2012 Medicine Entry Advice Thread

[thedentguy]

The forums are being flooded by personal threads which are meaningless to most people so please post here if you want advice on your marks, interviews and stuff. Post here rather than a new thread if your problem only pertains to you.

~Thanks, Hav.


Hi,

I am currently studying pharmacy looking to transfer into Dentistry 2012.

I heard that GU will only look at your application if you put them as first preference. My QTAC preferences would go:

UQ>GU>JCU

I will re-sit my UMAT however in 2010 I got a 82 percentile.

If I use this preference order will I be considered by all the universities or will I need to order them differently.

Thanks

[Hutcherson]

Hey thedentguy,

I suggest you ring GU about this first preference issue. I do recall Illmatic calling them last year and they did state that it does have to be your first preference to be considered.

You should have a good shot at UQ if you reach the GPA cut off of 5.8 and a UMAT min of 174 to be considered.

Good Luck!

[thedentguy]

Hey thedentguy,

I suggest you ring GU about this first preference issue. I do recall Illmatic calling them last year and they did state that it does have to be your first preference to be considered.

You should have a good shot at UQ if you reach the GPA cut off of 5.8 and a UMAT min of 174 to be considered.

Good Luck!

Oh ok thanks!

That is a little depressing though because you have to pay for the final two years of study...

[bennjamin]

Oh ok thanks!

That is a little depressing though because a lot of people tell me that GU is the edited out and on top of that you have to pay for the final two years of study...

Be careful with words like this @thedentguy - remember that this is an open forum to people from all across Australia and there may well be people on the forum from GU that mightn't take what you're saying very well. Keep in mind as well that since all medical and dental degrees are accredited then in the end where you study has little to no impact... barring the two FFP years, that is.

Best of luck with your applications.

[thedentguy]

Be careful with words like this @thedentguy - remember that this is an open forum to people from all across Australia and there may well be people on the forum from GU that mightn't take what you're saying very well. Keep in mind as well that since all medical and dental degrees are accredited then in the end where you study has little to no impact... barring the two FFP years, that is.

Best of luck with your applications.

Hi,

Thanks for the heads up - I changed the initial post.

[bennjamin]

Hi,

Thanks for the heads up - I changed the initial post.

You seem to have missed the point which I alluded to in the end - all dental/medical schools are essentially equal barring a few circumstantial things.. It's a trivial matter but people (like me) tend to be picky about it, mostly because if I get on it now then the flood of new MSO members that comes in pre-UMAT and pre-interview might not have to be continuously reminded of the fact.

[thedentguy]

You seem to have missed the point which I alluded to in the end - all dental/medical schools are essentially equal barring a few circumstantial things.. It's a trivial matter but people (like me) tend to be picky about it, mostly because if I get on it now then the flood of new MSO members that comes in pre-UMAT and pre-interview might not have to be continuously reminded of the fact.

Sorry, I have re-edited my post.

[bennjamin]

No worries man Sorry for being a bit of a tool, but you'll probably see in the future that about a billion people come up with threads titled "Which uni is the best?" and so forth. It's a little bit infuriating to answer the question again and again.

Anyway, how come you want to do dent and why the transfer from pharmacy? Your UMAT is pretty darn close to the UQ cut-off as well, so if previous experience shows well then you should be in with a good shot

[thedentguy]

No worries man Sorry for being a bit of a tool, but you'll probably see in the future that about a billion people come up with threads titled "Which uni is the best?" and so forth. It's a little bit infuriating to answer the question again and again.

Anyway, how come you want to do dent and why the transfer from pharmacy? Your UMAT is pretty darn close to the UQ cut-off as well, so if previous experience shows well then you should be in with a good shot

Well,

Dentistry has been something that I have wanted to do since maybe year 10, I just like the idea that there is such a practical aspect to the work as well as being able to work your own hours being your own boss. When applying for dentistry, I received two interviews, however, was unsuccessful with both. My Atar was a little low to be accepted at Griffith and other dental schools around the country (97.8 Atar) so I chose pharmacy as a backup, as I figured it would be a decent pathway into dentistry, instead of doing medical science which after three years if I wasn't able to transfer wouldn't really take me very far.

So, yeah, that's why dentistry and why I chose pharmacy.

[bennjamin]

That's a pretty decent, and common, reason for doing pharm. It's the same reason pharm was my backup as well

Griffith dent and med courses are notorious for their ATAR and GPA cut-offs due to the lack of interviews or UMAT; personally I see the exclusion of interviews as a terrible idea but hey, that's their choice.

I'm going to get back to your initial post and be a bit of an advocate here (hopefully @Hutcherson steps in since it's most definitely more her field) but have you thought about applying for CSU? Yeah, it's in the middle of nowhere but Hutch's blog (http://www.medstudentsonline.com.au/...My-New-Journey) may give you a bit of a feel as to how that is; it doesn't include UMAT in the criteria and considering that Hutch went there (our resident dent uni expert) it's got to be good.. Think she mentioned that the entire dent facility was brand new or something.
Regardless, you should consider applying interstate if it's what you really want to do.

Similarly, JCU has a completely brand new state-of-the-art building that looks absolutely beautiful and Cairns is actually a pretty great place to live.. barring the current flash-flooding, that is.

It's your decision, but personally I'd be torn over going to GU. The alternatives are of essentially the same quality (all accredited), the same length and all have brand new buildings and facilities. What it comes down to is whether living on the Gold Coast is really worth that much to you