Medicine 2021

[Millylovespuddles]

Hi all
It looks like there’s no medicine 2021 entry thread yet, so it might be an idea to get the ball rolling.
My DD is getting stuck into her A level course, doing well so far, but I’m guessing we parents could do with some mutual support and advice from parents who’ve been here before.

I'm going to say 3. Others (waves at goodbye) will say 4. They can't ask for 4 grades if you only do 3 ! And a healthy work life balance is so important. But again I'd say go to open days and ask the admissions tutors themselves. Oxbridge have given out some horrible offers this year, and some fairly nice ones.

The first offer in the above post should read A star A star A A
Daft keyboard!

That’s what I’m inclined to think too, but could it put an application at a disadvantage if there are only 3?

Typical offers here seem to suggest three but I too am interested to hear what others think on this!

https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/files/publications/medicinesubjectt_requirements.pdf

Mine only had 3 and got 4 offers. Friend at Oxford has 3. Didn't seem to matter much.

Very helpful thread as we are starting to go through this process for 2021 entry so placemarking.

Apologies if this has been asked already (on phone and lots to scroll through!), but how much volunteering should applicants be doing to stand a chance of a place? My ds has done a one week insight to medicine course at our local teaching hospital and is on the waiting list for allocation of more work at another hospital but that has not started yet..(.he's also done a year more general volunteering with younger scouts as part of d of e but that's not obviously medical).. if unis need 2 years of experience for example he's missed the boat a bit!

Mine had 5 days at GP. 3 days in a hospital. And a taster day at Liverpool Uni. Oh and 6 years volunteering at a riding place (so was a first aider).

DS1 did no volunteering at all but he had a part time job from Y9. He got offers from Oxford, Imperial and Birmingham (and was rejected by Bristol very early on before interview but tbf his profile didn't fit their then criteria, he was just filling an empty space). Don't feel you need to tick boxes. Even if a lot of applicants do volunteering, there's no requirement.

Thank you mumsneedswine and goodbyes transfer, that's very reassuring as he was worrying that everyone would have been doing years and years of ward volunteering. He's definitely going to fit some experience in, but finding 4 A levels is taking up quite a bit of his time just now. Hopefully he's going to drop further maths after AS which will give him more time!

Forgot mine had a part time job too. Universities seemed to like these as they give lots of those soft skills and customer facing experience. Plus I got a discount card at Waitrose 😊

My DD registered for volunteering last June, but the work experience office works at a snails pace - she had an induction session last week and just today DD got an email saying she now needs to get Access check as she asked to be placed on a paediatric ward...
She has also got some days arranged over February half-term in a lab researching a cancer drug.
She has non-medical related volunteering (nursery and special ed school) through Duke of Ed over the past couple of years.

Hi All - just a note to say that if anyone is considering St Andrews then bookings opened today for their open days in April. There are 3 dates to choose from, in the Easter holidays, which is helpful!

Thanks lala!

Hello, I have been lurking but think it's time I joined this thread. My dd is currently undertaking a week of work experience at our local hospital. She is having an amazing time, especially watching operations (she wants to be a surgeon). Today she is in A&E. Hopefully this week plus her Hospice volunteering will give her lots to talk about at the interview stage. What she has found interesting is that she keeps getting asked if her parents are doctors and are surprised when she says neither of us are. Seems going into medicine runs in families!!

Hi everyone! I'm a graduate medic at King's and am happy to answer any questions you may have about general applications for medicine. I was also aiming to give you hope that if your child doesn't get in first time around there are other great options - graduate level entry is (in my biased view ) the very best way to study medicine. I am vastly more prepared for the workload and what I see on the wards compared to how I was as an 18 year old. I also have a strong science background compared to non-graduates that's really helped me with exam performance.

I remember being 18 and not getting an offer first time around and thinking that was it for my medical career, but here I am.

Congrats very hungry tortoise and thank you

Can anyone tell me how it works with the UCAT summer session - I know bookings open in May and dates continue through the summer but do some test centres only open certain dates or can you pretty much book your preferred date at any centre? Just trying to think about fitting in a summer holiday..!

UCAT runs continuously from 1st July to 6th October.

You'll need to check the opening times of your local Pearson VUE test centre. The one local to where I work is open 07:30-16:00 Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Saturday and 10:30-19:00 on Thursday. I expect this will vary quite a bit around the country.

Thanks Sir Toby - so basically we can book a UCAT test any day the local test centre is open? That's great news.

It's not surprising that being a medic runs in families. Lots of reasons for that and nothing wrong with it!

@goodbyestranger I wasn't suggesting there was anything wrong with anyone following in their parents footsteps. I was more surprised that they didn't expect anyone who's parents weren't medics to want to go down this route.
I have consultant friends who adamantly don't want their kids to follow in their footsteps.

DD is trying to narrow down where she wants to apply. Is there an easy way of finding out what the UCAT cut offs were for interviews at different Universities in previous years? Up to now she's been checking the Uni websites, and if she can't find info there she's trawling through info on TSR. This is incredibly time consuming for her so thought I'd ask if there was an easier way!

She's particularly interested in Bristol, Southampton, Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham, Sheffield and Liverpool (I think!).
Thanks.

There's a bit of a contradiction there then - perhaps your consultant friends are the exception rather than the rule, if the your DD is regarded as unusual for not having medic parents when she goes to w/e in A&E.

My DS1 didn't have medics in the family either but I know that quite a few of the people he went to uni with seemed to have at least one parent who was a doctor. It's to be expected that certain characteristics which make an individual suited to be a doctor might be handed down, leaving aside the effect of environment. Lots of musicians have musical kids, and lots of lawyers have kids who are good at law etc etc.

Hi Tritops. The information will usually be on each individual Uni website. Look fir information for prospective students and this will fully outline the criteria they use to select for interview. Most will put the last few years cut off on.

This is Sheffield. So need to look at UCAT website for scores (they have the last 5 years I think)