Medicine 2018 part 2

[LoniceraJaponica]

New thread here

Great news on the Nottingham offer mumsneedwine !

My DD also doesn't know which place to firm, as she liked all she applied to, so she wont decide until she's been to offer holder days. The Leicester one she's going to is 14th April, so I think it will be a late decision!

Interesting that most people had parents with them on offer holder days as my friend has said that I should let DD go on her own as she will be at Uni on her own, and so I was unsure if it was OK to go or not. Don't know if I'm just being nosy or if I'm really justified in saying that it helps for her to have someone to talk to about it!

The Chemistry teacher issue continues. DD is adamant that she doesn't want a tutor and gets quite worked up when I mention it! Apparently they have finished the course and the school are interviewing on Thursday this week.....

I do understand that our dcs may not want us on offer holders and that is fine. However the universities are geared up for parents and know that most of us will be helping fund their time at Uni so they want us on side too. E.g. self catered accommodation £6000 - maintenance loan £3800 ish. Who pays the difference, cost of food, books, gym membership etc. Maintenance for want of a better word is nearer to £10000 - so if parents are helping pay then it is understandable we want to see accommodation etc. Also we tend to think about different things, e.g. I asked about transport to the hospitals and gp practises (I am not envisaging buying dd a car - although some have had to). But it is also just as important the we feel reassured about this course that is in effect a job training and feel proud to be the parent of (hopefully) a future doctor. I will not stop worrying about dds choice for some time, but visit days and offer holder days have alleviated some of my worries

It's good to hear so much good news. I'm losing track of the offers now but just in case anyone is waiting on UEA, they have started updating the UCAS tracker with the first offers today. No emails yet just on Track 😊

btw birmingham offers coming out now. DD got one, came as an email from the medical school rather than track, so they didn't realise she'd withdrawn. She's very chuffed to get an offer but won't change anything.
Good luck to those waiting.

sluj has DC had offer from uea then? if so congrats!!!!

Hi speculated
DS got his offer and started at UEA in 2016 ! I am just vicariously enjoying the whole experience again on here 😁
Happy to share UEA experiences if needed

Specialted obviously 😁

@mumsneedwine fantastic news

Thanks everyone. Unfortunately all Notts offer days are booked - bit of a worry when apparently they've lots of offers still to give out. DD calling them this morning to ask but might make her decision easier as she thinks they now don't want her too much ! But she's enjoying another group chat - not sure much A level stuff going on this week.

I wonder if this might interest anyone without an offer yet? It's Anglia Ruskin's new med school info -

Thank you for your interest in the new School of Medicine – a very exciting development for Anglia Ruskin University.

Our medical education programme of the five year ‘Batchelor of Medicine, Batchelor of Surgery’ (MBChB) degree has been approved by the General Medical Council and will be quality assured for the first five years of the programme.
Full details on the MBChB course content and entry requirements are available on the website.

We are fully on track for a September 2018 intake of students but this is dependent on the allocation of additional government funded places for medical students and we expect this allocation announcement to be made in the near future.

When 2018 places are allocated, the application process will be after the UCAS October 2017 deadline for Medical applications and we will open applications on our University website. For 2019 places* onwards, the normal UCAS deadline will resume

Ooooo. Wow - a great opportunity if you live that side of the country & don't yet have an offer. An exciting opportunity. Wonder how many places they have.

Mumsneedwine Work Exp - does it need to be cows? I've just watched lambing on the local news & Bristol Vet school volunteers. There's a website called the Lambing List on the National Sheep Association which recruits helpers. To give opportunities to youngsters who don't have farming contacts.

www.nationalsheep.org.uk/next-generation/jobs-work-experience/lambing-experience/

Might be worth a look? Seems to have regional lists for wherever you live.

Personally I much prefer 🐑 to 🐄 !

Hello all - this is a real rollercoaster of a thread.
Well DS is down to the one offer which Nottingham and he seems happy with that.
Does anyone know how or if we can firm that and apply for accommodation when two of his three rejections haven't come through on UCAS Track and the ( unwanted) 5th choice basically hasn't communicated at all?

Thanks Somerset - sheep are good too. She was planning on lambing next Easter - one of her friends wants to be a Vet too so hopefully they can go away together. Not many sheep in Berks 😁.
Think once you firm an offer you can apply for accommodation within 24 hours. Notts were not helpful when my daughter rang today mainly because everyone was at the offer day. They couldn't tell her if any accommodation was left on campus or if more places would be offered for offer holders. Friends daughter is something in Medsoc and going to see if can help.

I think you can only firm an offer if all the decisions have come through from UCAS. Some Unis are very slow confirming rejections but he can simply withdraw from those Universities so that he can firm his choice and get on with reserving accomodation. I heard that Notts allocate accomodation on a first come first served basis but you may wish to confirm that as processes change from year to year.

sluj, thanks for the info re Anglia Ruskin. One of the other mums mentioned it a while back, but in the meantime our situation has changed! DD is looking into it. Seems ambitious to offer a course from Sept if they don't yet have funding! How quickly can they recruit teaching staff? Still, nothing to lose at this stage by gathering more info.

You can reject unis on ucas if you haven't heard from them, DD did that with Birmingham and Bristol as she wanted to firm the two she had. You just go press the reject or withdraw options on the ones you want to reject then you can firm the one you want.

Thanks. UCCA was much simpler in my day ! (Old...)

Birmingham have sent out an email to everyone with the station scores. One interesting fact for future reference is:

"We interviewed 1253 applicants and over 70% received an offer".

I think that might the highest number of offers of any medical school. Birmingham focus on school leavers (including gap years). If you score OK on their calculator it is worth a go, although I think you really need a higher score than the 7 they say is OK on the website. Above 8 is safer.

Herods that is interesting, although not one of DDs choices of my nephews is keen on medicine too. I don't envy admissions working out numbers and how much to over offer, how many places to Birmingham have? It indicates that most applicants get more than one offer. Still waiting on two here - although DD very happy with her one, it is at the back of both our minds. Especially if there is another offer to come and sorting out more offer holders days - I suspect some overlap.
Mumsneed belated congrats, but ridiculous that they haven't allowed enough places at offer holders. Even with medicine, some may not have had the chance for a proper look round, including accommodation etc. Tours were not offered at interview for any of DDs, so offer holders is an important part of the process. Do they have a waiting list of a student led Uni tour she could book?

2B1Gmum. It has gone up to nearly 400 places I think. But that isn't the issue, it's the number of offers that matters when you are applying, and the offer to interview ratio.
Getting interviews is fairly predictable based on GCSE's and UKCAT/BMAT at most places (except for Bristol and Leeds who focus on PS). It is what happens next is the thing.
Unfortunately most applicants don't get more than one offer. Only 50% of school leavers get any at all. It's something like 1.5 offers per person that gets one at all. If you get 3 or 4 you are in a very small minority.
This is why you have to focus extremely carefully on maximising the number of interviews. Personally I would not apply to Bristol for instance if they really have nearly 5000 applications for 900 interviews for 300 odd offers. It's just nuts. You have to really really like Clifton and a bed in Wills.

Herodshelper - I would say not to discount Bristol if you make other wise decisions. This was what we did. So we chose Sheffield for which we knew my DS was guaranteed an interview. My DS got 3 interviews (including Bristol) and so far has got 2 offers (just waiting on Liverpool). You wouldn’t want to do 4 risky choices but don’t discount places like Bristol

Mine still has an interview to go 😂 - snow delay. That's on Monday but I expect she will hear within a week as Southampton seem to have a fast turn round. She has been back in contact with Nottingham and they have been reasonably reassuring about accommodation. And the group chat has answered a lot of the questions about the value of the offer day - current students been helping her with questions which is very kind. I still love Sheffield as think their openness and kindness to the kids has been excellent so be v happy if she ends up there. DD said she won't wait for Liverpool but will make decision when hears from Soton - think she just wants to make a choice and forget about it now.

Best wishes to everyone still waiting. It has been a looooooonnnnng journey.

People applying for 2019/20 should be wary of Birmingham's calculator - it is misleading to imply that someone may get an interview with 7. I think it's more like 8.5 and up for possible interview. They have not released the 2018/19 yet and appear to be reluctant to do so.

Leeds give out just over 300 offers for 270 places. AAA offer.
Birmingham give out 900 for 400 places, but have an A*AA offer.
It's a strange disparity. Like to know why.