ATAR Notes: Forum
Uni Stuff => Universities - Victoria => University of Melbourne => Topic started by: Slumdawg on June 29, 2010, 10:49:57 am
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Hey, I was really interested in biomed at melbourne next year, I was just wondering if any people who do it could share their insight into workload, how much time you spend studying a night, difficulty of the content, how interesting the content is, is it a full on course with many pracs or lectures, etc. I've been researching from the brochures of Melbourne itself but they could be biased or whatever. Any help would be greatly appreciated :)
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All the info in the brochures will be right, it's just that they present only stuff that looks good (but that's always the case for any uni/company). Your questions were kinda general but I'll give my opinions:
Workload is heavy. I didn't have under 20 contact hours a week until 2nd year. Typically your science subjects are 3 lectures, 1 tutorial and a practical/lab session a week (7 hours total), whilst the maths/statistics subjects won't have the practical session. Most of the lecturers are reasonable though, they won't directly assess the extremely complicated/difficult stuff. The amount of work I do at home varies depending on what stage of the year it is. I generally aim for about 4 hours of study a day - 1 hour per subject - which I can usually fit in and still have plenty of time for going out/job/whatever. During swotvac, most people shutdown though and spend every day studying as much as possible.
The course content is tough in sections but isn't extremely hard. Like I said before, generally the really difficult concepts won't be directly assessed, so you can include them if you know them for extra marks. The one thing I will say, is that not doing Biology means that you'll have to work hard in first year. Friends who'd done VCE Biology said that the core biology subjects were mostly just revision...I found them really tough, I had to put in a lot of hours just to get up to speed.
I love the course though, it has a massive focus on integration so you can see all the information coming together...when a lecturer talks about anaphylactic shock you can relate it to things you studied in physics, like fluid flow rates and pressure. The content is advanced but at the same time accessible. Maybe it's just me, but the lectures rarely give me the "oh god what does this mean" feeling. It is full on (the enter is stupidly high, 98 or something, for a reason) and there's a high drop out rate after first year but the intensity isn't that much of a bad thing.
If you've got any more specific questions I'm happy to answer them. There might be other biomed students here on the forums as well, but here's a link you should look at if you haven't already, it's the overview of the course with all your options etc.
https://handbook.unimelb.edu.au/view/2010/J07-AA
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All the info in the brochures will be right, it's just that they present only stuff that looks good (but that's always the case for any uni/company). Your questions were kinda general but I'll give my opinions:
Workload is heavy. I didn't have under 20 contact hours a week until 2nd year. Typically your science subjects are 3 lectures, 1 tutorial and a practical/lab session a week (7 hours total), whilst the maths/statistics subjects won't have the practical session. Most of the lecturers are reasonable though, they won't directly assess the extremely complicated/difficult stuff. The amount of work I do at home varies depending on what stage of the year it is. I generally aim for about 4 hours of study a day - 1 hour per subject - which I can usually fit in and still have plenty of time for going out/job/whatever. During swotvac, most people shutdown though and spend every day studying as much as possible.
The course content is tough in sections but isn't extremely hard. Like I said before, generally the really difficult concepts won't be directly assessed, so you can include them if you know them for extra marks. The one thing I will say, is that not doing Biology means that you'll have to work hard in first year. Friends who'd done VCE Biology said that the core biology subjects were mostly just revision...I found them really tough, I had to put in a lot of hours just to get up to speed.
I love the course though, it has a massive focus on integration so you can see all the information coming together...when a lecturer talks about anaphylactic shock you can relate it to things you studied in physics, like fluid flow rates and pressure. The content is advanced but at the same time accessible. Maybe it's just me, but the lectures rarely give me the "oh god what does this mean" feeling. It is full on (the enter is stupidly high, 98 or something, for a reason) and there's a high drop out rate after first year but the intensity isn't that much of a bad thing.
If you've got any more specific questions I'm happy to answer them. There might be other biomed students here on the forums as well, but here's a link you should look at if you haven't already, it's the overview of the course with all your options etc.
https://handbook.unimelb.edu.au/view/2010/J07-AA
Thanks heaps for that. I'll be sure to contact you leading up to confirming preferences because that's probably when all my questions will arise. Thanks again.
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If there's any other biomed people on here feel free to comment as well. I'd like to get as many opinions as possible.
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I have a few friends who do Biomedicine at Melbourne uni and they both love it. The course is much more structured towards the health sciences so if you are interested in becoming a doctor, physio, optometrist, dentist or entering the medical research field then I would do this course. Having said that if you get the UMAT score and ENTER to do medicine at Monash then go for that.
I see you also are considering film and television at VCA, you tend to want to do things that are polar opposites to eachother so I would question which of these you are more interested in.
Just note: Biomedicine has gained a lot of popularity since the minimal ENTER to get a spot for 2009 was 95, last year to get in you required a 98.
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I see you also are considering film and television at VCA, you tend to want to do things that are polar opposites to eachother so I would question which of these you are more interested in.
Yer I've been like that for like 2 years now. Both fields really interest me and I still can't choose between them, but my careers advisor said to consider doing biomed then if you don't like it you can switch to film and television. Cos switching the other way around would be ten times more difficult. I could always fulfil any media desires with a breadth in biomed haha. I guess I will see with my scores as well. 98 is a big ask and it will probably only get higher. Thanks for the advice as well!
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Hey shilayli06, I'm currently in my second year of Biomed at UoM.
The workload is quite intense, especially in the first month of uni where it's a bit of a shock to the system, particularly if you haven't studied biology before. There are times of the semester when the workload is manageable and other times when it can get stressful, but once you know what to expect (particularly in second semester) it isn't as bad. In second year, the pace is stepped up a bit as a result of a double subject that is a core for Biomed students called Molecular and Cellular Biomedicine. I'm not going to lie, it's pretty tough, and stressful at times during the year, but looking back on it i found it was a very good subject and it exposes you (and in quite detail) to Biochemistry, Genetics, Cell Biology, Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, whilst integrating these topics into themes such as Cancer. Contact hours aren't great, but don't expect them to be if you decide to do a science course. This semester has been my lowest contact hours at 17 (or 13 if i didn't have a prac or workshop).
How much time i spent studying, as Russ said, really depended on the time of the year it was. During semester I just did as much as i could whilst balancing work and a social life. There is plenty of time at uni during classes to get work done if you use your breaks wisely. So i might have done about 4 hours a day, but only 2 of those might have been at home. However when it gets to SwotVac, i go into a bit of a lock down mode and do quite a bit lol.
As for difficulty of the content, well, I'd say it's fair in the most part, considering that the top 5% (now top 2%) of the state are in the course. I don't think the content is difficult per se, but when you add the sheer amount of it, and the pace, it can be a little difficult at times. That being said, i find it very intellectually stimulating.
I find the course content extremely interesting. I also think second year is FAR better than first year. First year in a lot of ways is all about getting everyone up to the same level. If you are interested in science with a medical underpinning you will absolutely love it.
Overall i absolutely love Biomed, and i find it interesting and most importantly, fun. Yes, there are a lot of times during the year where it is stressful, but at the end of the day, they are trying to prepare us for entering graduate courses (such as med, dent & physio), as well as honours and research. On a side note, if you are interested in doing grad med, then the course content in first year is very good and helped me get a pretty good score for GAMSAT.
If you are interested in health science then i can't recommend it more. Good luck with whatever path you chose and as Russ said, I'm happy to answer any question you might have. :)
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I was tossing up between Biomed and Media and Comm. at the end of my VCE year. Like you, the breadth decided me, I'm doing creative writing/philosophy/ethics style subjects as part of my degree and it makes it much more enjoyable.
If you're interested in health sciences, biomed is great since it gives a very good grounding but it is in no way an official feeder course for medicine, so bear that in mind if that was your eventual aim. There's very little choice (you pick a major and that's it) compared to science, so the people who designed the course were able to retain a lot of control over what you learn...I like that, since it makes it much more effective.
The increasing TER for biomed is a horrible thing. I wish it'd go back to 95, it does not need to be higher and if the course ends up as a 99+ then there's something wrong with people's perceptions of it :(
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Hey shilayli06, I'm currently in my second year of Biomed at UoM.
The workload is quite intense, especially in the first month of uni where it's a bit of a shock to the system, particularly if you haven't studied biology before. There are times of the semester when the workload is manageable and other times when it can get stressful, but once you know what to expect (particularly in second semester) it isn't as bad. In second year, the pace is stepped up a bit as a result of a double subject that is a core for Biomed students called Molecular and Cellular Biomedicine. I'm not going to lie, it's pretty tough, and stressful at times during the year, but looking back on it i found it was a very good subject and it exposes you (and in quite detail) to Biochemistry, Genetics, Cell Biology, Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, whilst integrating these topics into themes such as Cancer. Contact hours aren't great, but don't expect them to be if you decide to do a science course. This semester has been my lowest contact hours at 17 (or 13 if i didn't have a prac or workshop).
How much time i spent studying, as Russ said, really depended on the time of the year it was. During semester I just did as much as i could whilst balancing work and a social life. There is plenty of time at uni during classes to get work done if you use your breaks wisely. So i might have done about 4 hours a day, but only 2 of those might have been at home. However when it gets to SwotVac, i go into a bit of a lock down mode and do quite a bit lol.
As for difficulty of the content, well, I'd say it's fair in the most part, considering that the top 5% (now top 2%) of the state are in the course. I don't think the content is difficult per se, but when you add the sheer amount of it, and the pace, it can be a little difficult at times. That being said, i find it very intellectually stimulating.
I find the course content extremely interesting. I also think second year is FAR better than first year. First year in a lot of ways is all about getting everyone up to the same level. If you are interested in science with a medical underpinning you will absolutely love it.
Overall i absolutely love Biomed, and i find it interesting and most importantly, fun. Yes, there are a lot of times during the year where it is stressful, but at the end of the day, they are trying to prepare us for entering graduate courses (such as med, dent & physio), as well as honours and research. On a side note, if you are interested in doing grad med, then the course content in first year is very good and helped me get a pretty good score for GAMSAT.
If you are interested in health science then i can't recommend it more. Good luck with whatever path you chose and as Russ said, I'm happy to answer any question you might have. :)
Thanks heaps. All this advice makes me even more keen and is gonna motivate me for the rest of this year. Looks like quite a few people don't do biology and can still cope with the course so that's definitely reassuring. It's a shame I dropped bio cos I did it in year 11 but my timetable couldn't accommodate it so I just dropped it. Thanks again I'll be looking over everyone's responses numerous times throughout the year to stay really motivated haha.
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Looks like quite a few people don't do biology and can still cope with the course so that's definitely reassuring.
I spoke at the evening information session for Biomed last month (if you were there you'll know this) and one of the things Prof. Hargreaves said was that "from looking at the results, students who don't do VCE Biology do just as well as students who did, but they obviously have to work harder"
MCB was the greatest subject ever, 6 lectures a week is fun right?
e, iamdan08, how'd you go on the GAMSAT? you're in my year, yeah?
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I was tossing up between Biomed and Media and Comm. at the end of my VCE year. Like you, the breadth decided me, I'm doing creative writing/philosophy/ethics style subjects as part of my degree and it makes it much more enjoyable.
If you're interested in health sciences, biomed is great since it gives a very good grounding but it is in no way an official feeder course for medicine, so bear that in mind if that was your eventual aim. There's very little choice (you pick a major and that's it) compared to science, so the people who designed the course were able to retain a lot of control over what you learn...I like that, since it makes it much more effective.
The increasing TER for biomed is a horrible thing. I wish it'd go back to 95, it does not need to be higher and if the course ends up as a 99+ then there's something wrong with people's perceptions of it :(
Oh that's great, means I'm not the only one tossing up between media and medical fields. I like the sounds of most of the graduate courses, do you get a bit of an idea of which one you would want to do as you go through biomed? (I'm currently set on medicine but I won't feel extremely dissatisfied if I end up going with another graduate if I end up doing biomed). Praying the ATAR score goes back to 95 because that's actually pretty reasonable for me and achievable, but like 98 (probably higher this year as it's obviously increasing in popularity) is gonna be quite hard to obtain.
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Looks like quite a few people don't do biology and can still cope with the course so that's definitely reassuring.
I spoke at the evening information session for Biomed last month (if you were there you'll know this) and one of the things Prof. Hargreaves said was that "from looking at the results, students who don't do VCE Biology do just as well as students who did, but they obviously have to work harder"
oh thanks for that. No I didn't go to the information session :S so it's good that you told me that. I'm planning on going to the open days and stuff though.
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do you get a bit of an idea of which one you would want to do as you go through biomed?
Not from the lectures themselves. There are plenty of expos and graduate info sessions throughout the year though; go to one of those and you'll get all the information you need to decide between graduate pathways.
e, Open Day will just be the same presentation as the information session, it was just for people who wanted to go early in the year.
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it is in no way an official feeder course for medicine, so bear that in mind if that was your eventual aim.
What do you mean by this? Biomedicine is the (and i quote) "preferred pathway" to the MD, and in my opinion is the best course you can do (as well as science with the right subjects) if you want to do graduate entry Medicine. Keep in mind that anyone with an undergrad degree can get into med (apart from the MD because of the prereqs), so anyone with a health science background is going to have an advantage over a lot of other Med hopefuls without this background, in both sitting the GAMSAT, as well as the early years of Med where people without this background have to learn everything from scratch.
EDIT: @ Russ: I'm in second year Biomed, what are you in? I got a 62 in the GAMSAT (~80th percentile), with section scores of 54,61,67. Sitting it again next year so i know where i need to improve. Did you sit GAMSAT?
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What do you mean by this? Biomedicine is the (and i quote) "preferred pathway" to the MD, and in my opinion is the best course you can do (as well as science with the right subjects) if you want to do graduate entry Medicine. Keep in mind that anyone with an undergrad degree can get into med (apart from the MD because of the prereqs), so anyone with a health science background is going to have an advantage over a lot of other Med hopefuls without this background, in both sitting the GAMSAT, as well as the early years of Med where people without this background have to learn everything from scratch.
It might be their preferred pathway for applicants to take, but they don't have a quota to fill or a bonus to give to people applying from the course. Perhaps saying it was in "no way" official was a bit over the top, since it is designed to help you get in, I just meant there's no formal benefit. (I'd love to be wrong though)
And sitting the GAMSAT...a science degree can give you the same grounding if you take the right subjects. Biomed is a really good pathway though, I'd recommend it without many reservations.
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On a side note, if you are interested in doing grad med, then the course content in first year is very good and helped me get a pretty good score for GAMSAT.
so can you do the GAMSAT while you're in your second year? Cos the GAMSAT is kinda worrying me because it seems as if you do biomed for three years then if you don't get a good enough score on the GAMSAT you can't get into heaps of the graduate courses. Would you have to wait a year and do it again? I didn't know you could do it earlier hence giving you a shot in third year if you screwed it up in second year. (or did I read the post incorrectly?) Thanks in advance.
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What do you mean by this? Biomedicine is the (and i quote) "preferred pathway" to the MD, and in my opinion is the best course you can do (as well as science with the right subjects) if you want to do graduate entry Medicine. Keep in mind that anyone with an undergrad degree can get into med (apart from the MD because of the prereqs), so anyone with a health science background is going to have an advantage over a lot of other Med hopefuls without this background, in both sitting the GAMSAT, as well as the early years of Med where people without this background have to learn everything from scratch.
It might be their preferred pathway for applicants to take, but they don't have a quota to fill or a bonus to give to people applying from the course. Perhaps saying it was in "no way" official was a bit over the top, since it is designed to help you get in, I just meant there's no formal benefit. (I'd love to be wrong though)
And sitting the GAMSAT...a science degree can give you the same grounding if you take the right subjects. Biomed is a really good pathway though, I'd recommend it without many reservations
Yeah, while there is no formal benefit at UoM, Biomed and science (with the right subjects) are the 2 best courses to do as an undergrad if you want to do grad med at any uni. At Deakin, you get a bonus for having done Biomed.
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^^
yeah of course, doing graduate medicine with an arts degree would be a nightmare.
so can you do the GAMSAT while you're in your second year? Cos the GAMSAT is kinda worrying me because it seems as if you do biomed for three years then if you don't get a good enough score on the GAMSAT you can't get into heaps of the graduate courses. Would you have to wait a year and do it again? I didn't know you could do it earlier hence giving you a shot in third year if you screwed it up in second year. (or did I read the post incorrectly?) Thanks in advance.
GAMSAT runs once a year and you can sit it as many times as you want. Your results are only valid for two years though, so a lot of students sit it in 2nd year and 3rd year then use their best result to apply with. Melbourne weights your GAMSAT for 33% (from memory), so if you interview well and have a high GPA you can compensate for a lower GAMSAT mark.
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On a side note, if you are interested in doing grad med, then the course content in first year is very good and helped me get a pretty good score for GAMSAT.
so can you do the GAMSAT while you're in your second year? Cos the GAMSAT is kinda worrying me because it seems as if you do biomed for three years then if you don't get a good enough score on the GAMSAT you can't get into heaps of the graduate courses. Would you have to wait a year and do it again? I didn't know you could do it earlier hence giving you a shot in third year if you screwed it up in second year. (or did I read the post incorrectly?) Thanks in advance.
No you read correctly. You can sit GAMSAT whenever you want, however the scores are valid for 2 years only. So you can sit it in second year and third year and choose your highest score to get into Med as both will be valid.
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wow. that's really important advice. I wouldn't have ever known about that from just skimming through brochures. I really thought it was a one chance GAMSAT which worried me quite a bit. Two chances sounds really great. Biomed is just sounding better and better. You guys are legends. Thanks heaps.
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If you don't get an offer after third year, you can do an Honours year and sit the GAMSAT again. This also means that first year results won't count for your GPA, which is a blessing for a lot of people I know lol
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hey yo i'm a first year biomed student
As Dan said, basically if you're into health sciences you will love this course. And yeah there is quite a big shock in semester 1 when new content is suddenly thrown at you, as i found with Chemistry. However over time i adapted to the workload and it began to fall together. I found that the subjects Biomolecules&Cells and Chemistry for Biomed correlated in some ways, which made it much more interesting to see how a certain biological system was represented at the molecular level etc...
Personally i'm not too fond of these first year subjects but i guess they must be done in order to understand 2nd and 3rd year.
The workload is quite heavy and it is much much different to vce, where u would spend ~1 week on a topic whereas you might spend 1-2 lectures on that topic in uni which i found hard to come to terms with initially. I just tried to do consistent work throughout the semester when i could, and did alot more during the swotvac period (b4 exams).
Overall i love the course, minus a couple of crap subjects in first year so far, which will get much better as pointed out by the other guys =]
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The increasing TER for biomed is a horrible thing. I wish it'd go back to 95.
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What do you mean by this? Biomedicine is the (and i quote) "preferred pathway" to the MD, and in my opinion is the best course you can do (as well as science with the right subjects) if you want to do graduate entry Medicine. Keep in mind that anyone with an undergrad degree can get into med (apart from the MD because of the prereqs), so anyone with a health science background is going to have an advantage over a lot of other Med hopefuls without this background, in both sitting the GAMSAT, as well as the early years of Med where people without this background have to learn everything from scratch.
It might be their preferred pathway for applicants to take, but they don't have a quota to fill or a bonus to give to people applying from the course. Perhaps saying it was in "no way" official was a bit over the top, since it is designed to help you get in, I just meant there's no formal benefit. (I'd love to be wrong though)
And sitting the GAMSAT...a science degree can give you the same grounding if you take the right subjects. Biomed is a really good pathway though, I'd recommend it without many reservations
Yeah, while there is no formal benefit at UoM, Biomed and science (with the right subjects) are the 2 best courses to do as an undergrad if you want to do grad med at any uni. At Deakin, you get a bonus for having done Biomed.
what kind of bonus? and this might seem like a silly question but would this bonus also be given if you do biomedical science at monash or just biomed at melbourne?
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What do you mean by this? Biomedicine is the (and i quote) "preferred pathway" to the MD, and in my opinion is the best course you can do (as well as science with the right subjects) if you want to do graduate entry Medicine. Keep in mind that anyone with an undergrad degree can get into med (apart from the MD because of the prereqs), so anyone with a health science background is going to have an advantage over a lot of other Med hopefuls without this background, in both sitting the GAMSAT, as well as the early years of Med where people without this background have to learn everything from scratch.
It might be their preferred pathway for applicants to take, but they don't have a quota to fill or a bonus to give to people applying from the course. Perhaps saying it was in "no way" official was a bit over the top, since it is designed to help you get in, I just meant there's no formal benefit. (I'd love to be wrong though)
And sitting the GAMSAT...a science degree can give you the same grounding if you take the right subjects. Biomed is a really good pathway though, I'd recommend it without many reservations
Yeah, while there is no formal benefit at UoM, Biomed and science (with the right subjects) are the 2 best courses to do as an undergrad if you want to do grad med at any uni. At Deakin, you get a bonus for having done Biomed.
what kind of bonus? and this might seem like a silly question but would this bonus also be given if you do biomedical science at monash or just biomed at melbourne?
It is a 2% bonus on your application. What most medical schools do is combine gpa and gamsat into one score, and then rank all candidates to base who they will give an interview on. The 2% is added to this combined score. Deakin give out several bonuses, that one is called "recognition of prior learning" and is given to anyone who has done a health science undergrad (including nursing, physio etc.). So yes, biomed at monash is also accepted. They also give bonuses for being rural, financial difficulty as well as a few other criteria.
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What do you mean by this? Biomedicine is the (and i quote) "preferred pathway" to the MD, and in my opinion is the best course you can do (as well as science with the right subjects) if you want to do graduate entry Medicine. Keep in mind that anyone with an undergrad degree can get into med (apart from the MD because of the prereqs), so anyone with a health science background is going to have an advantage over a lot of other Med hopefuls without this background, in both sitting the GAMSAT, as well as the early years of Med where people without this background have to learn everything from scratch.
It might be their preferred pathway for applicants to take, but they don't have a quota to fill or a bonus to give to people applying from the course. Perhaps saying it was in "no way" official was a bit over the top, since it is designed to help you get in, I just meant there's no formal benefit. (I'd love to be wrong though)
And sitting the GAMSAT...a science degree can give you the same grounding if you take the right subjects. Biomed is a really good pathway though, I'd recommend it without many reservations
Yeah, while there is no formal benefit at UoM, Biomed and science (with the right subjects) are the 2 best courses to do as an undergrad if you want to do grad med at any uni. At Deakin, you get a bonus for having done Biomed.
what kind of bonus? and this might seem like a silly question but would this bonus also be given if you do biomedical science at monash or just biomed at melbourne?
It is a 2% bonus on your application. What most medical schools do is combine gpa and gamsat into one score, and then rank all candidates to base who they will give an interview on. The 2% is added to this combined score. Deakin give out several bonuses, that one is called "recognition of prior learning" and is given to anyone who has done a health science undergrad (including nursing, physio etc.). So yes, biomed at monash is also accepted. They also give bonuses for being rural, financial difficulty as well as a few other criteria.
thanks, so science with the right subjects wouldnt be accepted ?
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No it is not, as far as i am aware. It is the actual undergrad degree the bonus is based on.
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No it is not, as far as i am aware. It is the actual undergrad degree the bonus is based on.
ohk thank you for your help :)
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just to confirm, if anyone knows, do kldys still get in on a 90?
I was told this when I received the award, but due to the high demand i wouldn't be surprised if they dogged it haha
btw, this thread has definitely turned my attention, i went off it for a bit because of the reasons shilayli suggested, but this reassures my passion!
Also, how many spots are open to graduate physio and med and what sort of gamsat results would you need to be getting? I'm presuming physio would be less than med, so if anyone knows roughly the scores needed for each?
Thanks
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just to confirm, if anyone knows, do kldys still get in on a 90?
I was told this when I received the award, but due to the high demand i wouldn't be surprised if they dogged it haha
btw, this thread has definitely turned my attention, i went off it for a bit because of the reasons shilayli suggested, but this reassures my passion!
Also, how many spots are open to graduate physio and med and what sort of gamsat results would you need to be getting? I'm presuming physio would be less than med, so if anyone knows roughly the scores needed for each?
Thanks
I'm not 100% sure about the kldys. I was one, but i met the ENTER requirement back in the day when it was 95 lol. You'd have to speak to whoever is in charge of the prgram.
I'm not sure of the exact numbers for physio, maybe have a look on the website. As for Med, on last check there was about 300. It is hard to say what the cutoffs will be as the first round of Med students will enter the MD next year, so we'll get a pretty good idea of cutoffs around September when interviews are offered. Most medical schools would require a 60+ (~75th percentile) GAMSAT and 6+ GPA to be competitive. At some of the more competitive medical schools, such as Sydney, UQ and most likely Melbourne next year, you would want 6.5+ gpa and 65+ GAMSAT (~90th percentile). However there are a lot of people who get in with 55+ GAMSAT and 5.5+ GPA with a strong interview at schools such as University of Notre Dame (in fremantle and sydney), which is one of the less (bus still quite) competitive med schools.
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just to confirm, if anyone knows, do kldys still get in on a 90?
I was told this when I received the award, but due to the high demand i wouldn't be surprised if they dogged it haha
btw, this thread has definitely turned my attention, i went off it for a bit because of the reasons shilayli suggested, but this reassures my passion!
Also, how many spots are open to graduate physio and med and what sort of gamsat results would you need to be getting? I'm presuming physio would be less than med, so if anyone knows roughly the scores needed for each?
Thanks
I'm not 100% sure about the kldys. I was one, but i met the ENTER requirement back in the day when it was 95 lol. You'd have to speak to whoever is in charge of the prgram.
I'm not sure of the exact numbers for physio, maybe have a look on the website. As for Med, on last check there was about 300. It is hard to say what the cutoffs will be as the first round of Med students will enter the MD next year, so we'll get a pretty good idea of cutoffs around September when interviews are offered. Most medical schools would require a 60+ (~75th percentile) GAMSAT and 6+ GPA to be competitive. At some of the more competitive medical schools, such as Sydney, UQ and most likely Melbourne next year, you would want 6.5+ gpa and 65+ GAMSAT (~90th percentile). However there are a lot of people who get in with 55+ GAMSAT and 5.5+ GPA with a strong interview at schools such as University of Notre Dame (in fremantle and sydney), which is one of the less (bus still quite) competitive med schools.
ok thanks for that, i just checked the website and they still have the example of the kid who is a kld and is from an underrepresented school, so he can get in on a 90 :)
also, would monash be classed as "competitive"?
I would rather stay in vic, so if physio is what is has to be i would still be extremely happy with that
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just to confirm, if anyone knows, do kldys still get in on a 90?
I was told this when I received the award, but due to the high demand i wouldn't be surprised if they dogged it haha
btw, this thread has definitely turned my attention, i went off it for a bit because of the reasons shilayli suggested, but this reassures my passion!
Also, how many spots are open to graduate physio and med and what sort of gamsat results would you need to be getting? I'm presuming physio would be less than med, so if anyone knows roughly the scores needed for each?
Thanks
I'm not 100% sure about the kldys. I was one, but i met the ENTER requirement back in the day when it was 95 lol. You'd have to speak to whoever is in charge of the prgram.
I'm not sure of the exact numbers for physio, maybe have a look on the website. As for Med, on last check there was about 300. It is hard to say what the cutoffs will be as the first round of Med students will enter the MD next year, so we'll get a pretty good idea of cutoffs around September when interviews are offered. Most medical schools would require a 60+ (~75th percentile) GAMSAT and 6+ GPA to be competitive. At some of the more competitive medical schools, such as Sydney, UQ and most likely Melbourne next year, you would want 6.5+ gpa and 65+ GAMSAT (~90th percentile). However there are a lot of people who get in with 55+ GAMSAT and 5.5+ GPA with a strong interview at schools such as University of Notre Dame (in fremantle and sydney), which is one of the less (bus still quite) competitive med schools.
ok thanks for that, i just checked the website and they still have the example of the kid who is a kld and is from an underrepresented school, so he can get in on a 90 :)
also, would monash be classed as "competitive"?
I would rather stay in vic, so if physio is what is has to be i would still be extremely happy with that
Monash hasn't been known to be super competitive. However the grad course is not in clayton, it is in Gippsland. you would probably want 60+ GAMSAT and 6.0+ GPA. Keep in mind the figures i give are only very, very rough estimates, and change year to year. Also if you have a higher GAMSAT you can have a lower GPA and vice versa. What also needs to be taken into account is the fact that with the MD coming in and an extra 300 medical school spots, entry cuttoffs could change quite a bit at all the medical schools. I am very interested to see what happens as a result of the new MD.
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I remember looking at the kldys program booklet and seeing a specific note that it didn't apply to biomed, but that was a long time ago so it may well have changed.
The official info on requirements can be found on ACER's website (http://gamsat.acer.edu.au/images/documents/graduate_admission_guide_2011.pdf). It's a long (mostly boring) document but it has a lot of info in it. Everyone I've spoken to seems to agree that there will be a slight drop in the average requirements due to melbourne offering a new program and taking more students.
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Hi Luke,
If you are a KLD and come from an underrepresented school you are eligible for entry into Biomedicine with an ATAR of 90, despite the clearly-in rank at that time. We also have a selection guarantee through Access Melbourne, at which point, if you qualify for any of the 9 categories, you may be eligible for entry with a lower ATAR score than the clearly-in rank. You can find more information about the program and the categories at the website below:
http://www.futurestudents.unimelb.edu.au/ugrad/accessmelb
ok so it still applies, until next year anyway ;D
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Hi Luke,
If you are a KLD and come from an underrepresented school you are eligible for entry into Biomedicine with an ATAR of 90, despite the clearly-in rank at that time. We also have a selection guarantee through Access Melbourne, at which point, if you qualify for any of the 9 categories, you may be eligible for entry with a lower ATAR score than the clearly-in rank. You can find more information about the program and the categories at the website below:
http://www.futurestudents.unimelb.edu.au/ugrad/accessmelb
ok so it still applies, until next year anyway ;D
Is that cheating the system Luke? haha. I'd feel so guilty for not trying as hard this year cos I know I'd only need 88 to get in cos we go to a "underrepresented" school. It would play on my conscience way too much. But if it gets you in and you're desperate then go for it. You'll get the enter for biomed without access melb stuff helping you out anyway, considering how much our chem teacher raves about you! He's brought you up 3 times now in class. He sure does love people who work ahead, doesn't he? I thought you were planning on monash med?
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I don't consider it cheating the system, neither does anyone I know. The changed requirements are there for a reason (I applied through SEAS, turns out that I didn't actually need it, but I don't feel that I took a place unfairly)
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You could say that everyone who can afford to go to a private school is getting into Biomed unfairly over those who can't (thus the point of SEAS). And it isn't cheating the system, because that is the system!
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adrian, look at it this way, our school's english is stopping us from getting anywhere decent hahahah
and secondly, i was looking at the advantages of bein a kld, but underrepresentation is a bonus!
and finally, i wish he'd be quiet, how much of an inspiration can I be to you year 12's????
I mean, fair enough being an inspiration if you have finished and got a good score, but I'm a long way off that!
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You could say that everyone who can afford to go to a private school is getting into Biomed unfairly over those who can't (thus the point of SEAS). And it isn't cheating the system, because that is the system!
SEAS is for other things as well
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also, at the end of the year when people want to know what you got for your ATAR, just tell them you got into biomed at unimelb hahahaha
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our school's english is stopping us from getting anywhere decent
That is true, our english department is absolutely shocking, but one guy got 45 last year. Anything is still possible, just gotta work harder then other people who have english teachers that actually teach you. Our school isn't that bad but I guess if you want good scores you need to do a lot of your own independent study, our teachers can help you out but they are surely preparing most students to get in the very low 30s for most subjects (excluding bus man and a couple of others).
You could say that everyone who can afford to go to a private school is getting into Biomed unfairly over those who can't (thus the point of SEAS).
Never thought of it that way haha. Good point. I can understand it for underrepresented schools but I don't think my school is bad enough to be classified in that category, and yet it still is.
I think I will try to forget about the whole 88 enter requirement and still aim to get in on the clearly in rank. May as well still try my hardest.
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also, at the end of the year when people want to know what you got for your ATAR, just tell them you got into biomed at unimelb hahahaha
Sneaky, but I like the idea. Most people wouldn't even know that our school would get a bonus anyway, perfect plan. I know Haileybury Girls College got a bonus because it was a "new" school, seems like Melbourne is just giving these bonuses away!
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That's definately a downfall, but for most of my subjects the teachers would secretly love a 50 rather than everyone getting above 30 (methods, chem, busman), but yeh, im gonna start doing english tutes next term with sever so hopefully i'll be able to improve, and maybe with a bit of luck, become nick mack and get a 45 hahahah
and don't worry, I'm still gonna go for that 98, I simply couldn't just ease off, because I'd fear I'd let off too much, and plus, I wanna beat everyone hahahah
Good luck anyway, I'm sure you will get close, just stick with Selina hahahha
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and don't worry, I'm still gonna go for that 98, I simply couldn't just ease off
That's good. For a while it sounded like you were gonna just cruise through and that would have been a waste. Yer with english, tutes are okay. The teachers go on tangents wayyy too much. I went to the 1984 one before our essay and all they were talking about were wars that were completely irrelevant to any of the essays topics and didn't seem to make much sense. I'd just write essays and go to the tutorials and get them to give you advice otherwise you might be wasting your time. Go to one tutorial and you will see what I mean.