Anticipating DD not meeting her grades for medicine, need information about graduate entry.

[Tressy]

Hopefully she will but am wondering about graduate medicine. Trying to help her if the worst comes to the worst and if it would be better to retake A levels or go through clearing.

Due to the fee increases is it possible to still do a 3 year standard degree then apply for 4 year graduate medicine. Is it covered by student finance?

Also would a degree from any university, e.g Leeds Met, in a science subject be good enough to apply for graduate medicine?

No-one?

Cannot find the right info via google, but it's not looking hopeful. We will have to find out before next Thursday.

I don't know the exact answers to your queries but I had friends who called their prospective universities (and she should do it herself, not you) and asked whether they could start a similar course (e.g. one person did pharmacy) with the possibility of a course transfer if their grades were high enough at the end of the first year (usually a first). It's a tough route to take as you also need to catch up what you've missed, but if she's dead set on medicine it might work.

Thanks, because the offer she has firmed is a fair distance from home, she would need to go through clearing to see if there is a science course at a different uni closer to home that she could get into.

Fingers crossed she is OK as I fear a hectic day a week tomorrow trying to find out if financially doable as well as weighing up whether to resit the year.

She will ring herself but is away atm.

As far as I'm aware, graduate entry would entail full fees incl. the eye-watering ones for the clinical years.

You're looking at 100k.

hi

ok not similar but younger sis.

she went to uni london did 4year ba in english and spanish.
she did gap year spain

finished degree and decided she wanted to be graphic designer but changed her mind.

moved back home with mum decided she wanted to do dentistry.

similar rigour to medicicne.

anyway her alevls were art, english, spanish and possibly on other.

she has to go college

think she did biology and chemistry a level in a year.
she got work expereince in detal settings
sat mcat test I think.

anyway she got offered dentistry at cardiff.

wonder how many nurses retrain as doctors?
what about that as an option?

regards to funding

yes she got student loan for 1st degree.

she cant get a loan for her tuition for 2nd degree so has to pay her own tuition fees, she can get mainaiantance loan so more debt as owes student loan from the 1st degree but she dont seem phases by this. we not a wealthy fmily parents are split.

they have modest incomes,. i worked throiughout my degree a lot to fund living|.

might it be simpler

just defer

retake a levels
try and get some expereince caring for people?

would be cheaper as he so expensive now.

Another option - a German friend is currently doing medicine in Budapest. All taught in English and being EU you have the right to practice all over. Entry standards high, but filled with Irish, Norwegian, etc. who couldn't quite make the grades in their own country. Much, much cheaper than the grad route - in fact... only a little more expensive than current uni fees.

Thanks for replies. If they will only fund 1st degrees then graduate medicine won't be feasible in the future, whereas pre 2012 it was an alternative route in.

Dolomites, there isn't any student funding for courses abroad so that is out of the question for us. I can see how it would work if students have financial backing.

It might be better to resit year 13 if she doesn't get it this time.

some people use private tutorial colleges or cramming schools to try get better grade in past. maybe 1years private schools fees or tutors might be better option.

some experience in volunteering with people might diffrentiate herself when applying next year also maybe choose med school closer to home and live at home.

Have you looked at some of the threads on The Student Room?

There is always lots of discussion and if you can bear all the teenage angst, theres usually some good info tucked away in there. Try here

But sorry, its not a specific answer to your question

Mam, she had a strong application this year, with the right qualities, experience they were looking for so I think she would stand a good chance as a graduate tbh but if it's not funded right through then it won't be an option.

Private school fees are out of the question, I wish.

I should really leave it until next week to start speculating but don't want her to feel that she has messed up her chances if she misses the grades.

Hi justgettingbymum. I found some older stuff on the student room but will have a look again see if there is anything applicable to 2012 onwards.

Not sure if this is of any use but looking at last years clearing lists (they don't tend to change too dramatically from one year to the next) the places on related courses were as follows

Medicinal Chemistry - Bradford, UEA, Huddersfield, Kingston, Liverpool, Loughborough, Manchester met, Newcastle, Southampton, Surrey

Medical studies - quite a few places which included Leeds met that you mentioned, also Kent, Liverpool, Newcastle, Queen Mary's, Sheffield

Medical lab science - Bedford,, Bournemouth UWE, De Montford, Greenwich Huddersfield Kent, Lincoln, Manchester met, Portsmouth, Roehampton, St George's U of L, Staffordshire Surrey, Swansea, Westminster

Biosciences - a long list including Leeds met, Hull Kent Northumbria royal Holloway Surrey

Biomedical science - Leeds met again, and roughly the same as the medical lab science places

Biochemistry seems to have much better places available Aston Birmingham Kent Leeds met (are you after that one because its local?) Liverpool Liverpool JM Manchester met royal Holloway Sheffield Sheffield Hallam, Southampton, Surrey and most of the places that have already been mentioned

Have a look at some of these and see if they come up in clearing next week. I don't know about anything medical but Sheffield Southampton and St George'sstand out as being the most reputable. Hopefully you won't need them

Hey,

Don't have time to read the other responses so apologies if I am repeating.

Couple of points, if it's a Russell Group university she is applying to, medicine is super competitive, so a grades near miss will 'most likely' rule her out.

At our uni (Russell Group), we don't accept resits either so I would check this out with other universities before recommending she embark on A Level resits.

Graduate level entry is a possibility but again super competitive and expensive (3 years @ £9k for first degree, then 4 years of £9k but years 2-4 are part-funded by NHS).

There is the possibility of starting on a Biomed degree then transferring if your DD excels in year 1 - at our uni only 5 places are offered on this route though.

Would she consider Biomedicine as an alternative course/career path?

Eatyourveg, hopefully. Thanks for that, I wonder what grades they were looking for on average. Yes, Leeds/Liverpool are as close enough to come home weekends.

Gosh just had a quick look. It's going to be very expensive going into GEM. It's not fully funded and it's not clear what bursaries will be available.

Stookie, thanks for reminding me that some unis won't accept resits. Some do so that would need to be taken account when apply if resitting.

Biomed science would be her route into medicine rather than an alternative iyswim. However, plans can change along the way.

No problem.

Best of luck to your dd with her results! I hope she gets what she is hoping for :)

I see ucas's fb page have posted a keep calm and be prepared notice encouraging students to have plans which cover all eventualities, so you are doing the right thing Tressy. Getting nervous myself now and have skimmed through the clearing lists from last year. (Not much there for ds's subject but maybe it was due to the fees hike surge)

Anyone know if unis have ever lowered their requirements for clearing students on the basis that they want the places filled?

Is your daughter convinced she's missed the grades? Very understandable to have nerves at this stage. I hope she's wrong!

On the off chance that she isn't, I have encountered a few postgraduate students who are doing an MSc in the hope of getting a Distinction, to top up a good 2.1 or a First in a relevant subject. The ones that come to mind did Psychology or Neuroscience for their first degree and something related but clinical in focus for the MSc. Massively expensive, and I wonder if it's really necessary.

One key thing seems to be to have good BMAT scores, just as for undergrad. Another would be to do her first degree at a good university, with a strong research culture, and choose a subject with a reputation for rigour.

Good luck however it turns out!

For what it's worth, a few more experiences/viewpoints (and I'm aware that the postgraduate funding arrangements for medicine are different)... DD didn't get an offer for veterinary medicine last year despite being predicted high grades, on the strength of which she could have applied for any number of possible alternative degrees yet not one that would qualify her as a vet, and would have required another application as a graduate in three years' time. The fees for doing this would have been astronomical, with no loans available, and she didn't want to go down that route anyway. After a year out with a job, and reapplying with grades in hand, she now has a veterinary medicine place in Bristol starting this October. Slightly older, wiser and very slightly wealthier!

On the other hand, one of her friends is now on his THIRD application to study medicine, having been unsuccessful first time around (no offers, grades OK) so opted to study Biomedical Sciences. Remember this was before the fees went up, which is an important consideration here. He has now graduated with a first, but still has no offer, the second application being decided before the degree results came out so hopefully his first will cut some ice in a ridiculously competitive process next time around. He hopes his good degree will enable him to get a research job somewhere in the meantime so that he can earn enough to pay his first year's fees. I believe the NHS helps out with graduate-entry funding after that, but not sure.

On balance though, now that tuition fees are so high, I would always advise someone going for this kind of course to take a year out and have another go - bearing in mind that there are plenty of places that DO accept resits.

Hopefully all this will be completely unnecessary though.

Best of luck to your DD and please let us know how she gets on.

Thanks for all your advice. Now that I have looked into it I will advise her to retake and reapply next time round.

There were lots of grads applying this time around and it wasn't any less competitive than other years but these were grads with lower fees for first degrees. I wonder how things will be for future grads wanting to go into vet/med/dentistry. It's going to be horrendously expensive.

Before you advise her to do that, she will need to check if resit grades will be accepted - most Medical Schools only look at the grades achieved on the first attempt.

And I still look on, slowly shaking my head, as to why a clever young person of either, gender, really, would want to be a doctor!

I think it's a rubbish occupation, tbh- still, long hours, sexism and possibly the greatest discrepancy between starry eyed idealism and harsh reality in the HE universe.

Sorry, that wasn't at all helpful, I just chucked it in there, but every day, I see young F1 medics face that rude awakening and I wonder whether they genuinely believe that this is what they signed up for!

Whilst 'post-graduate entry' has diluted this thing, the fact remains that so much of medicine is dominated by the '3 'A+'s at 'A'level = 'medicineorlaw' but it is such a rocky road to tread.