Just wasted a day because uni prospectus was incorrect

[alypaly]

just travelled over 200 mies today to a university to find out that although my son got 4 A* and 5 A's they would not consider his application for medicine despite the likelihood of 3 predicted grade A.
It wasnt in the prospectus or the ucas info that if you have resat one of the sciences to better your grade. (which he did...he resat biology to go from B to an A)you wont even be considered. Pretty annoyed as i could have visited another uni today and also I have wasted £60 in petrol.

Cant really be of much help, but have you checked with other uni's to see if they have a similar policy?

That's completely shit - what an insane rule to have. Sounds like a lucky escape for your DS - he's well shot of that place.

I'd ring them first, but wouldn't be surprised if that is a fairly universal policy amongst medical schools - so many very well qualified applicants they have to bring in additional criteria, and a first sitting result considered is not that uncommon (partic if it's a science)

What an insane rule. I would prefer to be treated by someone who really wanted to be doing medicine and worked their butt off than someone who just strolled it and was doing it because Daddy was a doctor too.
I think trying again is a good attribute not something to mark someone down on.

Oh that's harsh alypaly. Was it a GCSE or AS/A2 module retake they were objecting to?

A friend had a similar(ish) thing last year where she drove her ds a long way to find their standard offer for his course as printed in the prospectus was a couple of grades out and out of reach of her ds. This year, they've not updated the standard offer in the propectus so the same thing could happen again. Perhaps it's always worth phoning ahead to check the course entry criteria?

How would they know? Do you have to declare when it was sat and if it had also been sat more than once??

Sorry to hear your story - thanks for posting.
DS will be completing his UCAS form next term, so I think that based on your experience, we will phone each of his Uni choices and double check the criteria before potentially wasting a slot on the form,

Hope your DS finds a Uni that will appreciate all his hard work, and gets the place he deserves.

That is such a shame.

But actually it makes me doubly glad that DS1 is doing his own visits without us taking him or accompanying him.
His life, his choice.

This has just happened to my friends DD who had a wasted journey thanks the university putting up the standard offer for the course she was interested in up to 3 A's and so was out of her reach. The information wasn't available online or in the prospectus as entrance grades for 2011 are only just being set.

I don't actually think it's an insane rule at all. A Level courses have changed so much and students can (and do) sit modules over and over again to get the highest grades. This gives an inaccurate picture of their true abilities.

Universities have to have some criteria on which to identify students: they can't interview them all.

When I was at Nottingham over 20 years ago med students generally had 4 As at A Level (not including general studies), or something very close. Since then medicine has got even more selective and even more competitive. So there have to be boundaries.

But of course I agree the information available online should be accurate.

A short time ago there was a thread started by a mother who was upset by the head of year telling her DS to lower his sights for applications to study medicine. She felt her DS had super results and was highly annoyed and was asking if she should give the teacher a piece of her mind. This bears out the fact that the head of year was just stating a truth. It is highly competitive. There are just too many applicants per place-it is a good idea to phone before a visit, but very sad for the DC who has worked so hard.

Alypaly-you started the thread!!

You said
'My son has passed 9 GCSE's with 4 A* and 5 A's and his head of year has just told him that he should look at universities with lower acceptance results for medicine.

You were furious with the H of Y. He was right and you were warned.

I am really sorry, your DS obviously deserves the best, but it means that you should have checked carefully before you travelled long distance.

DH is an admissions tutor and is always slightly at how many parents over-involve themselves with their DC's applications/rejections/course troubles.

Actually I don't think resits should be used as a policy for selecting students because a lot of the time it is due to schools entering pupils for things before they are actually ready and then the school encouraging resitting to improve the grade. I think its better to just have one go but my DCs school is always encouraging kids to have an extra go to improve grades or even to improve marks within a grade.

Its also difficult to compare AS results when some schools sit January modules after one term at sixth form, some just take the whole AS in the summer of year 12 and some schools take AS and A2 together in year 13.

You really need to check with other prospective universities what their policy is regarding resits for medicine.

I sat A-levels in the first year that it was possible to resit modules and it was pretty universal then (2002) that resit = no entry to med school at most Universities.

And when an institution is over-subscribed, then they can pretty much make any distinction they like, really.

I think when you have a teenager applying for a competitive course they do perhaps need a bit of extra guidance with where to apply to give themselves the best chance. Yes I know that universities can make any distinction they like for over subscribed courses but it is annoying if you rule yourself out for a course by a decision made in year 10. DD2 is just starting to look at universities for maths and she will need a bit of help to choose where to apply because the entry requirements are so confusing - set module results, different offers if you have further maths or aea/step. She doesn't want to end up with a complete set of 3A offers but finding a couple of reasonable universities that will give a lower offer is proving difficult as 40% of candidates now get an A in A level maths.

I did it all myself 25 years ago with no input from parents and although I didn't actually go to medical school in the end (long story!) my offers were all 3B's without interview at places like Manchester and Newcastle. I think the grade inflation in A levels has done young people no favours at all.

Don't know how true it is now, but when a close relative of mine wanted to study medicine, he was warned at the outset that he would require whatever the grades were at that time and that all grades had to be obtained in one exam period, so no re0sits then either. ( This is going back about 30 years though).

medicine has always been highly competitive and the universities naturally only want to take those they regard as the best academically who then perform better than the rest at the interview stage. And actually,given that medicine really is a life and death profession, I am glad they are as demanding as that, since one day I may need a doctor to make a decision that could save my life.

Alypaly, also be warned the grade requirement may change again from what is originally advertised. We went to the Open Days, DS only applied for courses where he met the predictions and had the right grades to date but sometimes there were differences in the offers (he did get 5 offers though).

Regarding Medicine, even having the right grades is not going to be enough. Two of DS's friends have offers for Medicine this year but it is very competitive. The one with the higher academic scores actually got more rejections because - I think - she did not come across as such a rounded character. They are going to expect related long term voluntary work, relevant work experience, lots of extra curricular activities (Duke of Edinburgh, playing an instument, representing the school at sport, head of societies at school etc.)

Regarding the resit, did he need to do this because he was entered early originally (Year 10)? If not, getting a grade B at GCSE in Year 11 would not be good if you want to study Medicine. Anyway, when he receives his AS results you will have a clearer idea of his likelihood of success in applying I think.

I will look for the link, but I've read that "needing extra curric stuff" is just a myth. That top universities are actually looking for genuine passion and enthusiasm for the subject and real ability in that area, plus high all-round ability. Subject-related work experience or voluntary work, very valuable. But grade 7 in Flute or silver DofE makes very little impact.

When I was at uni the standard offers were BBB for medicine (Nottingham), but in practice nearly everyone was predicted and got at least 4 A grades.

Alypaly,
I do feel for your son, he must be very upset. As someone else asked, do you have to declare this info to them or do they check with school? I ask as the mother of son who has just re-sat Biology for the same reason as your son, to nudge the B to an A.

allegedly DofE is good, but only if you've done bronze, sliver and gold (shows commitment) and can link it to skills you've acquired, so pick your community service appropriately.

DS is applying for medicine this year. I've left much of the process to him, but am all too aware of just how competitve medicine has now become. Some uni's no longer accept resit marks , some have stringently high GSCE levels (and many are using this as a point-scoring system as part of the application clearance process - certainly the two we visited this sat), and some value wrok experience in a healthcare setting and again use it as pat of their ranking process.
There are med schools which give less rating to GCSE grades - Leicester I believe is one.

When we visited Cambridge DS was advised that although the official offer for the course he is interested in asks for A, A, A, in reality, most (or all?) students will have over 90% in all their A levels (so effectively 3x A ), plus a fourth A level.