Bachelor Of Clinical Science

[u/Ill_Fisherman1033]

Hi I am using reddit for the first time so sorry if I did something wrong with this post lol. I got an unconditional offer for Bachelor of Clinical Science and I am hoping to get into maybe physiotherapy, occupational therapy or like audiology after completion, not yet 100% sure. I heard some people saying it may be difficult to get accepted into those post grad courses once completing ClinSci. I also wanted to ask is it hard to manage the work like how much time do I need to put every day because I am trying to run a business and have a bunch of other leadership responsibilities. THANK YOU FOR READING THIS.

[u/invaders-mustdie]

i also got an early offer for clinical science and am curious about the work load 🙃

[u/Ferg0202 → u/invaders-mustdie]

Got a friend doing it needs to do 5 units per semester has a mix of bio, chem, anat, human sciences, etc units

[u/Antenae_ → u/invaders-mustdie]

Workload for the full time (2 years) is absolutely awful and a lot of people will drop to part time (3 years), which is actually normal time lol.

For the OP: I’d recommend medical sciences unless you’re wanting to do med. You wouldn’t be able to run a business doing well on clinical sciences lol

[u/Ill_Fisherman1033 → u/Antenae_]

thank you for the response. Would I be able to change to medical science after a few months into clinical? And why do you suggest switching if they are both around 3 years?

[u/invaders-mustdie → u/Ill_Fisherman1033]

apparently u can transfer after one semester which is like 4 months

[u/Antenae_ → u/Ill_Fisherman1033]

Look at the internal transfer pathways; you just need to meet the WAM (average mark) hurdle and complete a certain number of subjects before you can. MQ is quite flexible.
I suggest doing medical sciences because there’s no benefit to the medical aligned clinical sciences degree for you, the medical school admission bonus won’t do anything, and the workload won’t be as high so you’d be able to work more.

[u/Ill_Fisherman1033 → u/Antenae_]

Okay not bad. So basically I shouldn’t be too worried that I am starting off with clinical science? I just need to make sure I transfer to an easier pathway to OT or whatever else that is not medicine? and do internal transfers result in higher hecs debt or whatever it’s called? Thank you

[u/InitiativeVarious994 → u/Antenae_]

I second this, did BClinSci, amazing for medicine (First 2 years have been a breeze), for most other postgrads, consider medical sciences or similar equivalent.

[u/No_Deal_4249]

hi, also got a offer for clinical science! my dream is to do medicine but I didn’t do ucat nor am I expecting a high 90s atar. I’ve heard that completing this course and maintaining a good gpa can assist with moving forward with med at the uni. however I’ve also heard this is super hard to maintain and since it’s so accelerated, one minor bump in the road can significantly impact the final gpa. I am also considering doing ot or speech path at usyd instead and potentially doing post-grad med??? not sure yet tho any advice would be greatttttt

[u/ArchieMcBrain → u/No_Deal_4249]

I'd suggest doing OT or speech path undergrad, aiming for postgrad med

Mq does give bonus points to clin sci but it's far from guaranteed and a large amount of students come from other programs and unis. Also you'll likely be applying for UND, Usyd, ANU, Wollongong etc postgrad med, none of which will care you did clinical science.

If you do clin sci and don't get into medicine, you're stuck with a clin sci degree and you'll have to start a new degree to get a job. If you do undergrad ot or speech path, you can still apply for medicine at all those unis, including MQ, and if you're unsuccessful then you still have a job with a career. The boost from being a clin sci student is good, but it only counts for a few points at one (very expensive, much of which cannot be FEE-HELPed) university. I guess you also "save" a year because it's two years. But it's a bigger workload and maybe harder to get a good gpa. Doing 3-4 yr undergrad OT or speech path, you could maybe get a better GPA or do interviewing courses to prep to offset the loss of bonus points

Tbh same applies to doing medical sciences. Whatever undergrad you do, you should be happy with that being your only degree / job path. Medicine is very competitive to get into

[u/No_Deal_4249 → u/ArchieMcBrain]

thank you so much for your advice!! now just to determine whether to do ot or speech path - which is more in demand and can, in simple terms, generate a greater income in the future? since I’ve heard you can do private or something but I’m not sure if that’s easier for OT or speech path. I’ve also seen atars at diff schools be higher for OT and others higher for speech path but at relatively similar atars so now I’m rlly not sure.

[u/InitiativeVarious994]

"I got an unconditional offer for Bachelor of Clinical Science"

Firstly, congratulations!

"I am hoping to get into maybe physiotherapy, occupational therapy or like audiology after completion, not yet 100% sure."

Great that you're keeping options open.

"I heard some people saying it may be difficult to get accepted into those post grad courses once completing ClinSci."
"I also wanted to ask is it hard to manage the work life...."

This has an element of truth, at least from my standpoint. The work life balance is definitely a concern. I'm a BClinSci graduate, and I can 100% say the course is ruthless. If you want a high GPA, with a high level of certainty that you will get HD's across the board, you will be putting in a lot of work. Personally, to achieve a level of certainty that I could predict my exam mark +/- 5% for almost all assessments, it was about 40 - 50 hours a week, but I got HD's in all my units. That was the level of study I needed to do in order to get that consistency, it was a system, a recipe, it worked, and now I'm in post graduate medicine.
Difficulty getting accepted into programs is true if BClinSci tanks your GPA, it's much harder to fix up your GPA compared to resitting the GAMSAT for example (From a pre-med perspective)

Thinking about work life, it's a hard balance, again, depending on how consistently you can get the marks you need, with the least amount of effort possible. I started of selling my soul to BClinSci, then slowly eased off and watched my marks remain the same, was probably putting too much effort in without the return.

I was also working 25-40 hours a week, I did not have time for a social life, my partner, my cats, etc. It was a grind.

If you're younger, full of energy, don't have a chronic illness (I was in the process of being diagnosed with IBD at the time), highly motivated and have protective factors in place against burnout, then it's definitely possible to balance a business, good grades, and some other leadership possibilities. The question is, could you achieve the postgrad courses you want without BClinSci? Most likely.

TLDR; It's 100% possible, but does it provide any additional bonus for entry into your current postgrad options? Probably not. The only exception is if you want to do medicine, maybe some bonus for physio since BClinSci is HEAVY on anatomy.