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....

@LaLaFlottes Reapplications to medicine are up almost 50% compared to last year, and if the cohort of those with achieved grades have researched well, they will have Leicester, Liverpool, Aston, Aberdeen and in a normal year, Exeter on their radar, as these people give additional weighting (or a guaranteed interview) to this group. I am guessing there are quite a few of this group who missed out on Exeter today, as well as Yr 13s, and it is quite possible that many of the extra 1400+ reapplicants may have decided to apply to Leicester. In total, there are over 4,400 reapplicants, presumably many with achieved, and potentially CAG-inflated, grades, as well as resitters, so the 50% increase may impact on cut offs. Let's hope not to the extent they hit Exeter!

@ClarasZoo Chances of success, ie an offer, with med school applications is around 40% overall, but this can be changed hugely by applying strategically. Someone with a top decile UCAT will not get an interview at certain unis and be fairly well guaranteed one at others. Ditto for strong GCSEs, A levels, WEx, etc. So it is all about applying to your strengths, and with 4 interviews, odds of an offer increase a bit compared to zero!!

[quote GANFYD]@LaLaFlottes Reapplications to medicine are up almost 50% compared to last year, and if the cohort of those with achieved grades have researched well, they will have Leicester, Liverpool, Aston, Aberdeen and in a normal year, Exeter on their radar, as these people give additional weighting (or a guaranteed interview) to this group. I am guessing there are quite a few of this group who missed out on Exeter today, as well as Yr 13s, and it is quite possible that many of the extra 1400+ reapplicants may have decided to apply to Leicester. In total, there are over 4,400 reapplicants, presumably many with achieved, and potentially CAG-inflated, grades, as well as resitters, so the 50% increase may impact on cut offs. Let's hope not to the extent they hit Exeter![/quote]
Thank you @GANFYD

Let's see what happens - DD is feeling a little like she missed picking up on the guaranteed interview situation for achieved A levels at Leicester, and the possible issue this could cause - but we just didn't envisage it being a problem.

DD has 62 points so hopefully this will be enough but after Exeter, it's hard to say! She was totally between Leicester and HYMS and now is wishing she had chosen HYMS but time will tell and in the meantime we wait!

@LaLaFlottes, if 62 doesn't make the cut, then those with predicted grades might as well give up now! Leicester also interview quite a few more people than Exeter, at least in a typical year!!

@GANFYD thank you - although I’m sure people with a UCAT of 3030 maybe felt the same way about Exeter before today!
Good to know Leicester interview more candidates - thank you.

Would a Medical School decide to interview more people to make sure there is a bit of fairness to those with predicted grades or not really? I know Exeter obviously didn’t but might other places?

@LaLaFlottes it is possible, but interviews are an expensive logistical nightmare and with clinicians being tied up due to covid this year, and hence finding it hard to get away, I think it unlikely.
What gets me, is that this type of thing is completely forseeable, if Admissions just thought about it, and they could then have changed their selection process to make allowances, eg it was much talked about that an interview at Cardiff was likely to need full GCSE points last year, given the increase in numbers of 8s and 9s compared to A*s under the old system. Cardiff people argued it was scare-mongering. And then people with full academic score were rejected.... I am not sure the extent of the rise at Exeter was foreseen, but we have long been saying there are a lot of people with inflated achieved grades about this year, yet they decided not to change anything.
I guess they get bums on seats either way, so have no need to put themselves through the stress of changing things

Thanks @GANFYD that makes sense about the number of interviews. It does seem a shame that changes were not made this year and I really hope Leicester works out for DD, but if not then it’s just one of those things. We will just be kicking ourselves for choosing one of the few that give guaranteed interviews to achieved grades!
Thanks as always for your insight.
It would have been interesting to be a fly on the wall in the admissions department at Exeter when they realised what their cut off would be. I wonder how much of a surprise it was to them too!

@LaLaFlottes I think there are 2 groups of people in this sort of scenario - those that go "Oh shit" and those that secretly congratulate themselves for how amazing they must be that applicants need 3 A*s and a 3040 UCAT for an interview.
I do not know which camp Exeter falls into!

@GANFYD yes true I wonder which camp Exeter fall into? Now they are officially the hardest Medical School to get into!

You have to wonder if they are thinking “oh crap, that doesn’t seem right?!”

My son says his friend has an Exeter interview with an “average” Ukcat score? Could that be possible or are they just being modest OR is is ok to get average UKcat with three a stars predicted?!

Agree with everything you've said ganfyd. It's pretty infuriating that the govt and unis said that they'd do what they could to make sure that 2021 were not negatively impacted by inflated cags. Neither of them have done anything, despite having time to make the application process and criteria fairer.

Ds was watching an Instagram live from a current hyms student who is involved in selection and widening access and he was saying that his uni, and most likely all others, really don't know what is happening this year. But they realised very early on that they'd have so many great candidates and didn't need to level the playing field. Instead of making the selection fair they decided instead to work with the higher cutoffs and students with aaa grades in hand.

Ah I see a post from earlier on explains. She must be tier 2 and high enough up on the Ukcat then...

@ClarasZoo

Ah I see a post from earlier on explains. She must be tier 2 and high enough up on the Ukcat then...

Or have contextual flags, as anything above AAB puts this group in tier 1

Morning all - I see a few St Andrew’s interview offers went out last night. DD is now panicking about her personal statement is case she’s not made it past that hurdle. I hope we all get news soon. It’s getting a bit stressful.
Also see Dundee interviews going out now. This seems to be the week where the action starts!

@Powergower I'm not sure I understand. Was the HYMS person saying they are going the same way as Exeter and favouring people with grades in hand?

Dd now has an unconditional offer to do MPharm at Strathclyde. Phew. Fingers crossed for more interviews. This is exhausting!

Brilliant @emummy that’s a superb back up plan. Things are looking up for you guys

Congrats emummy! Going well for your DD

Mine has her interview tomorrow for Mpharm at Nottingham. Hoping for a strong Teams connection.

Great news @emummy and good luck @MaddieElla. Keep the good news coming - we need it right now!

Thanks all, good luck to your Dd @MaddieElla

@MaddieElla good luck to DD for tomorrow! Make sure nobody else is connected to WiFi! I had to get DH to stop watching TV the other day when Teams kept breaking up for me!

Haha, I have instructed the husband to take himself off for a couple of hours and to take the dog with him because I would bet my house on the postman arriving just as DD is introducing herself.

Over on TSR reports of first batch of Bristol invites being out. Cut off seems to be above 3100. According to TSR, last year the cut off for the first batch was 2950.

Sorry just to be clear, above 3100 seems to be cut off for first batch, not overall cut off.

First round cut off for Bristol at 3100 would mean a pool of only 683 UCAT entrants (out of 34,153) eligible for interview if they had applied to Bristol. How many interview batches do Bristol normally extend to
I wonder ?

I can only surmise that BMAT Uni's will be setting the bar similarly high this year so it's looking unlikely that DD will even be offered an interview at her first choice, Cambridge. Although she's had no rejections yet from her other choices, the high cut offs at standard Russell Group Uni's is making us both think that she's just unlucky to be applying this particular year.

If exams go ahead next year, I'd be tempted to ask her if she feels she wants to re-apply in a more normal year (with grades in hand) so that the playing field is more level.
With this level of craziness going on though, who's to say that next year they won't decide that re-applicants get marked down a notch for having failed to secure a place in the previous year !
I would also worry about her having got out of the habit of studying as it can make a big difference.

Apologies for the gloomy tone of this post