UNSW UNSW Medicine: General Entry Questions and Discussion

[polo16]

Hey all,

Just wanted to ask a quick question for any UNSW med kids. How is the teaching? Is it hit or miss or consistently quite good?

Cheers

 

[Caffeine]

Thanks and oh BTW you guys were pretty ingenious for working out the weighted formula for WSU based on the past data, pretty amazing. I have another question: would you know what the range of EAS points are given for UNSW, the website says that EAS can account up to 10 adjustment factors, but for Medicine, would you know of their ranges? Thanks

The primary reason of this is because EAS is extremely situation dependent. At points it can make a very very little difference like, whilst other times it can make a significant impact.

 

[PippyBee]

The primary reason of this is because EAS is extremely situation dependent. At points it can make a very very little difference like, whilst other times it can make a significant impact.

Apparently, the Unis do not get to see the main reasons and factors behind each student's EAS submissions, UAC allocates the EAS points and the Unis decides on the rankings based on the EAS points allocated. True what you said here, if someone gets high 90 ATAR 1 or 2 EAS points can make a difference

 

[MyHeadee]

1. In the UNSW information evenings on youtube, do they actually show median ATAR's or is it averages, because there's like .82 and .57 popping up for local and rural offers.
2. If it was averages is it like incomes where the displayed average is going to be higher because of the higher marks "dragging" up the score? (like how average income is like $60k whilst median is around $53k)

 

[Scrivo_72]

1. In the UNSW information evenings on youtube, do they actually show median ATAR's or is it averages, because there's like .82 and .57 popping up for local and rural offers.
2. If it was averages is it like incomes where the displayed average is going to be higher because of the higher marks "dragging" up the score? (like how average income is like $60k whilst median is around $53k)

its the median, the .82 comes from when there are an even number of offers, ie a guy with a 97.85 and a guy with a 97.8 would have been in the middle so the median was 97.825 which they just round down to 97.82 (dont know why they round down though).

 

[ucatboy]

1. In the UNSW information evenings on youtube, do they actually show median ATAR's or is it averages, because there's like .82 and .57 popping up for local and rural offers.
2. If it was averages is it like incomes where the displayed average is going to be higher because of the higher marks "dragging" up the score? (like how average income is like $60k whilst median is around $53k)

1. You can have a median of .82 if there's two people with .80 and .85 taking up the middle spots.

2. You'd better hope the numbers shown aren't averages otherwise the situation would be a whole lot more bleak.

ATAR mean/medians work in the opposite way to income. For incomes, there's a lot more potential to expand in the positive direction - you can make $1,000,000 but you can't make -$1,000,000 despite both of them being equally far in opposite directions. As a result, the average income gets brought up by these anomalous high income earners while the median stays low.

In ATARs, there's not much potential to expand in the positive direction when we're already dealing with ATARs in the high 99s. The only direction is in the negative direction, which is why the average ATAR tends to be lower than the median ATAR, brought down by lower ATARs. You can have a 98 ATAR applicant, but you can't have a 101 ATAR applicant to balance it out.

If the AVERAGE ATAR is x, then the median ATAR is likely considerably higher than x.

 

[JKHO]

Speculation: ATAR is in increment of 0.05 but GPA equivalent is not.

Speculation:
It is a median of selection rank on those studying in Year 1 and so there is a lower bound on it regarding median vs average.

 

[MyHeadee]

 

[damn]

I was confused as to how exactly UNSW converts GPA scores in their admissions process. I remember reading somewhere anything above 6.5 converts to 99.5 and that is as high as it gets, even with a 7. Is that true or do they have some other form of converting?

 

[A1]

I was confused as to how exactly UNSW converts GPA scores in their admissions process. I remember reading somewhere anything above 6.5 converts to 99.5 and that is as high as it gets, even with a 7. Is that true or do they have some other form of converting?

The conversion table showing 6.5+ = 99.5 was a guide we happened to find outside of UAC/UNSW, it's not the conversion rulebook. I have seen indications >6.5 does convert to >99.5, example an applicant last year got a UNSW offer with 6.7 at the time UNSW said lowest successful rank was 99.60

 

[ucat3300+]

Damn... I didn't think of that.
That means JPM/JMP can delay their offers to Jan round2 26 Jan, and UNSW also chooses this for NSW/ACT applicants (thus they rush their interviews to 20-21st). That would totally destroy my genius strategy haha.

Yes... Haha after reading your first post I was a bit confused, and now I am sad that your strategy from before will not work.

We know JMP/WSU offers will come out 26th of Jan. Maybe for interstate applicants the strategy might still work, but for NSW/ACT applicants, they are the first to be interviewed, so they will receive their offers on the earliest possible date, i.e. 26th of Jan as per the updated UNSW website. I think the conundrum is back

Edited to add: So.. people will have to sit their interviews on the same day their ATAR comes out. That will be one hectic day. And thank you A1 for the amazingly quick post regarding this matter! (as always) haha

 

[generalkenobi]

UNSW posted their interview dates!
20-21 January for NSW/ACT, 25 January for Interstate/Overseas

Invite date is 20th Jan, wonder how they're gonna send the invites on the day and expect you to rock up that afternoon

 

[MyHeadee]

UNSW posted their interview dates!
20-21 January for NSW/ACT, 25 January for Interstate/Overseas

Invite date is 20th Jan, wonder how they're gonna send the invites on the day and expect you to rock up that afternoon

Its via zoom

 

[A1]

Yes... now I am sad that your strategy from before will not work.

In my correspondence with UNSW Med they know who I am on MSO i.e. they do read us. I now feel foolish that we revealed our hands too early about the workaround strategy. UNSW read that, deliberately rush NSW/ACT interviews to the ATAR release date to meet the 26-Jan offer round, just to defeat us.

That's not fair play UNSW

 

[A1]

Invite date is 20th Jan, wonder how they're gonna send the invites on the day and expect you to rock up that afternoon

I sent UNSW a question 3wks ago about their planned interview/offer dates. Got reply last week they were finalising details and would announce in a week or so (which they now have). The reply also says they will contact *every applicant* about this.

I think this contact email will likely advise all NSW/ACT applicants, whether they anticipate an invite or not, to be ready for zoom interview on 20th Jan regardless. Maybe it'll give setup instructions in advance as well.

 

[DLS]

Does anyone know the influence of SCATS application at UNSW with regards to UCAT and/or ATAR? Is it like EAS where you have a lower ATAR and UCAT cutoff?

 

[Caffeine]

Does anyone know the influence of SCATS application at UNSW with regards to UCAT and/or ATAR? Is it like EAS where you have a lower ATAR and UCAT cutoff?

SCATS does not change the UCAT requirement directly. The following is for offers only, for interviews you still have to meet the minimum UCAT score and Selection rank, SCATS can help in meeting the minimum SR but it won't impact the minimum UCAT.

For offers it won't change the hurdle UCAT however it can help in regards to having a slightly lower score once above the cut-off. For example if UNSW's cut-off was 3050 but the minimum ATAR was 99.40. If your SCATS boosted you to 99.95 whilst you would still need a 3050, you would have a better chance of getting an offer with a 3060 then you would if you had 99.50. For ATAR you must meet the minimum first of 96, though the exact impact or boost is unknown to everyone as UNSW doesn't release this for good reason. It will help you if it takes you to the cut-off as you would meet eligibility and any further boost would increase your chances of offers. To be clear however the impact is useless if you don't meet the minimum ATAR and UCAT threshold [My numbers were also completely random so don't take anything from them]

 

[Purplefolly]

30 Sept I don't understand why UNSW needs a predicted ATAR? ATARs are released 20th Jan. Can't UNSW interview people in the ensuing days and then give an offer on 26 Jan?

You might be right A1... UNSW may be reading MSO and formulating their interview schedules based on our input and ideas...

 

[A1]

I don't understand why UNSW needs a predicted ATAR? ATARs are released 20th Jan. Can't UNSW interview people in the ensuing days and then give an offer on 26 Jan?

UNSW may be reading MSO and formulating their interview schedules based on our input and ideas...

I remember we talked about this. At the time I didn't think UNSW would be able to interview all locals over 3 days 21-23rd (this includes a weekend), do their final ranking 24th, send to UAC 25th to cross-pref against JPM/JMP, to release on 26th.

But horrifyingly UNSW now plans to interview locals on just 2 days 20-21st. This gives me a nasty thought they're going to cut down the number of interview spots. Brace for impact everyone.

 

[ucat3300+]

I remember we talked about this. At the time I didn't think UNSW would be able to interview all locals over 3 days 21-23rd (this includes a weekend), do their final ranking 24th, send to UAC 25th to cross-pref against JPM/JMP, to release on 26th.

But horrifyingly UNSW now plans to interview locals on just 2 days 20-21st. This gives me a nasty thought they're going to cut down the number of interview spots. Brace for impact everyone.

For comparison, WSU is conducting all of their interviews over 3 days.. Given that it is only NSW/ACT applicants being interviewed over 2 days, do you think they can maintain the same number of people they interview?