UNSW UNSW Medicine: General Entry Questions and Discussion

[ThunderDragon]

I believe the "not averaged" wording is primarily a clause to reject the poor interview scores and UNSW can justify to these applicants their top ATAR+UCAT can't be used to average out.

Apart from that they still work in combination. View the interview invite collated data you'll see ATAR/UCAT does compensate for the other, examples : 99th%ile/98.55, 98th%ile/99.35, 96th%ile/99.45, 94th%ile/99.75 etc. But we wouldn't see a 94th%ile/98.55 getting an invite because this 98.55 doesn't have 99th%ile to compensate.


Basically I didn't agree with the word automatically that's all. This applicant didn't get an offer because (presumably) their interview score alone missed the cut. Similarly, if competitive entrance to engineering was say 92.0 and someone with 91 missed out, I wouldn't call that as getting automatically cut off.

Ah okay, that makes sense! Just wondering whether a lower UCAT score for example can be compensated for with a higher Atar (such as close to 99.95) and get you an interview? I know at Monash the scores do vary as I know a couple of people in Monash Med who have had gotten an interview and offer with low 70s UCAT percentile scores + close to 99.95 selection ranks. Is UNSW a bit tougher on this since the interview data seems to suggest that a couple of people in the mid-80s - high 80s getting interview offers with Atars above 99 with occasionally 1 or 2 people with UCAT scores in the 70s?

 

[MyHeadee]

Do year 12 students compete against gap year students? And, do they compete against older people? Most of the people doing Ucat alongside me, looked to be in their 20s and some quite a bit older. Cheers

 

[JeydinNewWon]

Do year 12 students compete against gap year students? And, do they compete against older people? Most of the people doing Ucat alongside me, looked to be in their 20s and some quite a bit older. Cheers

If gap year students are applying with their UCAT, then yes they will take the ATAR they got and you will be competing against them. And yes, they also convert all their academic scores into an ATAR-like number.

 

[A1]

Just wondering whether a lower UCAT score for example can be compensated for with a higher Atar (such as close to 99.95) and get you an interview?

Sorry I don't know the real answer so this is purely guesswork. I see in the 2020 collated data three invites
94th%ile/99.20/EAS, 87th%ile/99.10/EAS, 76th%ile/99.05/EAS

Do we know whether EAS applicants are now in a separate pool? If so it's bad news coz the lowest non-rural non-EAS UCAT I see is 99.75/94%ile, which would mean even 99.90 still needs 90-92%ile to get an interview.

Otoh if EAS applicants are given an ATAR boost then go into the general interview selection pool, the combos above show 80ish %ile with raw 99.90 is possible.

One consolation is last year due to COVID there were a lot of EAS given thus a lot of "artificial" (sorry for the word haha) high 99s, thus the raw 99.6-99.7 needed very high UCAT to compensate. If not so many high 99s this year the UCAT requirement should drop a bit accordingly.

 

[JeydinNewWon]

Sorry I don't know the real answer so this is purely guesswork. I see in the 2020 collated data three invites
94th%ile/99.20/EAS, 87th%ile/99.10/EAS, 76th%ile/99.05/EAS

Do we know whether EAS applicants are now in a separate pool? If so it's bad news coz the lowest non-rural non-EAS UCAT I see is 99.75/94%ile, which would mean even 99.90 still needs 90-92%ile to get an interview.

Otoh if EAS applicants are given an ATAR boost then go into the general pool, the combos above show 80ish %ile with raw 99.90 is possible.

One consolation is last year due to COVID there were a lot of EAS given thus a lot of "artificial" (sorry for the word haha) high 99s, thus the 99.6-99.7 needed very high UCAT to compensate. If not so many high 99s this year the UCAT requirement should drop a bit accordingly.

Didn't someone say on this thread that COVID was not considered last year? Also, do you suspect the massive spike in applicants from 2000 or so to 3000+ is due to these COVID EAS points?

 

[ThunderDragon]

Sorry I don't know the real answer so this is purely guesswork. I see in the 2020 collated data three invites
94th%ile/99.20/EAS, 87th%ile/99.10/EAS, 76th%ile/99.05/EAS

Do we know whether EAS applicants are now in a separate pool? If so it's bad news coz the lowest non-rural non-EAS UCAT I see is 99.75/94%ile, which would mean even 99.90 still needs 90-92%ile to get an interview.

Otoh if EAS applicants are given an ATAR boost then go into the general interview selection pool, the combos above show 80ish %ile with raw 99.90 is possible.

One consolation is last year due to COVID there were a lot of EAS given thus a lot of "artificial" (sorry for the word haha) high 99s, thus the 99.6-99.7 needed very high UCAT to compensate. If not so many high 99s this year the UCAT requirement should drop a bit accordingly.

Oh okay yeah that makes sense! Thanks!

 

[DrDrLMG!]

Didn't someone say on this thread that COVID was not considered last year? Also, do you suspect the massive spike in applicants from 2000 or so to 3000+ is due to these COVID EAS points?

Jobkeeper status of your parents was EAS eligible last year, I’m fairly certain. And I think students who were locked out of school for additional weeks when someone at their school tested positive and it had to be ‘deep cleaned’ could also apply.

Given the status of the situation in NSW at present, I’d imagine there’ll be lots of people eligible again this year (assuming I’m remembering correctly about last year).

 

[A1]

Didn't someone say on this thread that COVID was not considered last year?

I vaguely remember someone saying if a student's schooling was disrupted they got EAS - True/False?

Also, do you suspect the massive spike in applicants from 2000 or so to 3000+ is due to these COVID EAS points?

If true a lot got EAS last year then that's^ very plausible. It'd also mean high 99s probably jumped from 100 to several hundreds

 

[2xq]

Also to add, UNSW did mess up their interview invites iirc. They ended up doing an extra day worth of interviews. (Also denied the mistake but that's just the university covering it up big time)

 

[JeydinNewWon]

Also to add, UNSW did mess up their interview invites iirc. They ended up doing an extra day worth of interviews. (Also denied the mistake but that's just the university covering it up big time)

So they invited people that technically shouldn't be invited?

 

[2xq]

So they invited people that technically shouldn't be invited?

Some, yes.

 

[JKHO]

Jobkeeper status of your parents was EAS eligible last year, I’m fairly certain. And I think students who were locked out of school for additional weeks when someone at their school tested positive and it had to be ‘deep cleaned’ could also apply.

Given the status of the situation in NSW at present, I’d imagine there’ll be lots of people eligible again this year (assuming I’m remembering correctly about last year).

Jobkeeper status of your parents was not EAS eligible last year. When applying, it said UNSW did not consider this as EAS.

Also to add, UNSW did mess up their interview invites iirc. They ended up doing an extra day worth of interviews. (Also denied the mistake but that's just the university covering it up big time)

How UNSW messed up their interview invites?

 

[2xq]

How UNSW messed up their interview invites?

Last year, there was a situation where some people with better ATAR/UCAT combo's didn't initially receive interviews. This was rectified later (within the 24hrs of the 1st lot of invites being sent out). In the email explaining the situation, they said that it wasn't a mistake (but it clearly was lmao). Instead of completing the interviews in the allocated dates, they ended up having to do a whole extra day worth of them.

 

[JKHO]

Last year, there was a situation where some people with better ATAR/UCAT combo's didn't initially receive interviews. This was rectified later (within the 24hrs of the 1st lot of invites being sent out). In the email explaining the situation, they said that it wasn't a mistake (but it clearly was lmao). Instead of completing the interviews in the allocated dates, they ended up having to do a whole extra day worth of them.

That means UNSW did rectified the mess.

 

[2xq]

That means UNSW did rectified the mess.

They sort of patched a hole using tape. It was more of a one-off fix you know.

 

[MyHeadee]

Jobkeeper status of your parents was EAS eligible last year, I’m fairly certain. And I think students who were locked out of school for additional weeks when someone at their school tested positive and it had to be ‘deep cleaned’ could also apply.

Given the status of the situation in NSW at present, I’d imagine there’ll be lots of people eligible again this year (assuming I’m remembering correctly about last year).

Yep, heaps more are eligible, lockdowns in syd have been lengthened by like 4 weeks, which brings the students' tally up to about 6 now. Considering its like half of Sydney, that's a lot of people. Nesa/uac have said anyone who has had 6 weeks or more can file in for a misadventure due to COVID.

 

[mzt103200]

Yep, heaps more are eligible, lockdowns in syd have been lengthened by like 4 weeks, which brings the students' tally up to about 6 now. Considering its like half of Sydney, that's a lot of people. Nesa/uac have said anyone who has had 6 weeks or more can file in for a misadventure due to COVID.

Sorry I may have missed it when I was looking, but where did you find that information? That anyone who has 6 weeks or more in lockdown can file for misadventure due to COVID?

Sorry I may have missed it when I was looking, but where did you find that information? That anyone who has 6 weeks or more in lockdown can file for misadventure due to COVID?

Aaah nvm thanks, I found it, but just in case anyone else needs it: https://educationstandards.nsw.edu..../hsc/rules-and-processes/illness-misadventure

 

[A1]

I found it, but just in case anyone else needs it: https://educationstandards.nsw.edu..../hsc/rules-and-processes/illness-misadventure

This^ is by NESA/UAC and seems to be different to the concern we were discussing.

If a student/school is approved for "misadventure" consideration their HSC marks are calculated in a more considerate way. But in the end it doesn't alter the overall NSW numbers of ATAR 99s, 98s... I haven't found in UNSW websites any saying misadventure is given EAS.

The earlier concern was if COVID disruptions lead to more EAS applicants, their boosted ATARs would add more headcounts to the high 99s club thus making it tough for the ones lower. But this doesn't seem to be the case. Am I wrong?

 

[MyHeadee]

This^ is by NESA/UAC and seems to be different to the concern we were discussing.

If a student/school is approved for "misadventure" consideration their HSC marks are calculated in a more considerate way. But in the end it doesn't alter the overall NSW numbers of ATAR 99s, 98s... I haven't found in UNSW websites any saying misadventure is given EAS.

The earlier concern was if COVID disruptions lead to more EAS applicants, their boosted ATARs would add more headcounts to the high 99s club thus making it tough for the ones lower. But this doesn't seem to be the case. Am I wrong?

It will still raise the final HSC marks a student gets, and so their ATAR. If a misadventure application is successful, then the student's HSC mark will be calculated either by the School Moderated mark, OR the actual HSC mark (whichever is higher). In saying whichever is higher, that automatically raises a person's final mark, that leniency of picking "the higher mark" is not awarded to those who aren't part of the misadventure club. So although not direct, I assume it's a form of unintentionally handing out an EAS, and so altering the "true" amount of 99s, 98s...

 

[JeydinNewWon]

It will still raise the final HSC marks a student gets, and so their ATAR. If a misadventure application is successful, then the student's HSC mark will be calculated either by the School Moderated mark, OR the actual HSC mark (whichever is higher). In saying whichever is higher, that automatically raises a person's final mark, that leniency of picking "the higher mark" is not awarded to those who aren't part of the misadventure club. So although not direct, I assume it's a form of unintentionally handing out an EAS, and so altering the "true" amount of 99s, 98s...

I read the document. It doesn’t say that anyone who is in lockdown for 6 weeks or greater can apply and be automatically considered - that’s just wrong imo and it would have a null effect since nearly all of NSW is affected by lockdown.

It only applies to specific cases if you are in lockdown and do not have access to online learning material; evidence of such which must be provided by the school principal. This is to benefit and cater to kids whose schools can’t do online learning but the regulations are really tight in that you must:
- not have access to internet or online learning material
- did not receive physical material for course preparation
- do not have access to teacher

Applicants must meet ALL 3 criteria before applying. However since most schools actually can at least provide some form of online learning or resources, I doubt that there will be a significant proportion of illness/misadventure.