Just be wary about sourcing things from Medentry because they do have a financial interest in trying to push undergrad med over postgrad.
Our view is that Monash school leaver entry is far superior for several reasons including:
1. No guarantee: Melbourne Graduate medicine does NOT have guaranteed places in Medicine, even though the university claims that it has. Even those who obtain an ATAR of 99.95 have to maintain certain GPA to progress to medicine after their first degree! There have been many students misled, disappointed and angry that the 'guaranteed' place is really no guarantee at all - unfortunately they discover it too late: after finishing their Biomedicine degree.
Chancellors scholars do have to maintain a certain average at uni but it quite low and very achievable - only very few chancellors will have their guaranteed spot rescinded.
2. More stress and uncertainty: You have just finished a hard slog for your final high school exams. Do you really want to continue to do that for another 3 to 4 years? And you have to live with the pressure and uncertainty that you may not get in, in spite of your hard work. Only those with high GPAs have a chance of getting in to graduate entry medicine.
True, there is more uncertainty to deal with, most likely for longer too. But 3-4 years fly by very fast and you do get used to the workload at university, its not like you will be stressed/anxious all the time for the next few years.
3. The dreaded GAMSAT: To get into Melbourne medicine, you will also need to sit the dreaded 6 hour GAMSAT test and do well, to have a chance of getting into Melbourne graduate medicine.
Dumb point. You get used to sitting long exams anyway. And a lot of people (like myself) found it easier than the UMAT.
4. Choices restricted: For graduate entry, you can only apply to one university (with six preferences) and will be interviewed by only one through the GEMSAS. Medical schools have colluded so that it makes their job of selection easier. With school leaver entry, there are no such restrictions.
What? This is misleading as fuck. When you apply for graduate entry, you interview at one university but even if you get rejected from that uni, you get passed down to your lower preferences and you can still get an offer without being interviewed (eg if you interviewed at Melbourne, which was your first preference, your interview scores get uploaded onto the central GEMSAS database and you can still get an offer at Deakin). It operates like VTAC. Medentry makes it sound like you only get one shot at one uni, which is utter bullshit.
5. Plan B: If you pursue Biomedicine at Melbourne and are then unable to get into medicine, you will have very limited career options (other than a research career which has little job security)
Fair point. That is why you pick Science instead, unless you have a thing for biomedical research.
6. Financial reasons: For those who like to look at things rationally, it takes at least two more years of study to do medicine at Melbourne. The average lifetime earnings of doctors in private practice is about $300,000 per year (Source: Australian Doctor 22 July 2011). So by giving up Monash Medicine, you are effectively losing half a million dollars. Plus there is the cost of study – being at university for at least two more years.
2 years is really nothing in the grand scheme of things, especially in medicine where many people will fail when they are specialising anyway.
7. Length of training: To become a fully qualified specialist, after graduation you will need to train for at least seven years further. The Melbourne university degree will prolong your time training for even longer.
See last point.
8. After graduating in medicine, once you have chosen the specialty you wish to pursue, you will need to sit exams while working as a Registrar. You will find this last hurdle easier to get through when you are younger (eg by going to Monash) rather than when you are older with family commitments. Studying for exams is less daunting when you are younger for several other reasons.
Perhaps a valid point, but if you can get into graduate medicine soon after finishing undergrad you shouldnt be too disadvantaged.
9. Focussed training: Some of the subjects that you will be studying in the Biomedicine degree may seem irrelevant to you, as it is not focussed on medicine. Monash university offers focussed medical training and patient contact from week one.
Obviously, because biomedicine is not a medical degree. Comparing apples and oranges.
10. Most professionals will tell you that real learning takes place when you start work, not at university. Most of what universities teach is irrelevant to real world of work and they teach it because that is all academics know. Hence the adage “Those who can, do; those who can’t teach!”. University is a place for fun and five years of fun is enough for most people!
I would rather stay at uni a tad longer to be honest.
11. Prestige: In Australia, which university you go to doesn’t count as much as in the USA. This is particularly so with medicine, because patients are more concerned about your bed-side manner, diagnostic skills etc. Even if you wish to work overseas, once you get a registration as Medical Practitioner with AHPRA (all medical graduates get this), it makes no difference which university you went to.
Valid point. There is no difference.
12. Through attracting better students, Monash is dramatically improving its lead over Melbourne in medical school prestige. There is anecdotal evidence that Monash medicine graduates perform better in terms of career prospects and their ability to get into ‘competitive’ specialties. Please see Medical schools ranking.
Just be careful about this, anecdotal evidence is not the most reliable and medical school rankings might also be influenced by other things such as research etc, not just the quality of their alumni
13. Increasingly the prizes awarded to medical students by the Royal Colleges (eg RACP/RACS) are being won by Monash students with Melbourne students further lagging behind every year.
Not sure if they can really back up this claim, there is no source given.
14. Misleading MD: The so-called Melbourne MD is misleadingly promoted as a superior degree. It is no different to MBBS degrees offered by other medical schools and you will have no career advantages. The misleading use of ‘MD’ title by Melbourne University has been widely condemned by leading academics and government bodies.
Yeah, that is true. MD = MBBS = BMBS = they are all the same.
15. Many people wrongly assume that because its an MD degree, the duration of their subsequent training is reduced. Melbourne University is unethically aiding and abetting this misunderstanding. The so called MD does NOT reduce your further training by even ONE DAY.
Yeah, after university the length of your subsequent training is really just dictated by 1) yourself and how eager you are to specialise and 2) how long it takes for you to complete the training program. The degree you did, whether its MD or MBBS is irrelevant.
16. Uncertainty of career choice: After commencing at Monash, in the unlikely event that you feel Medicine is not for you (the drop out rate is less than 1%), you can always drop out after a year or two and pursue another degree with prior learning credits.
Yup, that is true.
17. Travel distance: Some students who live in the north are put off by the distance required to travel to Monash. But remember that you go to University at the Clayton campus only for the first two years. For the remaining three years you are being trained in hospitals – you don’t go to to the university campus at all.
At Melbourne, you are at the Parkville campus for one year. For the next three years you will be in hospitals (Inner East zone has Epworth, St. Vs, RMH and Austin, North/West zone has Northern and Western hospitals, and then there is a rural zone).
18. College experience: Many students, even those who live near Monash, find it convenient to live in the halls of residence provided by Monash to experience college life for at least a year or two.
So do Melbourne students...?
19. Real reasons: There are at least three (real, as opposed to those peddled by the University) reasons why Melbourne has chosen to ape the US graduate entry model. First, by keeping the students at university for two more years, income from fees is increased (University gets an additional $60,000 from each student). Second, due to government policy, Melbourne is able to charge full fee ($55,000 per year) for their courses but is prohibited from doing so if it is a school leaver entry program. The university is therefore able to increase their income by about 70%. Third, by getting students into their Biomedicine program, they are able to increase the flagging enrolments in their science programs. Since the demand to get into medicine is high, the university is able to lure a large number of students (up to 1000) to commence their Biomedicine program, most of who hope to get into medicine. So it is a nice cash cow for the university, earning a massive $100 million dollars a year. Many students after completion will be unable to get into Med or get jobs and will choose to stay on to pursue higher degrees. This not only further increases the income but they get slave labour (postgraduate research students) to boost their research profile and hence their international ranking.
This author is pretty much saying look how selfish Melbourne is, all they want is your money, they dont actually care about their students. They are really trying to bash Melbourne lol. Most of this is irrelevant for deciding between the MD/MBBS, all you need to be aware of is that some spots in the Melbourne MD are FFP. However, it is not like you are forced to pick FFP against your will. Only people who tick yes to an FFP spot actually get them, so just dont consider taking one if you dont want to!
20. Due to the fact that GAMSAT entry doctors are older (about 6 years older on average), they are likely to choose specialties which is easier to get in, and require shorter training, such as General Practice. UMAT entry doctors are more likely to choose competitive specialties such as Dermatology, Ophthalmology, Neurosurgery, Gastroenterology, because time is on their side, among other reasons. There is evidence that graduate entry doctors (GAMSAT route) are more likely to choose general Practice.
I would like to see evidence for this claim.
21. Competition for everything is increasing in all aspects of life (eg Registrar positions), so the quicker you finish your training, the better it is for you.
When knowledge is so freely available these days, one would expect the time taken to train as a professional should reduce, not increase, as Melbourne university is trying to do.
But you may ask, what if I want to study wider range of subjects or get research experience? Well, you can gain research experience by doing a Masters degree after Monash medicine; and you can learn the subjects that interest you any time, at any university, by enrolling in summer or single subject courses.
In summary, Monash (school leaver entry) medicine is good for you, and Melbourne (graduate entry) medicine is good for the university.
You can really see the bias dripping off your screen here lol. You can also get research experience before you do medicine if you want, its up to you. Its just a matter of whether you feel comfortable dabbling in things that pique your interest before or after medicine.
EDIT: Also did a quick google search of the author and all you can find are UMAT/Medentry links. Take that what you will.
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