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Hi TL
I'm an Australian who's been staying out of Australia the past few years. I've finished my International Baccalaureate (IB) and I'm hoping to go to Australia to study medicine. I got 38 points in IB (not trying to show off) + Show Spoiler +but to my credit I did study relatively hard
As I'm staying out of Australia, my main sources of information are either their websites (which only tell me minimum requirements, not a safe score to get in) or prospectus, which are targeted at international applicants (non-Australians) anyway.
I was wondering if there could be any other kind Australians out there who could help this member of their community (: I'm thinking of a few things:
1) Is there a high chance that I'll be able to study medicine in an Australian university, if so, which universities?
2) Are there any other procedures, such as interviews, that I should be aware of?
3) Which universtities have Starcraft 2 communities, and how are they like (of course!)
4) Is there anything I should be aware of about the various cities, like some city only has slow internet, etc...
My scores are as follow:
Physics HL: 7
Chemistry HL:6
Mathematics HL: 5
English A1 SL: 6
Business & Management SL: 6
Chinese B SL: 7
Thanks so much for the help! really appreciate it (:
John
Edit: New information added later in the post. I'll appreciate it if you could read that too (:
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I can't answer questions about marks but a lot of australian universities are transitioning to the american-style of university where you study one of four or five undergrad degrees and do med, law, engineering as postgrad. If you're applying out of school, you can look into assured pathways places which will guarantee you a postgrad spot. You'll need to do the umat or gamsat test to qualify for med - it's like an interpersonal/psycchometric test designed to make sure people are studying med 'for the right reason'. Some universities have interviews, some have an essay, some have both (notably Melb doesn't have an interview, iirc).
Usyd has a good med school and an active starcraft society.
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I don't really know how well the IB translates into OP/TER if it does at all, and it depends on whats important. UQ/usyd/RMIT all have pretty decent med schools and from what friends have said University of Newcastle has a damn good med course. In terms of starcraft communities apparently the UQ/QUT starcraft society is one of the better ones out there in terms of events/ participation etc.
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Hi, current 2nd year post-grad med student at University of Sydney. Since you mentioned IB, I'm guessing those subjects down below are for your undergraduate course? In which case, am I safe to assume that you're after a 'postgraduate' medicine course in Australia? We have undergraduate courses (e.g. UNSW, UWS, University of Newcastle) that you can start right after high school, as well as postgraduate courses which have a prerequisite of having done an undergraduate course at any recognised university in the world, in any field (i.e. not medicine). Postgraduate medicine =/= research degree in medicine.
I am not familiar with IB scores or what those 6s and 7s mean, so I'll assume they're pretty good since you're considering medicine.
Entrance into a medicine course is based on 3 criteria:
1. School/University marks
2. GAMSAT Score
3. Interview/Portfolio performance
ACER (Australian Council for Educational Research) is the body that handles most* of the admissions, and they also run the GAMSAT test which is a 1-day test in March every year. You tell ACER your preferences of med schools, and based on the GAMSAT results, you get an interview offer from one of those schools. Different schools have different criteria (e.g. some may require you to write a portfolio detailing why you want to do medicine etc. on top of an interview, while others don't even have interviews and just give a straight out offer based on GAMSAT score and university marks).
*: Since last year, University of Sydney (USYD) still uses GAMSAT but no longer uses ACER to handle their admissions. This means you can apply through ACER and also apply directly to USYD after doing the GAMSAT, meaning you potentially get 2 interview invites. Since there is no drawback, almost everyone will apply to USYD for an interview, which artificially elevates the GAMSAT cut-off score for the first round of interview offers.
Edit:
You should Google ACER to familiarise yourself with the application process, might also find a list of Australian (and a few NZ) universities that have medicine courses. From there you can look up individual universities and their requirements/ application processes.
USYD has a starcraft community which is in close association to the one in UNSW, and they organised the Sydney barcrafts for a few GSL/GSTL finals as well as most recently a SPL final where they borrowed a UNSW lecture theatre. They also run tournaments and small lans during semester as well, but I've usually been too busy to participate in too many of their events. Person in charge is somewhere here on TL.
Oh and Australian internet is shit no matter where you go. Connection to NA server is slightly better than to SEA server (Singapore) for most people, but ~200 ms ping is standard even if you're on cable internet. You get used to it though, and its not too bad as long as your connection remains relatively stable (i.e. not too many lag spikes).
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Well I can only speak for SA here but I think most of the country has a similar process so I'll do my best to answer questions 1) and 2).
1) Med is incredibly hard to get into (unless you go to a private university like Bond) and the reason for this is because a high year 12 graduate score isn't enough, which brings me onto 2)..
2) In SA you must first sit the UMAT test which is set once every year. It's a 2 or 3 hour multiple choice test which supposedly checks to see if you'll be a good doctor dispite your entrance rank. This test is designed to determine your ability to think, comprehend and understand emotions relative to all the others who take it. IMO The test is complete bullshit and really just acts to stop people with massive university entrance scores from getting into med without really determining if you'll make a good Doctor (I think a NSW or Victoria study found that these med entrance test results have no bearing on eventual ability as a Doctor).
The point is though that this UMAT test makes it incredibly hard to get into med and even if you end up in the top percentile it'll only guarantee you an interview which you then need to pass by impressing the interviewer with god knows what to get into med. If you pass the interview however all you need is an embarrisingly small university entrance rank (probably the equivalent of 32 in IB).
If you don't do well enough in the UMAT to get offered an interview you can still get into med by going through some related course (like health science) and deferring. However, I wouldn't recommend this because even if you do go down this route, getting into med is still very compeditive and if you don't get in you've wasted 3 years at university for a fairly useless degree.
I hate to be kind of rude and obnixious about this but I've seen plenty of people who (in my oppinion) would make magnificent doctors and didn't even get offered the inverview. My cousin has also tried to deffer into med and so far it hasn't work for him and next year he'll be stuck with a degree that offers no clear careear path.
TL;DR Getting into med in Australia (or at least South Australia) requires more than a good high school graduate score and therefore is very hard to get into. There are limited places and getting through the UMAT (or equivalent) is very hard. There's always the option of going through an undergrad course (which could waste years of your life) first or going to a private university (very expensive) though.
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By the way for anyone reading who isn't familiar with the IB scoring, 38 will be more than enough at any University I can think of so long as you also pass the other rigmarole (last time i check it correlated to about 97 or 98 TER points).
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Hi All
Thanks for the help and the suggestions (: I really appreciate it.
I would like to add a few things which I feel I left out:
1) The maximum IB points is 45 (more = better) and I got 38. The maximum for each subject is 7 (with 3 bonus maximum). I got 1 bonus point, which is calculated based on philosophy and a research essay.
2) I'm interested in undergraduate medicine (I've just finished high school). I do have another pathway thought out if I'm going to go postgrad medicine (physiotherapy first)
3) UWA has a cut-off of 37, and a few other Unis have 39 (foreign applicants). If anyone knows whether it's harder for locals or foreigners to get in, I would appreciate the information (: Also, if anyone knows whether foreigners have to take UMAT/GAMSAT/ACER/etc, I would again appreciate this information (:
Lastly, does anyone know whether all results are considered together (a fantastic IB score will allow me to do worse in UMAT/interview) or is it just a hit-the-minimum score thing?
Thanks everyone!
John
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On April 23 2012 20:06 aussietoss wrote:
Hi All
Thanks for the help and the suggestions (: I really appreciate it.
I would like to add a few things which I feel I left out:
1) The maximum IB points is 45 (more = better) and I got 38. The maximum for each subject is 7 (with 3 bonus maximum). I got 1 bonus point, which is calculated based on philosophy and a research essay.
2) I'm interested in undergraduate medicine (I've just finished high school). I do have another pathway thought out if I'm going to go postgrad medicine (physiotherapy first)
3) UWA has a cut-off of 37, and a few other Unis have 39 (foreign applicants). If anyone knows whether it's harder for locals or foreigners to get in, I would appreciate the information (: Also, if anyone knows whether foreigners have to take UMAT/GAMSAT/ACER/etc, I would again appreciate this information (:
Lastly, does anyone know whether all results are considered together (a fantastic IB score will allow me to do worse in UMAT/interview) or is it just a hit-the-minimum score thing?
Thanks everyone!
John
Whether you're a local or a foreign student shouldn't matter in terms getting a place, and I believe you still have to do the UMAT/GAMSAT. The only thing that matters if you're not an Australian citizen or resident is that you won't get a HECS-funded spot, which means you'll be paying your fees (a considerable amount) up front each semester.
If you go to UWA, you might actually get a better ping to SEA - I think Perth internet routes through Singapore to SEA and Sydney to NA. They also have a reasonably regular BarCraft at a pub within walking distance of the Crawley campus.
You need to pass the UMAT/GAMSAT (minimum of 60) I think in order to qualify for medicine at all, and the higher the score you get, the better your chances of getting in. You also need to have your UMAT results before you even apply, which means you need to sit exam almost twelve months in advance of commencing your studies - so, the UMAT is in March every year, which means it's already too late to apply for medicine for 2013, you'd be looking at starting in 2014.
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EPT
