Medicine Applications 2017

[adski]

As UKCAT season is in full swing and I can't find a thread anywhere else I thought I'd start this off. This is for parents of children looking to apply for Medicine at University with courses starting in 2017. UCAS application is only a couple of months away. It is hard to watch our kids put themselves through so much to work in the hardest profession imaginable and I thought it might be useful to start some sort of discussion here.

Pete, I think the landscape has changed since the 2010 Equalities Act. Medical schools need to be careful to have clear criteria and to treat everyone equally. KCl is now MMI, with, according to a medic friend, quite a lot of evaluation to make sure interviewers score uniformly. (She was she was too generous, when she had thought she was being tough.)

Individual scores may be known early but the percentiles which contribute to many school's interview thresholds, are not known till a couple of days before the UCAS deadline and have been known to vary wildly from one year to another.

The whole process is much more uniform now. Partly a good thing, but also an encouragement for students to tick the boxes rather than be themselves. Even Bristol, the last hold out, is using UKCAT this year.

The mmi stations are a real challenge for those from deprived background who often at 17/18 lack the confidence, self esteem, articulation and money to afford interview prep courses. One of my mentees was recently allowed onto a interview course free courtesy of an access scheme and he said every other student there had attended 4 plus such courses over the summer and more up to December. Also all the skills they require at mmi are taught during the degree if you are in the top 5-10% who get offered a place. More emphasis should be placed on interview for those bright enough to get an interview. The whole admissions process is really favorable to those in the know and those that can afford the many courses available, or who attend sixth forms which help with interview prep specifically for med. Individuality is stifled which is a shame.

Power, I don't think interview courses are necessary if you are comfortable talking to adults. A skill that med schools will be looking for. If you are not, then you need to practice, but simply good exposure to different people from different backgrounds should do the trick.

A whole industry has grown up around medical school applications. But access to the additional coaching should not be necessary for a good candidate, who has read around their subject and has the inter-personal skills required of a medic. A personal view, but I would also counsel against a chippy, the world is unfair, view. Much better to go in with a view that you are a strong candidate. So much is required so there will be ups and downs. UKCAT is essential, yet tough on dyslexics, application of contextual information is uneven , some kids will be trained like sleek racehorses for years in advance. So choose where you apply carefully, play to your strengths, do your best, and be prepared to reapply.

I agree Needmore, my DD got three offers from three interviews and didn't do any practice courses.

What she did think was important for MMI was:
Know your PS inside and out
Take every opportunity you can to link the topics discussed to what you learned on your work experience, volunteering and any school and out of school sports/drama/positions of leadership
Know the NHS guiding principles and again be able to link these to the questions you are asked
Get used to role play (drama teachers can help with this even if you don't do drama)
Get an MMI questions book and think about how you would answer the questions (we used to discuss these round the dinner table)
Gen up on NHS stance on the most common ethics debates (eg who gets the transplant organ)
Make sure you can answer the 'why do you want to be a doctor' question
Make sure your data analysis skills are up to scratch and it would do no harm to practice this in a very noisy place as the interview halls are not quiet places!

Also read all the content on the medical school's website, so if asked why you want to go there you know about options for intercalation, student societies, course structure and so on. A bit about the broader opportunities offered by the University might also be useful.

My daughter's applied for Edinburgh, Leeds, Leicester and Newcastle. Anxiously checking her ucas every hour or so

Tell me about it, a lot of her friends have already received interviews, my daughter has applied to Birmingham, Newcastle, Leeds and Nottingham. Could be waiting sometime yet.

Yes there seems to be no second guessing the unis. Some have already been invited to interviews. Others are still waiting for an acknowledgement email.

My dd heard just before Christmas for a Leeds interview at the end of January when applied. Hth

Do the younger students straight from sixth form stand any chance? From what I've seen the sixth formers hardly get a look in with most of those selected being graduates, mature students or second/ third time applicants. Does anyone know the ratios for applicants who apply and are accepted straight from a levels?

I dont know the ratio, but there are less graduate entry places and so more graduates are applying to undergraduate courses, which is very expensive as they can't get any type of student loan. You are right its probably getting harder for A level students to get into medical school.

Applicant numbers are falling so ratios are probably better than a few years ago. I don't think there is a problem for strong candidates applying in Yr 13, and others will get stronger simply by having the year out, having A level grades under their belt, and gaining experience and maturity.

It ought to get easier still in a few years if medical schools are expanded as promised.

Taking a gap year is not a bad thing. DD has a summer term birthday, and decided quite late in the day to defer her offer. Yr 13 was tough, and she did not want to go straight into first year medicine without a chance to draw breath. She is having a great time, busy but in a very different way, and gaining a different set of skills. And it is so nice to have her at home without the pressure of school, exams and UCAS.

Its much easier if you can see it as a two year process, with the first year as a practice round, getting a place as a bonus, and the priority being getting the best grades possible. Though, obviously, easier said than done.

DD2 had a friend who got in this year and DD1 had 2 friends last year - all straight from 6th form - and they were the only ones that applied for medicine from their school.

I think at DD's medical school (Leeds) the vast majority have come straight from 6th form.

At her school 5 out of 6 medical applicants got a place applying from 6th form. In the previous year one person had not got in and he reapplied and was accepted by Cambridge after a gap year.

At the moment a lot of applicants gaining interviews seem to be gap yr/graduates for some schools, simply because they seem to send them out in batches. And of course Newcastle only look at your ukcat score to determine whether you'll be interviewed. I'm thinking dd is close to cutoff one way or another, it's her 1st choice too so really feeling for her. Her friend got a great ukcat score but didn't perform that well in AS/gcse's, so she's pleased for her, but secretly a little miffed

Discussions on other forums seem to think the cut off for Newcastle will be around 680, but who knows, its so hard for them when other students in their school have already received interviews and could potentially have an offer before the end of the year.

And hard for those who didn't do as well in ukcat and are bmat reliant and still waiting for results. It's going to be a stressful for few months.

Power - don't give up hope. I know two applicants who have good grades, mediocre UKCAT and a high contextual score who got interview dates this week.

That's good news imogen. I hope they do well.

Power - about the young people you are mentoring - have they attended any widening participation events since they submitted their UCAS forms ? If so, they need to ask the university to go into their application and update the revelant section, as this may increase their contextual score .

They have done a widening access event shadowing a Dr. However they didn't specifically mention the widening access scheme in their ps but did cover what they learnt from the shadowing experience. Do you think they should ring the uni and mention that the shadowing was part of a widening access scheme they were accepted onto? Or will the uni in question already know they took part?

There's a section on the UCAS form in which they should have completed which is for any widening access schemes, summer schools etc .

If they did 3 days prior to 15 October they will have put that down . If they have done another two days since then, they can't access their form to add the extra two days but the university can do it on their behalf . The extra days might give them more points.

I'm not sure if the other universities they have applied for will see the amended entry. Or if the university will have added it automatically . It it's worth asking.

So this only matters if they have done anything extra on the scheme since 15 October .

Than you for clarifying. It's a minefield and I know my two mentees are already behind with a level study having ploughed all their energies into ukcat and bmat.

BMAT results in 40 mins ago. Didn't bomb so she's happy

What is a good score?