Quick Questions Thread: 2018

[Gemsik121]

Hi guys, in regards to postgrad med at flinders university, the admission guide for 2019 states that the "wGPA is based on the last three full-time equivalent years of study in the most recently completed Bachelor degree or equivalent." So, if I receive a Withdraw Fail (WF) grade in 2018 for my subjects and do the same subjects in 2019 as a first year student, would the WF influence my wGPA in 2021 for 2022 entry?

 

[Mana]

Hi guys, in regards to postgrad med at flinders university, the admission guide for 2019 states that the "wGPA is based on the last three full-time equivalent years of study in the most recently completed Bachelor degree or equivalent." So, if I receive a Withdraw Fail (WF) grade in 2018 for my subjects and do the same subjects in 2019 as a first year student, would the WF influence my wGPA in 2021 for 2022 entry?

Provided you then go on to complete three full years of full time study in 2019, 2020 and 2021, then the results from 2018 should not affect this scoring.

 

[hopefulgal]

Does anyone know why it is that some medical schools (e.g. Monash, Adelaide, UQ) do not accept non-school leavers/students who have prior tertiary study?

 

[A1]

Does anyone know why it is that some medical schools (e.g. Monash, Adelaide, UQ) do not accept non-school leavers/students who have prior tertiary study?

The unis are free to make their own policy on this, as long as it's legal.
I guess no-one really knows why some choose to and some not to.

 

[Mana]

Does anyone know why it is that some medical schools (e.g. Monash, Adelaide, UQ) do not accept non-school leavers/students who have prior tertiary study?

UQ certainly accepts students who have tertiary study given the graduate-entry nature of the medical school.
Monash accepts its own graduate students into its graduate entry program.
Adelaide accepts its own students into its program via tertiary transfer.

All of these medical programs accept students with a tertiary record provided you fulfill their criteria.

 

[hopefulgal]

UQ certainly accepts students who have tertiary study given the graduate-entry nature of the medical school.
Monash accepts its own graduate students into its graduate entry program.
Adelaide accepts its own students into its program via tertiary transfer.

All of these medical programs accept students with a tertiary record provided you fulfill their criteria.

Apologies, I should have specified what I meant by entry with a tertiary record - for entry as an undergraduate, under a similar entry scheme as high school leavers. Cheers

 

[maniacfish]

is the jmp application portal broken for anyone else?
can't get past the rural/standard application page

 

[Nycryte]

Does anyone know why it is that some medical schools (e.g. Monash, Adelaide, UQ) do not accept non-school leavers/students who have prior tertiary study?

Maybe because non-standards tend to be older which means less return of service for the country after the government spends a lot of resources on them and letting people retry to get into med isn't necessarily going to give you the best candidates. If anything it favours those who retry because they have experience with the process and could wind up having the same people getting into med anyway, just a year or two later. The latter is kind of a thought that just came to me so I could be way off but it would make sense to me.
Also France doesn't let you try to get in many times (twice atm but I've heard they're changing to once) and they won the world cup so you can hardly argue with that.
Edit: Yes I'm aware I won't be starting med straight out of school so I might seem a hypocrite but I was totally shafted.

 

[Logic]

is the jmp application portal broken for anyone else?
can't get past the rural/standard application page

Hi maniacfish , I don't think it is broken. It is simply just not open at this time. I believe it opens on the 8th according to this message when I went and had a look: "Not open for submissions until 8/08/2018".

 

[A1]

Maybe because non-standards tend to be older which means less return of service for the country after the government spends a lot of resources on them

Good try but I don't think it's a good answer.
- For the schools not accepting non-standards the policy is not dictated by the gov so not relevant to the gov's expectation on return of service.
- Monash for example is fine with purposely having a pathway for its 3-4 year grads into its med program, total 7-8 years of study. If 1st-year students from other unis were accepted it would be 6 years of study = 1-2 extra years of service, but Monash doesn't welcome them. UTas is similar.

In summary none of the grad schools with provisional offers to Y12s accepts non-standards. Of the 8 undergrad schools four (JCU + the 3 NSW schools) do, the other four Monash UTas Adel Curtin* don't (except for their own students).

(* Edited by LMG: unless you have a completed undergraduate degree, in which case Curtin will consider you for non-standard entry regardless of degree location. If you’ve only done a partial undergraduate, you need to be a current Curtin student to be considered. For whatever reason!)

 

[Mana]

The other argument for limiting the types of applicants who can apply is that it is easier to compare their relative scores. For example, using the ATAR, it's very easy to get a rank list, whereas if you use the ATAR and compare it to GPA, you'll note that different universities use different scoring systems (e.g. some say 80% is an HD, and others say 85% is, etc.) When you have to rank people by multiple categories (ATAR/UMAT/interview) and combine them, it's way easier not having to account for that other step (especially if it would involve contacting the various faculties of the various universities out there with their different scoring systems) - whereas ATAR and UMAT are a nice easy to use list that the admissions centre/ACER provides to the university.

 

[Jay39]

Hey there, so im a NZ graduate and im trying to apply for med schools in Australia. I have a NZ GPA and ive roughly converted it into an Auz equivalent from some charts i have found online. However when i emailed western sydney in regards to my GPA they said they cant help me convert it and that i have to apply for UAC (which would cost me $128) which ive already done. But it doesnt quite seem like it was the right thing to do...im still not 100% sure on what UAC even is? Do i need UAC to apply to every med school in NSW/ACT ? And what is the UAC equivalents for the other territories? And lastly do i need to do the same thing with those organisations with paying for my GPA assessment..? So confused, but thank you for your help!!!

 

[maniacfish]

Hi maniacfish , I don't think it is broken. It is simply just not open at this time. I believe it opens on the 8th according to this message when I went and had a look: "Not open for submissions until 8/08/2018".

huh that makes sense, weird that they left it open anyway, just with broken links.

 

[A1]

Hey there, so im a NZ graduate and im trying to apply for med schools in Australia. I have a NZ GPA and ive roughly converted it into an Auz equivalent from some charts i have found online. However when i emailed western sydney in regards to my GPA they said they cant help me convert it and that i have to apply for UAC (which would cost me $128) which ive already done. But it doesnt quite seem like it was the right thing to do...im still not 100% sure on what UAC even is? Do i need UAC to apply to every med school in NSW/ACT ? And what is the UAC equivalents for the other territories? And lastly do i need to do the same thing with those organisations with paying for my GPA assessment..? So confused, but thank you for your help!!!

UAC is the Universities Admissions Centre for NSW/ACT (it's QTAC VTAC SATAC etc for other states). Students apply through UAC instead of directly to the individual unis so that their preferences (eg. USyd Economics vs UNSW Engineering vs ANU Law) can be processed centrally.

When you apply UAC calculates/converts your GPA then sends to all the NSW/ACT unis you are applying for. You only pay the UAC application fee; if I understand correctly the GPA assessment/conversion fee is optional when you want a formal record of it.

> Qualifications Assessment Service - UAC

UAC will assess your qualifications as part of the standard application assessment process. You can have your qualifications assessed before you apply through UAC’s Qualifications Assessment Service (QAS) if, for example:

• you want to find out if you are likely to be eligible for tertiary study
• you are applying direct to an institution that requires you to provide a qualifications assessment statement (eg applications for graduate entry to University of Sydney Medical School and at the Australian Defence Force Academy).

 

[Smelly Boy]

I just wanted to get a bit of an idea where I stand. I got a 98.55 atar in 2016 and I'll probably end my second year of uni at 6.2 or 6.3 GPA. I have very very long history of financial disadvantage, lived in housing commission houses, divorced parents, received (and still am receiving) centrelink payments, smith family scholarship, went to low SES area school etc. UNSW has the SCATS program which accounts for all these things and gives bonus points accordingly.

Do you know what my ATAR equivalent score would look like for UNSW entry?

 

[A1]

I just wanted to get a bit of an idea where I stand. I got a 98.55 atar in 2016 and I'll probably end my second year of uni at 6.2 or 6.3 GPA. I have very very long history of financial disadvantage, lived in housing commission houses, divorced parents, received (and still am receiving) centrelink payments, smith family scholarship, went to low SES area school etc. UNSW has the SCATS program which accounts for all these things and gives bonus points accordingly.

Do you know what my ATAR equivalent score would look like for UNSW entry?

From the table I posted on page 7 this thread 6.3 is given 98 whereas a UQ table says 6+ = 99. Not really sure which one is used, but if you want a bit of an idea either will combine with 98.55 to a 98ish equivalent.

Regarding SES I have not found written anywhere that UNSW Med would add a bonus to ATAR. It seems they will put you in a separate pool competing for a few SES-category places, which is obviously less competitive than the main pool.

> Adjustment Factors - HSC Plus - Future Students - UNSW Sydney (Med is NOT included in HSC Plus)

> Local applicants | Medicine
ACCESS (EAS) / SCATS
ACCESS is a scheme for students who have experienced long-term educational disadvantage in high school. Some of the places offered under this scheme will be in the Bonded Medical Places category.

If you have undertaken university studies and your secondary or tertiary studies were affected by circumstances beyond your control, then SCATS is for you. Whilst places at UNSW are still competitive and based on academic merit, this allows the university to take your circumstances into account.

 

[Smelly Boy]

Regarding SES I have not found written anywhere that UNSW Med would add a bonus to ATAR. It seems they will put you in a separate pool competing for a few SES-category places, which is obviously less competitive than the main pool.

Sick. I’d take a less competitive way to get in any day. Cheers boss.

Edit: by the way I emailed UNSW about this the year before when my gpa was 6.75 and the girl emailing me said that with SCATS, you atar equivalent would be in the 99-99.95 range

 

[DrDrLMG!]

Edit: by the way I emailed UNSW about this the year before when my gpa was 6.75 and the girl emailing me said that with SCATS, you atar equivalent would be in the 99-99.95 range

While it could well be 100% accurate, I’ve been seriously burned by university admissions staff before (and have seen multiple stories of the same here at MSO from unis all over the country), so I tend to treat information from admissions staff with a grain of salt, tbh! If it’s general admissions, they tend to not know about the vagaries of Med admissions specifically, and sometimes even the Med specific staff are in largely the same boat.

 

[Smelly Boy]

> Local applicants | Medicine
ACCESS (EAS) / SCATS
ACCESS is a scheme for students who have experienced long-term educational disadvantage in high school. Some of the places offered under this scheme will be in the Bonded Medical Places category.

If you have undertaken university studies and your secondary or tertiary studies were affected by circumstances beyond your control, then SCATS is for you. Whilst places at UNSW are still competitive and based on academic merit, this allows the university to take your circumstances into account.

Just saw this

I think they do just add points to your score

But my friend for 2017 entry had a 98.5 atar and a 68%ile umat and got a bonded spot at unsw which wouldn’t make sense since a 99.95 atar needs around 165ish umat for an interview. So this specific case supports the idea that unsw puts aside some spots for us EAS people.

They work in mysterious ways

 

[A1]

View attachment 2146
Just saw this
I think they do just add points to your score

But my friend for 2017 entry had a 98.5 atar and a 68%ile umat and got a bonded spot at unsw which wouldn’t make sense since a 99.95 atar needs around 165ish umat for an interview. So this specific case supports the idea that unsw puts aside some spots for us EAS people.

The ACCESS page you attached is for UAC courses in general ("according to guidelines agreed to by all UAC participating institutions"). I remember reading somewhere before since entry is so much more competitive than other UAC courses, the scale of EAS points awarded in general is out of proportion thus not usable for UNSW Med.