To those that did not do so well

[nacho]

You gotta check yourself before you wreck yourself

WE'VE ALREADY TASTED FAILURE! lets not taste it twice, by getting a crap atar, JUST GO FOR IT.
BE A MAAAAAAAN AAAAAARGGH


edit:
Topic of interest seems to be biomed vs science

My question, what's the difference between the two, and in terms of career pathways, which has the potential to land a more secure job, with more $ prospects - GRANTED, that you don't get into medicine?

[Jdog]

great post.

ALthought im still in with a shot, i won't get a straight interview, so i guess this is motivation to get that 99.95

the way i look at it, its like a game of darts, each game you don't not aim for the bulls eye (99.95). You don't try to miss the bulls -eye on prupose. so just monster these holidays and smash shit up when it comes to enter.

[SamiJ]

And I am one of those of us who are well aware they won't get 99.9+ and have a bad UMAT score.
Sigh.
Oh well I always still have plan B.
and PLAN C.
and PLAN D.
and PLAN E.
and PLAN F
and a few more.
arrrgh well, I'll get there somehow
No point in being all negative, I'll just keep trying until I get there

[funkyducky]

Chin up, guys. If you know your chances of your dream course have been compromised, go sook about it for a bit, then put the umat behind you and think about your other options.

[BoredSatan]

didnt do so well.. goodbye all...





lol jks im gonna do dent which doesnt need umat

[thushan]

@Funky - Fair enough point, but be a little less harsh about it!

Guys - there are heaps of options out there:

- UNSW takes predicted ATARs
- Monash has an ATAR/UMAT stream, and a 99.95 stream
- JCU and Griffith don't take UMAT
- Graduate entry programs are excellent - do a degree, sit the GAMSAT (which is a much fairer test!)
- Gap year, sit UMAT again!

In other words, don't give up now!

[stonecold]

I feel for all of you who missed out.  It is cruel to say the least.

But please, whatever you do, don't "pull a stonecold".  I am no where near getting into med, and can't afford an FFP.

And if you are looking at Melb Biomed, choose carefully because atm I hate it with the passion and am kicking myself for choosing it on a daily basis.

[thushan]

Really stonecold? why? tell me about biomed

[DarkVisor]

Mm, I was actually seriously considering biomed in my hours of post Umat result- depression

[stonecold]

Hmm, well it should pick up next semester.  Apparently the second year subjects are quite good and integrated...but

-Physics (either the VCE stream or non-VCE stream) plain suck.  The rubbish they make you learn is pointless.  Our lecturer is a joke.  Also, physics at uni is nothing like Physics at VCE.  All you do in year 11 + 12 physics is plug in and solve.  It is not like that at uni, making it very difficult.

Moreover, the physics for biomed subject basically crams year 12 + 1st semester physics + 2nd semester into a 12 week period.  Better yet, they still manage to leave out topics which are on GAMSAT, which is the only thing you will ever actually need physics for.

-Stats is a similar story.  Typically, the university forces you to take it because they hope and pray that you will go on and do research after you graduate, and everyone knows how much unis love research.  It is the most boring thing I've ever done in my life.

-Breadth is just annoying in my opinion.  This is not specific to biomed, but it reminds me of VCE all over again.  It is not about gaining "breadth of knowledge" as intended, but rather another VCE type scenario where people just choose the easy subjects and exploit the system.

I somewhat enjoyed the Chemistry and Biology subjects though.  It is not all bad, but yeah, Physics and Stats are a killer.  It will get better next year.  That having been said, every second year I've spoken to didn't really like the Molecular & Cellular Biology subject.

Also, another thing which pisses me off is that I possibly want to major in genetics.  Because I am in biomed, I am not allowed to take the second year genetics subjects which the science students are.  It seriously annoys me that I can't do it.  The academic board have little idea what they are doing sometimes.

[Hutchoo]

Hmm, well it should pick up next semester.  Apparently the second year subjects are quite good and integrated...but

-Physics (either the VCE stream or non-VCE stream) plain suck.  The rubbish they make you learn is pointless.  Our lecturer is a joke.  Also, physics at uni is nothing like Physics at VCE.  All you do in year 11 + 12 physics is plug in and solve.  It is not like that at uni, making it very difficult.

Moreover, the physics for biomed subject basically crams year 12 + 1st semester physics + 2nd semester into a 12 week period.  Better yet, they still manage to leave out topics which are on GAMSAT, which is the only thing you will ever actually need physics for.

-Stats is a similar story.  Typically, the university forces you to take it because they hope and pray that you will go on and do research after you graduate, and everyone knows how much unis love research.  It is the most boring thing I've ever done in my life.

-Breadth is just annoying in my opinion.  This is not specific to biomed, but it reminds me of VCE all over again.  It is not about gaining "breadth of knowledge" as intended, but rather another VCE type scenario where people just choose the easy subjects and exploit the system.

I somewhat enjoyed the Chemistry and Biology subjects though.  It is not all bad, but yeah, Physics and Stats are a killer.  It will get better next year.  That having been said, every second year I've spoken to didn't really like the Molecular & Cellular Biology subject.

Also, another thing which pisses me off is that I possibly want to major in genetics.  Because I am in biomed, I am not allowed to take the second year genetics subjects which the science students are.  It seriously annoys me that I can't do it.  The academic board have little idea what they are doing sometimes.

So is it fair to say that science is 'better' than biomed? 

[taiga]

Whilst I respect that many of you are quite determined in getting into medicine, failure to get in probably opens more doors for you in life

I don't subscribe to the whole "med or nothing"  concept that a lot of people carry, I think no one is at heart so restricted to enjoying only that field. There are a plethora of amazing courses available for you out there, many of which can allow you to contribute to society just as much as any doctor could.

That said, there are obviously ways of ending up doing medicine, but even if you don't it's not the end of the world.

[stonecold]

Hmm, well it should pick up next semester.  Apparently the second year subjects are quite good and integrated...but

-Physics (either the VCE stream or non-VCE stream) plain suck.  The rubbish they make you learn is pointless.  Our lecturer is a joke.  Also, physics at uni is nothing like Physics at VCE.  All you do in year 11 + 12 physics is plug in and solve.  It is not like that at uni, making it very difficult.

Moreover, the physics for biomed subject basically crams year 12 + 1st semester physics + 2nd semester into a 12 week period.  Better yet, they still manage to leave out topics which are on GAMSAT, which is the only thing you will ever actually need physics for.

-Stats is a similar story.  Typically, the university forces you to take it because they hope and pray that you will go on and do research after you graduate, and everyone knows how much unis love research.  It is the most boring thing I've ever done in my life.

-Breadth is just annoying in my opinion.  This is not specific to biomed, but it reminds me of VCE all over again.  It is not about gaining "breadth of knowledge" as intended, but rather another VCE type scenario where people just choose the easy subjects and exploit the system.

I somewhat enjoyed the Chemistry and Biology subjects though.  It is not all bad, but yeah, Physics and Stats are a killer.  It will get better next year.  That having been said, every second year I've spoken to didn't really like the Molecular & Cellular Biology subject.

Also, another thing which pisses me off is that I possibly want to major in genetics.  Because I am in biomed, I am not allowed to take the second year genetics subjects which the science students are.  It seriously annoys me that I can't do it.  The academic board have little idea what they are doing sometimes.

So is it fair to say that science is 'better' than biomed? 

In first year, I would say without a doubt, yes.  This is just my opinion though.

Best to ask Russ about second and third year.  But they are very heavily focused on biology unlike first year, which given you are interested in that type of thing, biomed is slightly more focused and probably better.

Also remember that 10 of the 12 majors available in biomed are also available in science, so again, it is kind of pointless.

I was at a lecture regarding PG med a few months ago, and it was asked if there was any difference between biomed and science in terms of med applications.  The university representative said no.  Someone yelled "What is the point of biomed then?", to which the whole lecture theater burst out into laughter over.  You can read into that whatever you like...

One good thing about biomed though is that you get to make lots of friends and have the cohort experience because you all take a lot of the same subjects.  This is not so much the case in science...but then you pay for it with your timetable.  In biomed, there is one lecture per day for your subject.  In science there are like three.

[Russ]

With all due respect to stonecold, I disagree with him on several points and I think that having practically finished the degree I have a fairly good idea of what it's aiming to do. It is a very good, holistic approach to the health sciences which brings me to point 1: it's not a formal pre-med course. The people asking what the point of studying it was aren't getting that. If you apply for it, don't assume you will get into medicine 3 years later (unless you get 99.9) because you probably won't based on course numbers.

First year is kind of rough though because a lot of people come in expecting to start getting clinical information and learn about human disease, none of which you do in first year. Second and third years are much better. I've got a couple of friends in science who say they wish they'd chosen biomed instead, because it's much more complete. You can keep more major options open and you cover a lot of prereq subjects etc.

Second and third years are fantastic. They're really hard, which is probably where the MCB comments come from but they're great to study. I love(d) them and there's been a lot of exposure to things that you wouldn't get through science.

About what stonecold said;

The university is working on fixing the breadth problem of people trying to find easy breadth, but it's the same story as VCE - do what you're interested in and do it well and you'll be fine. I did a year of creative writing, a year of global health studies, philosophy and ethics and I'm not much worse off for it. Getting good marks in an easy subject doesn't stop someone else getting good marks in a harder subject (the fact that all 80+ marks are the same helps here)

Physics wasn't the greatest subject yeah, I didn't mind it compared to others and I think most people didn't like it because there weren't clear definitions of what you had to know. That's not necessarily a bad thing but the overall quality of the subject was quite forgettable (but cmon, how is not "plug in and solve" a bad thing?).

Stats was a subject that was boring when I was doing it, but now I wish I'd paid more attention because statistical analysis keeps coming up fairly regularly. Like I said earlier - biomed is preparing you to work in the health sciences, not just in medicine. There are 600? people in first year and 200 spots in the MD. A large chunk of you are going to end up in research and other occupations.

There. That's my (impassioned) defense of the course. It's got flaws, I don't deny it, but I don't think that the first year structure is a flaw per se. If you have questions message me etc.

Also, another thing which pisses me off is that I possibly want to major in genetics.  Because I am in biomed, I am not allowed to take the second year genetics subjects which the science students are.  It seriously annoys me that I can't do it.  The academic board have little idea what they are doing sometimes.

Principles of Genetics and Genes and Genomes? Unless they've changed something in the last few months you can? I did principles myself, it was...fun.

[stonecold]

I am certainly expecting it to get much better in second and third year, but still think it is over hyped in many ways.

Physics for biomed is a very poorly constructed subject, which is a shame because I actually agree that some of the content in useful and interesting, particularly fluids and thermal physics.  Of course 'plug in and solve' isn't what you really want, but at the same time I often find that this subject is the other extreme.  You are often left wondering where the lecturer has pulled their answer from.  It is very disorganized.  Our lecturer fell two lectures behind at one point, after which he practically just left a week early and the new guy has had to come in and clean up his mess.  Also, many of the in lecture demos, whilst fun and all, are not often related to the actual work.

As for stats, I am not disputing that it is useful, just boring.   It would perhaps be better if it was more focused on experimental design and maybe writing up or reading/interpreting some medical journals.  At the moment, I really don't see the point in it, particularly all of the calculations.  This to me is disappointing, as the lecturer specifically told us that he did not want us to get bogged down with all of the calculations.

I would really like to see breadth in biomed become more fixed, for example, I think if everyone took the ecological history of humanity/body mind medicine/global health & living longer, then at least it would seem to have some direction and a point, be tied in with the course  and build on the written and oral communication skills which the university are looking for.  I also think mental health is a very important issue and it would be good if they somehow incorporated this into the course, but maybe that comes at post grad...

As for the Genetics restrictions, the academic board are reviewing it, but I spoke with the head of the department and as it stands now, biomed students are not allowed to take the second year second semester subject "Genes and Genomes", whereas Science students are.  This, coupled with the fact that certain biomed majors are no different from the science ones (exactly the same actually...you take the same subjects as the science kids in a genetics major for example), it has me questioning what the point of it all is.  I hope you can see where I am coming from with this.

Anyway, the point I am trying to make is that it really doesn't matter whether you come from Science or Biomed.  Both have their pros and cons and will give you the same post grad opportunities.