UNSW UNSW Medicine: General Entry Questions and Discussion

[pochacco12345]

Hi! I am also a non-standard student studying at UNSW. I had received my university marks this morning but I would assume that my ATAR would count to the selection rank (99.85). Perhaps, like others have mentioned, they need my final university marks to check whether I have met the minimum (and the marks being released today may have been too late?). Hopefully this does not negatively impact the non-standard people too significantly

Just wanted to add I am a first year student as well (if that helps). I graduated last year

 

[Sleep Deprived]

Hi, I’m a non standard first year uni student too. It seems a couple of non standards have received interview invites today in the Dec rounds. I have also received an invite to attend the January rounds. I think unsw have been evaluating some applicants who already have their atar and ucat. For me, I have 99.95 atar so I couldn’t go any higher with my tertiary results, so I guess that’s why I got the interview since I made the cutoff. For those who didn’t receive an interview this round, don’t be stressed out. Unsw is probably waiting for your finals results from this semester to take in your best of atar/gpa. Also, sorry to those who have been rejected

 

[JeydinNewWon]

Just wanted to add I am a first year student as well (if that helps). I graduated last year

Just wait until January round; they will consider you then.

 

[pochacco12345]

Just wait until January round; they will consider you then.

Yes hopefully! Hopefully it doesn't disadvantage us too much. Just sucks since this is out of our control at the end of the day but hopefully it will work out!

 

[aurora1020]

Does anyone have a guess for the UNSW ATAR cut-off for interviews? I am trying to figure out if my selection rank is 99.5 or higher so I can put physio as a backup (I already have enough backups to be able to take a slight risk). Invited to interview at UNSW with an ATAR in the 98s, non-rural but with some pretty significant EAS - want to estimate my selection rank!

 

[JeydinNewWon]

Does anyone have a guess for the UNSW ATAR cut-off for interviews? I am trying to figure out if my selection rank is 99.5 or higher so I can put physio as a backup (I already have enough backups to be able to take a slight risk). Invited to interview at UNSW with an ATAR in the 98s, non-rural but with some pretty significant EAS - want to estimate my selection rank!

I think 99.50 is the selection rank cutoff (it was last years but again CANNOT confirm if that's the same this year).
Maybe if someone who got rejected was notified of the cutoffs can tell us ; if they're comfortable with sharing them, that is.

 

[Random567]

Hi Guys I got an ATAR of 99.90 and UCAT of 2930(87%), and I was rejected from UNSW. From other MSO posts for this year's interview offers I saw someone with a 88% ucat and a 99.60 get an interview offer. Is there any hope for me in future rounds or the January interview for interstates and internationals? Also does anyone know if USYD holds future rounds that could possibly give an interview to 99.90s or is there just a hard cut-off at 99.95? Thanks for the help.

 

[DrDrLMG!]

Hi Guys I got an ATAR of 99.90 and UCAT of 2930(87%), and I was rejected from UNSW. From other MSO posts for this year's interview offers I saw someone with a 88% ucat and a 99.60 get an interview offer. Is there any hope for me in future rounds or the January interview for interstates and internationals? Also does anyone know if USYD holds future rounds that could possibly give an interview to 99.90s or is there just a hard cut-off at 99.95? Thanks for the help.

If you’ve received a rejection email, that’s it unfortunately.

Likewise for USyd, 99.95 is the requirement. Any positions not accepted/filled are just included in the graduate entry cohort in three year’s time.

 

[ThunderDragon]

Hi Guys I got an ATAR of 99.90 and UCAT of 2930(87%), and I was rejected from UNSW. From other MSO posts for this year's interview offers I saw someone with a 88% ucat and a 99.60 get an interview offer. Is there any hope for me in future rounds or the January interview for interstates and internationals? Also does anyone know if USYD holds future rounds that could possibly give an interview to 99.90s or is there just a hard cut-off at 99.95? Thanks for the help.

Unless its an error, it seems that the UCAT cut off may have risen to 88th Percentile.

 

[JeydinNewWon]

Unless its an error, it seems that the UCAT cut off may have risen to 88th Percentile.

Welp, guess I'm not getting an interview then xD. I thought it would be like this haha.

But whatever I guess, that means I can still be with my compsci friends :3

 

[dachshund]

Why does UNSW even interview ~600 applicants if they’re only going to accept 200 applicants? From what I’ve read, I’m getting the idea that people who borderline got an interview don’t even have a chance at an offer even if they ace the interview, so why do they even bother?

 

[ucatboy]

Why does UNSW even interview ~600 applicants if they’re only going to accept 200 applicants? From what I’ve read, I’m getting the idea that people who borderline got an interview don’t even have a chance at an offer even if they ace the interview, so why do they even bother?

Provided they didn't mess up the math, every single applicant who receives an interview has a non-zero chance of receiving an offer. In past years if this chance was <5% and you were coming from interstate UNSW actually had the courtesy of telling you this estimate in advance so you could weigh up the costs of flights/accommodation vs chance of an offer. I'm not sure if they still do this.

It's a difficult balance to achieve - interview too few applicants (e.g. 200/300) and you'll only be selecting for students with even higher ATAR/UCAT (as if they weren't high enough already) and potentially missing out on students with still excellent academic results but have something special to offer for the interviews. Invite too many and like you said, you get a lot more rejections and "wasted" time/effort. Ultimately most of the unis across Australia have ended up with a 1:3 ratio, with some going up to 1:4.

 

[A1]

From what I’ve read, I’m getting the idea that people who borderline got an interview don’t even have a chance at an offer even if they ace the interview, so why do they even bother?

I need to put on a bit of maths to explain this.

UNSW typically uses an ATAR-UCAT combo to determine interview selection. Someone with low-low ATAR-UCAT wouldn't make the invite cutoff, you need at least a high-low or low-high (or an equivalent in-between combo). Using high-low as example it means if you score a high interview you have two highs + one low combined to in the top third overall for a place offer. IOW scraping into the interview round you need a near-top interview to compensate, but you do have some chance to achieve that.

Otoh Adelaide selects interviewees just on UCAT. Potentially one can get an interview with a bottom UCAT (bottom relative to other interviewees), if they also have a low ATAR then two lows + one high interview is NOT going to lift them to the top quarter overall (top quarter since Adelaide's place ratio is about 1 in 4).

 

[DrDrLMG!]

The difference between UNSW and UAdel (anecdotally at least - based on MSO collated data), is that UAdel appear to have a substantial decline rate. In some years, more than 50% of UAdel Med offers reported here have been declined.

Their 1:4 ratio (rather than 1:3 for UNSW) likely gives them some moving room so they’re not exclusively selecting the same cohort of successful applicants as every other Uni.

 

[dachshund]

Provided they didn't mess up the math, every single applicant who receives an interview has a non-zero chance of receiving an offer. In past years if this chance was <5% and you were coming from interstate UNSW actually had the courtesy of telling you this estimate in advance so you could weigh up the costs of flights/accommodation vs chance of an offer. I'm not sure if they still do this.

It's a difficult balance to achieve - interview too few applicants (e.g. 200/300) and you'll only be selecting for students with even higher ATAR/UCAT (as if they weren't high enough already) and potentially missing out on students with still excellent academic results but have something special to offer for the interviews. Invite too many and like you said, you get a lot more rejections and "wasted" time/effort. Ultimately most of the unis across Australia have ended up with a 1:3 ratio, with some going up to 1:4.

With ATAR 99.8 and UCAT 2990 (90th %ile) with EAS 2 categories do you think I realistically stand a chance at CSP/BMP offer at Kensington campus? If not, what about the Port Macquarie campus?

I want to know because if the chance is unrealistic, I need to prepare to move interstate for potential Griffith / Flinders / Umelb FFP offer because I have no other med options in NSW.

 

[DrDrLMG!]

With ATAR 99.8 and UCAT 2990 (90th %ile) with EAS 2 categories do you think I realistically stand a chance at CSP/BMP offer at Kensington campus? If not, what about the Port Macquarie campus?

I want to know because if the chance is unrealistic, I need to prepare to move interstate for potential Griffith / Flinders / Umelb FFP offer because I have no other med options in NSW.

If you have received an interview, you have a chance. But at a 1:3 ratio, you should also prepare to be unsuccessful in gaining an offer and having a realistic back up plan in place.

No one can give you guarantees.

 

[darkbox]

If I got a 99.85 atar and a 3010 ucat (91%) with no EAS at all, would I have to ace the interview to get an offer at any of the UNSW campuses?

 

[DrDrLMG!]

If I got a 99.85 atar and a 3010 ucat (91%) with no EAS at all, would I have to ace the interview to get an offer at any of the UNSW campuses?

These are questions we simply can’t meaningfully answer. You will just have to do the best you can on the day, wait for the result, and be prepared for any eventuality and with a solid backup plan.

 

[A1]

With ATAR 99.8 and UCAT 2990 (90th %ile) with EAS 2 categories do you think I realistically stand a chance at CSP/BMP offer at Kensington campus?

If I got a 99.85 atar and a 3010 ucat (91%) with no EAS at all, would I have to ace the interview to get an offer at any of the UNSW campuses?

As I showed in my example above, 99.80+EAS is a clear top, 99.85 no EAS is near top, but UCAT 90-91%ile is near bottom. On these two criteria you presently are out of the top third, thus the interview needs to be in the top 15-20% to raise to top third. Not easy but achievable.

As for which campus if you are successful, this gets to a detail level our guesstimates cannot guess. As DrLMG said you just try do the best you can, the higher your interview score the more possible you get the preferred campus. Best of luck to you both.

 

[Sleep Deprived]

UNSW says they interview 500 interviews to local applicants. I'm assuming this includes rural too so is the split for rural:non-rural around 350:150 or 300:200?

Also, UNSW says they give out 200 offers to local applicants. Is the split usually something around 100CSP/40BMP/60 rural?