ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 29/8/2018
You've made it! 75% of your first year of uni is completed, just a little bit left! As you are aware, the first year biomed/health sciences degree acts as a bridge to clinical degrees such as medicine, optometry and pharmacy. For all three of these clinical degrees, you will need to submit an SSO application!
Applying for the degree you’re going for may seem like a daunting process, especially if you’re applying to a competitive degree like medicine. You could feel like you haven’t written enough to meet the 2500 character count, or given way too much unnecessary information. But on the grand scale of things, it’s a very trivial part of your journey towards your degree. So don’t fret! Here are some tips to help you ace the application.
Once you have entered all of your details (UMAT number, RRAS and MAPAS consideration etc. for med entry) you will come across the ‘Supporting Statements’. The first box asks you to describe the reason that you chose this career pathway. Essentially, they should be convinced that you are a committed individual to your career. In this section, write down the experiences that inspired you to pursue the profession. Any experiences that involve the health sector or volunteering are strongly recommended. That being said, try to avoid cringy reasons such as your grandma died in a car crash (unless that actually happened, in that case focus on your interaction with the health professionals and the industry). The most important thing is to be honest and sincere, and state your reasons clearly. Of course, try to avoid focusing on monetary reward and social status as well.
The second section asks for any personal achievements that you feel are relevant to the profession. Leadership and community involvement are recommended as they are evidence that proves your dedication to a role. However, if you don’t have many official awards to date, don’t worry, they are only trying to get an idea of your character. Most of the information they receive will be during the interview anyway. Moral of the story: You don’t need to win Nobel prizes to be a doctor!
Hope this had helped y’all write a smashing application. But don’t worry too much, you’d be better off focusing on that MEDSCI test coming up!
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