Medicine with a 97-98 atar? (1 Viewer)

[Eagle Mum]

i have a question, not sure if you could answer this, but why is vet med at uq 99.7? what makes it higher than their entry requirements for med?

Since some universities starting changing medicine from undergrad to postgrad degrees, undergrad degrees such as veterinary science and physiotherapy, which are seen as potentially good stepping stones and viable alternative careers to medicine, have become increasingly competitive to get into. Since entry into medicine is based on UCAT & interviews and isn’t purely based on ATAR, students with stellar UCAT and interview performances get in with lower ATARs, but degrees like physio and vet science, where ATAR is the sole determinant, are going to have higher cut offs simply because of supply vs demand for places.

To illustrate, my eldest and a colleague’s eldest both applied to all the med schools in Australia - he had the higher ATAR*, she had the higher UMAT score, more involvement in extracurricular activities including regular volunteer experience and the more ‘personable’ character. She got an offer from all her first choice med schools in each state (ie. no known rejections). He didn’t get any offers. If they had applied for vet science or physiotherapy, he would have gotten in ahead of her.

*Whilst her ATAR wasn’t as high, she did do 14 units, including achieving 90 in chemistry and 90 in physics which were not counted toward her ATAR, but demonstrated that she was a strong all-rounder who hadn’t engaged in gaming the system to maximise her ATAR.