Anyone gotten into JCU med?

doe

Hey @doe,

It is more difficult than many people think it to be like I said before. And the annoying thing is that the whole interview and offer process is very vague and subjective. But I'll try my best. If you are living or have lived in a rural place for enough time, they do prefer taking in rural applicants. They have a large emphasis on rural and remote health so you do have an advantage there. If your predicted ATAR is between 96-98, I would say you definitely do have a chance at JCU. Considering you are a rural applicant, this allows you to get an interview or med offer with a lower ATAR. But I do want to note that you probably need some extra-curricular, leadership or service activities. If you have any of those or excelled quite a lot in either of those, you have a very high chance at JCU med. Coupled with your rural experience, you can definitely get in. For me, I was a domestic, non-rural applicant. But the biggest advantage I had is that I have countless extra-curricular, leadership and service activities and on top of that, I got awards in quite a few. This gave me a big advantage to get an interview.

Another thing to note is where you preference them in your QTAC preference list. It increases your chances of getting in if you preference them first or second. I have heard stories where the Dean personally calls the applicants who had JCU as their first preference to tell them they got in. I had them as my fourth or fifth preference which reduced my likelihood of getting a med offer by quite a lot.

Again, as you can tell, these are all very vague criteria and information. It's because their application process is very subjective and up to them. In the end, it's definitely likely for you.

Hope it helps!

• PP

chocomilkenthusiast

That's all good - it's my pleasure.

I would have to say it's tough but considering you are a rural applicant, I think you have a chance. They specifically prefer rural Queensland applicants and if you preference it first, then I think you have a chance. It's very difficult to say because these are all so subjective things but based on my years of research and following the medicine entrance programs, it would be tough but you have a chance. If you were a non-rural candidate, I would say you definitely cannot because if you have a 95 ATAR, you would need extensive extra-curricular activities or a national or international level sport/music or leadership etc. But with your rurality, if you pull a really good interview and write your application well, I would say you can get in. By far, definitely do NOT give up; try your very best because I have seen literal miracles of people getting into med unis in Queensland with very low UCATs and lower ATARs and NOT rural.

Hope that helped but as I mentioned earlier, it's very arbitrary and vague but I wish you all the best for UCAT and the application. Let me know if you have any other questions!

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doe

Oh sorry for the bad wording. My parents are originally from a third-world country so we visit there quite often to see relatives and I help around in disadvantaged areas while being there - that's what I meant . I didn't mean that you have to visit there specifically for volunteering .

Yeah, better late than never so try and do as many things as you can and whether or not it helps you for your application, it always be useful for you.

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PhytoPlankton
Hello, I'm also an interstate applicant for JCU. In yr 10, I got into the Kwong Lee Dow Young Scholars Program offered by the University of Melbourne. Do you reckon that's something I could mention in my written application? Selection for that is based on leadership initiatives and academic performance and it runs till the end of yr 12. I'm a bit confused about what else I could write for extracurricular stuff so would you we able to give a few examples? I'm also a rural (ra2) student with a predicted ATAR of around 92-3 - is that too low? Also, are the written applications actually written? Someone told me it was typed? One last question, methods is a prerequisite for med but they don't give an actual study score that you have to get. Does that mean that they just want you to do it?

Sorry for bombarding you with questions! Thankyou!

Vel1
Hey VisVel,

Again, these aspects are very vague but what you need to understand is that each aspect of the application process for JCU is like a slider. So the higher the ATAR is on that slider, the lower the other things you need on those sliders and vice versa. To be completely honest, a grade 10 program seems a little old but depending on what it is, it could be useful. I didn't have anything prior to grade 11 in my application but if your scholars' program is something based on incredible leadership activities then it would be useful. The other thing is that if you don't have anything else to write, obviously, you should write that down. You have to prioritise all your activities depending on their significance to leadership/service/rural experience and also their recency then write them on your application in that order.

In terms of your ATAR, if you are rural, that could be enough. I've heard that JCU has implemented a bonus point system that gives you bonus points if you are rural for your ATAR (@chocomilkenthusiast). The best thing to do is to call them directly or look on their website for previous year results.

If I recall correctly, you can either type or handwrite. I actually completely hand wrote mine since I thought I could write it smaller while maintaining the readability of it. If you are handwriting it, ensure you do two things: type the paragraphs up in a Word doc prior to writing it down (so there are no mistakes and you can see the word count) and secondly, ensure you do your best handwriting for the application (for legibility and impression). But feel free to choose whatever you are more comfortable with.

Finally, usually, when they don't say anything, it just means that you have to pass methods and that's it. For example, JCU specifically mentions you only have to get a C (pass) in English, Methods and Chemistry to satisfy their subject entry requirements.

That's all good and hope this helps!

• PP