Monash Biomed Choices for Graduate Med

[mtDNA]

Hi there,

Being a bio-enthusiast (as you may gather from my username  ), I am supppppppppper eager on doing medicine in my tertiary studies, so I just wanted to ask a few questions regarding the various pathways into Monash’s  (and Melbourne’s) graduate med program:

First and foremost, what has Monash have to offer which is unique in comparison to Melbourne’s Biomed course? In terms of the course, do you essentially learn the same stuff, or is there quite a disparity between the two courses? Also, I know that Monash will only take their own students, but how much of a difference does that make in reducing competition (i.e. is the ratio of applicants to positions available at Monash equal/similar to Melbourne?).

Moreover, say you get an ATAR which makes you eligible for the Biomed Advanced course at Monash (guarantee honours year), are you able to turn down the honours year given you are accepted into the med program, or are you forced to complete the honours year before entering graduate medicine? Also, for those who do a biomed double (say, biomed/law or biomed/commerce), what is a process of application into medicine (are you still eligible for the 50 biomed places)? In addition to this, say you don’t get the top marks in the non-biomed degree, will this act as a burden in your applications or will Monash + other universities neglect these marks? Are you able to pick up a new degree with no prior experience (say for commerce and law, I’ve never really done much study in these subjects thoroughly - maybe a year 10 subject in business and law at most - so would it be advisable to not choose these as a degree and just stick with the single biomed degree?); the reason I ask mainly stems from the nature of biomedicine in that if I were unsuccessful in getting in, I wouldn’t be 100% on doing a career in research, so the complementary degree in effect acts as a safety net I suppose (I imagine I wouldn’t resent law/actuarial studies due to my passion for politics and maths  )

Finally, what is/are the advantage(s) of doing the biomed scholars program (if someone doing this program could answer, that would be greatly appreciated)? I know you get to see works in scientific research, but how much of a contribution do you make to this, and is the ‘mentoring' a thing that occurs frequently or is it more of a ‘once in a blue moon’ occurrence? And does it help with what you do in the Biomed course?

Currently I’m facing a dilemma in ranking some of these variations of biomed in my VTAC preferences, so hence these questions have arisen! Atm, I have biomed scholars as my 1st preference, but I’m a little undecided on how to rank the rest... If you like, I’m open to your opinions in ranking these/other courses for my VTAC preferences - any help is greatly appreciated (my goal is 99, so the only limitation would probably be chancellors at Melb - apart from that, feel free to suggest any other course as I doubt there will be an ATAR barrier).

P.s. With a low/mediocre UMAT, what interstate universities (preferable non-UMAT) are open for me to apply for med (given I have a strong ATAR)?

[VanillaRice]

Moreover, say you get an ATAR which makes you eligible for the Biomed Advanced course at Monash (guarantee honours year), are you able to turn down the honours year given you are accepted into the med program, or are you forced to complete the honours year before entering graduate medicine?

You can either opt out of the honours year, or defer your entry into the med program for a year to do your honours year

Also, for those who do a biomed double (say, biomed/law or biomed/commerce), what is a process of application into medicine (are you still eligible for the 50 biomed places)?

Yes, still eligible for the 50 biomed places. Ranking for interview is still based on the first 9 biomed core units. You will apply and/or interview in your penultimate (second last) year.

In addition to this, say you don’t get the top marks in the non-biomed degree, will this act as a burden in your applications or will Monash + other universities neglect these marks?

The marks in your other degree are only excluded for application to the 50 biomed places pathway (where only the first 9 core biomed units are looked at).
All other medicine programs will take into account the other (non-biomed) units that you complete (to some extent). This includes the 25 non-biomed places for the Monash grad program.

Are you able to pick up a new degree with no prior experience (say for commerce and law, I’ve never really done much study in these subjects thoroughly - maybe a year 10 subject in business and law at most - so would it be advisable to not choose these as a degree and just stick with the single biomed degree?); the reason I ask mainly stems from the nature of biomedicine in that if I were unsuccessful in getting in, I wouldn’t be 100% on doing a career in research, so the complementary degree in effect acts as a safety net I suppose (I imagine I wouldn’t resent law/actuarial studies due to my passion for politics and maths  )

Absolutely can! Provided you meet you prerequisites for the course, of course. I initially enrolled in a biomed/commerce double degree without any prior commerce-related experience. Although, given I transferred out of commerce probably says something about why I never picked it in high school

Hope this helps!

[mtDNA]

You can either opt out of the honours year, or defer your entry into the med program for a year to do your honours year
Yes, still eligible for the 50 biomed places. Ranking for interview is still based on the first 9 biomed core units. You will apply and/or interview in your penultimate (second last) year.
The marks in your other degree are only excluded for application to the 50 biomed places pathway (where only the first 9 core biomed units are looked at).
All other medicine programs will take into account the other (non-biomed) units that you complete (to some extent). This includes the 25 non-biomed places for the Monash grad program.
Absolutely can! Provided you meet you prerequisites for the course, of course. I initially enrolled in a biomed/commerce double degree without any prior commerce-related experience. Although, given I transferred out of commerce probably says something about why I never picked it in high school

Hope this helps!

You’ve been a huge help! THANK YOU

I guess since you're biomed student, how have your experiences been so far with the course in terms of the transition from VCE, the competitiveness, the atmosphere at Monash, etc? (sorry for the broadness of the question; feel free to discuss what you like - I’d really appreciate ‘reading the voice’ of a current student )

[VanillaRice]

Probably the first thing to note is that due to the way Monash has chosen to restrict its grad med program, you'll find that ~80% (?) of the cohort (of around 500-600 students?) will be aiming for the med program to some extent. Naturally, you will find that there is some degree of competition. It's a massive cohort, so not really easy to make an overall general comment in my opinion.

With regards to transition from VCE - I think that the course organisers try to make the transition from VCE as smooth as possible (for example, one of the first semester units involved revision of VCE chem topics for a few weeks). That being said, I would say that it does ramp up towards the end of semester (and probably for the rest of the course). This probably took many people by surprise, and I honestly think that I am putting in similar levels of effort to that I put into VCE (maybe even more?  ). But, depending on who you ask, what you hear about the difficulty and workload will vary (pro tip: don't fall behind ).

Arguably, the atmosphere at Monash in general is very welcoming! Most times, you will be able to say hi and make conversation with the people around you in your labs and tutes (even if you're somewhat of an introvert like me  ). I've found this to be especially applicable in biomed units, where everyone is doing the same units, so you will begin to see the same people around in your classes (unless you skip all non-compulsory classes like a few of my friends  ). That being said, I've found that friendship groups have formed quite quickly, especially since everyone does the same units (which is probably a big difference with other courses like science, and possible biomed at unimelb?). Nothing too clique-y though - you will still be able to make friends throughout your course

Not sure if I've answered your questions, but feel free to keep the questions coming

[Sine]

just to comment on the cohort.

Yes, naturally it is very competitive which isnt' always a bad thing, one of the reasons why chose and really like biomed. Whilst it is quite competitive people still work together and help one another out and I still haven't come across anyone who is competitive to the level of trying to bring someone else down.

@VanillaRice is it even possible not to fall behind tho?

[cookiedream]

P.s. With a low/mediocre UMAT, what interstate universities (preferable non-UMAT) are open for me to apply for med (given I have a strong ATAR)?

non-UMAT
QLD: James Cook University (application, predicted atar, interview)
QLD: Bond University (atar, interview)
QLD: Griffith University (99.80 atar)

UMAT
NSW: University of Newcastle/JMP (umat: section 1 is 60 or above and the other sections are 50 or above, atar - but these are only "obstacles" because an actual place is dependent 100% on your interview)
WA: University of Western Australia (umat: there have been people in the past who got in with high 70s, atar, interview)
SA: Flinders University (umat 10%, atar 90%)

Also, if you have a rural background, the cut-off UMAT is often much lower for many undergrad or guaranteed pathway unis (e.g. University of Queensland, UNSW, JMP, Flinders).

If you're eligible, and are still considering Monash med, there's the Monash Guarantee where the cutoff UMAT to gain an interview is 175 (~87th percentile this year) and atar is 94.

Also, this is a really good webpage where a user collates the umat and atar data for people who got offers for different med universities.

Hope that helped! 

[mtDNA]

Hey guys, I can’t express how much you all have helped!

Just some further questions: although Monash presents a non-Gamsat (yay!) pathway, how does the SJD compare? I’m under the impression that’d it be somewhat less challenging than the gruelling 6 hours, but for anyone who has done/intends on doing the SJD, please describe your experiences with it? On that note, what exactly does the Monash SJD constitute in regards to content, weighting, time, etc.? And is there a way to prepare for the SJD and GAMSAT (and perhaps to those who sat both these tests and the UMAT, how do they compare)? [note: I’ll still be sitting the GAMSAT regardless of whether I go to Monash Biomed, I just don’t want to placed in the position where a place in graduate Med is reliant on the performance on that aptitude test].   

All help is immensely appreciated!!! 

[VanillaRice]

@VanillaRice is it even possible not to fall behind tho?

After going halfway through this semester and trying to improve on my lack of organisation - I have concluded that no, it is not possible. 

[coconut_rolls]

Just some further questions: although Monash presents a non-Gamsat (yay!) pathway, how does the SJD compare? I’m under the impression that’d it be somewhat less challenging than the gruelling 6 hours, but for anyone who has done/intends on doing the SJD, please describe your experiences with it? On that note, what exactly does the Monash SJD constitute in regards to content, weighting, time, etc.? And is there a way to prepare for the SJD and GAMSAT (and perhaps to those who sat both these tests and the UMAT, how do they compare)?

If you do a quick search of SJT on google, there are a few websites that give you examples of what the SJT looks like and these are very very similar to the actual SJTs conducted. I'd say it'd be very hard to study for it, however, if you do a few questions and look at the answers you start to realise what they're looking for and can adjust your perception of situations to fit their "ideal" answer. This can help you a little but the situations they give you are all different so not too much of a help.
GAMSAT is another thing. You can very easily prepare for the GAMSAT and compared to the UMAT it is (in my opinion) much easier to understand and comprehend how you are doing. This is especially true in section 3 where your science knowledge and problem solving skills can help bump up your scores. Same goes to section 2 essay writing, whereby the more practice essays you do, the better you get at it.