours)?

Yes. The embedded honours thing has no bearing on non-standard entry, though if you go via graduate entry then different unis will calculate your GPA differently.

 

[Rei]

I was reading that interview offers for UNSW were sent to best of ATAR/GPA



However they still have 50 50 atar: gpa on their website. I am a bit confused about this

 

[deadazzz]

I was reading that interview offers for UNSW were sent to best of ATAR/GPA

View attachment 4285

However they still have 50 50 atar: gpa on their website. I am a bit confused about this

Just a question, where did you read that interviews were based on best of system? Thanks!

 

[A1]

However they still have 50 50 atar: gpa on their website. I am a bit confused about this

That 50:50 page has existed and been used up to last year.

This year we see this new page > Selection For Interview | Medicine - UNSW Sydney

"Applicants who have completed an equivalent of 0.75 FTE (full time equivalent) or more tertiary study, will be assessed for admission to medicine on either their tertiary study results OR their ATAR (or equivalent)".

 

[deadazzz]

That 50:50 page has existed and been used up to last year.

This year we see this new page > Selection For Interview | Medicine - UNSW Sydney

"Applicants who have completed an equivalent of 0.75 FTE (full time equivalent) or more tertiary study, will be assessed for admission to medicine on either their tertiary study results OR their ATAR (or equivalent)".

for admission, does this mean if you already got an interview, now if your tertiary results are higher than your atar, you atar no longer matter but rather it is a combination of gpa + interview + ucat? sorry if this doesn't make sense

 

[A1]

for admission, does this mean if you already got an interview, now if your tertiary results are higher than your atar, you atar no longer matter but rather it is a combination of gpa + interview + ucat?

Yes, GPA + UCAT + Interview except since you compete in the same pool they need to convert your GPA to an ATAR Rank (for direct comparison against school leavers). See the conversion table in this post
> Non-standard Medicine Entry

i.e. Previously UAC converted GPA to an ATAR Rank then combined 50:50 with ATAR. Now convert then use best of.

 

[deadazzz]

Yes, GPA + UCAT + Interview except since you compete in the same pool they need to convert your GPA to an ATAR Rank (for direct comparison against school leavers). See the conversion table in this post
> Non-standard Medicine Entry

i.e. Previously UAC converted GPA to an ATAR Rank then combined 50:50 with ATAR. Now convert then use best of.

sorry just to clarify, I'm slightly confused because I saw previously some people who had atars lower than 93 (minimum for combined to be above 96), got an interview due to high GPA. Does this mean that, now, their ATAR also now don't matter as they already received an interview, and their gpa + ucat + interview is being used?