Biomedicine too risky ?

[mandy]

If I decided to study Biomedicine at Melbourne and decided it was not for me, could I transfer to Pharmacy at Monash? Are such transfers possible?

[Russ]

According to the website you can, but you need these results

    * 70% average across all subjects from a complete or incomplete Bachelors degree in a science-related field (eg. BSc, BBiomed, BPharm, BPharmSci).*
    * A competitive UMAT score (minimum of 140 raw score).

[mandy]

According to the website you can, but you need these results

    * 70% average across all subjects from a complete or incomplete Bachelors degree in a science-related field (eg. BSc, BBiomed, BPharm, BPharmSci).*
    * A competitive UMAT score (minimum of 140 raw score).

Thank you Russ, I think I might do Biomed .. if I achieve the required atar.

[Toothpaste]

If I decided to study Biomedicine at Melbourne and decided it was not for me, could I transfer to Pharmacy at Monash? Are such transfers possible?

There are quite a few transfers from science and biomed in pharm. The only thing to note is that you'll be "pushed back a year" because you can't get credit for the pharmacy specific unit. By "pushed back a year" I mean you'll end up having to spend the full 4 years in the course anyway even if you do a mix of say, 1st/2nd year units.

[Andiio]

MANDYYY
My bro did pharmacy and he decided he hated it, even though it was his first pref (he wanted to do it earlier). But once he finished he took the GAMSAT, completely aced it and now is starting his clinical placements at hospitals and such

Wouldn't it be awesome if I got into undergrad med next year? I'd literally finish around the same time he would

[dptjandra]

I completely understand your thoughts on Biomed being "too risky" - for me, wanting to eventually do med, it was a toss up between putting Monash first preference, going to USyd (both med degrees) or doing biomed first.  I think your decision depends a lot on your individual situation and consideration of a few factors:
1. Do you have a desire to go to any particular uni?  Is it a good reason?  How strong is the reason?  Eg. Your parents went there, or you live very close to it, or you feel it is better/worse for a particular course/focus, or you want to be near the city, etc.  Would you consider interstate (considering costs and emotional pressures) for certain courses?
2. How much you want to do the subject - if you are uncertain (leaning towards not really interested), but definitely health sciences, probably a good idea to consider biomed.  Remember that biomed can lead to lots of graduate courses, such as optom, medicine, dentistry, physio, genetic counselling, law, engineering, teaching, honours year etc.  These are offered at Uni of Melb, but also some of them at other unis, including interstate.
3. How strongly you back yourself academically - in general, when people have asked me what I think they should do with regards to the security thing, I've said, "go, go, go for the security...unless you have a notional 'guaranteed' place, it's so much less pressure if you are going into something you know you want to do" (so clearly dependent on factor 2).  This is for something like medicine, however - if you are aiming more generally, the security thing may not be as big a factor any more, seeing as there are so many graduate opportunities (not to mention that the Bachelor of Biomed itself could be used).

I would be very careful "settling" for pharmacy if there are many other things that interest you more.

Hope this is of some help.

[Toothpaste]

I'd also like to advise you that pharmacy isn't the easiest course to ace since you need a good GPA for graduate entry. Not to say you won't do well, but I reckon it's a lot more challenging to get straight HD/D's. E.g. I'll attach the feedback lecture slides to one of our units in semester one (2nd year) here:

[mandy]

Thank you Toothpaste, Andiio and dptjandra!

There are many reasons why I would much rather study Biomedicine at UniMelb than say, Pharmacy or Biomedical Science at Monash. Not only is the campus much, much closer to me and more convenient, my parents are huge fans of UniMelb (LOL) and would love to have a daughter study there.
I also think Biomedicine is much more appealing (although "risky") because there are so many options at the end.

I think you guys have made me want to do Biomedicine even more now, hahahaha.
Again, thank you!

[Russ]

If you're considering it, here's an interesting picture from earlier in the year. It's a question posed to the 2nd year cohort about what they planned to do after finishing their degree and although not everyone responded, it's still (relatively) accurate.

[_henwee]

Awww... how about PG optometry?

[Greatness]

If you're considering it, here's an interesting picture from earlier in the year. It's a question posed to the 2nd year cohort about what they planned to do after finishing their degree and although not everyone responded, it's still (relatively) accurate.

Sorry if this is off topic, but after completeing biomed can you undertake PG Dentistry??
If so what kind of results would you need? And in terms of difficulty, would it be harder to get into PG dentistry or PG med?

[Russ]

You can apply to PG Dentistry from any undergraduate degree, so yes. I never really had an interest in dent but it uses the GAMSAT, so you'd need to do that + GPA + interview.

I know there are less places than med but I'm not sure that that translates into a harder entry.

[_henwee]

If you're considering it, here's an interesting picture from earlier in the year. It's a question posed to the 2nd year cohort about what they planned to do after finishing their degree and although not everyone responded, it's still (relatively) accurate.

Sorry if this is off topic, but after completeing biomed can you undertake PG Dentistry??
If so what kind of results would you need? And in terms of difficulty, would it be harder to get into PG dentistry or PG med?

Yes you can under PG Dentistry after biomed.
The prerequisites are the same for dentistry and medicine.

Quota for DDS: 90
Quota for MD: 330

So I say you need higher results for Dentistry than for Med.
But probably more people go for med so it somewhat balances out a bit.

[Greatness]

Oh ok i never realised that there biomed has many alternative pathways, thanks

[Edmund]

You can apply to PG Dentistry from any undergraduate degree, so yes. I never really had an interest in dent but it uses the GAMSAT, so you'd need to do that + GPA + interview.

I know there are less places than med but I'm not sure that that translates into a harder entry.

No you don't need an interview for DDS.

If you're considering it, here's an interesting picture from earlier in the year. It's a question posed to the 2nd year cohort about what they planned to do after finishing their degree and although not everyone responded, it's still (relatively) accurate.

Sorry if this is off topic, but after completeing biomed can you undertake PG Dentistry??
If so what kind of results would you need? And in terms of difficulty, would it be harder to get into PG dentistry or PG med?

Yes you can under PG Dentistry after biomed.
The prerequisites are the same for dentistry and medicine.

Quota for DDS: 90
Quota for MD: 330

So I say you need higher results for Dentistry than for Med.
But probably more people go for med so it somewhat balances out a bit.

DDS is obviously more competitive. 50 places will be domestic and 40 will be international. At least 50% of the domestic are CSP, that's 25 places and 5 of this will be reserved for Grad Access (like SEAS). Then there's the other 25 (or less depending on govt funding) that are domestic full-fee