Less navel gazing, more detail
So at the moment, I’ve applied for
- UniSA’s Bachelor of Midwifery
- Flinders University’s Bachelor of Midwifery
and in the spirit of being honest with this blog right from the beginning, I’ll tell you why I’m terrified. At the moment, it appears that I will be ranked for getting into university on the GPA that I managed to scrape together from 4 years of university, back in the last century. For the moment, let’s just say I have a GPA of 4.8 / 7.0 which is not fantastic and while I can write a huge post about why this is so (and maybe sometime I will) I can’t change it*. Despite it being a profession in chronic shortage in Australia and worldwide, there are only a few places funded each year. Let’s say 25-30 at each university. This does a few things - it means that the number of places for people like me is smaller than expected, and it’s REALLY FREAKING HARD to get in. The GPA to get into Flinders last year was 5.0, and for UniSA was 5.83 - oh you noticed that too? The little (!) gap between my GPA and the course’s results from last year?
Freak out #1.
I don’t see why my entire next university step should be dictated on my performance when I was a teenager, so I’m trying to get a straight answer out of SATAC about whether I can sit the STAT. I could probably ace that (wait a few months and my usual self confidence will be back) and get in based on my TER equivalence but for now, I don’t even know if that’s an option. I doubt it is. I wish it was. I can’t hope this is an option now because then I will be devestated at a road I can’t turn in to.
I have three months to think about this, and the advice I’ve been given is to not think about it. Hence this post to get it all straight in my head.
Freak out #2.
I have other options. I can get in to the graduate accelarated stream of nursing at Flinders for two years, then do a graduate bit to get my degree in midwiffle in a year.
But at my heart, I don’t want to be a nurse. I don’t want to take a detour. Hence my next challenge is to add this to my options with SATAC and figure out why I don’t want to take this path. Same time, probably more interesting a course possible, two career paths open to me, lots and lots of reasons but I don’t want the label. I have the utmost respect for nurses and my uncle is one so it’s not that I don’t like the role. I’ve spent just enough time in hospital to respect what they do but it would feel like a sideways step to where I want to be. Why would that worry me at this stage? I don’t know.
*Actually no that’s not true - my current GPA blabbering is because I have an incomplete transcript in my possession. First step in stopping this freak out is to get my hands on a copy of my full transcript on Monday having already ordered it. No idea what difference my honours mark makes to my GPA anyway.
