Australian Medical Schools

[Romperait]

This is in response to MBBS around Australia. Thought some insight into the entry process for school leavers for each university could be useful. Excuse the informal language.

MBBS:

Monash University – Offered an interview either based on your UMAT performance or a late offer based on a combination of UMAT/ATAR in late Decemeber/early January. The UMAT cutoff has become especially high and it’s generally pretty competitive. 5 year course, one of the harder undergrad schools to get into. 

University of New South Wales – Interviews are offered based upon your UMAT performance and a predicted ATAR given to the university by your school. You’re then assessed based upon interview/UMAT/actual ATAR. Similar difficulty for entry as that at Monash. 6 year course. 

Adelaide University – Interviews are offered based only on UMAT. South Australians are given preference, so the UMAT cutoff for interstaters remains quite high. Takes into account ATAR/UMAT/interview, not as hard as Monash or UNSW.

University of Tasmania – For interstate school leavers, they rank you on your UMAT as long as you meet the ATAR cutoff of 95 (no interview). This is very difficult to get into because they don’t offer many places to interstate school leavers. UMAT cutoff is always above 98th percentile. 

University of Western Sydney – Interviews are given out depending on performance in UMAT (the sections are weighted 1:1:0.5 so section 3 is considered half as important effectively) along with a predicted ATAR given by your school and then offers are given based on ATAR, UMAT and interview performance. 5 year course.

James Cook University – Doesn’t take into account UMAT. Selectioncriteria is ATAR and an interview. 6 year course.

University of Newcastle – This has been called a Joint Medical Program (JMP) because Newcastle and University of New England offer a joint MBBS course over 5 year. To get an interview you need >50 in all three sections of the UMAT then they make a cutoff based upon section 1 scores. Takes into account UMAT, ATAR and an interview.
 
Flinders University – No interview, weights ATAR heavily (something like 90% ATAR, 10% UMAT). There aren’t many spots available and they place emphasis on South Australia candidates so it could be tough for interstaters. 6 year course.

Bond University – First up this is FFP only (full fee place) so keep that in mind if applying for it. Takes into account ATAR, UMAT and an interview. 5 year course.

Provisional Entry:

University of Melbourne - Get 99.90 (could maybe be a bit less but it won't be much) and get past the interview for a guarantee. 3 years undergrad, 4 years MD. Not much else to say, the ATAR cutoff is pretty steep..

University of Sydney – Get 99.95 and then interview before undergraduate course begins. Similar course structure to UoM. Not totally sure why…anyone in Victoria would take that over UoM.

University of Queensland - 2 year undergrad degree followed by 4 years medicine. No interview, you're probably wanting OP1 (99.0) which can be quite doable with the bonuses given for languages/specialist and >50 raw in all three sections of the UMAT. They rank you on UMAT but if you meet those criteria you would be pretty likely to get an offer.

Griffith University – Similar course structure as UQ. The big difference is they don't take into account UMAT (and no interview as well). They don't advertise the cutoff (someone can do their research and prove me wrong if they like), but I've heard it's something like 99.6 [Edit: was 99.35 for 2011 course entry].

University of Western Australia – There is a guaranteed pathway to graduate medicine which is based upon UMAT, ATAR and an interview. This is the first year UWA is offering provisional entry so difficulty is sort of hard to gauge.

[REBORN]

haha thanks man, follows on nicely from my Q yesterday :p

[Russ]

University of Sydney – Get 99.95 and then interview before undergraduate course begins. Similar course structure to UoM. Not totally sure why…anyone in Victoria would take that over UoM.

The campus is so much better, it's not even funny.

Also, nice effortpost

[Surgeon]

This is in response to MBBS around Australia. Thought some insight into the entry process for school leavers for each university could be useful. Excuse the informal language.

MBBS:

Monash University – Offered an interview either based on your UMAT performance or a late offer based on a combination of UMAT/ATAR in late Decemeber/early January. The UMAT cutoff has become especially high and it’s generally pretty competitive. 5 year course, one of the harder undergrad schools to get into. 

University of New South Wales – Interviews are offered based upon your UMAT performance and a predicted ATAR given to the university by your school. You’re then assessed based upon interview/UMAT/actual ATAR. Similar difficulty for entry as that at Monash. 6 year course. 

Adelaide University – Interviews are offered based only on UMAT. South Australians are given preference, so the UMAT cutoff for interstaters remains quite high. Takes into account ATAR/UMAT/interview, not as hard as Monash or UNSW.

University of Tasmania – For interstate school leavers, they rank you on your UMAT as long as you meet the ATAR cutoff of 95 (no interview). This is very difficult to get into because they don’t offer many places to interstate school leavers. UMAT cutoff is always above 98th percentile. 

University of Western Sydney – Interviews are given out depending on performance in UMAT (the sections are weighted 1:1:0.5 so section 3 is considered half as important effectively) along with a predicted ATAR given by your school and then offers are given based on ATAR, UMAT and interview performance. 5 year course.

James Cook University – Doesn’t take into account UMAT. Selectioncriteria is ATAR and an interview. 6 year course.

University of Newcastle – This has been called a Joint Medical Program (JMP) because Newcastle and University of New England offer a joint MBBS course over 5 year. To get an interview you need >50 in all three sections of the UMAT then they make a cutoff based upon section 1 scores. Takes into account UMAT, ATAR and an interview.
 
Flinders University – No interview, weights ATAR heavily (something like 90% ATAR, 10% UMAT). There aren’t many spots available and they place emphasis on South Australia candidates so it could be tough for interstaters. 6 year course.

Bond University – First up this is FFP only (full fee place) so keep that in mind if applying for it. Takes into account ATAR, UMAT and an interview. 5 year course.

Provisional Entry:

University of Melbourne - Get 99.90 (could maybe be a bit less but it won't be much) and get past the interview for a guarantee. 3 years undergrad, 4 years MD. Not much else to say, the ATAR cutoff is pretty steep..

University of Sydney – Get 99.95 and then interview before undergraduate course begins. Similar course structure to UoM. Not totally sure why…anyone in Victoria would take that over UoM.

University of Queensland - 2 year undergrad degree followed by 4 years medicine. No interview, you're probably wanting OP1 (99.0) which can be quite doable with the bonuses given for languages/specialist and >50 raw in all three sections of the UMAT. They rank you on UMAT but if you meet those criteria you would be pretty likely to get an offer.

Griffith University – Similar course structure as UQ. The big difference is they don't take into account UMAT (and no interview as well). They don't advertise the cutoff (someone can do their research and prove me wrong if they like), but I've heard it's something like 99.6.

University of Western Australia – There is a guaranteed pathway to graduate medicine which is based upon UMAT, ATAR and an interview. This is the first year UWA is offering provisional entry so difficulty is sort of hard to gauge.

Thanks so much for the useful information!

About Bond University, I read that it's something like $60000 a year. Do you need to pay the full fee upfront or can you take out a student loan and start paying it back when you start working? I don't want to burden my parents into spending another $300000 on me after spending $25000 a year on my private school education!

[Russ]

You can take out a loan, but it's not going to be from the government, so you'll be paying interest. If you don't have collateral, the interest rates for an unsecured, 300,000 dollar student loan are going to be horrible.

Bond is really only an option if your family has the money to pay it up front

[iamdan08]

University of Sydney – Get 99.95 and then interview before undergraduate course begins. Similar course structure to UoM. Not totally sure why…anyone in Victoria would take that over UoM.

The campus is so much better, it's not even funny.

Completely agree with this.  Sydney, has an AMAZING campus!

[Surgeon]

You can take out a loan, but it's not going to be from the government, so you'll be paying interest. If you don't have collateral, the interest rates for an unsecured, 300,000 dollar student loan are going to be horrible.

Bond is really only an option if your family has the money to pay it up front

Hmmm... Well economically, my parents could pay the full $300000 upfront but I really wouldn't feel comfortable asking them to. "Mum, dad, thanks so much for providing me with a ridiculously expensive private school education. Oh, by the way, if you don't mind, could you pay for my university fee? $300000."

Although they're really happy that I decided I wanted to study Medicine anyway so maybe they wouldn't mind paying. I guess I'll just put it as a last resort.

[thushan]

Griffith ATAR was 99.35 for Feb 2011 entry.
http://www17.griffith.edu.au/cis/p_cat/admission.asp?ProgCode=1280&Type=apply

[Hamdog17]

You can take out a loan, but it's not going to be from the government, so you'll be paying interest. If you don't have collateral, the interest rates for an unsecured, 300,000 dollar student loan are going to be horrible.

Bond is really only an option if your family has the money to pay it up front

Hmmm... Well economically, my parents could pay the full $300000 upfront but I really wouldn't feel comfortable asking them to. "Mum, dad, thanks so much for providing me with a ridiculously expensive private school education. Oh, by the way, if you don't mind, could you pay for my university fee? $300000."

Although they're really happy that I decided I wanted to study Medicine anyway so maybe they wouldn't mind paying. I guess I'll just put it as a last resort.

It's about $290000 for the 4.6 year course plus accommodation, books and equipment and your looking at about $365000. That's a lot of money! Even if your family is wealthy! Quite a few graduate schools still accept domestic FFP students (Melbourne is only $200k), (UNDS is just $120k) and GU is about $140k. Remember fee help still takes care of about $120k worth of your tuition (minus the cost of your undergraduate degree).

[Sickle]

lyk if you cryed evrytym u read dis

._.

Baibai med.

[Bhootnike]

Umat is such a joke..  People who work their butts off for vce,  end up with 99.65 and still don't get Monash or any other notable universities cause of their Umat!

O well..

Is melbourne lacking medical colleges.??  *cough * Yeah buddy!

[paulsterio]

So you're saying that just cause you get 99.65 that it signifies you'll be a good doctor?

The reason for having the UMAT and Interviews is so that they can select who they believe will end up being good doctors, academic merit means little to whether you'll be a good doctor or not.

I know I might get nailed for this, but it's a trend which I see amongst a lot of my friends. Those who did badly on the UMAT will always continue to flame it, saying how BS it is and how it tests skills irrelevant to medicine and how they can get 99.50 and still not get into medicine and how it's unfair. I honestly think that's taking a wrong view of the system. The system was never designed to take those with high ATARs, it was designed to take those who are predicted to become good doctors.

Look at it this way, if it weren't for the UMAT, many people who will become good doctors might miss out because they got say a 97 ATAR. That's not exactly fair either is it?

[paulsterio]

University of Sydney – Get 99.95 and then interview before undergraduate course begins. Similar course structure to UoM. Not totally sure why…anyone in Victoria would take that over UoM.

some might want to go interstate for independence reasons

[dc302]

So you're saying that just cause you get 99.65 that it signifies you'll be a good doctor?

The reason for having the UMAT and Interviews is so that they can select who they believe will end up being good doctors, academic merit means little to whether you'll be a good doctor or not.

I know I might get nailed for this, but it's a trend which I see amongst a lot of my friends. Those who did badly on the UMAT will always continue to flame it, saying how BS it is and how it tests skills irrelevant to medicine and how they can get 99.50 and still not get into medicine and how it's unfair. I honestly think that's taking a wrong view of the system. The system was never designed to take those with high ATARs, it was designed to take those who are predicted to become good doctors.

Look at it this way, if it weren't for the UMAT, many people who will become good doctors might miss out because they got say a 97 ATAR. That's not exactly fair either is it?

I think what he meant was that before interview selection was based on UMAT alone, which I too found unfair. Though they are changing that I believe.

Also, I don't really agree when you say academic merit doesn't show if you'll be a good doctor or not. Being a doctor requires a LOT of study and continuing study till you retire, and of course this means not anyone with any level of intelligence can do it. In this regard, I believe ATAR is in fact quite important as it is proof that you have the ability to learn what you need to learn.


edit: btw, I'm not agreeing with your friends that UMAT is BS either. I think UMAT is fine, as long as it is used in conjunction with ATAR.

[Bhootnike]

The 99.65 was actually my good friend, who ended up at griffith. She did NOT deserve to go through what she did (i.e, rejections at nearly every uni..) She's naturally gifted and I know she'll become a great doc/paed. She nailed all her exams this year and thats basically because she loves what shes doing, and she was born to do so!

I know UMAT is important to differentiate people, but after what she went through, ive changed my mind! especially since someone from my school got a slightly lower atar, but also a lower umat and still got into monash. all they happened to do was have a better interview... :@