Biomedicine VS Science for Entry into Medicine

[Duckhole]

Hey y'all, I'm looking to start uni in 2019 and have been fortunate enough to get a high enough ATAR to get into either Biomedicine or Science. I know it's a fairly common dilemma but I was wondering if someone could explain the key differences between the two courses? Particularly in terms of how well each one prepares you for entry into postgraduate med.

From what I've read so far, I sorta get that most people would say that BSci is better for flexibility whereas Biomed is more set in stone (in terms of subject choice). But besides this, what are the specific pros and cons of each? I don't really have a burning desire for subject flexibility, but I'm 100% sure that I want to pursue med, provided that I get past the massive hurdle that is the GAMSAT 

Secondly, I'm a bit worried about the whole mathematics and physics component of the biomedicine course. I didn't take physics in VCE and I was admittedly only a "slightly above average" student in methods so I'm worried this'll end up trashing my WAM and childhood dreams of practicing medicine. How difficult is the maths for Biomedicine and will doing BSci make maths less painful for me?

Thank you <3

[Lear]

Please note that these are only things I have >heard< and researched so thus may not necessarily be bias free or completely accurate.

Most people I have talked to regret doing Biomedicine as opposed to Science for Medicine entry.
If you’re planning to go to the University of Melbourne I would highly suggest doing Science.
1. You can do most subjects available in Biomedicine in Science except a select few (which you probably won’t want to do anyway for the purposes of Med entry)
2. Biomed, like you said, isn’t very flexible. This means that chances are that you will be stuck with a subject that you are not interested in thus likely dragging down your GPA (which is SUPER important for Grad Med entry). So things such as not being a god at Math could affect your Med prospects BIG time. Math is a compulsory subject AFAIK.
3. Often Biomedicine students have more contact hours than science students. While not as big of an issue, this may mean that if you choose to prepare for the GAMSAT in the future you may not have >as< much as time to do so doing Biomedicine rather than science.
4. The lack of flexibility in Biomedicine means you cannot widen your opportunities in the future. Grad Med is known to be quite tough and I think the rate of success is like 10-20% or something. I understand you are set on Medicine but you must consider other careers too. It can be super helpful to be able to pick a wider range of subjects in case you do not make Medicine and have to consider other pathways/jobs.
5. This is somewhat trivial, but I have heard some terrible things about Biomedicine cohorts in terms of attitudes and competitiveness. Remember A LOT of people do Biomedicine (not all, of course) with the intent to pursue something such as Medicine and Dentistry in the future. This can lead to quite a lot of competitiveness and nastiness.
6. You are at no disadvantage in the eyes of the University during selection for Graduate Medicine. Doing biomedicine make >slightly< more sense in Monash as they have 50 spots reserved for Biomedicine students but, as you can imagine, this would be EXTREMELY tough considering the cohort is a few hundred people large with everyone gunning for those 50 spots.
For UoM, there is no such reservation meaning you may want to stray away from Biomedicine for no reason other than ‘what’s the point of it anyway?’


I think you should sit down and try to list exactly why you wish to pursue Biomedicine over Science.
There are very few genuine reasons I have heard so far for this and have managed to convince a significant amount of my friends to do Science for their own sake.
Here are some common ‘bad’ reasons
- Biomedicine with the ‘Medicine’ sounds more cool/prestigious
- it’s not uncommon for parents to want their child to do Biomedicine as it sounds cooler when talking to their friends :’)
- ‘I don’t want to waste my high ATAR’ Look a great ATAR is pretty nice but going back to an analogy I’ve seen on this forum before, it’s essentially a key to open doors. You could have a wood key, a gold key or even a diamond key. As long as it opens the door you need to open it doesn’t really matter what type of key it was. No one cares what key they used after they have moved past the door.

Like I said before, most people I know doing biomedicine wish they had done science. Try to think long and hard about why you wish to do Biomedicine and from that decide

[crawlingvines]

I'm in the same position as you in terms of maths ability and anxiety towards the prospect of said ability dragging down my GPA/WAM — but I unfortunately don't think there's any way around it as maths and physics are on the GAMSAT. If anyone could let me know otherwise that'd be great 

[Bri MT]

I'm in the same position as you in terms of maths ability and anxiety towards the prospect of said ability dragging down my GPA/WAM — but I unfortunately don't think there's any way around it as maths and physics are on the GAMSAT. If anyone could let me know otherwise that'd be great 

I haven't seen many GAMSAT physics questions, but from the ones I have seen the level of maths required is below methods difficulty.

[vox nihili]

You've had some really great advice already. Would almost go out on a limb and say that some of what Lear has said is probably just a repeat of my propaganda here :p So I'll only speak to the Maths/Physics component.


Physics you need to do. Physics is covered on GAMSAT. The questions are simple, but impossible without a passing knowledge of Physics. To be sure, you don't need to know it well, but doing some Physics so at least you have the principles in mind is what you need for GAMSAT. As a disclosure, at the time of my GAMSAT I would certainly have failed Physics, and for that matter Chemistry, but managed to achieve a really solid science score. You don't need to know it back to front, but you do need to know it.

Biomed maths is a brilliant subject. Being a little shit at Methods won't stop you doing well. It's a much more interesting subject and you might surprise yourself. Methods was in my bottom two subjects in VCE and I ended up with an H1 in Biomed maths. Completely doable.

[Duckhole]

Biomed maths is a brilliant subject. Being a little shit at Methods won't stop you doing well. It's a much more interesting subject and you might surprise yourself. Methods was in my bottom two subjects in VCE and I ended up with an H1 in Biomed maths. Completely doable.

That's such a relief to hear :') It's heartening to see that there are some pros about doing biomedicine after all the legitimately terrifying things I've heard about the course.

Just to clarify: Biomed maths is only a first year subject right? I've been looking at the sample course structures in the Biomed course handbook and maths seems to just *thankfully* disappear in second and third year. I've also taken a look at the sample Science degree structures with Biomed-based majors and maths isn't a subject at all. Would not doing any maths at all disadvantage me in GAMSAT preparation?

Thanks to everyone for the help :')

[vox nihili]

That's such a relief to hear :') It's heartening to see that there are some pros about doing biomedicine after all the legitimately terrifying things I've heard about the course.

Just to clarify: Biomed maths is only a first year subject right? I've been looking at the sample course structures in the Biomed course handbook and maths seems to just *thankfully* disappear in second and third year. I've also taken a look at the sample Science degree structures with Biomed-based majors and maths isn't a subject at all. Would not doing any maths at all disadvantage me in GAMSAT preparation?

Thanks to everyone for the help :')

No maths won't disadvantage you for GAMSAT, no.

Yep, just the one maths subject. You can choose to do maths in science, but don't have to. There's also a stats subject in biomed, which is basically maths but different.

[crawlingvines]

There's also a stats subject in biomed, which is basically maths but different.

Does this content happen to be on the GAMSAT?

[vox nihili]

Does this content happen to be on the GAMSAT?

No

[tzacchary]

I came from monash, so I might be missing some info about the unimelb biomedicine/science debate, but it's very similar to what it is at monash.

I wanted to do biomed at Melbourne or Monash, ended up getting an ATAR not high enough for either and got put into BSc at Monash. Honestly, I'm glad things turned out this way. The science degree really opened me up to a variety of different disciplines of science and introduced me to many people. I had the opportunity to study maths, physics (not my smartest decision, worst grades of my degree but it was fun), and many other interesting (and weird) subjects, as well as many identical units that the biomed kids study. The environment that surrounds science degrees are much more relaxed and not as hypercompetitive as the biomed degrees. It is very stereotypical, but it is mostly true. Some people thrive in the competitive environment, others don't. Every year survey's done by the university show that about 75% of biomed students want to get into medicine. Assuming a cohort of 300, that's almost 225 people wanting to do med, and likely within the same state (i.e. at monash, melbourne or deakin). This leads to high stress and a very competitive nature.

On the plus side for biomed, I know many people in the course form close friendship groups with each other, due to seeing them all the time as they all do the same subjects. In my science degree, nearly every semester I was making new friends for each of my classes because we were all doing different subject combinations/had different timetables, especially for first year subjects where cohort sizes are 500-1000+. It does get better in late 2nd year and 3rd year as subjects become very specialised, but by this stage many biomed friendship groups had been around for a couple of years. I loved meeting new people but at the same time I do wish that I had a large friendship group of people doing the same subjects. Make of this as a pro/con for science/biomedicine as you will.

Ultimately, for med it doesn't matter what degree you do (as long as you do the pre-requisite 2nd year uni subjects for Melbourne). I got offered a BMP to Melbourne med a few months ago from a science degree when I got an ATAR less than 90 three years prior. Don't feel as if you've "wasted" your ATAR by not selecting biomedicine. You can learn the same content in a science degree as that you can in a biomedicine degree. Both degree's won't really prepare you for the GAMSAT. Arguably, some of the science content taught (1st year chem, 2nd year immunology/physiology, 1st year biol) can help you in section 3 of the GAMSAT, but that is only for understanding the context of the question given to you, you still have to learn how to answer for what the question is looking for. I know many science/biomed students with grades better than what I had, but constantly received poor GAMSAT scores.

Good luck, I know I was a bit late with this response to when you posted but hopefully it helps you/others reading this.