UNSW UNSW Medicine: General Entry Questions and Discussion

[Nonstandard983]

Yeah, I agree it's really up to the unis and no one is entitled. However, I just wanted to address that they didn't quite make it 100% equitable if it's much harder for a NSW student to get an interview than say a VIC or SA student who have state-based quotas respectively. Though, the funny thing is that in SA, the state-based quota for interview allow them in but don't give them any sizeable boost when ranked against the whole pool. So some could've been invited when they technically had zero chance to begin with. Which would not be problem if state-based quota was removed.

I guess, but if you wanted to remove quotas entirely that wouldn’t mean percentiles would drop they would actually increase, and practically every single person who got an interview would get a place as they would have multiple interviews. GWS bonus removed as well, not every university interstate has instate quotas as far as I am aware a few universities in QLD don’t have them right?

It’s unlucky that NSW school leavers have a more competitive path but so do other subsets of applicants, I just don’t think it’s that big of a deal but hey as a nonstandard it doesn’t affect me all that much so maybe I’m biased idk

 

[memeucatscore]

before that you could have a top atar and ucat and even with a bottom interview you’d still get an offer right?

This happened to someone who got 99.9 and 97 if I remember correctly in the UMAT. They got a BMP, yet someone who got 99.95 and 82 (in the UMAT) got a CSP because of their interview.

Got told this info by the person who got the CSP

 

[Nonstandard983]

This happened to someone who got 99.9 and 97 if I remember correctly in the UMAT. They got a BMP, yet someone who got 99.95 and 82 (in the UMAT) got a CSP because of their interview.

Got told this info by the person who got the CSP

Correct, the interview still had 33% weighting which could be the difference between a BMP/CSP however before the change say a 99.95 ATAR and a 99%ile UCAT would have guaranteed an place offer regardless of if you came last rank in the interview

 

[MyHeadee]

If you've opted for all 3, Kensington, Port, and Wagga, does Kensington BMP trump a Port CSP ? As in, does it from top to bottom, down the list of all applicants; the best get Kensington CSP, then after that is exhausted, Kensington BMP, then Port CSP and so on?

(This would be better expressed if i possessed A1's mathematical, visual, descriptive abilities)

 

[Scrivo_72]

If you've opted for all 3, Kensington, Port, and Wagga, does Kensington BMP trump a Port CSP ? As in, does it from top to bottom, down the list of all applicants; the best get Kensington CSP, then after that is exhausted, Kensington BMP, then Port CSP and so on?

(This would be better expressed if i possessed A1's mathematical, visual, descriptive abilities)

Nah, from your preferences, it will check if you are eligible for each course in this order:
1. Kensington CSP
2. Port CSP
3. Wagga Wagga CSP
4. Kensington BMP
5. Port BMP
6. Wagga Wagga BMP

 

[MyHeadee]

Nah, from your preferences, it will check if you are eligible for each course in this order:
1. Kensington CSP
2. Port CSP
3. Wagga Wagga CSP
4. Kensington BMP
5. Port BMP
6. Wagga Wagga BMP

F.

 

[A1]

As in, does it from top to bottom, down the list of all applicants; the best get Kensington CSP, then after that is exhausted, Kensington BMP, then Port CSP and so on?

This^ would be the case if UNSW deliberately sets 72% CSP + 28% BMP at *each campus*. We don't know for sure but I don't think it's like that.

My speculation is of the ~140 non-rural places the top 100 get CSP the 101-140 get BMP first, before campus is allocated based on their preferences. So potentially they can end up with 100 CSPs at Kensington, 40 BMPs at Port/Wagga

 

[MyHeadee]

This^ would be the case if UNSW deliberately sets 72% CSP + 28% BMP at *each campus*. We don't know for sure but I don't think it's like that.

My speculation is of the ~140 non-rural places the top 100 get CSP the 101-140 get BMP first, before campus is allocated based on their preferences. So potentially they can end up with 100 CSPs at Kensington, 40 BMPs at Port/Wagga

would it take into consideration people's pref's? So like if someone put down kensington as 1st pref, and they are just on the verge between the two, would they get given a Kensington BMP over a Wagga CSP?

I'm using Flynn's list of offer rank:
1. Kensington CSP
2. Port CSP
3. Wagga Wagga CSP
4. Kensington BMP
5. Port BMP
6. Wagga Wagga BMP

Side info: Rumour says 25 total at Port, and 15 in wagga. Which would mean ... 7 rural at Port, and 4 rural at Wagga. As for the amount of BMP, i have no clue, as you said, it could either be BMP is offered in terms of where you are in the pecking order from 1 to 190. OR it could be in terms of a set amount of BMP per campus. I don't know that

 

[A1]

would it take into consideration people's pref's? So like if someone put down kensington as 1st pref, and they are just on the verge between the two, would they get given a Kensington BMP over a Wagga CSP?

I'm using Flynn's list of offer rank:
1. Kensington CSP
2. Port CSP
3. Wagga Wagga CSP
4. Kensington BMP
5. Port BMP
6. Wagga Wagga BMP

Side info: Rumour says 25 total at Port, and 15 in wagga. Which would mean ... 7 rural at Port, and 4 rural at Wagga. As for the amount of BMP, i have no clue, as you said, it could either be BMP is offered in terms of where you are in the pecking order from 1 to 190. OR it could be in terms of a set amount of BMP per campus. I don't know that

Since there are set amounts of rurals at Port/Wagga we can leave them out and focus on the ~140 non-rurals, which split into 110 Kensington + 30 Port/Wagga.

Case 1: No preset CSPs at Kensington, all 140 non-rurals pref Kensington > Port/Wagga
1-100 get CSP, 101-140 get BMP. With no CSP limit at Kensington : 1-100 get Kens CSP, 101-110 get Kens BMP, 111-140 get P/W BMP.

Case 2: No preset CSPs at Kensington, 7 among the tops pref Port/Wagga > Kensington
93 among 1-100 get Kens CSP, 7 get P/W CSP, 101-117 get Kens BMP, 118-140 get P/W BMP

Case 3: CSP is limited to 80 at Kens, 10 each Port/Wagga. All 140 non-rurals pref Kensington > Port/Wagga
1-80 get Kens CSP, 81-100 get P/W CSP, 101-130 get Kens BMP, 131-140 get P/W BMP.

And so on.... take your pick
My speculation is Case 1 or 2 (depending how many pref Port/Wagga > Kensington). But if it goes in order of Kens CSP then Port CSP etc like Flynn suggested then it's Case 3. Hope this makes sense.

 

[A1]

Case 3: CSP is limited to 80 at Kens, 10 each Port/Wagga. All 140 non-rurals pref Kensington > Port/Wagga
1-80 get Kens CSP, 81-100 get P/W CSP, 101-130 get Kens BMP, 131-140 get P/W BMP.

Oops I should add Case 4 too which could be interesting.

Case 4: Similar settings to Case 3 but UNSW allocates Kensington pref *before* CSP/BMP
1-80 get Kens CSP, 81-110 get Kens BMP, 111-130 get P/W CSP, 131-140 get P/W BMP
(Note how 81-110 are higher but get BMP vs some 111+ CSP)

 

[MyHeadee]

Oops I should add Case 4 too which could be interesting.

Case 4: Similar settings to Case 3 but UNSW allocates Kensington pref *before* CSP/BMP
1-80 get Kens CSP, 81-110 get Kens BMP, 111-130 get P/W CSP, 131-140 get P/W BMP
(Note how 81-110 are higher but get BMP vs some 111+ CSP)

I do hope this is the case

Although the only thing throwing me off when looking at the collated data, is things like

Person A: ATAR: 99.65, UCAT: 2860, CSP, rural, Port Macquarie, accepting (but unsure about campus)
Person B: ATAR: 98.80, UCAT: 2710, CSP, RA3, Kensington, (waiting on other offers)

With the assumption that "unsure about campus" indicates that they were wishing for Kensington. There's a pretty significant difference in ucat and atar here, i would assume enough to overcome the RA3 vs RA2 (prolly). I cant seem to wrap my head around some of the inconsistencies in the things offered, in some cases they confirm your case 4, in others its case 1 or 2.

 

[A1]

Person A: ATAR: 99.65, UCAT: 2860, CSP, rural, Port Macquarie, accepting (but unsure about campus)
Person B: ATAR: 98.80, UCAT: 2710, CSP, RA3, Kensington, (waiting on other offers)

We can't just look at their ATAR+UCAT and guess A was higher ranked than B. Person A could have an interview marginally enough for CSP while B had a top notch interview combined with RA3 to rank higher than A.

That said, if we take the view "unsure about campus" means A had pref'ed Kensington higher it's likely to be Case 3 (each campus has a CSP allocation so that Port/Wagga don't end up with all BMPs). Can't be Case 4 since A would have got Kensington, can't be Case 1 or 2 because Kensington with 44 rural places had enough to fit in all 40 rural CSPs including A.

 

[Sobek]

Sub-90 UMATs can get UNSW interviews if they have ATAR better than ~99.2 and they do have some chance for a place. UNSW would not waste their time & an intv slot interviewing someone with zero chance. For example a 99.95 with 86 UMAT has about 50% chance (quoted from UNSW's advice to MD) which roughly equates to a better than median interview score. Not impossible for an 86 UMAT.



I'd say 90% chance for an interview but only 10-20% chance for a place, aka you need to be in the top 10-20% of the interview scores.

Has this information changed with the new UCAT?
If I'm looking at an ATAR of 99.5-99.6 and a UCAT percentile of 93, am I just as likely to get an interview and place depending on my interview score?

 

[A1]

Has this information changed with the new UCAT?
If I'm looking at an ATAR of 99.5-99.6 and a UCAT percentile of 93, am I just as likely to get an interview and place depending on my interview score?

Yes it has changed significantly, not due to switching to UCAT just more & more competition every year plus the fact UNSW now gives more EAS considerations, making it harder for regular applicants.

In my year 6yrs ago, a top ATAR 99.95 needed high 70s%ile to get an interview, top UMAT 99%ile needed ~97.0, the midpoint was around 98.8+88%ile. But note these combos (high/low, low/high, mid/mid) represented the lowest into the interview round, UNSW gave them about 5% chance of achieving a sufficient interview score for an offer. (Ask LMG! , she knows the feeling )

The midpoint gradually increases to 99.0+90%ile, then 99.2+92% two years ago. Now probably 99.3+93%ile. So your 99.5-.6 + 93%ile should get an invite, but only a little higher than scraping in so in my estimate you have 15-20% chance of an offer.

 

[Sobek]

Yes it has changed significantly, not due to switching to UCAT just more & more competition every year plus the fact UNSW now gives more EAS considerations, making it harder for regular applicants.

In my year 6yrs ago, a top ATAR 99.95 needed high 70s%ile to get an interview, top UMAT 99%ile needed ~97.0, the midpoint was around 98.8+88%ile. But note these combos (high/low, low/high, mid/mid) represented the lowest into the interview round, UNSW gave them about 5% chance of achieving a sufficient interview score for an offer. (Ask LMG! , she knows the feeling )

The midpoint gradually increases to 99.0+90%ile, then 99.2+92% two years ago. Now probably 99.3+93%ile. So your 99.5-.6 + 93%ile should get an invite, but only a little higher than scraping in so in my estimate you have 15-20% chance of an offer.

Looks like I'll just have to work on improving my UCAT performance, but even so, a 15-20% chance of my top choice is pretty nice. Both the JMP and UNSW are my top 2 picks, by nature of being in the state, and from what I've heard JMP is easier to get into than UNSW. I'd be very satisfied with entry there into either program. Thanks for the info!

 

[A1]

and from what I've heard JMP is easier to get into than UNSW

JMP is not universally easier than UNSW. Going into the interviews the high ATAR + high UCAT applicants can have up to 70-80% chance of a UNSW place offer whereas it's equal 30-35% chance for everyone at JMP (30-35% chance is to account for a number of the top 170 JMP interviewees getting higher-pref UNSW/WSU, thus extending the offers to possibly 200th or 220th).

 

[parmesan_12345]

JMP is not universally easier than UNSW. Going into the interviews the high ATAR + high UCAT applicants can have up to 70-80% chance of a UNSW place offer whereas it's equal 30-35% chance for everyone at JMP (30-35% chance is to account for a number of the top 170 JMP interviewees getting higher-pref UNSW/WSU, thus extending the offers to possibly 200th or 220th).

When you refer to 70-80% chance of a UNSW place, do you mean that their interview performance just has to be 'average' in terms of ranking to land a spot? I recall reading somewhere on MSO that if you performed below a certain threshold for the interview, you would be automatically failed regardless of how high your other results were.

If possible, do you also have an estimate of how high one's ATAR or UCAT would have to be to have this much of a chance for a place?

 

[ucatboy]

When you refer to 70-80% chance of a UNSW place, do you mean that their interview performance just has to be 'average' in terms of ranking to land a spot? I recall reading somewhere on MSO that if you performed below a certain threshold for the interview, you would be automatically failed regardless of how high your other results were.

If possible, do you also have an estimate of how high one's ATAR or UCAT would have to be to have this much of a chance for a place?

Probably like 99.95 + 99%ile lmao

70-80% chance is very good odds and it literally can't go higher than that because like you said, if you perform below, say, 10-15%ile in the interview you get booted out of the admissions process anyway. I believe when A1 says 70-80% chance he means you just have to be in the top 70-80% of interview performances i.e. above 20-30%ile.

 

[parmesan_12345]

Probably like 99.95 + 99%ile lmao

70-80% chance is very good odds and it literally can't go higher than that because like you said, if you perform below, say, 10-15%ile, in the interview you get booted out of the admissions process anyway. I believe when A1 says 70-80% chance he means you just have to be in the top 70-80% of interview performances i.e. above 20-30%ile.

Thanks. Just to confirm, does UNSW look at UCAT in terms of percentile or raw score? For example, 3400 versus 3250 are both 99th percentile but 3400 is quite a bit higher.

 

[ucatboy]

Thanks. Just to confirm, does UNSW look at UCAT in terms of percentile or raw score? For example, 3400 versus 3250 are both 99th percentile but 3400 is quite a bit higher.

Yeah they look at raw score and a higher 99%ile will give you a very marginal advantage. It's not much though, a single interview question is probably worth more than that difference.