Have you been tossing up the prospect of becoming a doctor and studying medicine? Perhaps you’ve considered the prospect of studying Medicine at UNSW!
Well, we’re here to hopefully answer any questions of yours by giving you a personal insight into the pros and cons of studying a Bachelor of Medical Studies/Doctor of Medicine at UNSW. We had a chat with Eshwar, a 5th year Medicine student, to gauge his thoughts about the degree.
Let’s jump right in!
Why should you study a Medicine degree at UNSW?
Top 3 Pros of a Medicine Degree
Top 3 Cons of a Medicine Degree
Mistakes You Shouldn’t Make
Things to Know Before Starting UNSW Medicine
What Makes this Degree Different
Motivations for Studying UNSW Medicine
Potential Career Paths
Why should you study a Medicine degree at UNSW?
When asked why someone should study Medicine at UNSW, Eshwar’s answer spoke to the heart of the role. The most valuable thing to take away from his response was that you don’t need to be a genius to become a doctor — all you need is the passion for wanting to help others.
“In a way, just being a good human and having a very approachable personality really translates when being a doctor. You don’t need to be a genius, you don’t need to be an extremely gifted person, you just need to be able to communicate, enjoy what you’re doing and prioritise people.
“That’s one thing you learn and develop as a doctor; how to prioritise people more than anything else. That’s what I’ve gotten out of my degree and would tell Year 12 people,” Eshwar said.
Eshwar also noted that an interest in the sciences is important when pursuing this career as you need to have the passion to want to build up your knowledge base and, in later years, make an educated decision on what path suits you the most.
“Also, if you’ve always had an interest in high school in the sciences, you can plunge in the field of medicine and find so many opportunities for you to explore and find your own niche,” Eshwar shared.
Top 3 Pros of a Medicine degree
Eshwar’s favourite part of the degree was the collaborative nature of it.
“By far my favourite thing is that it is so collaborative — you’re never really doing anything alone. If you want to be a surgeon, you are working with a team. Even with a GP, you work with other GPs, nurses and speak with people in the community.
“We have a lot of group projects and team based assessments. You spend a lot of time studying and collaborating with your medical peers. I just love the whole collaborative environment and the fact that you form friendly work colleagues. So, the social aspect is definitely my favourite thing,” Eshwar exclaimed.
Leading on from Eshwar’s favourite aspect of the degree, we asked him to narrow down the top 3 pros of studying Medicine at UNSW.
#1: Organisation
“The organisation that comes with studying Medicine is a pro. If you’re sort of a disorganised person, you learn how to put up study schedules and be organised,” Eshwar noted.
#2: Discipline
“I think even the most undisciplined person, if they commit to med, will become more disciplined,” Eshwar stated.
#3: Mental Wellbeing
“You’re always in a loving and caring atmosphere where your mental health and wellbeing is prioritised. Especially when studying at UNSW,” Eshwar shared.
Top 3 Cons of a Medicine degree
When it came to Eshwar’s least favourite part of the degree, he mentioned the thing that people would most likely not enjoy all the time.
“(Laughs) Well, I guess you can’t avoid it… everyone wants to be a doctor so you really have to study a lot. It’s not something you need to do initially from the beginning, it’s something that you develop over time. Regardless, studying is an everyday thing… you really don’t have a choice with that,” Eshwar stated.
Alongside the constant studying, Eshwar shared with us his top three cons, which all fell under the umbrella of a heavy workload.
#1: Lack of time to pursue other activities
“You won’t have that much time to pursue things outside the field of Medicine at university. You can if you really want to but definitely the lack of time to explore other avenues is a con,” Eshwar said.
#2: Not a lot of flexibility
“There is a lack of flexibility when studying Medicine as you really are committing yourself to something in the medical field in terms of career. That’s if you do pursue your six years of the degree,” Eshwar noted.
#3: Constant memorisation
“A lot of what you do learn, you forget. So, it’s the fact that you’ve got to keep revising what you’ve learnt. At no point what you learn is not important, especially your basic knowledge. You’re going to forget, then revise again and so forth,” Eshwar explained.
Any regrets?
“I guess my biggest regret was that I did spend a lot of time in my first couple of years studying because I was unsure of how much I did need to know.
“If I were to speak to myself from a couple of years ago, I would say to take it a bit more easy because a lot of what you’re studying you keep studying again and again for the rest of your life. It’s the fact that I didn’t pace myself in terms of how much I needed to know,” Eshwar told us.
What do you wish you had known before starting the degree?
In terms of what Eshwar wished he had known before starting this degree, he reflected back on the idea of memorisation and that there is no fast route to knowing everything. It takes time — you learn, revise, forget and then repeat the process.
“I think I wish I would have had a better understanding of the pathway of being a doctor. Just because I don’t understand something now, doesn’t mean I’m not going to understand it in the future. I would tell myself that a lot of Medicine is the learning and forgetting process.
“Don’t stress out if you have forgotten what you wrote in the exam two days ago because fair enough. You can revise in the future. I would approach it with a mindset of accepting that you will forget, and forgetting is a natural process in learning. You will avoid a lot of stress if you tap into that mindset,” Eshwar advised.
What makes this degree different from the ones offered at other universities?
When asked what makes a Bachelor of Medical Studies/Doctor of Medicine at UNSW different from the degrees offered at other universities, Eshwar focused on both the fact that it gives undergraduates an opportunity to put their foot in the door of Medicine straight away and the various opportunities that make UNSW stand out.
“With the UNSW med degree, it is a six year undergrad program. It gives students a sense of maturity as they start entering the hospitals and seeing patients early, which is a reason why some unis don’t offer undergrad.
“At UNSW, you also have your fourth year as a year just for research. You spend time either in the lab or hospitals, undertaking research. This isn’t really offered at other unis, specifically in Australia and NSW. In this way, UNSW gives you a lot more variety of career options by providing students with different experiences,” Eshwar shared.
Find out how UNSW ranks amongst Australia’s Top 5 Medical Schools?
What inspired you to choose this degree?
We took Eshwar back to his high school years by asking him what it was exactly that inspired him to choose Medicine at UNSW.
“I guess starting from my environment, which was high achieving. That really motivated me to study and get good grades in high school. More than that, I was surrounded by really good relatives, school teachers and family members who really emphasised the importance of having a wholesome career in a field that encourages personal growth along with being adequate at sciences.
“So, that environment and having mentors I could look up to (who were doctors) inspired me to become a doctor. I also had connections and knew someone who went to UNSW and recommended it to me. I did attend a talk by a UNSW medical graduate who spoke about how UNSW shaped his medical career. This also inspired me to study Medicine at UNSW,” Eshwar concluded.
What are the possible career paths?
Graduates of this degree are able to embark on a wide range of rewarding career paths. Some exciting roles in the medical industry that the degree can prepare you for include:
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- General practice
- Specialty practice
- Public health
- General surgery
- Orthopaedics
- Pathology
- Radiology
- Psychiatry
- Obstetrics and gynaecology
- Medical education
- Medical science
- Hospital administration
If you’re more convinced than before that a medicine degree is the right direction for you, you can read more about this exciting degree here!
Thomasin McCuaig is a Content Writer at Art of Smart and an Arts graduate with majors in English and Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Sydney. Thomasin is a passionate writer, singer and drama teacher, who has had her work published in Holidays with Kids, Signature Luxury Travel and Style and Offspring Magazine. Thomasin also writes junior plays for her students and aims to publish a novel someday. During the COVID isolation period, Thomasin put her passion into practise and launched her own writing and editing business, ‘Re:Write Editing.’ In her spare time you will find her either napping, talking to her cats or looking up real estate for absolutely no reason at all. Fun fact: Thomasin appeared on Japanese morning breakfast show ‘ZIP!’ as a travel reporter, where she presented a six day exposé of Sydney!
