Transferring to Biomedicine from Commerce

[Gekko]

Salutations, friends!

An acquaintance and I were having a discussion about internal transfers at the UoM and he said that he was going to transfer into Biomed at the end of the year. When I asked if he got the cut-off ATAR for 2013 entry he said that he didn't (got a 96.2) but that he got a 73 average in semester 1 (in the BCom) and that he only needed a 70 average to transfer.

This sounds really perplexing to me but I couldn't really call him out on it since I have not heard anything to the contrary. So can any of you guys shed any light on this? Surely you would need an average higher than 70 to transfer into a course with a clearly-in ATAR of ~99?

Thanks!

[Russ]

That's an interesting transfer.
Anyway there are no hard and fast rules to whether or not a certain average will allow you to transfer between courses. I never kept up to date with the requirements too much, but my impression was always that it was rather difficult to transfer into biomedicine, simply because there was already a high demand and they had a limited number of places for non year 12 leavers.

However, people transfer courses with averages like that all the time, so I don't think it's implausible. Universities consider good marks at university to mean more than good marks at high school, so getting a 73 average is probably in his favour. It's probably significant to bear in mind that roughly half the people in biomedicine didn't score above 99, so the university is definitely OK with the idea that ATAR isn't the defining characteristic for admission.

[sluu001]

Given the competition for bio med spots - id say he will need to push that average up to closer to 80 to be competitive. ATARs are a reflection of demand/supply rather than course difficulty (otherwise a course like engineering would have an ATAR closer to 99 than 90).

Since 75 is a competitive score to transfer "in" to commerce; an average of 80 should be competitive for a bio med spot.

[vox nihili]

You would have to be the single most insane person in the world :| Don't do it!

[Gekko]

Just to reiterate, I'm not looking at transferring into Bmed. I'm quite happy with where I am at this stage.

I don't know where he got the idea that a 70 average would get him into Bmed but looking at the replies here, it looks as though 80 is a better indication. I would have thought you would need something like that, too.

Oh well, all the power to him.

t-rav, I'd like to ask you though: why would that make him the most insane person in the world?

Thanks guys.

[werdna]

That's because a LOT of Biomed people regret choosing Biomed... look very carefully into the course structure and compare it to the Science degree. Sometimes you're better off choosing to go with Science.

[Russ]

If he wants to transfer in, I assume he's done his research. A lot of prospective students think it's something it's not and complain that the reality isn't what they expected.

[vox nihili]

Nah, look Biomed isn't that bad. But coming from a Commerce lifestyle it may be a bit of a shock to the system. Insanity doesn't always indicate a bad thing! All the best scientists were completely bonkers, so maybe it's a good start?

[simpak]

But coming from a Commerce lifestyle it may be a bit of a shock to the system.

I'm sure everyone would be completely fine.  It's the first year of a degree, it's made for settling into tertiary lifestyle.  In fact, they would probably be less 'shocked' going in than the people coming in fresh from high school because they already have some breadths to credit (therefore take less subjects) and they are already integrated into uni life. You really shouldn't imply that people in Commerce have an easy lifestyle - there are many people studying Commerce who probably work just as frequently and hard as you or I.  You can invest effort and time into any degree.

Nobody choosing Biomedicine is 'insane' but potential valid reasons to not choose Biomed could be: I want to have more freedom of choice in my degree regarding electives, I'm not interested in a Biomedical major, I'm not interested in taking Biomedicine cores.  Not 'I want to be more lazy'.  You have to think of the benefits of completing x degree rather than how 'hard' it might seem for you to do so at the time.  If the OP's friend wants to transfer, let them transfer!  Three years of 'struggle' will be forgotten if they get to study what they're actually going to enjoy and get a job or a postgrad place out of it in the end.

[vox nihili]

I'm sure everyone would be completely fine.  It's the first year of a degree, it's made for settling into tertiary lifestyle.  In fact, they would probably be less 'shocked' going in than the people coming in fresh from high school because they already have some breadths to credit (therefore take less subjects) and they are already integrated into uni life. You really shouldn't imply that people in Commerce have an easy lifestyle - there are many people studying Commerce who probably work just as frequently and hard as you or I.  You can invest effort and time into any degree.

Nobody choosing Biomedicine is 'insane' but potential valid reasons to not choose Biomed could be: I want to have more freedom of choice in my degree regarding electives, I'm not interested in a Biomedical major, I'm not interested in taking Biomedicine cores.  Not 'I want to be more lazy'.  You have to think of the benefits of completing x degree rather than how 'hard' it might seem for you to do so at the time.  If the OP's friend wants to transfer, let them transfer!  Three years of 'struggle' will be forgotten if they get to study what they're actually going to enjoy and get a job or a postgrad place out of it in the end.

To be fair, my original quote did sound overly pompous and wasn't particularly well thought out! You're quite right that anybody can work hard in the degree. I was acknowledging the everyday student, something that is very potentially incorrect! Biomed is more of a committment in terms of passing. There are more contact hours, and extremely frequent assessments. Doing well is relative though, you're quite right when you say that it's essentially the same for each degree.

I still stand by a degree of insanity about moving into Biomed. Though I do say it lightheartedly. Biomed is massively competitive. If you don't do well, there's precious else you can do. At least with commerce there seems to be (based on the Uni's constant sprucing of graduate outcomes) ample opportunity to find employment. It's just a huge commitment and can be very stressful moving into that lifestyle. No doubt at the high ends of commerce it's extremely stressful as well, something I don't deny.

In all honesty, I hate that perception of biomed snobbery, which I'm sure my previous comment roused in everyone! There certainly are some of us who, how shall we say?, don't try to stop it perhaps? haha

But by all means, go for it. The choice really has to be about what you want to do with yourself and what you enjoy studying. No matters the competitive lifestyle of the course, or the relative difficulty, you're always going to do better when you're enjoying it!

I hope a touch of seriousness has qualified some of my cheek!

[simpak]

Dw I thought that perhaps you didn't mean it to sound that way I was just pointing out that a transfer like this isn't as big a deal as some may think.  Every time I say I transferred from Arts to Science people are like 'wow that's a huge change that must be so different'.  The content was, but the general experience, style of learning etc weren't really and it was possible to adapt much more quickly than I originally did to Arts because I was more sure of what was expected of me etc.