Hi,
I've also just graduated high school and was looking into alternate pathways into med (so we're in the same boat
) I did have the same idea of using B/Science and Nursing at USYD but I also found some other options you may want to consider:
Undergraduate med:
- UNSW
'LATERAL ENTRY SCHEME'
you may want to fact check me on the UNSW website, but as far as I know, this is the only way to get into undergraduate medicine without a 99+ atar or UCAT (the usual medicine entry requirements)
To be eligible as far as I know, you need to be doing the
B/Medical Science degree at UNSW and within the first (or second year/semester? Im not 100% certain), you need to maintain a quite high GPA. From there, you will be eligible to
APPLY for the scheme (doesnt guarantee you will get it, and I believe only like 10 people actually do get it from what i was told - again, i may be wrong). Then you'll need to take the UCAT and depending on that score, you may be able to enter into a UNSW undergrad medicine degree in thee second or third year.
The only downside of this pathway is that it's highly competitive, limited spots are available, requires you to take the UCAT later, and Medical science as a stand alone degree doesn't give you many opportunities later on (what I was told)
Postgraduate medicine:
I'll be brief.
Western Sydney Uni
I used to think WSU wasn't a good uni (it doesn't have much reputation because its new apparently) but their facilities and stuff for medicine and medical stuff is apparently quite good plus the atar requirement for some allied health courses are significantly lower.
Macquarie Uni
Maw uni offers both
B/Medical science and
B/Clinical science. Medical science at Maq is same as everywhere else, but Clinical science is like medical science, but it also has a built-in GAMSAT PREP COURSE. Basically, it prepares you for post-grad med which you do by taking the GAMSAT. Only downside would be that there arent many career opportunities should you fail or smth. And also the GAMSAT is significantly harder than the UCAT so...
Anyways, thats all I know for now. You may want to double check everything I said, but its somewhere along those lines. If you do decide to do the B/Medical science option, I would recommend you do it as a double degree like what I'm going to do. I've got EE into B/Law and Med sci in multiple unis so that sets me up for either law or a medicine pathway. If I cant get into medicine (like if I dont have a good UCAT or Gamsat) I can just do law, but if I am successful, I can do postgrad medicine with a law degree already completed.
Hope this somewhat helps, and if you find anything new, please lmk too