ChickenPie
Regular Member
That sounds like a horrid idea... I'm sure they wouldn't do that except for rural, mapas, etc..
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Otago HSFY chat - archive
- Thread starter jeavey
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SASOL
Regular Member
Yeah thats true, I guess having those categories helps get a good mix of people from different backgrounds even if thats not the intended purpose.
I was actually wondering for Auckland med school how many students from outside of Auckland will be studying med (those who got in by general entry), cos from what I've heard the majority who did OLY1 are from the upper North Is (probably wrong, correct me if so). I think Otago has more diversity in that it's students are from a wider range of areas around NZ. So I would say they probably wouldn't really select students for med trying to get a good mix of ethnicities etc. Just my opinion though and I'm just rambling lol
I was actually wondering for Auckland med school how many students from outside of Auckland will be studying med (those who got in by general entry), cos from what I've heard the majority who did OLY1 are from the upper North Is (probably wrong, correct me if so). I think Otago has more diversity in that it's students are from a wider range of areas around NZ. So I would say they probably wouldn't really select students for med trying to get a good mix of ethnicities etc. Just my opinion though and I'm just rambling lol
Right, I feel I should probably add something here. When the medical admissions committee decides who gets into medicine they do so anonymously. All they see are your marks and some reference (I think student ID or application number) from which they cannot identify who you are, what your gender is, what your ethnicity is, where in the country you are from, or any other details. The only personal details they know are if you are rural, Maori or PI (if you applied under any of those categories).
The admissions committee simply looks at the marks of everyone applying and uses this as a guide to determine how many people get in through each admission category and hence the cut-offs. If you are above the relevant cut-off you're in, if not, you're out (or on the waiting list).
I know this is true because it is coming from Melany Rohan and Don Roberton (who as well as being the dean of the medical school chairs the medical admissions committee).
Now, there is some strange stuff going on here, but it has nothing to do with ethnicity, age, location etc... If anyone feels there has been a mistake and should be in medicine then they are free to contact the admissions office, and provided any concerns are clearly, logically, and reasonably set out then the admissions office is likely to listen.
The admissions committee simply looks at the marks of everyone applying and uses this as a guide to determine how many people get in through each admission category and hence the cut-offs. If you are above the relevant cut-off you're in, if not, you're out (or on the waiting list).
I know this is true because it is coming from Melany Rohan and Don Roberton (who as well as being the dean of the medical school chairs the medical admissions committee).
Now, there is some strange stuff going on here, but it has nothing to do with ethnicity, age, location etc... If anyone feels there has been a mistake and should be in medicine then they are free to contact the admissions office, and provided any concerns are clearly, logically, and reasonably set out then the admissions office is likely to listen.
Cool. Now that that's resolved I made a little table that I suspect some of you may be interested to see. The mark distributions on the UMAT website show that the overall mark and individual section marks for sections 1 and 2 are essentially normally distributed. Things turn to custard for section 3 - notably the upper half of the distribution is skewed to scores far higher than would be expected. Anyway, I used this data to estimate the effect of Otago weighting on the UMAT marks and, along with the data in this thread worked out the corresponding average to get into medicine (not off the waiting list) if your UMAT mark was altered in the expected manner by weighting (which is always to be reduced by 1-2 marks):
UMAT %ile (assuming average effect of weighting)........|... Required Average to get into Otago med 2nd year 2010
......................................................................................|.......(HSFY general admission, no waiting list)
..................30................................................................|............. 94
..................50................................................................|............. 92
..................80................................................................|............. 89
..................90................................................................|............. 88
..................95................................................................|............. 86
(Ignore the dots, they're just there so that the figures align)
UMAT %ile (assuming average effect of weighting)........|... Required Average to get into Otago med 2nd year 2010
......................................................................................|.......(HSFY general admission, no waiting list)
..................30................................................................|............. 94
..................50................................................................|............. 92
..................80................................................................|............. 89
..................90................................................................|............. 88
..................95................................................................|............. 86
(Ignore the dots, they're just there so that the figures align)
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SASOL
Regular Member
Wow thanks for providing that greenglacier!(yy) Quite interesting reading.
With the rural/Maori/PI thing (a wee bit of topic sorry), do they just add a factor to the applicants weighted overall score so that it either meets/doesnt meet the cut off, or do they set cut offs for each category and you only compete for places with the other people from your relevant category?
Not expecting anyone to know, but insight into this would be great.
With the rural/Maori/PI thing (a wee bit of topic sorry), do they just add a factor to the applicants weighted overall score so that it either meets/doesnt meet the cut off, or do they set cut offs for each category and you only compete for places with the other people from your relevant category?
Not expecting anyone to know, but insight into this would be great.
interesting, well your theory works for my scores. Amazing how a couple of percentages can compensate so heavily for a crappy umat. (y) 1st sem performance saved me.
Hey Southa,
I'm doing 2nd year dent and I got in with a 88% average. A high UMAT isn't really needed as you just need to get over a certain threshold to be offered an interview. I was offered an interview with a UMAT percentile of 87, but I know quite a few people who were offered interviews with lower UMAT scores.
As you say the interview is REALLy important, I'm still not sure if interview scores are used to rank applicants or used to set a threshold. If it's the former then the interview is more important than your gpa, in which case your marks really don't give you a fair idea of whether you'll get in or not.
I'm doing 2nd year dent and I got in with a 88% average. A high UMAT isn't really needed as you just need to get over a certain threshold to be offered an interview. I was offered an interview with a UMAT percentile of 87, but I know quite a few people who were offered interviews with lower UMAT scores.
As you say the interview is REALLy important, I'm still not sure if interview scores are used to rank applicants or used to set a threshold. If it's the former then the interview is more important than your gpa, in which case your marks really don't give you a fair idea of whether you'll get in or not.
SASOL
Regular Member
Hmm I don't know if there are 'cut offs' for dent actually, cos in a couple of my labs I heard a quite a few people (who didn't get interviews) complaining that their mates got an interview with both lower GPAs and UMAT scores than themselves. Hence it may not solely be on UMAT/GPA for interview selection, but according to greenglaciers post on med selection on the previous page it's unlikely and obviously what I heard is probably not that accurate!
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