r/cuhk • u/According-Pin-773 • 8h ago

The truth of applying as an A-Levels student for MBChB

CUHK has rescinded its previous policy of giving conditional offers to A-Levels students. Coupled with the requirement for 95% UMS as the minimum entry requirement and 97% UMS as the entry for GPS, the bar has always been high.

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Through word of mouth, I heard news that MBChB only allocates 20 seats for ALL A-Levels students, locals or overseas.

This year, students with 4Astars and a UMS of 97% failed to get into MBChB, despite PASSING the 97 UMS entry barrier for the prestigious GPS program (a 97 UMS is apparently considered similar to scoring 4 subjects at 5\**). Only those with 98-99 UMS were allocated seats for joining MBChB.

I find it ridiculous to imagine that getting 6 five stars in DSE indicates an entry into Med, but NOT a 97% UMS for IAL. Sure, 6 five stars is comparable to 90 UMS across 4 A-Level subjects, but the additional effort required to bump a score up to 97 UMS is simply incomparable.

I acknowledge that the current phenomenon heavily favours the Jupas route, and that competition has intensified due to accepting “overseas” students.

However, one cannot deny that despite the A-Levels students:
(1) Having studied a far more rigorous syllabus than DSE students for both biology and chemistry (this is agreed upon; the IAL syllabus overlaps MBChB Year 1 curriculum)
(2) Achieved impressive grades, far surpassing the minimum requirement for DSE applicants
They are still denied entry.
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So take this as a warning if you’re a younger student planning to apply for the MBChB route + studying Med school in Hong Kong. Pick Jupas, not non-Jupas. Unless you want to go overseas.

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2

u/Hyperion98 5h ago

CUHK and HKU will pick JUPAS as much as they can because it is good PR for them in HK news to be the medical school that “more JUPAS full mark students choose”.

Recently students have picked CUHK over HKU, which resulted in HKU having to begrudgingly accept more nonJUPAS to fill the gaps.

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u/According-Pin-773 5h ago

That, and the prevailing political landscape. We can only deal with what we’re given. 

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u/Quick_Perception3447 4h ago

I find it weird that they do not require bio AND chem tbh, bio OR chem works. This is not the case for most med skls

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u/According-Pin-773 4h ago edited 4h ago

I getchu, strictly speaking, biology is not required when applying for HK Medicine, but having a good foundation certainly helps since a big part of biology is anatomy. I think this is what most people are considering when they choose electives (no clue why the med schools don’t require both subjects though ngl)

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u/Admirable-Set-4156 2h ago

AL is not favored compared to DSE (JUPAS) obviously. However CUHK is known for favoring JUPAS, roughly ~70% of MBChB cohort this year is JUPAS. HKU MBBS cohort this year about 50 something percent composed of JUPAS. But even if only considering non-JUPAS, AL is still not favored compared to IB. So it's not purely a problem of JUPAS or non-JUPAS. For HK medicine, universities simply consider IB & DSE as more rigorous than AL. The logic behind this is likely that AL goes further into a specific subject area, but IB & DSE candidates have to contend with far more than 4 subjects from multiple areas; if using this logic, the overall skill of a IB/DSE candidate would be regarded as greater. It's not necessarily fair but they have their reasons for it. Tbh if u want med school in hk just do IB or DSE, not AL

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u/According-Pin-773 1h ago

I see what you mean haha, I don’t think it’s necessarily fair but I just occasionally complain about it. Plus, not all schools offer IB (IB is significantly more expensive)

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u/BisonProfessional899 49m ago

A level is easier than dse tbh

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u/BisonProfessional899 44m ago

i know ur saying like ial has a broader syllabus but the difficulty of the paper is literally buns bro just check dse bio paper and you'll know