Medicine 2018 part 2

[LoniceraJaponica]

New thread here

[2B1Gmum]

OMG, so much good news Booface & Watford - lovely to have choices but so hard to take time out to think about them, visit them ? and focus on A levels too... Booface I know a medic at Newcastle and he has been very happy there and also intercalated - Newcastle is a fun city with lots going on - but Edinburgh if a fab city and Watford I am fascinated by St Andrews, DH golf mad so familiar with it from that perspective!

SomersetS I think it was very organised of Liverpool to look at deferred first - I wonder what percentage apply for deferred? Clearly the majority will be for this 2018 entry so I expect mid to late next week - fingers crossed, I think a few of this thread are waiting for news from them. Is it York applicant day this weekend? I hope the visit helps your DD. I will be interested to hear feed back.

[specialted]

watford and boo face, great news, big congratulations to your DCs! Lovely to hear all the offers coming in now.

[watfordmummy]

Thanks @muddlethro, we won't head back up there so relying on what we saw on offer day and on his interview day. I haven't seen Soto and DS hasn't been in the town so going to head there over Easter.

Secretly I want him to go to St Andrews but then I love him to be closer to home...

This is too too hard, although today did make him happy about his reserve choice of Bio Chemistry

[muddlethro]

His reserve choice came through too...that’s really excellent! Hopefully visiting Southampton at Easter will make things clearer for him. There’s nothing like visiting a place to get a ‘feel’ for whether we can see ourselves living there!
St. A’s is a long way, esp from Watford. Our friend’s son also started there in Sept (reading Classics) and they live in Caterham. They have found it cheaper and quicker to fly him up and down! He too is loving the ‘magic’ of St. Andrews! 😊

[watfordmummy]

I know, St Andrews does have a kind of magic about it. Our families both live in Edinburgh so closer to them; so he would have a support system there for emergencies.

He's 18 now so it really is his choice (aaarrggghhhh)

[Movingmountains]

Congratulations to everyone with the rush of offers today - it is so lovely to hear everyone’s good news. Lots of difficult (but good) decisions to be made. 😀

[Skiiltan]

I thought I'd posted this earlier but I obviously pressed preview and then forgot to press post.

Because Anglia Ruskin has been allocated 100 places for September 2018 entry, they are now accepting direct applications (i.e. not through UCAS). If your daughter/son applied last October and doesn't have any offers, she/he might want to explore this: www.anglia.ac.uk/medical-science/about/school-of-medicine.

They will need to have taken UKCAT last summer. Standard AAA offer, and resits accepted. Minimal GCSE requirements but I don't know whether they use GCSE grades in selecting for interview.

They haven't posted a deadline but I'd imagine they'll close when they feel they have enough applications.

[Jon1970]

Hi, my DD has had offers from Edinburgh and Birmingham, rejected by Nottingham and still waiting to hear back from Bristol. Does anyone know how long the process will take to run at Bristol (I think some offers have gone out already??).

[Skiiltan]

UCAS rules say all decisions have to be made by the end of March.

[mumsneedwine]

2nd May is UCAS decision day ! And that's only if all your choices have replied by 31st March. Don't panic

[muddlethro]

Congratulations to your DD Jon1970 😊. Which uni is her first choice? 🤔

[mumsneedwine]

Oh and unfortunately Unis can give decisions after 31st March. Know several medics over last few years who have had offers in June

[Forest62]

Hi.dd in happy dilemma and needs to choose between edinburgh and Newcastle. Sheffield will be back-up. Anyone have any thoughts between edinburgh and Newcastle.?

[Skiiltan]

mumsneedwine

That's often just medical schools activating their reserve lists. UCAS requires universities to make decisions by the 31st of March: anyone with a decision outstanding at that point is rejected by default. But the medical schools will often contact applicants to say they're not being made an offer at that point but will be contacted later on if there are likely to be places available. It's outside UCAS's normal processes but is pretty much inevitable because medical & dental schools get fined (heavily) if they recruit even one student over their published number, and therefore often err on the side of caution in the number of offers they make initially. I suspect a few will get caught out this year by places at Anglia Ruskin suddenly becoming available and students disappearing from their reserve lists.

[mumsneedwine]

Makes sense Skilitan. Making decisions is so hard when still waiting for offers. But will all over next week

[peteneras]

Forest62, for me it's Edinburgh without a shadow of a doubt. One of the world's finest medical schools!

[Jon1970]

Muddlethro

I think she will go for Edinburgh because of the ranking, although she also liked Birmingham and Bristol so that would be a tougher choice for #2. She liked the fact that there is a huge new hospital right next door, at Birmingham. On the flip side, Bristol is a nice city with a nice vibe.
Thanks to others for the useful info, much appreciated. Best of luck to all....our kids just need the grades now, sometimes feels like it might be easier than getting the offers!

[Jon1970]

The irony is that we spent a lot of time and money going to look at 6 medical schools....and didn't even go to the open day at Edinburgh and of course there was no interview so DD has not even been there yet.....

[muddlethro]

Congratulations to your DD Forest62. They are both excellent medical schools, and great city’s for student life. It’s wonderful to have the choice between two such fantastic medical schools....decisions, decisions....! 😊
Jon1970, maybe your daughter could take a trip up to Edinburgh over the Easter holidays, but it is a fantastic city. My DS turned Birmingham down, opting instead for a smaller uni, although he did like the medical school (a lot) and course structure at Birmingham.
His friend is at Bristol, and although she had a shaky start (friendship issues), she is now really enjoying it....😊

[outofmydepth2]

I have been reading this thread with interest and trying to keep up. My son is looking to apply next year. He has good but not amazing GCSE’s (5a* 1a and 4bs) he has done volunteering etc and is at national
Level in his sport (one that should be eligible for university scholarships). He is very keen on Edinburgh and Birmingham but can anyone advice if his GCSEs are too low please and where else to look whilst you are still freshly in the research phase? Thank you in advance

[Minikew]

Avoid Birmingham as they are very GCSE heavy - check their website as they even specify certain subjects (e.g. A* Eng) Edinburgh scores GCSEs - they are very open about their admissions procedure so it's worth looking at that.

[movednorth]

Hi outofmydepth2 (I think we have all felt out of our depth at some point in the past few months, haven't we mums!!). I would not honestly recommend applying to Edinburgh in your DS's situation. They don't interview, and they weight their scoring heavily in favour of GCSE and A level grades/predictions as well as UKCAT. My DD scored 36 out of 40 on their scoring system this year didn't get an offer, so there's not much wriggle room! Similarly, Birmingham seem only to have interviewed applicants with As and As this year. My DD has 11 As so we looked specifically for the unis where that might help (as it turned out, no offers at all this year), but there are others which have different criteria.

[mumsneedwine]

Um do we need a new thread ? No clue how to do that but would hate to lose you all now!
Congratulations to all the holders of lovely offers - it's such a nice feeling.
And I would suggest looking at all the Uni admissions requirements - there is a great spreadsheet on medic portal I think (google !). Some require 6 As and then it's all down to UKCAT - Sheffield, Newcastle and Southampton spring to mind. A lot score GCSEs such as Liverpool, Nottingham & UEA and use along with PS and UKCAT. I'd avoid B'ham, Oxford, Cardiff, Exeter, Edburgh as they are v GCSE heavy. Best thing to do is ace the UKCAT and/or BMAT. And apply to Unis that like that to ensure interviews. He can easily get offers as once he's got an interview most don't care about the other stuff.
I really would suggest going to open days of the ones he likes as admissions tutors are great at making their application criteria open so you know what they want and count. Good luck - it's a long old process 😁

[SomersetS]

We need lonicerajaponica she got us a new thread before. Hope she's still watching and saw the advice about Anglia Ruskin. Come back lonicera!

Outofmydepth2 - you need a spreadsheet! Start with all Unis offering Medicine and then nite down their min GCSE requirements. Some will require 6As, some more.

If they use scoring, calculate where you are with GCSEs excl UKCAT at this stage.

Then with the ones you have left I recommend (with a glass of wine in one hand) trawling TSR threads for each Uni between 1 Sept & March to see what the suggestions are about cut offs & make notes.

My gut would suggest that both Edinburgh & Birmingham May be too risky & grades not high enough.

Also do not apply to Cardiff without 8As.

Consider & check requirements at Plymouth, HYMS, Liverpool & Leicester, St George's.

Register for UKCAT - suggest July/Aug rather than late, to give yourself time to work out the most sensible options.

Agree with great UKCAT score then Sheffield (>670) & Newcastle (>680 ish) would be obvious choices.

It's absolutely possible with less thanks all As but it is all about strategic choices.

Also there may be some new choices on the horizon! Lincoln (Notts) for example.

Liverpool..... drums fingers ....