All the Big Changes that Happened at USyd Medicine!
For a complete guide on the entry requirements to a graduate medical course at University of Sydney, visit the attached link! Now, without further ado, let's jump right into what's happening at USyd!
The Medicine Entry Requirements for the University of Sydney changed during the 2021 entry program, and will remain as such for future entries. The USyd school of medicine has fallen victim to a number of drastic changes in its admission process following COVID-19. This article will take a small dive into explaining the application process, updated USyd GAMSAT cut offs, the GPA you need to get into University of Sydney and USyd Medicine Application.
University of Sydney Medicine Admissions
What does the USyd Medical School Admissions demand?
A minimum GPA of 5 as calculated by UAC and a USyd GAMSAT score of 50 in each section. The USyd medical program has scrapped the medicine interview process for selection.
To begin, USyd has decided to NOT conduct any interviews for 2022 medicine entry and it is likely to continue for future admissions. If you make the ranking cut off, you will receive an offer to study medicine in 2022.
At first glance, this seems highly regressive. However, the USyd faculty of medicine have decided to change how they view your GAMSAT score in order to be a little fairer and take into account the lack of interviews. The university will ensure that they do not simply accept those that have the highest GAMSAT score as we saw with the University of Queensland a few years ago.
University Of Sydney Medicine Entry Requirements
The University of Sydney Medicine has introduced the Dubbo Stream in the MD program. This stream has been developed under the Australian Government Murray Darling Medical Schools Network (MDMSN) initiative, with the aim to attract more graduates to practice in rural and/or remote regions in Australia. The USyd School of Rural Health site is currently under construction, utilising the new state-of-the-art facilities in Dubbo, NSW, and will be completed in time for commencement of the Dubbo Stream in 2022. The new stream will incorporate clinical teaching centred at the newly re-constructed Dubbo Hospital.
The Dubbo Stream is currently under assessment by the Australian Medical Council (AMC) for accreditation. The admission process and offers to this stream will be conditional upon the approval by the Medical Board of Australia.
How will USyd look at the GAMSAT score?
Instead of simply looking at the highest overall or average GAMSAT score, the faculty of medicine at USyd will consider the following while determining who will get a position for medicine:
- Candidates that did not attain a 5.0 GPA or higher, and/or failed to achieve a score of at least 50 in each section of the GAMSAT automatically be declined a position at USyd medicine.
- Once the applicants have been shortlisted, they will be ranked in the following order:
- First, the USyd medicine faculty will rank every Section 1 GAMSAT score that they have received.
- Next, they will rank every Section 2 GAMSAT score.
- Finally, they will rank every Section 3 GAMSAT score.
- The Merged Rank is generated with these three ranks. This process involves averaging a given applicant’ rank to get one final, overall rank.
For instance: Let’s assume Suzie’s rank (not to be confused with GAMSAT Score) for Section 1, 2 and 3 is 58, 105, 209 respectively.
Her Merged Rank will be calculated as follows:
(58 + 105 + 209)/3 = 124
This tells us that Suzie’s Merged Rank value is 124, according to the USyd 2021 entry ranking system. Considering USyd allows upto 300 students each year, about 225 people get into the CSP spot, it looks like Suzie is a successful applicant and has gained a position into 2022 medicine at USyd.
Why is the USyd Faculty of Medicine Doing This?
Getting rid of interviews for 2022 entry clearly means there is a loss for applicants to demonstrate who they are as a person outside of the GAMSAT.
The new USyd ranking process does however place more emphasis on Section 1 scores, and Section 2 to a lesser extent. But, why is this the case? The average and standard deviation for Section 1 is a lot smaller than that of Section 3. What this means is scoring high in Section 1 will put you at a higher Section 1 rank than it does for the same score in Section 3, simply because Section 3 has a higher average and also a greater spread.
In essence, we can crudely summarise this process as USyd valuing Section 1 more than Section 3 for 2022 entry.
Additionally, the USyd are using Section 1 (and Section 2 to a lesser extent) almost as a proxy for the skills we’d normally be able to identify from a USyd MMI. As a result, they are being more sensitive to higher Section 1 scores than they are for Section 3.
Does this mean a high Section 3 score is a disadvantage? Definitely not. It simply means it’s just not as much of an advantage as the same score in Section 1.
What Do We Think Of The USyd Medicine Scores?
The first important point to make is that we can’t have an ‘overall’ or ‘average’ GAMSAT score in mind to completely guide our thinking. This is because scoring 70 in Section 3 is great, but not as great as scoring 70 in Section 1. This is according to the USyd 2022 entry scheme. But, why?
Although 70 in Section 3 is a great score, many people score it, and so the rank for Section 3 would not be astonishingly remarkable. In contrast, a 70 in Section 1 is astounding as not many people can score that highly, ensuring an amazing Section 1 rank that will place an applicant in a good position when the USyd does the Merged Rank steps.
Consequently, we can’t ask what overall/average GAMSAT score we need, but instead how we achieved it. And for that, we need to look at each individual section.
But if we need to make a hard and fast rule, we estimate that the scores will hover around 3-5 points more than the usual average GAMSAT score for attaining an interview at USyd, which is roughly 69. So, we expect most scores that get an offer to be around the low 70 mark.
That being said, it is a terribly hard and fast rule that doesn’t do much justice to previous USyd years scheme. To do it justice (and get an actual guide of scores), we need past data. This is where our USyd 2022 Medicine Calculator comes into play.
The 2022 USyd Doctor of Medicine Probability-Of-Offer Calculator
In short, our thousands and thousands of anonymous data points have allowed us to use meta-analysis techniques to determine the average and standard deviations scores for each section of the GAMSAT.
This then allows us to determine your rank for each individual section. Then, taking into consideration factors such as the number of people that apply to the USyd Doctor of Medicine and how many positions they have on offer, we emulate the Merged Rank that USyd generates.
Finally, this emulated Merged Rank gives us a likelihood of you receiving an offer for the Doctor of Medicine at The University of Sydney.
To find out about your odds of receiving an admission offer at USyd, use the USyd Medicine Entry Calculator to begin pursuing medicine in 2023!
