General Application Process
The first step of the application process is listing your preferences for which university you would like to attend. This can be done by registering your application on the relevant state’s university admissions website (For example, UAC for New South Wales). Depending on the state, you will get a different number of preferences.
Afterwards, you will have to take the UCAT test which generally holds tests throughout the month of July and continues midway into August. After receiving your UCAT results, the next step would be to complete your state’s high school completion exams. For example the HSC in NSW or the VCE in Victoria.
If you performed well in both of these areas, you will be given an invitation to attend an interview for each university that you met the requirements for. Finally if you performed well in the interview, you will receive an offer to study Medicine
As you can see this is a very long process with many challenges, however I will do my best to break each of these steps down and inform you of some tips and tricks that may help you along the way!
3 Main barriers to entry
There are 3 main barriers to gain entry into most undergraduate courses for medicine which are the UCAT, ATAR and interviews.
UCAT
For most universities, UCAT is actually the most important consideration as to gain an interview invite, UCAT usually has the most weighting. The UCAT stands for University Clinical Aptitude Test and tests aptitude, not academic knowledge. The test is split into 5 components and in the end you will receive a score out of 3600 and a percentile. The main approach to UCAT is practicing as much as possible. There are many online platforms that may be able to assist with this task.
ATAR
The ATAR or ATAR equivalents depending on the state is another barrier to entry. It serves as a culmination of your year 12 performance. For medical universities, there will either be a threshold that you are required to be above, or the atar will be treated similar to the UCAT and becomes another point of consideration. For example, a university might have a threshold of a 95 atar and use the UCAT to determine interview spots. This means that if you achieve a 95 ATAR and a good UCAT score, you will be likely to get an interview. Other universities consider both the UCAT and ATAR meaning that both a good ATAR and UCAT score is needed to possibly get an interview spot.
Interview
If you meet the prior requirements, you may receive an interview invitation. If you then perform well at this interview, you will receive an offer to study medicine. The format of the interview depends on the specific university but generally it is beneficial to have extracurricular activities or medicine related experiences. However this is not the main focus of interviews as they are mainly designed to test your thinking patterns as well as communication skills.
List of schools and requirements
There are many medical schools all throughout Australia and they have been compiled in the table below. For the table I will be mentioning whether UCAT is required or not. Generally to gain entry into most medical universities without any adjustments a UCAT score above the 93rd percentile is recommended.
Universities in New South Wales
Universities in Victoria
Universities in Queensland
Universities in South Australia
Universities in Western Australia
Different Pathways
Just a quick piece of advice before getting into the specifics is that do not worry in the slightest if you were unable to gain entry into medicine on your first attempt. A large portion of medical students have made it on their 2nd, 3rd or even 4th attempts and it is completely fine to take another shot at medicine if that is your goal.
Gap Year Students
If you are applying as a gap year student, the entry process will be quite similar since the ATAR lasts for 2 years. As a gap year student myself, take the year to build different experiences that will better equip you for interviews. Another piece of advice that is equally important is to take the year to have a bit of a break. You would have worked hard in year 12 so take the time to relax!
Transferring from a Different Degree
This is also quite common amongst medical school applicants. It will also be quite similar to school leavers but instead of ATAR, your course GPA or WAM will be assessed.
Postgraduate
You can also complete an undergraduate degree and gain entry into medicine by completing the GAMSAT.
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