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Radiography

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Nbank

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Hi, I'm currently a year 12 student who is looking into radiography at USYD. It seems to be a popular alternative for med. I was wondering if anyone is currently doing the course or has completed it recently. How difficult is the course and was it competitive to get into to.
What was the lowest atar they took on? Is it still possible to get in with a 93-94 atar?
 
https://sydney.edu.au/content/dam/c...dney-uni-domestic-admission-criteria-2020.pdf The second page of this document suggests you’ll need an ATAR of ~95 to gain an offer to the Bachelor of Applied Science (Radiography) in 2020.

There is also a Masters of Radiography, of which admission would be dependent on your GPA in an undergraduate degree.

As for difficulty of the course: while I cannot comment on it from personal experience, you should expect the course to be reasonably physics-heavy as this makes up a big part of understanding medical imaging.
 
Hi there, I'm currently an first-year undergraduate radiography student at USYD. As Crow mentioned above, the course is quite physics-heavy, since it's a fundamental component to understanding how medical imaging works. However, you won't be significantly disadvantaged if you haven't studied physics in high school, as they blitz through most of year 12 physics within the first few weeks of first semester, and it's all fresh physics content from that point forward so you're all in the same boat. I didn't take physics in high school, but I was still able to cope with it all.

I'd say that radiography is reasonably difficult- don't expect to cruise through the course with minimal study. You take fundamental subjects such as anatomy, physiology, human biology, medical radiation physics, health psychology and sociology and more in your first year. Don't expect the degree to be purely theoretical either, since most of your later years in radiography will also be filled with placements and more of your assessments will come from OSCEs and placement evaluations. But for sure, the course content is engaging and there is a lot to learn.

I believe the course is quite competitive to get into on the ATAR score, but don't let that deter you. Radiography is definitely a great degree to be studying, with a wide range of career opportunities. It's definitely a good degree to consider as an alternative to medicine, with a path to a viable career in the future if you don't end up going along the medicine route.
 
You can get in with I think 85-90, since USYD introduced the SRS conditional early offer.
 
I didn't quite study radiography, I studied Nuclear Medicine (Have very similar subjects, as both are Ba. MRSC) at Newcastle, so I've got 2 cents from their course.

Radiography as a whole is really interesting if you really enjoyed biology and the greater sciences at high school. You have a pretty good degree of patient contact and depending on your department have more or less autonomy.

As for job prospects, domestically it can be hit or miss but at least Newcastles program was recognised in the UK, Europe and the US. Often, when people graduated they would go do a few years in the UK on flexible contracts and travel.

The only thing I will say with radiography is that it's very much a point and shoot modality and even CT is a similar way. You greet the patient, explain the procedure, setup, do the imaging and then the patient goes away. For most people, that is awesome, but for others it can be difficult as they want to know more. That's something you will learn with clinical experience (I just transferred to Med after finishing my second year for that reason).

Best of luck, and USYD graduates are great. I worked with a few at St Vinnie's last year, so can say your program will be top notch.
 
Clubs said:
I didn't quite study radiography, I studied Nuclear Medicine (Have very similar subjects, as both are Ba. MRSC) at Newcastle, so I've got 2 cents from their course.

Radiography as a whole is really interesting if you really enjoyed biology and the greater sciences at high school. You have a pretty good degree of patient contact and depending on your department have more or less autonomy.

As for job prospects, domestically it can be hit or miss but at least Newcastles program was recognised in the UK, Europe and the US. Often, when people graduated they would go do a few years in the UK on flexible contracts and travel.

The only thing I will say with radiography is that it's very much a point and shoot modality and even CT is a similar way. You greet the patient, explain the procedure, setup, do the imaging and then the patient goes away. For most people, that is awesome, but for others it can be difficult as they want to know more. That's something you will learn with clinical experience (I just transferred to Med after finishing my second year for that reason).

Best of luck, and USYD graduates are great. I worked with a few at St Vinnie's last year, so can say your program will be top notch.
Click to expand...
ohh i see, thanks for the info, congrats on getting into medicine! what uni are you studying now?
 

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I'm studying under the Joint Medical Program, on campus at UNE cause rural and emergency medicine is kinda the field I want to go into at this stage.

Kinda cool because I get to keep my Newcastle enrolment.
 
Clubs said:
I'm studying under the Joint Medical Program, on campus at UNE cause rural and emergency medicine is kinda the field I want to go into at this stage.

Kinda cool because I get to keep my Newcastle enrolment.
Click to expand...
wow congrats! thats really cool that u have both campuses as options !! did you sit the ucat and apply via non-standard entry?
 
Yeah, sat the UCAT last year and applied through non-standard. Was actually on placement when I got an offer for an interview, thought I cooked it and still got in.
 
I'm a 3rd year radiography student at Newcastle and back in 2018 i got into the program with an ATAR of 78. I'd say me being local helped me get in but thought I'd post just in case students are worried their ATAR isn't sufficient for what they could do. Cheers :)
 
Hi there! I know this thread is a little bit dead but hoping anyone who currently does radiography (especially at USYD) sees this.
I was looking into radiography/sonography as an alternative to medicine but I've essential narrowed it down to two options

1. Do radiography at USYD. Work in the field for a bit and have the opportunity to do a graduate diploma in medical sonography at the university of Canberra (online) - positive in that I can move around in a variety of medical imaging fields, only concern with this one is the possibility of rural placement
2. Do a bachelor's in medical science then do the diploma in medical sonography at Canberra (online) - only concern with this one is securing my own medical placement without a medical imaging background
3. Do the sonography course at CQU in Sydney - including this option here but really don't want to do this, have heard some pretty terrible things about the uni and have heard those that train students on clinical placement would rather avoid students

Was wondering if anyone could give any insight into these options?
Is anyone doing radiography at USYD that is willing to get in touch so I could ask some questions?

Also, just generally if anyone could detail what to expect before pursuing this field

Thank you in advance <3 <3
 
Mazzzzzzie said:
Hi there! I know this thread is a little bit dead but hoping anyone who currently does radiography (especially at USYD) sees this.
I was looking into radiography/sonography as an alternative to medicine but I've essential narrowed it down to two options

1. Do radiography at USYD. Work in the field for a bit and have the opportunity to do a graduate diploma in medical sonography at the university of Canberra (online) - positive in that I can move around in a variety of medical imaging fields, only concern with this one is the possibility of rural placement
2. Do a bachelor's in medical science then do the diploma in medical sonography at Canberra (online) - only concern with this one is securing my own medical placement without a medical imaging background
3. Do the sonography course at CQU in Sydney - including this option here but really don't want to do this, have heard some pretty terrible things about the uni and have heard those that train students on clinical placement would rather avoid students

Was wondering if anyone could give any insight into these options?
Is anyone doing radiography at USYD that is willing to get in touch so I could ask some questions?

Also, just generally if anyone could detail what to expect before pursuing this field

Thank you in advance <3 <3
Click to expand...
I am only a mere yr 12 student but my sister did radiography at USYD. Now regarding your queries.
Option 1 was pretty much exactly what my sister did. She did the radiography course at USYD then worked for a bit before deciding to do sonography online with University of South Australia.

Option 2: I don't really have a say :/ I'm sure someone else knows a lot more.

Option 3: my sister has said that CQUniversity is just bad. Don't go there.

Also if you are applying for Radiography 2021 at USYD I may see you around (given that I don't make med that is)
 
Last edited:
Hi Mazzzzzzie,
I am a current radiography student at USYD and it is a really good course! There's quite a lot of physics in the first year, but a decent amount of bio (anatomy + physiology; also the labs are so good!!) as well as a little bit of psychology stuff. It is definitely a great alternative to med, as there is a mix of stuff eg. patient care, anatomy, physics etc. A lot of students in radio at usyd do want to become doctors, so there is a bit of competition in the first year, but I've heard that it subsides later on.

Option 1 and 3 look pretty good (idk how CQU is tho) but there is a guide which describes why medsci and biomed are not the best options: Common Pitfalls to Avoid. However, it is ultimately your choice.

I would also suggest looking at the course at UoN called: Bachelor of Nuclear Medicine or something like that. It is also extremely interesting, has a lower ATAR cut off and is also a good alternative if you are keen for that sort of field. I was interested in doing that, but just not keen on moving to newy :p

PM me if you have any other questions 😄
 
qUiCkMaThS said:
PM me if you have any other questions 😄
Click to expand...

Thank you so much for your reply!!
Unfortunately since I'm a bit of a long time lurker and this is my first post I can't PM 😅

I think my main question is about how clinical placement works since it's so new to me! My knowledge around placement is that it's 6 weeks at a time beginning in year 2 and students should expect at least 1 rural/regional placement.
I was wondering - Do you get to choose your placement or do they assign you? How's timing during the year (placement during exams?)?
It's all a bit confusing so a quick rundown if you had the time would be amazing!
 

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Yeah, no problems! Currently I am in Year 1, but we have learnt a bit about the placements. Since this course is quite hands on, there are heaps of placements from year 2 onwards and you are correct in that there is a placement in sem1 of year 2, however some placements do get longer (maybe 8 weeks, not 100%) and some are shorter (around 3 - 4 weeks). You get to place preferences through this system, which will hopefully give you your 1st pref, but if not it will end up assigning where you do the placement. I believe that 3 of the placements have to be rural (anything outside of Sydney in NSW). The placements end before exams, but I'm not too sure what the exams are like since I've only completed a semester - I'm sure it wouldn't be too bad. Hope this helps :)
 
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