Quick Questions Thread #2: 2018-2019

[Keung]

Hey guys,
Sorry for asking this again. I’ve enrolled into both Adelaide dent and another non medical course, with the intention of deferring Adelaide and starting my non-medical course. I know I can unenrol from Adelaide and then defer. But would they look my marks from my new course or my old UMAT and ATAR?

What do you mean by un-enrol and then defer?
So you can start the non-medical course while the spot of Adelaide Dent is waiting for you for next year?

 

[Crow]

What do you mean by un-enrol and then defer?
So you can start the non-medical course while the spot of Adelaide Dent is waiting for you for next year?

This is possible for some institutions / courses because different universities have different policies. Adelaide may offer this opportunity for dentistry but I guarantee you cannot do this with a Griffith provisional entry medical science offer - if you commence tertiary study elsewhere then your provisional entry position at Griffith will be voided.

 

[Keung]

Domestic Undergraduate Direct, Honours or Deferred Students | Getting Started Follow the instructions on this site. If you have problems I’d recommend calling student services.

Don’t stress about doing this urgently - it only needs to be done before the census date (check the date but it should be sometime in mid March, I believe).

Thank you for helping.
Just want to clarify:

Can my son accepts, enrols and starts the provisional entry to MD course at Griffith while deferring his enrolled course in UNSW?

Deferment - Domestic Undergraduate | Getting Started

 

[DrDrLMG!]

Thank you for helping.
Just want to clarify:

Can my son accepts, enrols and starts the provisional entry to MD course at Griffith while deferring his enrolled course in UNSW?

Deferment - Domestic Undergraduate | Getting Started

Yes, as long as the course he is wanting to defer isn't open to school leavers only (in which case, starting a degree anywhere else typically voids the offer), then this is correct.

 

[Keung]

This is possible for some institutions / courses because different universities have different policies. Adelaide may offer this opportunity for dentistry but I guarantee you cannot do this with a Griffith provisional entry medical science offer - if you commence tertiary study elsewhere then your provisional entry position at Griffith will be voided.

Similar question as the previous one:

Can someone startthe provisional entry to MD course while deferring the non-medical course in UNSW?

Yes, as long as the course he is wanting to defer isn't open to school leavers only (in which case, starting a degree anywhere else typically voids the offer), then this is correct.

Yes, as long as the course he is wanting to defer isn't open to school leavers only (in which case, starting a degree anywhere else typically voids the offer), then this is correct.

This is a crop from the UNSW webpage about deferment.
(Deferment - Domestic Undergraduate)
What is AQF Diploma level and higher?


This where I crop it from:
Deferment - Domestic Undergraduate | Getting Started

 

[jq99]

If we got a bonded place for UQ provisional, is there a chance of being 'bumped up' to unbonded in a later offer round? I'm interstate by the way.

 

[lillysayse]

This where I crop it from:
Deferment - Domestic Undergraduate | Getting Started

Refer to here: AQF levels | Australian Qualifications Framework

 

[DrDrLMG!]

If we got a bonded place for UQ provisional, is there a chance of being 'bumped up' to unbonded in a later offer round? I'm interstate by the way.

Previously, UQ have not had later offer rounds, any declined spots move to grad entry applicants three years from now. Assuming it's still the same, there won't be any bumping of BMP to CSP.

 

[DrDrLMG!]

Similar question as the previous one:

Can someone start the provisional entry to MD course while deferring the non-medical course in UNSW?





This is a crop from the UNSW webpage about deferment.
(Deferment - Domestic Undergraduate)
What is AQF Diploma level and higher?
View attachment 2555

This where I crop it from:
Deferment - Domestic Undergraduate | Getting Started

You really need to contact UNSW and/or Griffith with some of these questions. We are not authorities on deferments, and especially not on non-medical course deferments. We can offer advice on medicine deferments based on previous experience/reports here, but not on other courses.

 

[Hospital smells]

Hi there gurus or the medical entrance world. I have a question. My schooleaving friend has 99.35 unadjusted and 180 umat ( seas adjusted 99.95 SA and NSW, we think) and no offer yet. Still another interstate interview to go and late offers etc cross our fingers and toes BUT:

Would you encourage this person to take a gap year and preserve their great ATAR or commence an undergraduate and keep trying annually?? How would this great ATAR be affected??

 

[Mana]

Hi there gurus or the medical entrance world. I have a question. My schooleaving friend has 99.35 unadjusted and 180 umat ( seas adjusted 99.95 SA and NSW, we think) and no offer yet. Still another interstate interview to go and late offers etc cross our fingers and toes BUT:

Would you encourage this person to take a gap year and preserve their great ATAR or commence an undergraduate and keep trying annually?? How would this great ATAR be affected??

Different people may give you different opinions on this (A1 may chime in here as his approach is different and reasonable).

My advice is that if you don't get into medicine, regardless of your ATAR, you should make good use of each year.

If you want to commence study in your plan B career, then this tends to open more doors than it closes (see the link in my sig re: common pitfalls for this).

If you want to take a gap year, make sure the reason for taking a gap year is for the purposes of the gap year and NOT for the purposes of getting into medicine - basically, if you were going to take a gap year anyway, then take it; if not, you're placing the entire value of one year on a 2 hour test (and even more so that the UCAT and UMAT are different tests so they may not necessarily replicate results next year).

 

[Keung]

You really need to contact UNSW and/or Griffith with some of these questions. We are not authorities on deferments, and especially not on non-medical course deferments. We can offer advice on medicine deferments based on previous experience/reports here, but not on other courses.

I think I got the answer already, see this crop from UNSW website (policy of UNSW):

It is from here(UNSW website):Deferment - Domestic Undergraduate | Getting Started
I emailed UNSW to confirm anyway.

 

[Hospital smells]

Different people may give you different opinions on this (A1 may chime in here as his approach is different and reasonable).

My advice is that if you don't get into medicine, regardless of your ATAR, you should make good use of each year.

If you want to commence study in your plan B career, then this tends to open more doors than it closes (see the link in my sig re: common pitfalls for this).

If you want to take a gap year, make sure the reason for taking a gap year is for the purposes of the gap year and NOT for the purposes of getting into medicine - basically, if you were going to take a gap year anyway, then take it; if not, you're placing the entire value of one year on a 3 hour test (and even more so that the UCAT and UMAT are different tests so they may not necessarily replicate results next year).

Yes although GPAS seem to controversially affect ATARs and be converted differently in each state? Don’t quite understand all that. ?? Do you know where I can find more on this??Thanks in advance Also think a nonproductive gap year would be stressful even with other minor projects and a (edited by mod: boring) job. So would the risk of lowering the ATAR be greater than the risk of lowering the Umat/UCAT??

 

[Crow]

Would you encourage this person to take a gap year and preserve their great ATAR or commence an undergraduate and keep trying annually?? How would this great ATAR be affected??

In addition to Mana’s reply, read my post here: Common pitfalls to avoid for year 12 school leavers and other medicine applicants. With that ATAR, this person would essentially be gap yearing for the chance to apply to UWA, Curtin and Adelaide, and probably UTAS (seeing as if they interview at Monash this year and don’t get in, they don’t get to re-interview so basically are very unlikely to get in using the same interview score) because for the rest of the undergraduate schools they can either apply as a non-standard anyway (UNSW, WSU, JMP, JCU, Bond), won’t get in because their ATAR is too low (Griffith and Flinders) or are excluded from applying as a gap year student (UQ). Starting tertiary study is going to open more doors for entry to medicine than it will close for this person.

 

[Hospital smells]

In addition to Mana’s reply, read my post here: Common pitfalls to avoid for year 12 school leavers and other medicine applicants. With that ATAR, this person would essentially be gap yearing for the chance to apply to UWA, Curtin and Adelaide (seeing as if they interview at Monash this year and don’t get in, they don’t get to re-interview so basically are very unlikely to get in using the same interview score) because for the rest of the undergraduate schools they can either apply as a non-standard anyway (UNSW, WSU, JMP, JCU, Bond), won’t get in because their ATAR is too low (Griffith and Flinders) or are excluded from applying as a gap year student (UQ). Starting tertiary study is going to open more doors for entry to medicine than it will close for this person.

Hi Crow Are you saying non standard applicants are treated differently / not pooled with the school leavers and the gpa would potentially compare very well with other non standards ?? That would be a good situation I guess.. Could you please point me in the right direction to explore the gpa yearly effect on ATARs in different states?? (Talk about me learning after the fact)

 

[Crow]

Hi Crow Are you saying non standard applicants are treated differently / not pooled with the school leavers and the gpa would potentially compare very well with other non standards ?? That would be a good situation I guess.. Could you please point me in the right direction to explore the gpa yearly effect on ATARs in different states?? (Talk about me learning after the fact)

I'd recommend you look up the admissions criteria at different universities to gain a better understanding of how everything works. Non-standards are treated in a separate pool at JCU (and thus only compete with other non-standards for entry), and in the same pool at Bond, WSU, JMP and UNSW. WSU and JMP both only use UCAT score and ATAR/GPA as a hurdle to gain an interview, and interview performance solely determines place offer rankings. This means this person wouldn't be "wasting" their ATAR at either of these schools because it doesn't count towards rankings for place offer selection. As for UNSW, they combine GPA and ATAR 50/50 for non-standard applicants but they still compete in the same pool with school-leavers. Hypothetically if the person above were to achieve a 6.5 GPA or better for the first year of their undergraduate degree, this would be considered equivalent to a 99.5 ATAR at UNSW and their "selection rank" would be (99.5+99.35)/2 = 99.43. This would actually make them more competitive for UNSW after starting tertiary study as opposed to them "wasting" their ATAR that they achieved at school.

To reiterate the point above, UCAT is a 2 hour exam that has never been run in Australia before; it would be ludicrous (in my opinion) to take a gap year and bank the entire year's outcomes on this 2 hour exam (which they will have no idea how they will perform in) purely to be able to apply at 3 extra undergraduate universities. On the contrary, once they've completed a degree they'll be eligible to apply to over 10 graduate entry schools as well as JCU/UNSW/WSU/JMP/Curtin/Bond which all accept non-standards / graduates - the odds are much better this way than trying again for undergraduate entry.

 

[Hospital smells]

I'd recommend you look up the admissions criteria at different universities to gain a better understanding of how everything works. Non-standards are treated in a separate pool at JCU (and thus only compete with other non-standards for entry), and in the same pool at Bond, WSU, JMP and UNSW. WSU and JMP both only use UCAT score and ATAR/GPA as a hurdle to gain an interview, and interview performance solely determines place offer rankings. This means this person wouldn't be "wasting" their ATAR at either of these schools because it doesn't count towards rankings for place offer selection. As for UNSW, they combine GPA and ATAR 50/50 for non-standard applicants but they still compete in the same pool with school-leavers. Hypothetically if the person above were to achieve a 6.5 GPA or better for the first year of their undergraduate degree, this would be considered equivalent to a 99.5 ATAR at UNSW and their "selection rank" would be (99.5+99.35)/2 = 99.43. This would actually make them more competitive for UNSW after starting tertiary study as opposed to them "wasting" their ATAR that they achieved at school.

To reiterate the point above, UCAT is a 2 hour exam that has never been run in Australia before; it would be ludicrous (in my opinion) to take a gap year and bank the entire year's outcomes on this 2 hour exam (which they will have no idea how they will perform in) purely to be able to apply at 3 extra undergraduate universities. On the contrary, once they've completed a degree they'll be eligible to apply to over 10 graduate entry schools as well as JCU/UNSW/WSU/JMP/Curtin/Bond which all accept non-standards / graduates - the odds are much better this way than trying again for undergraduate entry.

Thank you Crow for such in depth information. It’s really appreciated.

 

[hablaingles]

Hey guys I was just wondering, I’m interested in the paramedicine course at UTAS in Rozelle because its a 2 year accelerated degree and I’d like to eventually get into med, but I read a post on here from a while ago that says some schools won’t accept an accelerated degree? Is this still the case?

 

[Crow]

Hey guys I was just wondering, I’m interested in the paramedicine course at UTAS in Rozelle because its a 2 year accelerated degree and I’d like to eventually get into med, but I read a post on here from a while ago that says some schools won’t accept an accelerated degree? Is this still the case?

Yes, it excludes you from a significant number of GEMSAS schools. You can check out the schools that do accept accelerated degrees in the guide: https://gemsas.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/2019-Medicine-GEMSAS-Admissions-Guide-v1.4.pdf

 

[green_eyed_girl]

Day 1 Post-Curtin Interview
Sorry to bother everyone, but I feel like I read it somewhere and can't think where - does anyone know when results for interstate interviews are released? I seem to recall reading that it was next week, next Tuesday the 22nd or something, but ca't think where.
Maybe it was wishful thinking? I really hope not. Can anyone clarify?
Thank you!