Offers UTAS 2017 (Discussion)

[Stuart]

[offtopic]What?! Have you got an offer @LMG ?! I am so confused right now.[/offtopic]

 

[DrDrLMG!]

[offtopic]What?! Have you got an offer @LMG ?! I am so confused right now.[/offtopic]

I think the above person replied to the wrong comment. Nope, no offer. Yet!

 

[DrDrLMG!]

Congratulations on your offer!! Can I ask are you ATSI applicant?

Mal is rural but not ATSI, as far as I am aware.

 

[medicine666]

Mal is rural but not ATSI, as far as I am aware.

58% seems very low for an offer? I thought it was about 180 to be competitive?

 

[DrDrLMG!]

58% seems very low for an offer? I thought it was about 180 to be competitive?

Yeah, we are all somewhat puzzled by this, including Mal! At a guess, I'd say his written Rural Application Process answers were stand outs and his ATAR is pretty great!

 

[Stuart]

@LMG I see. For a moment, there was a sense of betrayal? abandonment? desertion? (or any other similar words) sprouting deep in my heart. I thought the crew would have known earlier if that was the case. Phew...

 

[mary poppins]

What we found out at open day was that there was very specific criteria in your rural application that they used to indicate the likelihood of you returning to a rural setting to practise medicine. They told us that if these were in your application it gave your application a degree of strength. One I remember was whether you rode horses. They have found that horse riders return to rural settings to keep their interest. Perhaps there are other such interests that give a rural application strength

 

[DrDrLMG!]

What we found out at open day was that there was very specific criteria in your rural application that they used to indicate the likelihood of you returning to a rural setting to practise medicine. They told us that if these were in your application it gave your application a degree of strength. One I remember was whether you rode horses. They have found that horse riders return to rural settings to keep their interest. Perhaps there are other such interests that give a rural application strength

Is this for the UTAS RAP? The three questions were all very 'being a doctor/studying medicine' specific. I have no idea how any of those three questions could involve an answer that included horse riding (for example).

 

[mary poppins]

Is this for the UTAS RAP? The three questions were all very 'being a doctor/studying medicine' specific. I have no idea how any of those three questions could involve an answer that included horse riding (for example).

Yes this was for the RAP. There would probably be a number of indicators they use (apart from the country pursuit of riding) . I cant remember the questions on the RAP but I guess it would be in interests or community involvement/sport. We just happened to mention horse riding that is why it came up.

 

[DrDrLMG!]

Yes this was for the RAP. There would probably be a number of indicators they use (apart from the country pursuit of riding) . I cant remember the questions on the RAP but I guess it would be in interests or community involvement/sport. We just happened to mention horse riding that is why it came up.

The questions were:
Why do you want to be a doctor?
How will being a doctor enable you to contribute to society?
What 3 personal characteristics do you have that enable you to be a good doctor?

Each had a tiny word limit.

I am still unsure how you'd work horse riding into one of those without it being a HUGE (and very reaching!) stretch!

 

[Stuart]

What we found out at open day was that there was very specific criteria in your rural application that they used to indicate the likelihood of you returning to a rural setting to practise medicine. They told us that if these were in your application it gave your application a degree of strength. One I remember was whether you rode horses. They have found that horse riders return to rural settings to keep their interest. Perhaps there are other such interests that give a rural application strength

Hi,

I find it very difficult to believe that they would give extra 'points' for indicating the interest in horse-riding. What about the applicants who have a great interest in horse-riding but failed to explicitly address it. Given the types of questions they give out (from what LMG said posted), I don't see much room to add in horse-riding in the application...

Please, prove me wrong if you will but I personally find it very difficult to understand.

 

[mary poppins]

The questions were:
Why do you want to be a doctor?
How will being a doctor enable you to contribute to society?
What 3 personal characteristics do you have that enable you to be a good doctor?

Each had a tiny word limit.

I am still unsure how you'd work horse riding into one of those without it being a HUGE (and very reaching!) stretch!

Just looked the application up. Knowing about the horse thing it was included under 3 personal characteristics .
resilience which was a characteristic we chose. Had to put the horse down and dealing with it etc.
I am not saying being interested in horses had any influence at all. I am just repeating what we were told on open day. Please dont hang me. We are all speculating.

 

[Stuart]

Just looked the application up. Knowing about the horse thing it was included under 3 personal characteristics .
resilience which was a characteristic we chose. Had to put the horse down and dealing with it etc.
I am not saying being interested in horses had any influence at all. I am just repeating what we were told on open day. Please dont hang me. We are all speculating.

I better sign up for horse-riding classes soon.

-edit-
We are not trying to hang you! (At least I am not. LMG...?).

 

[DrDrLMG!]

Hi,

I find it very difficult to believe that they would give extra 'points' for indicating the interest in horse-riding. What about the applicants who have a great interest in horse-riding but failed to explicitly address it. Given the types of questions they give out (from what LMG said posted), I don't see much room to add in horse-riding in the application...

Please, prove me wrong if you will but I personally find it very difficult to understand.

I wonder if this advice were more for year 12 students who may not have other life experiences to draw on to illustrate these points? I couldn't fathom foregoing talking about my professional experience in rural settings to mention something like horse riding instead (like I said, word limits were tiny). This is probably why yr 12s and non standards are not 'competing' against each other.

Mary, DEFINITELY not trying to hang you!! It was just such a left field thing to think would be a good addition

 

[Mal08]

Yeah, we are all somewhat puzzled by this, including Mal! At a guess, I'd say his written Rural Application Process answers were stand outs and his ATAR is pretty great!

I've been checking my eApplication everyday just in case this offer is some kind of mistake lol.

What we found out at open day was that there was very specific criteria in your rural application that they used to indicate the likelihood of you returning to a rural setting to practise medicine. They told us that if these were in your application it gave your application a degree of strength. One I remember was whether you rode horses. They have found that horse riders return to rural settings to keep their interest. Perhaps there are other such interests that give a rural application strength

This may be a huge factor for my offer. With the 'how will this enable you to contribute to your community' question I talked a lot about my experiences in rural settings (going to friends farms etc), the kinds of social attitude differences I found in these places as well as the disparity of medical care in rural locations and how becoming a doctor would allow me to address these issues and allow me to form better relationships with patients since I knew their lifestyle.


My application must definitely be the reason as to why I got an offer as there is no way that my UMAT would've got me a place normally.

 

[mary poppins]

I wonder if this advice were more for year 12 students who may not have other life experiences to draw on to illustrate these points? I couldn't fathom foregoing talking about my professional experience in rural settings to mention something like horse riding instead (like I said, word limits were tiny). This is probably why yr 12s and non standards are not 'competing' against each other.

Mary, DEFINITELY not trying to hang you!! It was just such a left field thing to think would be a good addition

Agreed. So many rural applications so many different questions. Your comments are valid. !
BTW the experience was true (not made up )and many year 12's dont have heaps of life experience to draw on unlike non-standards

 

[shamel]

Do you think that the rural panel would read a non-standard's normal application documentation? Like LMG, I interpreted the three rural questions to be very medicine specific so kept my answers very professionally-orientated. Whereas my CV is full of my rural experiences, including horses.

Ahhh resilience would have been a good one and I could have worked horses into that!! I changed clinics earlier in the year so that I could do more horse work and pretty much all I've achieved from this is having to euth more horses than dogs this year :'(

Potentially my application may have sounded somewhat bitter as well. I talked for quite a while about the RA4 town I lived in for 18 years and how we can't seem to attract a permanent doctor, just a never-ending go around of locums who have no patient rapport.

ED: Haha just thought of another awesome rural story I could have used on the application - how I used an angle grinder on a cow's claw to fix its lameness... Funny, interesting and applicable. Damn hindsight!

 

[medicine666]

Do you think that the rural panel would read a non-standard's normal application documentation? Like LMG, I interpreted the three rural questions to be very medicine specific so kept my answers very professionally-orientated. Whereas my CV is full of my rural experiences, including horses.

Ahhh resilience would have been a good one and I could have worked horses into that!! I changed clinics earlier in the year so that I could do more horse work and pretty much all I've achieved from this is having to euth more horses than dogs this year :'(

Potentially my application may have sounded somewhat bitter as well. I talked for quite a while about the RA4 town I lived in for 18 years and how we can't seem to attract a permanent doctor, just a never-ending go around of locums who have no patient rapport.

ED: Haha just thought of another awesome rural story I could have used on the application - how I used an angle grinder on a cow's claw to fix its lameness... Funny, interesting and applicable. Damn hindsight!

For rural application non-standard were you suppose to submit a CV?

 

[shamel]

For rural application non-standard were you suppose to submit a CV?

CV was one of the things you could include on your normal UTAS application, not the rural application.

 

[LBoG]

For rural application non-standard were you suppose to submit a CV?

CV was one of the things you could include on your normal UTAS application, not the rural application.

Medicine666, it was not a requirement. Some applicants may have decided to do so as there isn't any other opportunity to make a good impression in the normal application (especially as UTas do not interview). As shamel has said, you could attach a CV if you wanted, through the upload of supporting documentation option. HOWEVER, as a non-standard applicant I chose not to upload a CV or further supporting documentation (as I personally think if it's not a requirement then it shouldn't be used at all, even in cases where students choose to upload).

EDIT: Just noticed you were asking about rural non-standard. Sorry, my answer only applies to the regular non-standard eapplication portal.