Prepare to apply

JCU has a limited number of places available in Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Science. It helps to be organised with your application, as some things take time to prepare and confirm or may require assistance from others.

We recommend using a personal email address and phone number for your applications, rather than anything specific to your school, university or work. Please take the time to set up a suitable email and/or phone account if you don’t already have them.

1 — Check entry requirements

Explore your JCU course options online and check that you’re capable of meeting the entry requirements for each of the Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Science courses you’re interested in. Applicants must satisfy all course prerequisites to be eligible to receive an offer.

As a backup, we strongly recommend you apply for degrees in Allied Health and Pharmacy, Biomedical Sciences or Nursing. Tertiary studies in these areas could help your transition into your preferred degree, depending on your academic results and the future availability of places.

2 — Review your academic history

JCU will consider your entire academic history within your application, with the highest weighting given to your most recent studies. You’ll submit some of this information through QTAC, and some to JCU.

Primary and secondary education

For each year and grade of your primary and secondary education, please have details ready about the:

• Years in which you completed each school grade
• Name and country of the school/s you attended during the year.

If you attended more than one school in a single year, you’ll need to include details of each school. Please also have details ready about any periods of home schooling or any grades you skipped.

Year 12 studies

Please have details ready about the:

• Year you completed or expect to complete Year 12
• Name and country of the school you graduated or expect to graduate from.

Bridging subjects

If you take prerequisite subjects with a different education provider during or after your Year 12 studies, please have details ready about the:

• Year you completed or expect to complete your bridging subject/s
• Name of your bridging subject/s or qualification/s
• Name and country of your education provider.

If QTAC is unable to access results from your education provider, QTAC will ask you to supply this information directly.

Tertiary studies commenced or completed after Year 12

Tertiary study is not required but will be considered, even if you’ve started a degree but not finished. Eligible studies must be at Bachelor level or higher and result in a grade point average (GPA) score.

For each degree you commenced or completed, please have details ready about:

• Your dates of study
• Name of the degree
• Name and country of your university.

3 — Gather your information and documents

Please follow these instructions carefully on how to prepare and submit your supporting information and documents.

Prediction of Academic Achievement

The JCU online form for school officials to complete Predictions of Academic Achievement for students will be available when applications open on 1 August 2024.

Prediction of Academic Achievement (PAA) submissions give JCU an indication of the likely results for Medicine applicants still completing Year 12. Applicants should request for their school to complete a PAA on their behalf, which must be submitted by a school official through JCU’s online form.

JCU uses this information to help schedule interviews, particularly for the first round in December, which is prior to receiving actual Year 12 results. All selection decisions are based on actual results and JCU does not extend any offers based on predicted results.

We expect to receive results for International Baccalaureate (IB) students during December 2024, in time for the second interview round. If results are delayed, we may schedule further interviews as appropriate.

Applicant statements

These statements give Dentistry and Veterinary Science applicants the opportunity to provide additional information to support their application. They are part of the application submitted online through the JCU Portal.

Applicants have up to 300 words in each of four sections to tell us about:

• Their personal motivation for pursuing a career in their preferred discipline
• Any paid employment, work experience or volunteer activities completed in health industries
• What interests them about professional health practice in regional, rural and Indigenous communities
• Anything else that is relevant to their application and important for us to know.

Letters of support

Letters of support give applicants the opportunity to provide a reference for their character, academic goals and suitability for a career in their preferred discipline. They can be included in applications made online through the JCU Portal.

Applicants for Dentistry and Veterinary Science may source and submit up to three letters of support for their Dentistry or Veterinary Science application. Letters are not essential so you can choose whether you’d like to submit them or not. If you are applying for both Dentistry and Veterinary Science, you can use the same three letters or three different ones for each course.

Acceptable referees

JCU will consider letters of support from employers, work experience supervisors, school guidance officers, coaching staff or similar adults who are familiar with the activities you’ve been involved in. Letters of support from individuals within your family will not be considered.

Letter content

Letters can be addressed to the Selections Committee, however JCU will also accept letters addressed to any position title or group. They must describe the general nature of your referee’s relationship to you and include their contact details for JCU to validate if required.

Letter format

Uploads must be in PDF format. Any supplied as emails with referee contact details included can be converted to PDF for upload.

4 — Keep your QTAC codes handy

You’ll need QTAC codes to search for your preferred courses during the application process. These are the same codes provided on JCU’s individual course pages.

QTAC codes are unique reference numbers assigned to degrees based at available campuses.