Medical School

[MarchMoon]

My daughter is doing her GCSEs this year and hopes to study medicine at uni. She's lucky that she's good at most of her subjects, though she finds chemistry quite hard – and she doesn't love it as a subject.
She's predicted an 8 for Chemistry GCSE and is capable of doing well at A-level, I'm sure.
My question is how much will chemistry feature in actual university study? Or is a chemistry A-level more about providing a foundation for the study of medicine?

Great to read some positive posts amongst the more cautionary ones! Lots to think about for sure.
@Purpletractor What would be the benefits of training in ROI do you think? Would a UK student get any funding?
Will have a look…

Unfortunately UK students are now classed as international for fees. Plus the points needed are impossible to make without 4 A levels. I looked into it recently

@Spacecowboys

• AndSoFinally Pension is not as good as it was, and is 9% of your pay

Actually, it's 13.5% of your pay

This is incorrect. It is a percentage of earnings and the more you earn the higher the percentage you pay into pension. Range is 5.2% to 12.5% now.*

My payslip would very much disagree with you!

• MarchMoon Great to read some positive posts amongst the more cautionary ones! Lots to think about for sure. @Purpletractor What would be the benefits of training in ROI do you think? Would a UK student get any funding? Will have a look…

Unfortunately UK students are now classed as international for fees. Plus the points needed are impossible to make without 4 A levels. I looked into it recently*

ROI consultants get paid about 40% more than UK consultants at the moment, so worth considering that in the decision process, even if it costs more to train

And you have no student loan deduction. Or parking. Take home for an F1 is about £2,000 with 48-60 hour weeks, 1 in 3 weekends and at least 2 sets of nights each rotation.

Actually it's even more: €252k vs £119k in Wales

I haven’t RTFT but wanted to say, with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, please encourage your bright sons and daughters to do something else.
I remember the angst of supporting my 2 children through the application process, and the long card years of med school.
DC1 is now on the other side of the world, earning exactly double the UK salary but as money is not a primary driver for them, applied to start specialty training back in the UK. With only a 20% success rate, they have just found out they were not accepted.
They will therefore have to stay overseas, where UK junior doctors are valued, and can access specialty training easily provided their consultant supports it.
DC2 is currently an F1 in the UK. Despite all F1’s requiring supervision, their registrar was on annual leave last week (Easter hols) and not replaced. My DC had to deal with 5 traumatic and unexpected deaths on their ward and is now in a very bad place. They have no support and are afraid of the consequences of speaking up in the Kafka-esque culture of ‘our’ NHS.

If you love your bright children, please encourage them into another field. I so wish I had.

@Niassa I'm so sorry your DS is so unsupported. Please get them to reach out to their supervisor- it's their job to ensure the F1s get help when needed. If that fails then the deanery lead - they get a lot of money to train the doctors.

I do think mine has been so fortunate as her F1 has been good so far.

It just changed in April 2024 ( I think it was) so will go down to 12.5% on your next pay slip.

Sorry to read this. Sounds like a really tough experience and shocking your child feels they have no support.

@MarchMoon If your daughter is dead set on Medicine and she needs Chemistry, then it makes sense to get her some 1:1 tutoring. We've used www.thecambridgetutor.com, who were fantastic for us! All of their tutors are from Oxford Uni and Cambridge Uni and are very reasonably priced. Think they've also got consultants to help kids get into medicine.

I'm starting medicine in September. Got 3 A* at A level and 9 grade 9s at GCSE. I also got 3000 in the UCAT with a Band 1.

If anyone wants advise let me know