GEMSAS recently announced that due to disruptions from the coronavirus pandemic, most Australian universities have decided to exclude 2020 grades when calculating a student’s GPA for graduate medical school. Now students are racing to convince universities to reconsider before applications are due on June 11.

This article was updated 12/6/2020. **See below for Macquarie University's updated policy.

Ever since Marmareen Bakhtary was 14-years-old, she’s dreamt of becoming a doctor.

“I was extremely fascinated by how the body works; it’s physiology and anatomy,” Bakhtary said.

"Over the years, the more that I undertook subjects related to medicine, the more eager I became to learn.”

But last week her dreams of becoming a doctor were thrown into doubt, when GEMSAS—a consortium of graduate medical schools— announced that, in light of academic disruptions from the coronavirus pandemic, the majority of Australian universities have decided to exclude 2020 grades, when calculating a prospective student’s grade point average (GPA).

Getting into graduate medical school is highly competitive. For example, last year there were approximately 15,000 people who sat the standardized graduate medical entrance test—the GAMSAT— for only 1,742 places nationally.

While the GPA isn’t the only measure by which universities assess graduate medical applicants— depending on the university there can also be interviews and portfolios, in addition to the GAMSAT— the GPA is a major component.

For graduate medical school applicants, the final year of study is more heavily weighted than earlier years, so for students who hoped to increase their GPA for a more competitive chance, this decision has produced much frustration. With medical school applications closing on June 11, students are racing to convince universities to reconsider.

Bakhtary together with almost 10,000 other graduate medical school hopefuls signed a petition calling on all universities to adopt an “opt in/out” model, which they argue is a fairer approach. With such a model students can decide whether or not their 2020 grades are considered when calculating their GPA. Currently, Griffith University is the only graduate medical program within the GEMSAS consortium, which has adopted this stance.

“This is an equitable approach that ensures the circumstances of both groups of students have been met,” Bakhtary said.

“Importantly, it will prevent students like myself, from having our GPAs deflated significantly by ignoring our 2020 results and giving more weight to our prior performance.”

Bakhtary said that her performance in the earlier years of her degree was significantly impeded by medical illness, financial distress as well as challenging personal circumstances.

“It took me almost two years to finally accustom myself to university. Although I managed to improve my performance in my third year, my overall GPA was still not enough for consideration into graduate medicine. Honours was an opportunity to do research, whilst simultaneously improving my GPA.”

The University of Melbourne is one such university in the GEMSAS consortium which has taken the position to exclude 2020 grades when calculating a student’s GPA.

A spokesperson for the University of Melbourne noted that, “Due to COVID-19, this year’s academic results are being derived in different ways by different universities and are therefore not reliable or consistent indicators of true academic ability. In order to be fair to all applicants, the university will use the most reliable and equitable data from before the pandemic struck.”

The University of Wollongong’s medical school has taken a similar stance, citing inconsistencies with how universities are grading students during the pandemic. They will exclude semester one 2020 results when calculating a student’s GPA, but they are yet to decide if they will consider semester two results.

“Many undergraduate courses are offering ungraded passes, some are using existing scoring systems or new grades, and some a combination of both. The options available to students to amend their marks also varies significantly between universities with some students having the option to choose to include high grades and exclude poor grades on their transcripts,” wrote Associate Professor Lyndal Parker-Newlyn, who manages medical admissions.

Not all schools have taken this stance, the Australian National University’s graduate medical admissions policy remains unchanged.

For students who are sitting the GAMSAT this week, the timing of the announcement may have caused undue stress in the final days of preparation. According to the petition penned by aspiring medical students, “the pressures brought about by these changes are likely causing further debilitation on both a student’s mental well-being and their performance in assessments during this critical time.”

For Megan Cristofaro, who is currently completing her honours year in biomedical science at Monash University, 2020 presented an opportunity to not only develop her research skills, but also to improve her previous grades, which were impeded by a number of challenging medical conditions. Cristofaro, who is not only interested in studying medicine, but also doing a PhD, sees many of the GEMSAS universities’ approach as a double standard.

Students who wrote the petition are also disappointed that this announcement came after the census date, the date when students are able to defer from their course without adverse financial or academic consequences. The census date also coincided with the pandemic unfolding and universities were considering their options on how to deliver classes remotely. Cristofaro said that if she knew of this GPA policy before the census date, she would have deferred, now she’s looking at a tuition bill of $11,264, just for her honours year. 

“I have paid too much money to have my choice taken away from me on how to use it.”

For Cristofaro, it’s personal, her own experience of medical conditions, especially lupus, is a large part of her motivation to pursue medicine. She hopes that the universities will take into consideration the students' petition, so that she’s one step closer to her dream. 

“One day I hope to be a rheumatologist [a specialist who treats autoimmune diseases] and be able to support patients through their diagnosis journey, as I have been there myself.”

**UPDATE 3/6/2020 - According to a statment sent to MedicGuild from the university, "Macquarie University's position on how results from units undertaken during 2020 will be considered in the calculation of the GPA for admission to the Doctor of Medicine (Macquarie MD) is as follows: For 2021 admissions, graded units completed in 2020 will be included in the GPA calculation, where available at the time of assessment. Ungraded units will be excluded from the GPA calculation."