Six form choice : Wycombe Abbey, Westminster, St Swithun

And I do know girls who would not fit into the ex SPGS/ WA etc. glamour posse who have enjoyed Westminster and all the opportunities it offers in spite of not being loud and beautiful.

Juggling With all due respect my DDs would just think d**ks and ignore them. You get them in every school, and they will certainly encounter them at university, and most certainly at Medical school. It was always the same, I have had the misfortune to have been at a Rugby Club dinner at St Thomas's.......... I don't know about St Swithins but I am absolutely certain that the Eton and Radley etc. "lads" do the same with respect to the WA (and CLC etc) girls. But there are always other students who find it all a bit sad. I would much rather my DDs had encountered them and seen through the "banter" and illusions of cool and found it all rather sad than protect them from it. Trust your DD, I am sure she is capable of being herself and not wanting to join in the silly exclusive games.

Agree with areyoutheregoditsmemargaret Westminster has the eponymous 'tree' where girls are rated on how much sexual contact they have with boys there. Also, new girls are given a score /10 based on their photograph.
Certainly not what I wanted for my DD.
St Swithun's have new head of science/chemistry who is excellent, very supportive, sensible and honest. Has really inspired my DD.

By the way Evachan, sorry for taking this thread off track.

Talking, I am fully aware and agree with you as you will have read in my previous posts. All I said is that a vocation for either is not set in stone by the age of 16 and the current entrance demands in the UK although understandable puts onus on that early choice far too much unless you go in the more expensive route as a graduate entry.
Although doing medicine may seem an easier option, most agree that suffering in humans is harder to have to deal with.

I doubt being "loud and beautiful" is the key to having a good friendship group amongst the Science geeks. My DD is of course gorgeous but she is certainly not loud and arrogant super confident. she has alawys had lovely friendship groups made up of slightly geeky boys and girls next door, if you count next door as including Asia, from all sorts of backgrounds, who work hard academically but the boys spend a ridiculous amount of time playing computer games, an eye opener for a mother of girls and are not really cool, though a couple think they are, bless. The alpha girls are interested in the loud and arrogant beautiful boys with whom to party (at WA as well where I gather they bus them between the boy's and girl's schools) but in every school there are different friendship groups with different values.

summerends
Medics courses are generally far more humane than Vet.

DD looked into it and has done 40 hours of work experience including assisting in caesarian delivery of kittens who later died.
Most vets end up working in abbatoirs. Those that do not spend much of their time cutting off testicles or euthanasing pets.

Medics have more options.

DD has actually decided on starting in Biomedical research and seeing where that leads.

Actually Talking, not all the best doctors or vets absolutely make their minds up and have a fixed career path by 16. Also even the very determined by an early stage may fall by the wayside despite all the work experience demanded nowadays. Young people are expected to fix on medical / vet career paths too early nowadays just to fit in all the hours of experience.
However lots of small and large animal work experience is needed for veterinary medicine and certainly serves as an insight into what a tough career it is, particularly for large animal work.

If you are thinking of full boarding, I think it is quite important that the school is not emptied out during weekends.
If your DD want to be a vet, I think she need to take the facilitate subjects (mainly science and maths ) and a lot of work experience to support the application, I think the school can arrange that, and best ask the career adviser. I think it will be easier to find work experience in a stable/ farm in Buckinghamshire, than in Central London.
Also, either going for medic or vet, she need to get all the related work experience during her Lower sixth year, as deadline for UCAS application is normally in October. And also need to take BMAT ( for Oxbridge / Imperial/UCL) or UKCAT (for other medical school) or similar exam for Vet school.
Also my DD is not in "the loud and beautiful" group, all her good friends are actually more of the "science nerd", as she did all science and maths for her A level, and German too. Like any school, they will always have some loud one and beautiful one, you just need to trust your child to choose her own friends, and not to give in peers pressure

What Talkinpeace said. Vet and Medicine are very very different. Tend to attract different people. And the work experience needed to stand a chance of getting a place on either is different again.

If she is seriously thinking about applying for Vet, then she probably needs to get some work experience asap (assuming she hasn't already), and look at what the job actually entails to decide whether it is right for her. Being an animal lover is pretty much by the by.

It might be an idea for your daughter to decide now what she wants to do, rather than leaving preparation/work experience placements for sixth form (wherever she goes).

One does not "consider" going to Vet school.
You are either determined to do it, and ready to put in the 200 plus hours of experience needed before the end of A levels, be willing to work every holiday of the 6 year course, and fight for a place at a ratio of 50:1
or you are not

Evachan, I took the quote off WA website. Why do they only ask for Bs on the website when really they want A* isn't that a bit misleading?

Slightly off topic but having too much of a "big heart" for animals may not be ideally suited for being a vet since you see them suffer. She. would also have to want to put the hours and nights in for farm animals.
Better informed people will come along but doubt London would be the best location to fit in hours and hours of farm experience as a boarder.

If you message me EvaChan I can tell you a bit more about W, for some reason I can't message you. I know a lot about this school but I'd rather not post it all on a public forum.

candidates must also expect to have achieved the equivalent of nine I/GCSEs/GCEs at Grade B or above by the time they join Wycombe Abbey.

I am surprised that you only need Bs for WA, all the schools my DD applied to wanted 6A* or more.

To be honest, she will be perfectly fine in both school. If she is willing to work hard, she will get to the university of her choice.
Wycombe does have contact with local hospital, care home, and girls will do their community services and work experience there. The school also have a medical society for girls who want to be medic or in the related field which is very helpful and supportive, who my DD was once chairwoman in it.

I am probably going to put this very badly, I am not a scientist but I think that my DD thinks Science is a very male dominated world, not just in terms of the representation of the sexes but also in the way scientific theories are developed and accepted via peer review. So as well as the bigger pond effect she also does not feel that it would have been of benefit to get used to male perspectives. I don't get the impression medicine is very much different. Obviously she may be overthinking this, as these courses seem to encourage them to do

Is your dd shy or extrovert? I'd say Westminster is not a good choice unless your dd is very confident. I know quite a few ex-Westminster girls, it's a school where loud, pretty girls have a good time and quiet girls are ignored (by peers, teachers will still notice them of course). Is she going to be a full boarder/weekly boarder or day? Westminster again, not a good school for full boarding, it empties out at weekends. Well done to your dd.

My DD went from a London girls' day school that WA compared itself to when I accompanied a friend's DD to an assessment, and is now in the third year on a very competitive Natural Sciences course. She also had a chance of Westminster but in the end decided she was better to stay where she was so she could hit the ground running in her existing social circle. She doesn't regret that decision for that reason, but she does think from an academic point of view it would have been academically more stimulating to have been in a mix of equally geeky and passionate Scientists, boys as well as girls. Academically it would have been a bigger pond IYSWIM.

I think all these schools will give your DD the opportunity she is seeking but I do think Westminster gives you a unique opportunity to be at the centre of London life, but it really is for your DD to decide whether she wants that.