Graduate Medicine

[Grey]

So I disappointingly missed out on UoM biomedicine by 0.05 enter this year and got pharmacy / commerce at Monash Parkville instead. I don't really want to do it but I have no option, so the only way is to go medicine in a few years. Here are my questions:

1. Can I go UoM graduate medicine from pharmacy if my marks are awesome?

2. If so, what marks do I need to maintain to be considered?

3. Do I have to do a GAMSAT?

4. Will Monash restrict me to Monash or can I transfer to UoM and do medicine there instead of at Monash?

5. Is pharmacy good? I went to enrolment day and everyone seemed so happy as if their life-long dreams had come true, but I was only there cause I had to be, it was a different feeling...

Any suggestions?

[vexx]

Err, biomedicine is only a bachelor's degree similar to a science degree, it does not mean you are going into medicine just by doing it... The only undergrad med is the MBBS course at monash otherwise its graduate med at monash or UoM.

1. I considered pharmacy as an undergraduate degree- looking into it and unless you find a way to do the prerequesite subjects during summer or overload during your semesters, you cannot do the graduate medicine at UoM, you need second year anatomy, biochemistry and physiology which are not in the course structure for pharmacy.

2. If you do find a way to get the prereqs, you would need a solid GPA of atleast 6.0+, more likely you would need somewhere in the 6.5, but the entry requirements are unknown and it depends on your GAMSAT results too

3. Yes

4. You can do graduate medicine wherever you like as long as you complete a bachelor's degree, you cannot transfer into udnergrad med.

5. it's your decision if you find pharmacy good, but yes its a rather respectable career with a good lifestyle depends if you like the job or not though.


If you are very keen on medicine, why did you not apply for undergrad med? Or why are you doing pharm/commerce, its much easier to get a higher GPA if you want graduate med if you do a basic science degree or biomed (if transfer into it)

[Grey]

I did apply but I didn't get in. So I wanted to go biomedicine for entry into medicine. But seeing as my enter was only 97.85 and the clearly-in this year was 97.9, I didn't get into biomedicine and go pharmacy / commerce instead.

So I'm aiming for graduate medicine, so you're saying that I need to take extra subjects that relate to medicine to get in?

[doboman]

4. You can do graduate medicine wherever you like as long as you complete a bachelor's degree, you cannot transfer into udnergrad med.

If you are very keen on medicine, why did you not apply for undergrad med? Or why are you doing pharm/commerce, its much easier to get a higher GPA if you want graduate med if you do a basic science degree or biomed (if transfer into it)

Firstly, you can transfer, after 1 year of pharm/comm, into undergraduate medicine. Although you're correct in saying that you can't transfer into Monash med or UoM Graduate med, there are other unis in the country who take non-standards (once you have started a uni course, you become a non-standard). Off the top of my head: UTAS, JCU, UWA, UNSW, UNCLE, UWS and UNE all take non-standards. You can check the requirements out yourself, but generally, it's exactly the same as Year 12 entry. Only difference is that your GPA is also used in assessing you (sometimes this is looked at as your only academic results, sometimes they use it if it is better than your ENTER and sometimes they use both your ENTER and GPA) . You need to do well in the UMAT, need to do your interview, and you need to maintain a competitive GPA. Only Monash, UQ school leavers program, Griffith's school leavers program and UAdel dont allow non-standard entry. But as you can see, you have so many other option!

Also, do a degree which will you are interested in most and will get the best scores for non-standard transfer. this isn't vce, no subjects scale up when calculating GPA. So, for example, you do Optom (which is regarded as a hard degree), you wont be looked at any differently than someone who done Science (or anything else). So pick the Uni, and course which you will enjoy and do the best in.

Remember, Grad med should only come into play if you dont get undergrad non-standard transfer. So focus on undergrad med first, if that's what you really want. Lastly, you may start to like pharm and not want to do med after a year of pharm... so dont go in with a negative attitude or else you'll have a negative experience.

[vexx]

^ when i said cannot transfer into it, i was just talking about undergrad med in victoria.
the OP never said anything about wanting to go interstate so i just didn't bring it up hehe.
but yes if your willing to go interstate there are much more options/ways to get into med !

but yeah pharmacy, as i said: you need second year anatomy, biochemistry and physiology.
and i can't remember ( i think it's anatomy and physiology) that aren't covered in the pharmacy course and tehre aren't room to put them in unless you do them aside your degree (overload).

[Toothpaste]

1. Yes, also on the Melbourne MD: first year second semester covers the physiology prerequisite. Second year first semester covers the biochemistry prerequisite. It's only missing anatomy so you might have to find another way to satisfy that requirement. http://www.medicine.unimelb.edu.au/docs/MDPrerequisitesVic.pdf
(PAC1132 Systems physiology & PAC2151 Biochemistry and molecular biology are the ones in pharmacy)

Also, there are other graduate schools for medicine without the subject prerequisites. I'm pretty sure only the UoM MD has the prereqs. If you're only looking at Victorian graduate medical schools, you should also consider Monash Gippy and Deakin. Plenty more interstate ones without prerequisites needed. Your pharmacology and therapeutics knowledge from pharmacy would help with graduate medicine in my opinion. Obviously you can drop the commerce component whenever you feel like. Hardly anyone goes through with it.

BPharm (4 years) -> pharmacy internship (1 year) -> pharmacist
BPharm (GAMSAT in 3rd or 4th year) -> pharmacy internship (GAMSAT again?) or grad med -> grad med or go work as a pharmacist and re-do GAMSAT

GAMSAT results are valid for 2 years. There are also graduate medical students out there who work as part time pharmacists during the holidays or when they feel like it (depends how flexible your employer is).

2. In addition to what vexx said, it's actually a bitch to maintain a high GPA in pharmacy. Do it and you'll see why.

5. Depends on your attitude towards it. If you hate pharmacy, it will hate you too. You'll get to know almost everyone in your year level by the end of the course if you attend uni, so yeah, pretty tight-knit course. I'd say it's pretty high-school-esque in a way. 4th years had hoodies and muck-up day. Loads of in-jokes within the course so there's entertainment value in it for you. Small campus, but you will find the solution to that is... INVADING THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE (just a few tram stops down). Academically, it's of the highest quality minus a few annoying lecturers. As you may know already, most of the admin stuff is done by someone else. I.e. allocate+, you don't ever do your own timetable - it's all automated. You will have 5 days a week of uni when practicals begin, with the earliest start being 8:30am (and you'll find that hardly anyone attends). Best thing about the course is having Lectopia for all your lectures, so you can ditch uni all you want and watch the lectures at home (you'll probably procrastinate and won't do it anyway). Did you ask anyone if pharmacy was their first choice? Most people had medicine first or won't admit it, you're definitely not alone.

EDIT: You're not allowed to overload during the teaching semesters. You're not even allowed to start the commerce component. Summer units may be possible but the problem is finding an anatomy unit from any other uni being offered during that time. I have a feeling the UoM CAP thing doesn't actually have any anatomy units accessible, you'd have to do some research (look into RMIT, LaTrobe, etc).

[d0minicz]

you shouldve picked biomed sci @ monash too if you wanted biomedicine

[doboman]

you shouldve picked biomed sci @ monash too if you wanted biomedicine

In truth, he should have picked Science at Melbourne.

[Toothpaste]

you shouldve picked biomed sci @ monash too if you wanted biomedicine

In truth, he should have picked Science at Melbourne.

I'd agree.

Pharmacy's a good back-up if you wouldn't mind being a pharmacist, but the GPA component would be easier to manage in a more general science degree. Purely my opinion though. Plus only the last three years count towards GPA calculations for graduate medicine selection so year one could be seen as a trial year, if you really don't like it you could transfer out to biomedicine or something else.

[Grey]

thanks guys but seeing as it is i'm gonna have to work my life off and give up everything just to get medicine from pharmacy
also pharmacy was my 6th preference

[vexx]

EDIT: You're not allowed to overload during the teaching semesters. You're not even allowed to start the commerce component. Summer units may be possible but the problem is finding an anatomy unit from any other uni being offered during that time. I have a feeling the UoM CAP thing doesn't actually have any anatomy units accessible, you'd have to do some research (look into RMIT, LaTrobe, etc).

Oh really? I never knew you couldn't overload in that degree?
And yeah there aren't any anatomy programs run in summer semester at monash or melb, i'd be highly doubtful that the others have any too.

Perhaps just do a straight science degree if your that keen on med? considering how hard it is to keep a solid gpa and to get your subject prereqs.

[Grey]

EDIT: You're not allowed to overload during the teaching semesters. You're not even allowed to start the commerce component. Summer units may be possible but the problem is finding an anatomy unit from any other uni being offered during that time. I have a feeling the UoM CAP thing doesn't actually have any anatomy units accessible, you'd have to do some research (look into RMIT, LaTrobe, etc).

Oh really? I never knew you couldn't overload in that degree?
And yeah there aren't any anatomy programs run in summer semester at monash or melb, i'd be highly doubtful that the others have any too.

Perhaps just do a straight science degree if your that keen on med? considering how hard it is to keep a solid gpa and to get your subject prereqs.

But is it actually possible to keep a solid GPA or is it as hard as getting a 99.95?

[vexx]

^ i wouldn't know exactly sorry.

i would say getting 99.95 is harder ahha cos only 20~30 people out of the whole vce can get that. whereas lots ore could get a good GPA:) i think if you studied hard, getting a 6+ wont be that difficult.

[Grey]

okay and another problem is the money, i heard that u need to pay over $40,000 without government support all by yourself for medicine every year, is this true?

[d0minicz]

^ i wouldn't know exactly sorry.

i would say getting 99.95 is harder ahha cos only 20~30 people out of the whole vce can get that. whereas lots ore could get a good GPA:) i think if you studied hard, getting a 6+ wont be that difficult.

hey whats a 6 equal to in terms of average marks?