Australian rehabilitation sciences degrees: are you eligible to apply?

26 April 2017

If you’re considering applying to a rehabilitation sciences degree at an Australian university, you know there can be a few items on your “how to apply” checklist that need attention. This is where OzTREKK comes in.
OzTREKK Admissions Officer Krista McVeigh specializes in programs like physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech pathology, chiropractic science and audiology, and she knows the ins and outs of the specific assessment criteria required by each university. Here are some of Krista’s tips about getting yourself prepared when you’re ready to apply!
How do I know if I am eligible to apply?
If you are considering starting an application for one of our programs in rehabilitation sciences, first you will need to find out if you are eligible.

Australian rehabilitation sciences degrees: are you eligible to apply?
Find out how you can study physiotherapy (Photo: University of Melbourne)

In order to determine this, you will need to find out two main things:

  • Have you taken the necessary courses to meet the program prerequisites?
  • Is your cumulative GPA (cGPA) competitive?

If you are unsure of this, I can generally let you know after taking a quick glance at your transcript.
Proving that you know your stuff
Please keep in mind that our universities will typically first screen based only on whether or not you have taken the courses to meet their prerequisites. Some schools have a form to fill out to highlight what you have taken for the admissions team, and most schools require you to send detailed course outlines for each subject.
If your application does not include a biomechanics course outline (as an example), they will not know that you’ve taken it. Furthermore, if they feel that your course outlines don’t meet their standard (i.e., they lack detail), your application’s assessment will stop and you will receive an unsuccessful outcome.
Admissions will not go into your transcripts for a GPA calculation until they have determined you’ve covered the material they require.
Which transcript are they looking at?
In order to calculate your cGPA, our universities will only be looking at the transcript from your most recently completed degree. If you have taken courses that are not part of that degree, they will not be calculated in that assessment; however, in order to see a full picture of your academic background, you are required to mail us all transcripts from any previous university or college studies.

Krista’s tips for a competitive application

Apply Early – Ideally,  you will need to have all of your documents sent to me no later than a week before the deadline. The more time I have to review your documents, the more time there is for feedback. There have been a number of students who have submitted their documents on deadline day who were unsuccessful because there were problems with their documents. Keep in mind that I receive a flood of emails and documents right before the deadline and that makes it difficult for me to review everything for you properly.
Include Course Outlines (Syllabi) as soon as possible – if the program that you apply to requires you to submit course outlines. This is in fact a requirement, and not a request.

  • Please ensure that your course outlines are detailed with information about what was taught in the course. This will often appear in a lecture schedule or list of topics.
  • Textbook, faculty information, and course dates are also important! Please take a look through your course outlines to ensure that they contain relevant detail before sending them to me.
  • If you don’t have your course outlines on hand, please contact the faculty under which you took the courses to request them.
  • Ensure that your course outlines are within 2 years of when you took the course. (For example, if you took a course in 2012, the outline must come from 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 or 2014. Please do not send me one from 2009 or 2015 as those are outside of the 2 years.)
  • When possible, please email the course outlines. Hard copies can delay the processing of your application.

Find out more about studying rehabilitation sciences at an Australian university

*

Do you have questions about choosing the right rehabilitation sciences degree for you? Please contact OzTREKK Admissions Officer Krista McVeigh at krista@oztrekk.com for more information about your study options!

NewsOzTREKK