Medical Portfolios at UNDA and UOW: What You Need to Know Now
Major update: This article originally explained how to build a medicine portfolio for the University of Notre Dame Australia (UNDA) and University of Wollongong (UOW). Portfolios are no longer part of any Australian medical school's application process. UOW was the last school to remove them, phased out from the 2025 intake onward. Both universities have since moved to the CASPer test instead. The content below has been rewritten to reflect this, but always confirm current requirements directly with each university.
What Used to Happen
For context, since you may still see this referenced elsewhere: a medicine portfolio was essentially a structured cover letter, a few dozen set questions asking applicants to elaborate on their motivations and past experiences, submitted alongside GAMSAT and GPA.
Two things made it distinctive:
- Strict word limits. Long, detailed cover-letter-style answers didn't work, direct and candid answers scored better.
- A genuine test of life experience. A strong GAMSAT/GPA combination alone wasn't enough. Universities using portfolios were explicitly looking for candidates with rich, varied life experience beyond academics.
That system no longer exists. If you're applying to either UNDA or UOW now, here's what actually matters.
What UNDA and UOW Look for Instead
Both universities have moved to the CASPer test, a situational judgment test that assesses qualities like empathy, ethical reasoning, and professionalism through short, timed scenario-based responses (video and written).
This is a genuinely different kind of preparation from writing a portfolio:
- Portfolio prep was about crafting compelling written answers about your own life story.
- CASPer prep is about practising realistic, timed responses to scenarios you haven't seen before, more like an MMI station than an essay.
If you've been preparing with old portfolio advice in mind (gathering achievements, drafting reflective answers, polishing a personal narrative), it's worth redirecting that energy toward CASPer-style practice instead.
What Still Matters, Regardless of the Format
A few things from the old portfolio advice are still genuinely useful, since they reflect what these universities value more broadly, not just how that value used to be tested:
- Real, demonstrated experience still counts. Both universities have historically valued genuine community engagement, leadership, and social responsibility over pure academic achievement. That hasn't changed, it's just assessed differently now.
- Recent experience matters more than school-age achievements. As a near-graduate applicant, your adult experiences carry far more weight than high school accolades.
- UOW specifically leans rural and community-focused. Its program is built around preparing doctors for rural, regional, and remote practice, with real exposure to the social determinants of health and Indigenous health. If you have genuine ties to rural life or rural-focused experience, that's still worth bringing into any part of your application, personal statement, interview, or otherwise.
Where to Next?
Since portfolios are gone, your preparation time is better spent on:
- Understanding the CASPer format and what it's actually testing.
- Practising realistic, timed scenarios, not writing reflective essays.
- Continuing to build genuine experience (volunteering, community involvement, relevant work), since that substance still matters, just not through a portfolio anymore.
Related Articles
- The CASPer Test Explained — What to expect from CASPer, now used by both UNDA and UOW.
- Medical School Applications Process: A Comprehensive Guide — A full, current walkthrough of the GEMSAS system and recent changes across Australian medical schools.
- Undergraduate Medical Interview Guide — What to expect once your application leads to an interview offer.
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