Medicine 2019 - Part 2

[Monkey2001]

Oops, looks like none of noticed the old thread was full!

@HostessTrolley @Hoodiemum @4catsham @mamamedic @medicmom @mimiasovitch @Nightowlpossibly @ProfessorLayton1 @Tinkobell @Weaverspin @Itsthekissing @Sluj @Mumneedswine @Movingmountains

Apologies to any regulars I have missed

Sorry @already ...I haven't got a clue what I said ...like a bloody goldfish memory span 😬 There was a whole debate a while back around someone's DC being FY1 and skint in London ...post choice regrets etc maybe? I'm not feeling hot under the collar about it now, so apologies if came across so. @Monkey nice to hear of your DS's chem Olympiad Gold...I'm told these things are very hard; DS had a crack at a physics and said it was very hard!
Glad people enjoyed Sheffield open day...we're up there in mid April.

Just wondering, are the offers-holders days definitely worth going to? We haven't booked on any yet, but I'm starting to wonder if we should. Are we missing out massively if we don't go? DD is pretty sure which offers she wants to accept, so I'm not sure what we'd gain - aside from visiting potential accommodation.

It's bad enough starting the worry about student loans and finance, without the stress of booking accommodation. It really is crazy that we have to do all this on trust - successfully negotiating all the hurdles - and just hoping they get the grades on results day...

@Weaverspin...we are only revisiting the first choice and another where DD felt she'd not had a full picture at the open day. The ones which had given a very complete open day are not being revisited....agree time is precious at this stage - we're not stopping overnight just having a long day and plan to sleep on the train. Good luck!

We’re going to the imperial one as I’m nosey - dd went to the open day with friends and the interview on her own, I want to see where she’s going (if she gets the grades) 😂. We don’t live too far away, and I’ve just got some bargain theatre tickets for the evening so all’s good.

We went to Sheffield because it’s the second of her two offers and she had reservations, so wanted another look. It was a rubbish journey as there was a closure on the A1 and a diversion which added two hours on, plus I felt pretty ill yesterday, but it did make a big difference to her perception of the uni - even though it was grey and rainy! As this will reduce her anxiety about the other unis not getting back to her it was time/money well spent I think. She said she feels a lot happier about Sheffield now so can chill out and concentrate on her studies - she’s saying if she was to get another offer it would be really hard to choose her insurance so in some ways it would be better if she didn’t.

Dd said some at her school are choosing not to go to offer holder events purely because they feel they can’t take half a day out of studying. She can’t get her head around this because they can spend half a day shopping or playing computer games - no one can study 24/7. She said if anything it’s good for motivation.

Well go for sure, as dd wants to check out the accommodation. It's also an opportunity for a more relaxed trip than we had on the interview day.

Hi All ,great to hear about your news offer holders day etc and to be very honest feeling slightly envious!We ve had another No, from Leicester this time,Dd says her interview was a disaster so it looks like that was an honest appraisal as her feedback reflected this! It was her first interview and I think she was so nervous...anyway only waiting on Liverpool now, but shes not holding out much hope. She does however seem to be staying positive and focused on getting THE grades as whatever happens this keeps her options open...I am very proud of how she is approaching it all. Gap year possibly on the horizon,we ll see.

I think if your kid already knows where they want to go, and no one thinks they're making a terrible mistake, then perhaps it's not worth it - depending on how far and expensive it is to travel. If the decision is causing stress, then the offer holder day is a great opportunity to see more. In our case, Sheffield was a last minute decision, swapped with Queen's Belfast because of increasing worries about potential Brexit fallout. Just an online open day event and an interview without a tour weren't enough to go on, so we were glad we visited again.

Sorry about your DD's no from Leicester, 4Cats. Glad she's managing to stay positive, and fingers crossed for Liverpool. If not, gap years are a marvellous thing...

Thanks hoodiemum its all a big learning curve and you know I m thinking we ll just roll with whats unfolding !good luck everyone else with choices,mocks and those still awaiting offers.

4cats, so sorry to hear about Leicester. Liverpool could still be good news, but if not, remember that most applicants do not get offers first time so she is in good company!

For DS, time has been a great healer and he has started to feel positive about a gap year, has several things which he would like to do which will mean he gets real benefit from the year as well as having the chance to grow up a bit. I think that maybe the people who have had paid jobs and lived in the "real world" have an advantage over him in interviews.

If your DD does not get an offer from Liverpool and really wants to start in 2019, from my research there are still a lot of options.

UCAS Extra - Still showing Lancaster (but that is BMAT) and Nottingham, Lincoln pathway. Maybe more will come up later, I don't know

Clearing - St George's, London has a policy of keeping places for really good candidates they might pick up around results day. There may be others, if there are any that DD is interested in, she could contact them and find out what their policy is if they have vacancies on results day.

Waiting lists - Getting student numbers right is a fine balancing act and they don't know which "firm" offer holders will get the grades and which "insurance" offer holders will take up their places, so on results day there is a lot of movement. Some med schools only like to take people they have already interviewed and did not score highly enough for an offer, but they only keep applicants who have no offers on waiting/reserve list. Others (such as Newcastle) will not re-consider applicants in a cycle in which they have rejected them. Leeds notify people in May if they are on the reserve list. Sheffield have already notified people who have Reserve places, but several of them (including Mimiasovitch and Weaverspin DDs have other offers), so it may be that they allow more people onto the reserve list once people have chosen firm and insurance choices if they don't have enough left. It is worth finding out what the policies are of the ones where your DD has had interviews.

One thing which is definitely worth bearing in mind is that it is very difficult to get through on results day to the med schools which have vacancies, so if that is the way your DD wants to go (if Liverpool does not work out) she should get together a list of the med schools she is interested in and their phone numbers before results day to maximise her chance of managing to communicate with them.

Fingers crossed for Liverpool, but hope that your DD adjusts to it as well as my DS did if she does not get any offers.

are the offers-holders days definitely worth going to?
DD went to all three of her offers despite le distance for one and would highly recommend to everyone with options to do so. She said that it is then she had a real feel of what the course would be like (as opposed to the town, uni, accommodation etc...) and whrn you get exposed to considerations she hadn't been so much before like for instance technology available. She also said there was quite a variance in how well organised the day was and efforts made compared to the sessions before interviews and she felt that gave her a better view of what it was likely to be during the course.

It's after the offer days that she had no more doubt at all where she wanted to go.

About offer holder days, dd actually met and kept in touch with a few people she had met on the day (they had a full day of medicine activities and a visit to the dissection room) , which was great for when she started in the September. She arranged to walk in with them on the first day, which was reassuring for her. I think her offer day was slightly later and most people had firmed by then.

If your DD gets the grades, St Georges is worth a look. Tooting is a nice suburb (great Lido and some very good curry) towards the southern end of the Northern line. So London but not really London. Doctors we have met who trained there, seem to invariably say nice things about it, as it is small, you are in hospital environment from the outset, and the student population is well bonded. So different from many medical schools, but not necessarily worst than somewhere more traditional.

Not sure what you mean by "more traditional". St George's has had a medical school since 1733. Is that too recent?

No, I did not mean that. I meant that, say, unlike Bristol or Birmingham it is not part of a larger multi faculty University.

Quite a lot of students seem to put off SGUL because it is ‘London’.My point was that even if this is a concern, it is worth a look as it provides a different experience to, say, Imperial, UCL or Kings.

Though happy to be corrected.

SGUL has been in clearing for the past few years, so I feel it is worth considering whether it might suit. I am also aware that there are a number of MN posters, though not necessarily medic-mums, who are quick to post about how difficult it is to be a student in London. That was not our experience, and specifically I don't think SGUL offers a typical large London teaching hospital experience.

Just catching up with you the thread...
Well done Money2001's DS - have heard that Chemistry Olympiad is really tough!
Good to hear that there are some more offers..: Sheffield is a great university for Medicine. Have worked with some really talented medics from there...
4cat - hopefully your Dd will get some good news from Liverpool soon..

needmoresleep, I read your non-traditional bit of SGUL to mean the course is CBL, and PBL, not that they are newly founded (not that that matters at all for Medicine). In that sense Barts (founded 1123) being PBL is also non-trad.

SGUL do not compromise on grades, and choose to go into Clearing to get what they want. I also think they may prefer to interview rather than fall back on those who have already applied and did not make the first pass, so it will be a real additional bite at the cherry. As for it being a specialised campus, even medics in wide spectrum universities tend to find their hours will set them slightly aside from the rest (hence med socs alongside rest of university societies). Most students at specialised UoL colleges such as LSE, SOAS, RVC, RAM access University of London activities, so there is no real reason to be isolated. [And Tooting may be more affordable?]

For those who have no offers (yet), it may help to remind themselves that there are only 3 applicants (including grads, gappers etc) for each place this year, ie pretty good odds. Every applicant holding more than one offer must give up their spare/s by August. The proportion gaining places through Clearing is almost 10% now. It is also not a one-try process. So there is much to go on.

maryso can I ask you where you have the figure of 10% getting their medicine places through clearing now?

Thanks!

Monkey, the data is all from UCAS. Clearing for medicine was 2-3% of places from 2007-2011, then 5-6% from 2012-2016, and it was 8% in 2017 (haven't looked at 2018). As you probably know, there has been growth in places from 2018 (as well as applications). Schools are also more open to using Clearing, if they've had a good experience of it, when previously they may have taken the odd dropped grade.

Thank you for all the invaluable info especially on waiting lists and clearing. My daughter has been put on a reserve list and is waiting on another university's decision.

The main problem they are having is that some unis are not giving their decisions till April which is leaving some students in limbo.

Has anyone had any experience of reserve lists? Not sure what to make of it?

@maryso - The UCAS figures are probably a little misleading. Many medical schools operate reserve lists, through which students who just missed an offer in the first round are picked up if there are places available in August and they have met the conditions. As these applicants have been formally rejected through UCAS, the only way to pick them up again is to use the Adjustment (if they are holding a lower fifth-choice offer) or Clearing processes. Students recruited in this way will show up as having come through Clearing but that doesn't mean the medical school actually made places available for Clearing applicants.

Drafting is not my strong point.

All I was trying to say is that if anyone is without offers it is worth looking at SGUL and considering in advance whether it might suit.

It suits some a lot, and others not at all. It is small, and some distance from Central London. I doubt many students make the trek in to London University events. The upsides are that the cohort seems to get very bonded and you are in a hospital from the outset. A couple of graduates we met had only good things to say about their experience. DD also came across a couple of students when playing sport for a nearby women's team. SGUL had a medics team but better players sought out local clubs. Tooting is green and accommodation will be cheaper, especially if you go a further couple of stops down the northern line. My point was that it is really not London in the way UCL or Imperial are London. And also not really University in the way Bristol and Birmingham are Universities. (Yes medics tend to gravitate together, but in her second year none of DDs flatmates are medics and she is still playing for a University rather than a medic team.)

That said DD really wanted to like SGUL because of the things she had heard, but at the open day decided it was really not for her. Which is why, if you think it might be a possibility at clearing, it is worth thinking about in advance. Not least if you take the UKCAT before results day, you may be able to show them an improved score.

Harry, yes. But interesting that it is not over till its over for up to 10% of students.

Harry, the Clearing %s exclude Adjustment, but obviously not reserve lists which are not captured. I wonder whether the use of reserve lists makes it even more likely that candidates rejected post-interview have an even better chance (due to the additional barrier to entry for those who did not apply)? Perhaps the growth in "Clearing" rather than the total figure is due to "real" Clearing?

The %s entering by way of insurance choices, Extra, Adjustment and RPAs remains resolutely unchanged since 2007. The increase in Clearing is entirely matched by the drop in Firm choice %s. Why is entirely another discussion... (Isn't it quite wonderful how volatility makes the world go round?)