Medicine 2018 part 3

[SomersetS]

Hope you all find this - didn't realise I took 999! Whoops.

Goodbyestranger - we asked that question at Leicester & certainly in 3&4 they send you out on placement with a group of students you choose between yourselves. They also return to base at weekends & at times during the year so can keep in touch. Particularly important in 4 when all your "non Medic" friends will have left. Mostly 5&6 more like a job than Uni I believe.

Operamedecinemum - definitely Student Village - it's nice & apparently all freshers tend to go there.
DD preferred Ashcroft House, Pavilions, Coppice, Digby. To be fair we liked nearly everything we saw but DD is adamant she wants ensuite even "if she pays the difference herself!" Self-catered though there was quite a nice food court.

Esussexmum Welcome - my DD chose Leicester too. Seems to be a few.

Arctic Monkeys - DD not bothered but younger DS desperate to go. Complicated by fact that Bham is nearest & 15/9.
Leicester website indicated that accommodation for medics is 40 weeks starting week earlier than other courses on 15/9.
Whoops.

Great thank you . We shall have a look at accommodation on Saturday- definitely wants to be at Oadby so that’s good to know too thanks

Leicester applicants - now we've seen them this made me chuckle. Tongue in cheek.

thetab.com/uk/leicester/2015/11/26/whats-best-halls-leicester-8297/amp

Good luck to everyone trying to get Arctic Monkeys tickets this morning!

It's a serious business moving mountains!! DD's 18th in a couple of weeks so would make perfect bday present.

Somehow got 2 tickets for Bham on Sunday. Didn't even know Sunday was an option, was logged in for Saturday I thought! Actually will work better though late night with school next day. Lucky DS. Hope others successful.

well done Somersets! Managed to get 2 tickets for sheffield on the tues, no idea where they are in the arena but DD won't care! Hope you got some moving mountains!

That was so stressful as got logged out of gigs and tours at last minute - have now managed to get one on the Tuesday - phew!!!

specialted has your DD got a named hall at Nottingham then? DS's accommodation email just says University Park so wondering if we should ask for specifics?

Katisha, yes she is in derby hall. Nottingham website application didn't mention it but email from accommodation people said so, along with contracts etc

OK thanks - our email doesn't specify. I'll get DS to ask.

Oh no the stress is building. DD had a post-mock Chemistry meltdown. This is going to be a tough 6 weeks ladies.
I wouldn't do upper-sixth ever again.

I hope she's doing ok Somerset! Did the mock not go so well?

DD is still fairly (too??) relaxed. She still hasn't picked her firm and insurance universities, she is planning on deciding "this week"! Anyone elses DC not decided yet?

I think the stress is getting to them all. DD did really badly in a recent biology test which has thrown her a bit. Everyone falling out at school which is adding to the stress, hoping DD not getting too distracted by it all. Hope everyone's DC are hanging in there. And mums!

DS not firmed yet either!!

I have written on blackboard on kitchen walk when he has to do it by ... although I know he knows it!!

Too much stress here - although bit of improvement since return to school. Have been at Doctors twice in last week - headaches and now bad indigestion- dr was lovely and have DS lots of tips. Told me to drink gin and lots of it 🤣
DS1 still has 8000 words of dissertation to write by May 😫
Gin ladies Gin and lots of it!!!!!

My year 11 v stressed. The year 13 seems v swan like- I'm waiting for the crash. She had travel jabs yesterday for trip in July and was chatting to nurse about doctor jabs (I was designated driver as she 'doesn't like needles' - when stuck in her). The Hep B sounds nasty !!! She has firmed but says it still fells weird to have turned offers down as she worked so hard to get them. Think it's tough to chose somewhere as they never let themselves believe they would have that choice. At DDs old school (she moved to 6th form college) most have no offers ☹️

DD is still fairly (too??) relaxed
Same here :( It's her natural personality, she just doesn't do stress, but that means that I'm the one anxious that she isn't doing enough. I've had to stop bringing up the matter of revising because she had stopped talking to be about anything as I always ended up asking her about her revision and it got on her nerves. I have to trust her. I do and I know that she is perfectly aware of what's at stake, but it's quite disconcerting to see her so laidback. Then again, that's how she was before her interviews. As she said to me last week 'mum, I don't do emotional'. I do wonder sometimes whether she'd been swapped at birth because we are all emotional freaks in the family.

Can't win: they stress, we stress with them, they don't stress, we stress for them!

Is anyone else still following on here whose DC hasn't received any offers? DD is battling on to try to get grades and we are clinging to hopes of waiting list places. Failing that, she really can't decide whether to take a gap year / study BioMed and then try for postgrad medicine. I have come to the point in parenting where I don't even have advice to give. #emotionalexhaustion (and that's just me!)

movednorth, decisions will be up for review, in August, so if possible it may help to set them aside, with this in mind.

The recent 'norms' for the subject are:
Some 30-40% of current offer holders will not start in 2018.
Some 10% of those starting in autumn hold no offers pre-July.
At least a third of some 20,000 applicants (99+% nonMN DC) hold no offers.

Those with results and graduate applicants are far better placed in the selection process, than they were when 17/18 years old. Apart from the usual food on tap, stability and availability, there is little else parents can offer... though regular treats tend to go down well all round.

for moved north.

I strongly recommend the gap year. Not least come July your DD will be exhausted. That year's maturity, resiliance and experience will not go amiss. Not will any small aount of savings they are able to put aside.

If anything grad medicine is more competitive, and expensive.

It depends how much your DD wants to do medicine. If there is any chance she will look back in 10 or 20 years time and regret not having given it a second go, she should give it a second go. If she gets the grades she should have as good as, if not better chance, as others. (Plus she is a MN DC.)

Needmoresleep, thanks for the gin. My tipple of choice, and always welcome. Forgive my ignorance and I'll probably feel stupid when you tell me, but what's MN DC?? I've been encouraging DD to take the offer of BioMed and go and have a great time ... but I'm beginning to waver. I think it's head over heart. And she changes her mind from one day to the next. There's no easy answer, is there? Maryso, those stats are very reassuring. So maybe the waiting lists aren't such a long shot after all?

Oh my gosh 30-40% won't start!!!!! That stat is giving me heart palpitations. All the girls bar one in Y13 in my school last year took up their medicine offers (mainly as they all seemed to take dropped grades) so I assumed this was normal!