Indicative interview cutoffs for GEMSAS unis have been released

I'm not sure how long this has been around, but I only noticed just now. GEMSAS has published the indicative scores for 2012 entry for some unis but not others.

It seems like for Melbourne, for those successful in getting an interview, the average GPA was 6.6 and GAMSAT (presumably Melbourne equal section weighted) was 65. For Monash, the cutoff (GPA hurdle 5.0) was 65 GAMSAT for urban applicants and 59 for rural. For comparison, the 2011 entry cutoff scores are here and 2010 entry cutoff are here.

It seems like UWA, Monash and both UNDS and UNDF have risen in GAMSAT cutoff (Monash) or average GPA and GAMSAT (UWA, UNDS and UNDF). Other unis haven't seem to have published averages for both years. This increase in scores has also been noted on the Paging Dr Forum, together with increases for other unis too.

There are a few possible factors in the increase. One is the GEMSAS system itself meaning relatively strong applicants did not fall through the cracks; where they would have been eligible for interview at preference 2 if they put it first in the past (for example Monash), but may not have gotten an interview after being passed on.

Another factor (especially for Melbourne, Monash and Deakin) is that there were a lot more Melbourne Biomedicine students graduating this year than last year. The number is approximately 367 this year and about 215 last year. There were also more science students at Melbourne graduating this year than last year. This increase in demand for places at Melbourne in particular without a corresponding increase in places at Melbourne, and also an increased demand for Monash and Deakin (in Victoria) as a flow on effect and a bit less so in other unis interstate, has driven up scores.

For Flinders in particular, it has been noted that provisional entry people who will enter in 2012 (prior to this there were no provisional entry people entering Flinders) has driven up scores there, due to reduced supply available to non-provisionals.


In the past, it was said that graduate entry medicine had a lot less competition than undergraduate entry medicine. I remember being told during year 11 or 12 that if I didn't get into undergraduate medicine (which I didn't), then graduate entry had a much higher success rate. Perhaps with Melbourne, an arguably prestigious uni, switching to graduate entry only (Melbourne model), and UWA following, more and more people will be persuaded to try for graduate entry medicine after initially not getting into undergraduate medicine, rather than giving up. Also it seems like more and more people know of the graduate entry path. Maybe there will be a time in the future when the success rate of graduate entry will diminish to be similar to undergraduate entry.