Medicine 2020

[EightToSixer]

Ok, so I know it's super early, but I've been hovering at the medicine 18 and 19 threads. DD is keen to apply for medicine in 2020. Is anyone else in the same boat?
I thought it would be useful to share info and stories, it's all a very steep learning curve because despite me now having a PhD and working in a RG university I was late to learning and not a patch on my DD who is very driven and organised.
Hopefully people will find this group and we can share the rollercoaster of the next two years.

@lljkk when SJT is used as part of an interview score each med school decides how to do it for their process. For example at Sheffield it is a virtual MMI station and their stations are scored on a scale of 1-5 so you get 5 for band 1, 4 for band 2 etc. Edinburgh gives 12.5% for SJT, but we don't know how percentages map onto bands.

Your DD will get the maximum for that element of her interview score with her band 1.

@Embracelife no, you don't have to make a 5th choice and if you do, you can do it any time up to 15th Jan or in Extra or in Clearing.

My DS had a 5th choice (just because he knew it meant he would have an offer) but never really considered accepting it. He did not get any offers so is taking a gap year and re-applying with achieved grades which is a nice position to be in. Everything feels a bit easier second time round and 2 of his choices are different based on what he has learnt this time round. He now feels quite happy about the gap year although he would not have chosen it initially.

"UCAS form submitted. Does anyone know what the time frame for interviews is? Do they get any choice about dates or times? Do they go by themselves or take parents or friend?"

Apologies - haven't been following these Medicine threads for a while. . .

DS just finished his F2 recently and I remember back in 2011 when he submitted his UCAS Form from boarding school with barely 24 hours to go, I went berserk!

What if, on this last day the UCAS computer goes kaput and crashed, I asked myself? Well, luckily it didn't and the first interview offer came from a central London school almost immediately offering him an interview on a date that had just passed! Is this a joke or what, or is this fake news, I remember asking myself?

DS emailed the school pointing out the error date and got a new date for the following week. I accompanied him to the school on the day to ensure no more unwelcome surprises etc because DS had never visited before - logistical impracticalities when at boarding school.

DS duly got an offer soon after.

"Anyone knowledgeable about admissions and fee status? Dd upset one of her choices is asking her to complete extra forms to determine her status. She is dual citizen. . ."

There is a huge difference between home/EU students and overseas students in tuition fees and especially in a course like Medicine. The number of overseas students allowed into medical schools in the UK is strictly regulated by the UK government. So it is not at all surprising medical school(s) in the UK are asking your DD all those questions especially with a history/status like hers. Other schools may well ask the same nearer the time when their (hopefully) offers are accepted by your DD - the same applies to all offerees, home or overseas, when offers are being accepted; so no need to get upset. There'll be plenty of opportunities for that in the 5 or 6 years ahead when at medical school especially when dealing with difficult patients and/or senior colleagues!

I think perhaps I used too strong a word. She was ... a bit brought up short ... a bit surprised. As we understood things 3 years was the standard and she will have been home five. So it seems a bit ... off I suppose. Her school has never come across this before. As I said I wonder if it will come up later with the younger kids. Maybe 7 years is enough, or 9 for the next along? Maybe we will have extra questions every time. Maybe there is never a point when families have been home long enough that what is in black and white on a form is just believed. We have filled in the form. Just another requirement. I had a more emotional response tbh worried that I had misunderstood the rules. Not that we came home just in time, we had other reasons, much more personal and more pressing, but it was commonly discussed by expat families with older kids than ours. Anyway it is done. Just feel now I have mis-represented her. I'm sure much of what is ahead of her in medicine (fingers crossed) is going to challenge her in many ways ... and truly affect her deeply but this was not deeply upsetting for her at all. I should obviously be more careful of the words I use!

Oh and I just checked in since this is the day! All choices will be locked in now - all the best of luck for all our DC. Hoping for lots of exciting news in the coming months! 🤞

Interviews will happen from any time from early November until March. Some went into May last year. It's a long process and can be tortuous waiting for an interview. No news is good news !

I have heard that universities don't have access to UCAT scores until Mid November? Is that correct? Given that, they know everyone's percentile now I assumed universities would know immediately. DD has had a response to her UCAS application from Plymouth saying they can expect to hear from them within 14 working days, and another saying 5 working days received 4 minutes later. Both deadlines have now passed so I'm assuming that deadline is for non-medicine courses? It's all very confusing. It would be nice to start hearing from UCAT institutions while she's still waiting for her BMAT.

@jojojowo Nottingham request came via email last week, not long after she submitted her form - maybe a couple of days. She’s got to upload the information to the portal (if she ever gets around to it 🙄) but she does have a deadline of the 17th. Maybe they do it in batches?

I think dd said unis get the ucat scores on the 5th nov? Maybe someone can confirm?

Yep -5th Nov.
For any DC's applying to Sheffield this timeline was really useful.

www.sheffield.ac.uk/medicine/prospective_ug/applying/whathappens

Meant we had a heads up on when we could expect to receive interviews/offers etc. DS could then be reminded to check his emails. Otherwise The Student Room was useful (I followed each of the threads for the Uni's DS had applied to and there was usually posts when interviews and offers/rejections were sent out (although for some uni's it was a more protracted process than others). For Newcastle with it's high UCAT threshold, I was able to prepare DS for the pending rejection (as other candidates with scores similar to his were posting they had been rejected).

Re 5th Choice DS didn't use his last year and when he missed his grades he was then offered biomed science from both his firm and insurance. He liked the courses but didn't want to delay entry by going the graduate route, however a few of the biomed courses consider transfer to medicine at the end of Year 1 (eg Newcastle) so in retrospect it may have been useful to have applied there as a 5th as it would have increased his options. This year he's just put 4 choices but I asked him to consider a 5th and add it later.

Sheffield will shortly after 5th put the actual score up above which you'll get an interview Really lovely as know where you stand really early. DDs advice for interview is be yourself, but know why you want to be a doctor and why that Uni. And be prepared for anything !!

@ladsmum in case it is useful to know, Newcastle Biomed is always in clearing (according to the Biomed Admissions Tutor). Standard offer AAB but they always accept ABB and often less.

Most recent email from UCAT said results can be downloaded from 31 Oct. We then have to import them into our own databases and check for missing/mismatched results, etc. It's amazing how many students can't enter their UCAS personal ID (or even their name) correctly on an electronic form.

I don't think there was an option to enter UCAS PID on UCAT site. I assume they have to use name and address to link.

Thanks, received email now, deadline 24 th Oct

Thanks SirToby - just reminded me to check that DS has added his UCAS number correctly to his UCAT form (he may have put last year's number)!

ladsmum How do you add UCAS number to UCAT form? I've asked DS to check following your post and he can't see where to do it!

According to the UCAT website candidates don't need to do any thing.

"You do not need to tell us your choices or UCAS PID or pass your test result to your universities yourself. "

Never had to put UCAT details on UCAS before. It's all sent directly and then on to Unis ?? No one told us differently at school this year

Sorry. Didn't mean to cause panic. I haven't taken the test myself so I didn't know this. We only receive the results for the students who have applied to our university, so they must be being matched against UCAS IDs. I assumed this was given by the student when registering for the test, but of course they could be taking the test before setting up a UCAS account, so it must be done in a different way.

Anyway, we always end up with some missing results that we have to chase, and some results for students we can't trace because they've withdrawn their application before we see the UCAT results.

DS registered on UKCAT website last year and was required to add his UCAS number (when he had it) to his account. He has used the same account for this year's test. When I checked his UCAT "my profile" recently I couldn't see this field so maybe they have changed how they are linking candidates to they're UCAS choices.

sorry "their" not "they're"

DD has applied which is a relief.
She put all her eggs in one basket: chose all London Unis.
On paper her application looks very strong, only 2 minor, not great aspects. She doesn't have leadership much in her PS (UCL grades the PS) and her work experience may be weak (imho).

As a good scientist I'm interested in the experiment so .. will she get interview offers?

In mean time she's having a blast of a social life, new boy on the scene although it's "not serious"... and she owes us money. Back to ordinary teenage parenting for a while. :)