2013 entry: UniMelb DDS offers released. GEMSAS medicine offers soon...

It seems like the first round of University of Melbourne DDS offers were released today for local students. Congratulations to everyone who has received one!

Both CSP and FFP places were released. If you received no offer or received a FFP offer this round, there is some chance that you will get upgraded as people decline their dentistry offer for a place at  dentistry at another university (eg Sydney Dentistry or UWA dentistry) or for a medicine offer.

The GEMSAS offers for medicine are scheduled for release tomorrow, and will come out after the GEMSAS simulations are complete. It seems like they're up to simulation 16 at the moment...

[update] About six weeks to GEMSAS offers...

The offers from the GEMSAS consortium are expected to be released 9-16 November. In six weeks, it will be 12 November, so there will be about six weeks until the offers are released.

This is a long wait. Last year, applicants only needed to wait about two or three weeks for a Melbourne offer after their interview. It seems like they delayed the Melbourne DDS offers too for some reason, although I didn't apply. I wonder why they predict that GEMSAS will take that long to process interview scores though.

Anyway. It seems like I've fallen behind in terms of studying, due to practicing for interviews instead. After the assignment is done, it's going to be catch up time. Uni starts again in two days, and it seems like today is the last day of "standard time" too... daylight saving starts tomorrow in Victoria and New South Wales.

[update] Not the best week...

The past week hasn't been the best. At the start, I had the draft of an assignment due, and then there was an online test for another subject worth 7.5% of it (not big, but not a small amount). I didn't do as well as I'd have liked; 75%.

Then the offers for USyd dent came out. It wasn't that surprising, but I didn't get an offer. Who knows, I might still get one in later rounds though. Logically it shouldn't have affected me too much, but sometimes I do wonder if I should have applied to UniMelb DDS and spend the extra $100... Especially with this uncertainty surrounding UQ, whether or not people who didn't preference them first would get a place, despite the supposed streamlining with the GEMSAS implementation. On the other hand, maybe that's the motivation I need to do well on the Melbourne interview...

Then I hear that the interview ratio of the Melbourne Medical course has been increased from 1.25 (125%) to 1.5 (150%). This seems to be not proven incorrect due to the interview ratio of 125% been taken off the unimelb website. Now it's better to know than not to know, but this news isn't good. I assume they might have been trying to compensate for USyd pulling out of the consortium, but USyd med people already have their offers so I wonder if it was actually necessary. That makes the ratio without FFPs 1.5*320/280=1.71, which is not low at all! And if only unbonded CSPs are included (I only put down accepting unbonded CSPs; logically I'd rather apply the next year and put UQ first than accept a bonded CSP), then 1.5*320/202=2.38, before accounting for all the guaranteed entry people...

Ah well. I wouldn't be surprised if I look back on this week in the future and it is just a small bump after all. But I do have to put it behind me, practice more for the interview, and keep up more with the study... I wish I could just focus on studies, seriously.

Review of decisions of the past year

Today I've been thinking of the various decisions that I have made with respect to medical school admission in the past year. While ultimately I will get a clearer picture at the end of the year, here are my thoughts right now:

Firstly, it was the correct decision to repeat the GAMSAT, despite my score last year being "high". My mark improved by 6 on the "normal" weighted scale, and 7 on the weird "equal weighting" used by UniMelb. I do predict that the Melbourne cutoff will rise this year because of the increase in biomed graduates, and any higher score is useful. Furthermore, the USyd experience has shown that my interview ability is rather weak like I thought it was, so a higher GAMSAT would be a very useful buffer in the selection overall score, especially for UniMelb where they don't have a minimum interview score required unlike USyd.

Secondly, it was the correct decision to apply to USyd. Although it hasn't offered me a safety net like I hoped it might, applying there required me to think about some MMI questions. I also got some real MMI experience too and have identified some things to work on for next time. This can only help for a possible Melbourne interview.

As for the other decisions, it is impossible to tell if I made the right decision right now. If the UQ issue has been resolved, then the GEMSAS preference list that I drew up is the correct one. However, if it has not been resolved, and if I also happen to not get into UniMelb, then it may not have been the right one (although it also means that I should have tried harder for practicing for the interview for Melbourne).

Apart from that, if both the UQ issue is not resolved, and I did not get into Melbourne, then it may mean that I should have applied to dentistry in Melbourne (no interview). To be honest, it was only during this year when I seriously considered dentistry, sparked by the lecture that the dentistry guy gave during the DPhysio/MD/DDS info session (he was pretty funny and perhaps his speech was rather unconventional). I have become more and more interested about the OMS (oral/maxillofacial surgery) specialization which requires both medicine and dentistry this year, partially because I like being at uni (and without wasting time either), and partially because both medicine and dentistry seem interesting. But if I do get into medicine, then not applying would have been the right decision, since then I wouldn't need to pay $100 in application fees this year.

I guess I'll just have to wait and see. Or rather not. I guess I'll have to practice for the interview. That is best thing that I can do now.

[update] Three exams down, one to go.

Yesterday and today I had three of my exams for this semester. The one yesterday went reasonably well I thought, although there were six essay type questions which required answers out of seven, and I was writing almost non-stop from start to finish.

As for today's ones, one of them (a math subject) I felt went reasonably well too, although I couldn't answer a few parts of the questions. Also, that subject has a lot of rigorous analysis involved and you get marks deducted just for not explaining one of your steps as well as you could, even if you get the right answer. So I hope I put down enough.

As for the other one today, it was quite weird. Not totally unexpected given the type of the subject though; it was a written exam for a prac subject, and it involved coming up with hypotheses to support the data for some questions. So I'm not sure if I got what they were looking for there.


Anyway, today was also the last day for applications to medical and dental school for locals though ACER. It seems like I haven't applied to Melbourne dentistry, since it would cost an extra $100. If it didn't have the extra cost, then I would have applied as an extra option for if I didn't get into medicine this year (or if I decided to change my mind and do dent as a last minute decision). Melbourne DDS applicants are a bit lucky compared to med... no interview...


So that's all for now. Last exam this semester on Friday next week, then I might read up and watch videos on some ethics.