Biomed at Melbourne or Pharmacy at Parkville?

[slothpomba]

I'd rather use Biomed as a pathway for getting into MD later, but seeing how hard it is to pass the GAMSAT, I have to consider the possibility of not getting into any grad-program at all.

Honestly, people say follow your dreams and everything, that is great advice, recipe for success. However, we also have to be realistic and have our feet firmly planted on the ground and a head on our shoulders.

Biomed is largely a creation of a marketing team. I'm not sure if its by design or by accident but i'd wager most of the students doing a biomed degree, especially at Monash/UoM are people who didn't make it into medicine/dent/whatever. A fair share of the basis of the degree is based on selling it to people like that and continuing the dream.

It's a mathematical certainty though that not all those people will get into med. Remember, we dont only have biomed grads applying either. Plenty of science grads, you can swing med with most degrees (even arts).

I can't remember what the numbers are but i do remember that the number of people in science/biomed or even biomed alone, is far, far higher than the number of places available.

Read this - > Re: Equivalent of UoM's BBiomed?

Biomed is practically the same as science but i'd still choose science.

I'm also quite into Chemistry and Physiology at the moment, which is one of the focuses of Pharmacy.

I don't believe pharmacy is overflowing with chemistry (http://www.monash.edu.au/pubs/handbooks/courses/2628.html). In your average community pharmacy there might be some use for chemistry but there will be an even bigger use for patient communication and pharmacology (even though they have databases for these things now).

Same with physiology. There's bits of it.

If you are really interested in these things, then, do a biomed or science majoring in these areas.

If you want to do be a pharmacist though, the choice is obvious.

The advantage of doing Pharmacy is that I at least have a career back-up if I fail to transfer into undergrad Medicine at any other unis next year, but the thing is, I'm not too keen on it because of the declining job prospects from what my sister's telling me (and she's doing 3rd year Pharm now).

Would it be a back up you'd be happy with though. Could you see yourself living your professional life as a pharmacist?

More about pharmacy prospects - > Re: Pharmacy
& another - > Pharmacy future job prospects

[nisha]

Have you looked into Pharmaceutical Science? It is very chemistry related (one of the alternatives I had after dropping pharmacy as an option)

[Biceps]

Can a person doing a course like physiotherapy at la trobe apply for the GAMSAT?

[Tomw2]

Can a person doing a course like physiotherapy at la trobe apply for the GAMSAT?

Anyone doing an undergrad degree is eligible to sit the GAMSAT, from the penultimate year onward.

[Russ]

His italics mean that being eligible and doing well are different things, depending on the course you do

[Tomw2]

His italics mean that being eligible and doing well are different things, depending on the course you do

  haha yes, sorry. Didn't mean to make it a Section I GAMSAT riddle! 

[paulsterio]

Penultimate? I knew of someone who sat the GAMSAT in his first year just for fun (checking out the test...etc.) (albeit it was GAMSAT UK).

[Tomw2]

Penultimate? I knew of someone who sat the GAMSAT in his first year just for fun (checking out the test...etc.) (albeit it was GAMSAT UK).

Technically that's against "the rules", but then again ACER has published unenforceable rules of dubious design before, e.g.

http://gamsat.acer.edu.au/sit/misconduct/

using the test questions their content or information about them for purposes other than your sitting of GAMSAT is prohibited. This includes: publishing the GAMSAT questions or any of their content or information about them on the internet, any digital format or otherwise; and/or passing the GAMSAT questions, any of their content or information about them to third parties;

So if a student is caught publishing "Wow, those last few SIII questions were harder than the rest" on a forum, they're guilty of misconduct and will have their score revoked? Yeah right.

Technically thinking about the questions after you have completed the test is "prohibited".