Medicine 2021 - part 2

[Millylovespuddles]

Following on from the first thread:
DD now has UKAT booked for mid-August. She couldn’t get a driving theory test booked until after the UKAT date, but will keep an eye out for cancellations.
Now, her big dilemma is Oxbridge it not....

DD has applied to St Andrews, Sheffield, Leicester and UEA.

For her there wasn't a BMAT Uni she really fancied over and above the UCAT Unis, so once she knew she had a competitive UCAT she decided to stick with that. She may have been more tempted if the September sitting had gone ahead, but she wasn't keen on applying without knowing the results.

Maybe if more open days had gone ahead, she might have really fallen for one of the BMAT unis but we never had that opportunity sadly.

@SATSmadness I don't know about Bristol, but with regards to interview to offer rates etc, I think they do fluctuate a lot so I wouldn't rely on them too much. Also it's hard to know if Unis have less places for 2021, if they will interview the same number of people for less places, or interview the same proportionate amount. So the stats might end up being very different. I wish we knew how they are approaching this. Maybe they don't even know yet!!

One of the Unis DD had initially been keen on had a high offer to interview rate, which pleased her, until she saw a FOI for 2020 intake and it showed that last year for some reason they had interviewed a lot more people and the rate was a lot lower!

DD is at Bristol and applied when they used neither BMAT nor UCAT, had relatively low grade requirements (3As including 2 sciences) and made lots of contextual offers. At that point they had 17 applicants to a place. Private schools like hers used to advise against applying as the odds were too long.

It was her first choice:

1. Bristol is an established University therefore offered first year medics a full University experience.
2. Bristol is an attractive city that is not London with good transport links to London, as well as the Midlands and North West.
3. Placement experience range from inner city to very rural. And includes two major regional hospitals as well as some good centres serving local populations. None are too far flung.
4. Some great countryside.
5. The chance to intercalate externally. So DD is currently in London in a department that is recognised for its cutting edge research.

Bimkom - yes, I just found it on their site. Thanks for replying. However, it also says you need to book the remote access service by 26th October, which isn't ideal if you don't if you are going to need it!
DD wouldn't want to do the test at home after hearing the horror stories from UCAT.

She came home from school yesterday saying school wants their applications with them by tomorrow, so nothing like a bit of pressure to focus the mind.

So far we have Glasgow and QUB, and any from a combination of Leeds, Oxford, Liverpool and Nottingham depending on her confidence regarding BMAT. The easy solution is to go for Liverpool and Notts, where she should definitely get an interview.

Oh, and btw, got an email this morning saying her year is not to come to school for the rest of the week due to staff shortages due to self-isolating staff!! That's 50% of school missed so far...

@SATSmadness I think DS likes Bristol because he has friends who went there, whereas he doesn't know anyone (or anyone who he feels is really part of his tribe) who went to many of the others. With no real life open days, what your friends say because a lot more important, I think. I ended up pushing him a little on Nottingham. Nottingham has a lot of strengths in an of itself, and also plays to his strengths in terms of getting an interview, but he knew a couple of people from a crowd he didn't particularly like from a few years above who went there, and therefore had a bit of a prejudice against it (funnily enough, the prejudice that other people have about Bristol, "entitled party animals" but because of his particular friendship group and people he knows who went there he doesn't have that image). He did eventually realise that when everything else seemed a better fit, a handful of individuals shouldn't be prejudicing him against a University. We are really hoping that there will be some in person offer days (assuming he gets any offers), so he can see these places for real.

*becomes

Is there any way your DD is able to choose another Oxbridge College @SATSmadness?

@3catsandadog

She has to, it would jeopardize her chances of getting in if she didn't.

Yesterday the other girl 'confided' that her parents are paying for specialist support for the interview stage (interview training and advice from one of those Oxbridge entry expert type businesses.

I'm beginning to wonder if this isn't psychological tactics to undermine DD's confidence at the application stage. Every day it's something new.....

DD needs to get her application in before she changes her mind due to the "in house competition" being perceived as so much stronger.

SATSmadness, DD was at a school with a very strong Oxbridge success rate. They were very careful to avoid two applicants applying to the same college for the same subject.

I would forget about "this is Oxford we are talking about". As you will see from this thread many very good applicants do not try Oxford. Two in one of DDs tutor groups had received Oxford offers (Bristol at the time was a lot less predictable) and I don't think they claimed to be stronger than their peers. There seems to be no obvious reason why applicants to Oxbridge would have better (or worse) interview/communication skills than applicants to other medical schools. All medical schools interview. If she is likely to be weak at interview (and again each applicant will have strengths and weaknesses: DD was fine with interviews but useless at timed tests) then you might consider what she can do to address this. It does not need to be expensive. She could research as much as she can about interview formats, and then ask one of your friends, ideally a health professional, teacher or academic, to "interview" her.

There is definitely in-school competition and DD also has someone trying to psych her out. She's Head Girl (DD didn't even apply for this as she wanted to be subject leader) but she tries to beat DD over the head with it regularly and is very arrogant about a successful application.

Meanwhile DD just smiles and gets on with her own path when it would be understandable to feel threatened. I have no doubt that interviewers will see through the people who are all talk, and actually, not very nice people.

UCAS submission done !

So glad the UCAS form finally in. Had so much advice from various people at the school that I think it ended up not being helpful. So many revisions made

@withiceplease @SATSmadness exciting stuff! Where did your DC choose in the end?

Nottingham Southampton Bristol and Liverpool
I'm glad it's over for a while so she can concentrate on the important matter of A levels. Is it November that universities get UCAT?

Updated UCAT percentiles are on their website!

The updated deciles look very high this year...plus such a high proportion of SJT band 1s compared to usual - wonder how that will affect cut offs etc?

Dd has applied for all the Scottish unis except St Andrews; the form is nearly done, the 5th choice was the tricky part!
Good luck all

The deciles are definitiely higher than previous years, and so many band 1 - I think last year it was 17% and this year 31%.

It's hard to tell with the cut offs isn't it as I suppose it will depend on whether the University has less spaces, and if they have less will they interview the same amount of people, or less people for less places?

@withiceplease I thought it was November that the Universities get the UCAT scores, but today DD has received an email inviting her to interview at Sheffield, so I guess they must have them now??

My DD has just messaged to say she has had an email inviting her to an MMI interview at Sheffield. She is questioning if the email is correct as they won't have her ucat yet. Have asked her to forward it on to me to see. Has anyone else received anything?

Hi there, I haven't posted before - have just read some bits of threads. My DS is applying for med school this year and Sheffield is one of his choices. UCAS form just about to be submitted by his school. @LaLaFlottes do you mind saying how soon the interview is? Do you know if they interview in rank order of UCAT at Sheffield? Many thanks.

@LaLaFlottes just seen your DD has also had the email - good to know! V exciting

All getting very real now with interviews!! UCAS going off today for DD.

@redtulip12 it did cross my mind as to whether it was correct or not, as it also reads as if they will go to Sheffield in person for the interview, whereas their website suggests it will be on line.

However I know of one other friend of DD who also has the e-mail too. Hopefully it's all ok!

@opoponax the e-mail has a link and they have to go click on that and select a date and time. The deadline to book your date and time is 20th Nov. DD is at college today and working this evening so we won't do it until later tonight or tomorrow, but once I see the date options I can let you know.

I'm not sure if they interview in rank order at Sheffield or not to be honest. They must just be making a start, as the deadline hasn't even passed for applications!

Thank you very much @LaLaFlottes. I think DS's form will be submitted today or tomorrow so I will let you know if he hears anything from Sheffield . Thank you very much for letting me join the thread. It's all starting to feel very real now!

@redtulip12 I've just called Sheffield admissions and they have confirmed that the e-mails have been sent in error. I noticed that the deadline date said Wednesday 20th Nov, but the 20th is a Friday! So the text is from last year.

They are going to send another e-mail but I'm not sure if that will just say to ignore the previous one, or if it will be another updated interview invite!

So a false start!!

@opoponax welcome to the thread! It's really useful to have this and a good place to share info