Manchester Uni for medicine - don’t want her to take a gap year!

[Cluelessatthisstuff]

DD didn’t get into her first choice - Oxford. Insurance was Manchester which is a very good RG university and I believe has the biggest medical department in UK. Daughter wants to resit a subject in the hope of getting an A* but I’m really uneasy about this, namely because all of her friends are going away for uni so she’ll be at home, alone and working part time in Costa coffee. I just don’t think she’ll be happy.

Does anyone have any experience with Manchester uni? Doesn’t have to be medicine specifically but anything that could help my DD? Thanks

I wish OP would come back and tell us what her DD decided to do.

It's been a fascinating thread for me to read - D Niece went off the boil a bit at A level and dropped a grade, but luckily enough got in anyway. It was a blessing in disguise because she made sure she didn't lose sight of her goal thereafter.

I’ve worked teaching students in Universities. I don’t think a gap year is a bad thing. I’ve had many students do this and they always benefit in several ways. 1) they turn up very motivated to do well because they’ve had a taste of real life 2) they settle in quickly due to being more independent 3) they are socially more confident
One year at that age is no big deal. It would be wise to get the uni agreement to defer though. Oxford is a separate breed. They have the network that other Unis don’t have. My friends who went to Oxford still return to go to special functions many years later. It’s like belonging to a special family so I can understand why she wants to go. Will oxford accept her though with a resit? It’s doubtful. I would approach this a different way. She does her first lot of studies at Manchester then she can apply to oxford for graduate school. If she has that on her radar now then she can build up her cv/qualifications to get in. Look into that option and put it in front of her. Best of both worlds then. She gets to go be a fresher in one of the best student cities in the uk and still gets to go to oxford. I’ve visited most of the university towns in England. Manchester is at the top of my favourites list alongside Bath, Newcastle and Brighton. Why did she put Manchester as her backup? Did she go visit the other top medical schools too?

What did she choose OP?

Any update?