EmMindelan said:
Hey, I slightly disagree with you saying that people who overstate their UAI won't make it into med...Out of the 30 or so Abbotsleigh girls who applied for UNSW Med, 6 got first-round interviews. However, only 3 [50%] of those girls actually got 99+ UAIs - the other three all got 98+, however.
Sorry for my ambiguity, I wasn't referring to UAI estimates which were reasonably accurate- I was discussing UAI estimates which were unreasonably overestimated (eg. a 92 estimated to be a 99); something which our school (despite being 2nd in the state- or 3rd if you read the Daily Telegraph) cannot compete with by using honest underestimations. Of course one could argue we should just get our school to BS and increase the estimations, but nonetheless, the many kids who had their heart set on med and definitely had the intellectual capacity to do it (or so I believe) will not get to undertake undergraduate studies at their desired universities anytime soon.
For those girls, the school estimating their UAIs high could possibly get them a spot in med - because their UAIs wouldn't have been high enough to get a 2nd round interview but MIGHT in combination with solid UMAT scores and outstanding UAIs get them into the course. I have a friend from another school who was estimated at 95-96 something and missed out on an interview - and you'd better believe she was pretty annoyed to hear that Abbotsleigh had estimated all the girls at 99+....
I agree that to get into med you definitely need a combination of strong UAI, strong UMAT results and strong interview performance; but many people from my school were knocked back after the UMAT test results which I believe is where candidates were required to submit a school estimate of their UAI?
Before I make myself look like a fool, I admit that I know very little about the UMAT and medicine process apart from what others have told me. I have never been interested in medicine to be honest, and the only thing which piques my interest is the complicated method of selecting people to become our nation's future doctors.
As for your friend who was annoyed to hear about the 99+ estimates, well, I can imagine the pain because I've got a lot of friends like that too who felt that way, but there is one thing which helps justify such high estimations- Abbotsleigh is a top10 school (I think?) so there is a good chance many of their students will achieve a UAI sufficient to get a placement in medicine.