Otago HSFY chat - archive

[dunnersboy83]

the questions continue

Yo my otago peeps...

one more question for you... What kind of things do they ask on the enrollment for med from fyhs?
like do they only go by the grades you achieved? or do they look at intentions for entering medicine?
Ive heard there is no interview in applying this way, unlike auckland....

And from what ive been reading if only 500 people are eligible, not all of them im guessing would want to do med... so you have almost got a 50% chance of getting in if your grades meet the requirements... is this pretty much true?

and did anyone apply for auckland uni from otago fyhs aswell?

:mellow:

 

[limone88]

From the dean's newsletter:

[h2]Admissions to Medicine, Year 2, 2008[/h2]
As in the last newsletter, there has been an increase in the number of places for domestic medical students provided for by the New Zealand government for 2008: this was announced by Government during 2007. For 2008, 210 domestic places were available for entry at Otago.
From the Health Sciences First Year Programme, 153 students entered medicine. There were also 45 entrants in the Competitive Graduate category, and 12 in the Other category (details of these categories are provided in the University of Otago Calendar, 2008, page 361 – 363).
Overall, there were 50 students of the 210 (23.8%) who stated they came from a rural background consistent with the criteria used for entry. There were 57 students in total ((27.1%) who have a degree (all those in the Competitive Graduate category, and in 2008 all those in the Other category also happen to have a degree).
There are 17 students (8.1%) among the domestic students entering medicine who have stated in their applications for entry that they are Maori. Numbers for Pacific students among domestic entrants are fewer (5: 2.4%).
Overall, there are 245 new students in the year 2 programme this year, with 35 international students having commenced studies at Otago over previous years, almost all in accordance with contracts signed with international governments in previous years. There are 3 students from last year’s year 2 class who will be undertaking year 2 again in 2008, so the total class size will be 248 students..

 

[McNerdy]

As in the last newsletter, there has been an increase in the number of places for domestic medical students provided for by the New Zealand government for 2008: this was announced by Government during 2007. For 2008, 210 domestic places were available for entry at Otago.
From the Health Sciences First Year Programme, 153 students entered medicine. There were also 45 entrants in the Competitive Graduate category, and 12 in the Other category (details of these categories are provided in the University of Otago Calendar, 2008, page 361 – 363).
Overall, there were 50 students of the 210 (23.8%) who stated they came from a rural background consistent with the criteria used for entry. There were 57 students in total ((27.1%) who have a degree (all those in the Competitive Graduate category, and in 2008 all those in the Other category also happen to have a degree).
There are 17 students (8.1%) among the domestic students entering medicine who have stated in their applications for entry that they are Maori. Numbers for Pacific students among domestic entrants are fewer (5: 2.4%).
Overall, there are 245 new students in the year 2 programme this year, with 35 international students having commenced studies at Otago over previous years, almost all in accordance with contracts signed with international governments in previous years. There are 3 students from last year’s year 2 class who will be undertaking year 2 again in 2008, so the total class size will be 248 students..

Well there we go! Thanks limone! Nice to have some clarity if only for curiosity's sake in my instance. So 250 is likely to be very close to the actual number in 2009's 2nd year class. I do like it when there's an official number to pin on something.

 

[Leafie]

Hi McNerdy, do you know if Auckland has newsletters about class size/statistics? I can't seem to find much med information about Auckland

 

[McNerdy]

Hi McNerdy, do you know if Auckland has newsletters about class size/statistics? I can't seem to find much med information about Auckland

Well yes and no. There are newsletters that do go out intrafaculty to staff and postgrad students. But they are not as detailed as the Otago one we just saw. They're more like low grade propaganda telling us how awesome Auckland FMHS is at research and hobnobbing the top brass in academia.

Last year I also came into possession of the spreadsheet of applicants for every UG programme the FMHS was offering. Hence I know exactly how many people applied for every programme (I also know their names and ID numbers incidentally). Apart from numbers that applied for the year (2009) I won't divulge anymore information period. I also happen know the girl who was administrating the Auckland admissions process. I could of also potentially been an interviewer, but since I knew at least one person personally who was applying I didn't think it ethical to do that just in case (esp since she was an ex lol).

However if you're wanting to know just how Auckland select applicants that information is available on the website in a round-a-bout way. I warn you now that Auckland's admissions process has a reputation for being less than transparent, but it really is just three parts combined: interview, UMAT, grades. You'll need good enough UMAT and grade scores for an interview, but you'll also need a decent interview to get in and they can auto-flunk you on the basis of the interview (which is where the overt criticism has been voiced).

 

[skyglow1]

Yo my otago peeps...

one more question for you... What kind of things do they ask on the enrollment for med from fyhs?
like do they only go by the grades you achieved? or do they look at intentions for entering medicine?
Ive heard there is no interview in applying this way, unlike auckland....

And from what ive been reading if only 500 people are eligible, not all of them im guessing would want to do med... so you have almost got a 50% chance of getting in if your grades meet the requirements... is this pretty much true?

and did anyone apply for auckland uni from otago fyhs aswell?

:mellow:

You don't have to fill in any form or anything that requires you to state your intentions or why you're doing medicine. They just go on your grades and UMAT. Yeah there is no interview for entry via HSFY.

No it doesn't work like that. You realistically need much higher than just passing the the requirements to get into med. One of my friends got 4A+ and 3A which is a GPA of 8.57 (out of a max of 9 which is getting all A+) and an 80 percentile UMAT and didn't make it into med. Compare that to the minimum requirement of at least B in every paper which is a GPA of only 5. If you were to only just make the requirements or have a GPA from 5 to 8 then you'd have very slim chances of getting into med.

You can't apply for Auckland's med from Otago's HSFY.

Well there we go! Thanks limone! Nice to have some clarity if only for curiosity's sake in my instance. So 250 is likely to be very close to the actual number in 2009's 2nd year class. I do like it when there's an official number to pin on something.

Oh sweet, numbers! I didn't think there'd be so many international students, and there's less coming from HSFY than I thought.

 

[dunnersboy83]

cheers skyglow for the explanation...

If over 150 students can do better than 4 a+ and 3 a's, then the papers must be easier than i thought... or maybe there is just a huge amount of super intelligent people


cheer^_^

 

[skyglow1]

80 percentile UMAT is quite low so that would've been a disadvantage. You shouldn't forget that UMAT is worth 34% of your mark and so it can make a big difference.

 

[dunnersboy83]

ok im gonna sound a tad slow here but does 80th percentile mean that he was only in the top 80%? thats really low if so...:huh:

 

[LightGrenades]

ok im gonna sound a tad slow here but does 80th percentile mean that he was only in the top 80%? thats really low if so...:huh:

Close lol. An 80th percentile means that someone is in the top 20% (i.e, better than 80% of the cohort)

At least thats what I think lol n.n"

 

[Leafie]

Thanks McNerdy. Can you tell me roughly how many people got into med 2nd year? or how many got interviewed?
Someone told me yesterday that Auckland takes a proportion of med students from each ethnic group, like about 10 -15% of Asian students. Don't know if it is true though. Is Otago doing something like that?

 

[skyglow1]

ok im gonna sound a tad slow here but does 80th percentile mean that he was only in the top 80%? thats really low if so...:huh:

It's the top 20% of everyone in Aus and NZ in last year of high school or in university who sat UMAT. It's not bad, but when you compare it to the rest of the Otago cohort it's quite poor in comparison because the Otago cohort scores quite well in comparison to everyone who sat UMAT.

Thanks McNerdy. Can you tell me roughly how many people got into med 2nd year? or how many got interviewed?
Someone told me yesterday that Auckland takes a proportion of med students from each ethnic group, like about 10 -15% of Asian students. Don't know if it is true though. Is Otago doing something like that?

Otago doesn't do that. You are known only by your ID number. You are simply ranked against everyone else using your marks and UMAT, then a cutoff is applied for however many spots are available, and those who make the cutoff get into med. Anyone who tells you that a university purposely discriminates against a race is either bitter, misinformed, or both.

 

[Leafie]

Yeah, I didn't really believe it either. But asking owing to the fact that he is a med student. It's a small relief to know that it isn't happening

 

[dunnersboy83]

It's the top 20% of everyone in Aus and NZ in last year of high school or in university who sat UMAT. It's not bad, but when you compare it to the rest of the Otago cohort it's quite poor in comparison because the Otago cohort scores quite well in comparison to everyone who sat UMAT.



sweet ill definitely make sure i get the study books for umat then

 

[McNerdy]

Thanks McNerdy. Can you tell me roughly how many people got into med 2nd year? or how many got interviewed?
Someone told me yesterday that Auckland takes a proportion of med students from each ethnic group, like about 10 -15% of Asian students. Don't know if it is true though. Is Otago doing something like that?

Don't think so lol. A parallel example might be Pharmacy at Auckland. It is now almost exclusively middle-eastern and asian by demography so there certainly isn't any ethnic quota system there.
The reason for this (as if I have to spell it out) is because it's downright racist.
However they do have the MAPAS scheme (I'll let you do your own reading on that), I have a reserved and concerned opinion on the matter of MAPAS but I won't voice it here (wrong thread) and I'll let you decide on that one yourself.

I wouldn't have a clue of the total number but it'd be somewhere around 120-130 I'd imagine. Auckland is a lot smaller than Otago's class size. You'd be better posing these questions to Lord Garlic since he's actually doing med at Auckland. I just happened to be an UG and then post-grad student at FMHS for a while.

 

[skyglow1]

It's the top 20% of everyone in Aus and NZ in last year of high school or in university who sat UMAT. It's not bad, but when you compare it to the rest of the Otago cohort it's quite poor in comparison because the Otago cohort scores quite well in comparison to everyone who sat UMAT.

sweet ill definitely make sure i get the study books for umat then

Word of warning: alot students say you can't study for the UMAT. I think one of the reasons is that the effectiveness of preparatory materials is highly dependent on the individual, and so there is a huge variance in the success of students who used these sort of materials for the UMAT. Make sure you don't get complacent

[offtopic]With this thread approaching 50 pages, it must be pretty daunting for someone to read if they're new to the site lol[/offtopic]

 

[LightGrenades]

Hey everyone!
I was wondering if someone (like skyglow, or Arutha) would be able to tell me how important it is to have WileyPlus access for CHEM191.. Apparently its an internet service that comes with the Chemistry textbook (THE CHEMICAL BASIS OF BIOLOGY & HUMAN HEALTH, Blackman, A. et al).

I'm thinking of Buying Now on TradeMe and I'm not sure yet if the seller has a WileyPlus code with the book... but if WileyPlus is not important, it's cheap enough for me to still want to buy it.

Thankss!!

 

[skyglow1]

Hey everyone!
I was wondering if someone (like skyglow, or Arutha) would be able to tell me how important it is to have WileyPlus access for CHEM191.. Apparently its an internet service that comes with the Chemistry textbook (THE CHEMICAL BASIS OF BIOLOGY & HUMAN HEALTH, Blackman, A. et al).

I'm thinking of Buying Now on TradeMe and I'm not sure yet if the seller has a WileyPlus code with the book... but if WileyPlus is not important, it's cheap enough for me to still want to buy it.

Thankss!!

The WileyPlus has access to these questions. It's not a big deal at all. Firstly you can just borrow access from someone else. Secondly there are questions that are provided by the CHEM lecturers which are good (with answers), and also a ton of past paper CHEM questions. Thirdly I felt the questions in WileyPlus weren't that great anyway and the solutions were wrong some of the time, so I didn't find it very helpful. Lastly it was a real pain to get working and there were these problems and all that, it was just such a hassle for something that wasn't exactly awesome, so I gave up on it and turned to other sources of questions.

If you feel like you're missing out you can just get them off a person at your hall easily, but you gotta be pretty damn hardcore about your study if missing out on a couple questions makes you anxious

 

[LightGrenades]

The WileyPlus has access to these questions. It's not a big deal at all. Firstly you can just borrow access from someone else. Secondly there are questions that are provided by the CHEM lecturers which are good (with answers), and also a ton of past paper CHEM questions. Thirdly I felt the questions in WileyPlus weren't that great anyway and the solutions were wrong some of the time, so I didn't find it very helpful. Lastly it was a real pain to get working and there were these problems and all that, it was just such a hassle for something that wasn't exactly awesome, so I gave up on it and turned to other sources of questions.

If you feel like you're missing out you can just get them off a person at your hall easily, but you gotta be pretty damn hardcore about your study if missing out on a couple questions makes you anxious

Cheers skyglow, I just bought it

 

[McNerdy]

May I inquire what an abacus9000 is?

A fiendish device comprised of a wooden frame, some wire and some coloured beads. The 9000 makes this simple contraption sound like an advanced piece of technology. Therein lies the joke, because of course the abacus dates to early Roman times (and perhaps before).