Please Help! I don't know what to choose! I need your opinion! (2 Viewers)

[anthoniie]

I'm currently a Year 12 and selecting my courses I want to do next year.

I need help choosing what I want to do. And I need you guys' opinions on this?

I live in Adelaide, and I want to do Dental Surgery at the University of Adelaide. However I didn't do UMAT this year (I know I'm an idiot).

So I was wondering if I would able to get into Health Sciences course and attempt to do the UMAT again next year and transfer to Dental Surgery.

However, I'm scared that I might not get through, and I really don't want to finish off the Health Sciences degree.

I also hear that in the Dental Surgery course, there's so much workload that there would be no time to get a part-time job during the week, and I can only do it on the weekends. And I want to have a steady part-time job throughout my university life.

I really don't know what to decide.

I also have an interesting in Business, Languages and possibly Engineering. But I really want to do something in the Medical Field.

Any comments or opinions would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks.

Note: I also don't do Chemistry or Biology current in Year 12 >__<

 

[Xcelz]

hey, i'm not going to be of any useful help to you but i did happen to notice that you missed UMAT, i did aswell because our school didn't tell us anything about it and I didn't even know it existed.

i just thought it was suprising that you had all the same interests as me; i.e. business, languages, engineering and med/dental.

so good luck finding your info etc.

 

[Studentleader]

Dental students at UWA have about 40 contact hrs a week - I doubt I'd want to work after that.

I think your options are:

• Start a medical-science (I doubt there will be any overlap which sucks), have a GPA over 5.5 and transfer into it. (Thats what happens at UWA.)
• Gap year and sit UMAT
• Do a degree then go through graduate entry

If you really are set on dent you might aswell have a gap year - travel a bit learn a language or something. However if you are just generally interested in medicine I'd have a look a biomedical science and some of those kind of degrees.

 

[rx34]

Since you have an interest in business, how about doing comm/law at University of Adelaide? It's only UAI 95 to get in. It's a good backup in case you don't get in Dentistry in second year. But if you're hell bent on getting in dentisry, then perhaps do what "Studentleader'' said, do med science first.

 

[anthoniie]

Thanks for all your feedback guys =D

I don't do chemistry or biology in Year 12 right now. So biomedical science maybe be a bit...xD

I more want to get into Dental than Medicine, even though I wouldn't mind doing Medicine.

I was really considering with business and law. But I'm not sure if I suit law, haha.

I guess I'll need to have a hard think about this. My preferences are due in one month.

Any more feedback would be GREAT!

Thanks again guys

 

[Andi0390]

I understand how you are hesitant about moving into a degree you don't really want to do and then maybe transfer. The bottom line is that if you fail just one unit it could screw you entrance rank enough to knock you out of the running.

Also, its not as easy to get good grades in university as it is in high school. As you need a reasonably decent GPA to transfer this may prove to be a problem.

Even in the easy degrees it can be difficult to hold down a job. Come exam time I don't think you could really do well at studying if you working part time. If you are going to do a course like Dentistry I think you would have to commit yourself 100% to it, not to stretch yourself around with a job. Maybe on your holidays, but working even the second half of the semesters are going to wear you thin.

As you do not know what you want to do what I would do (if I were you) is start a degree in one of the other subjects you are interested in. Maybe a Law/Business or Arts/Law or something like that. Do that for six months. If you are getting good enough scores to transfer then stick with it. You may find you want to do this instead. If you are not getting high enough scores to transfer take six months of after first semester. This way your grades won't count, you can take the UMAT and then enter based on your UAI.

During this six months you can maybe do some work and save some money so that you don't have to work so much during your study periods - just a thought.

With this plan if you don't get into Dentistry you are not a year into a degree you don't like, and you are trying out other options. If you still go into Dentistry hopefully you will never regret not doing another of your subject choices.

That is just my advice. You may find that once you are university you change your mind about what you want to do. That happens for a lot of people. There is flexibility in university, so even though it feels like a really big decision now you can change your mind later on. What you choose to do now won't necessarily be what you finish with.

 

[lala2]

The one degree that comes to mind is USYD's Commerce (Liberal Studies) degree where you can do all three areas--science, arts, business--but I don't know if there's an Adelaide equivalent? Otherwise, any liberal studies degree would be a good way to go. Just be aware that if you do choose this and fail to transfer, it's about as useful as a plain Arts or Science degree, which is to say, as useful as your majors are.

 

[anthoniie]

Thanks Andi, the things you have suggest has really reassured me =]

It's probably best not to hold a parttime job if doing something like Dental as it'll be too much workload.

Thanks for the advice! It'll be more to think about xD

 

[alisneaky]

have you thought about moving to NSW? you can do B Dental Science at Orange, Charles Sturt University with no UMAT....