Medicine 2021 - Part 3

[SATSmadness]

Hoping for interviews and offers all round, now and well into next year !

@GreyBow good luck to DD for Leeds next week

Good luck to your DD @GreyBow.

@SATSmadness offer was three A's

Fantastic news red tulip!!! Hopefully more offers to come in this week.

Coming to say hello to this thread. Some of you know me, DS had 4 interviews and 4 rejections in 2019 and 4 interviews and 3 offers in 2020. For him the enforced gap year turned out to be a good thing, although covid meant he did not achieve all that he wanted. Now at St Andrews and loving the course, although the experience is lonely this term, with most students not allowed back and very limited mixing.

I will keep an eye out for anybody wanting advice if things don't work out this year.

Good luck, the waiting is awful!

Hello @Monkey2001! You were so positive when Dd didn't get a place last year. Her experience is now similar to your son's. She has one offer, waiting to hear from 2. Hope your ds continues to enjoy the course and that next year is a bit more normal.

@emummy great to hear! Where is her offer? I seem to remember Dundee was one of her top choices.

@redtulip12 lovely to hear some good news.... giving us all a little cheer

@Monkey2001 she has an offer for Glasgow; still waiting on Dundee & Aberdeen. If she gets a Dundee offer it will be a tough choice!

Hello @Monkey2001

It's beginning to seem like some of our DC, no matter how strong a candidate on paper or in their school's opinion, may be able to take heart from your's/your DS's experience as the experience is being made even more challenging for this years' Y13s as a result of last year's CAG's mess. A big thank you for taking the time to pop along, as I confess that I feel greatly lifted by reading your 2019 & 2020 medicine support thread posts. .

Thank you for the supportive words @Monkey2001. It's really uplifting to hear about happy endings after initial disappointment. Great to have some good news @redtulip12 - huge congratulations to your DD. No news here yet - I wish I were as philosophical as DS seems to be about this waiting game.

Leeds interview went well this morning for DD.

She said they said the would be making offers in "early March" after all interviews had been concluded, and nobody would be getting an offer before then.

So, it's just waiting now...

Going to be waiting a while here too
3 of the 4 still interviewing

At least you know not to waste time inbox watching. It will be a long wait but I wish they'd all be that transparent.

DDs choices haven't sent offers/rejections yet and traditionally they've started a couple of weeks ago. Bound to be a longer process this year, but still. 😫

DD has also applied for a gap year scholarship. That's just "out there" too.

If she's lucky enough to be offered that AND a medical school place, she'll try and defer. TBH, reading that universities might not be anywhere close to normal in September means it's a great option if allowed. I imagine it might not be allowed though.

Cannot cope with all the uncertainty 😆

Full set of rejections for my DS now (all pre-interview - would have probably got interviews last year based on his stats so he thought he'd applied strategically and did lots of research on TSR etc but the UCAT cut offs seem to be so much higher this year - lesson learnt for next year!)☹️ - he's already making plans to reapply next year if not successful in Extra or Clearing and tbh perhaps that may be less stressful as at least he'll have grades in hand and will have a chance to physically look around some of his choices!

Any suggestions for anything he can productively do before next application round to add to his experience would be gratefully received! He's already signed up for more volunteering and once things are a bit clearer on exam/test timings will look at HCA roles.

So sorry to hear that @Mazarineblue, it’s a tough thing to go through. My dd got involved in more volunteering, got a job as a GP receptionist and did little free online courses. She did a sign language one and a Harvard one about human rights, can’t remember the rest. Obviously she also resat her UCAT and improved her score, which may have been the biggest factor, along with having grades in hand.

Sorry to hear your news @Mazarineblue .

2021 entry is proving to be an exceptionally challenging year. Our Y13s are really up against so much. Coming out the other side should increase their resilience, if they can hang in there and medicine is often considered a 2 year process. DD says she'll 100% try again if unsuccessful this year.

Have you had a chance to read Monkey2001's back posts ? (from 2019 Medicine entry thread onward). Her dc had 4 rejections in 2019 and ended up with 4 offers the following year. It cheered me up no end reading them.

One upside is that given vaccination roll out, dc should be able to get some work experience in before starting the process again this Autumn and it does seem that applying with grades in hand is more likely to get a foot in the door than predicted grades.

DD has applied to 2 of the same Unis as your DS and whilst fortunate to get interviews has had one rejection so far. Had she or her school known how far the bar would be raised (UCAT/BMAT, grades in hand counting higher than predicted grades, less places available due to last year's CAGs issue) I think she would have been advised to aim lower in the hope of having more chance of getting offers.

Mazarine, I am sorry to hear that. UCAT is such a divider.

One thing he might think about is twitter. DD, who is taking an intercalation year, had been to a couple of conferences, and had started following people she found interesting on Titter, and then followed people who were re-tweeted, and so on. Effectively now she sees a whole lot of stuff: articles, opinions etc, on the topics that most interest her. Some academic doctors are very good communicators.

So sorry to hear that @Mazarineblue, how is DS feeling? It sounds like he’s being really proactive about trying again which is such a good trait in him.

I would say definitely try and improve that UCAT. It’s the one area my DD would improve on if she could. She did the “right thing” and only prepared for it for a few weeks, when in reality other people had spent a long time preparing and therefore came out with really high scores. Add to that the huge increase in applications and she was very much behind. So straight away she couldn’t apply to a couple of places that she was interested in.

Try for extra w/e. While Unis didn’t take it into account in selecting for interview (apart from Keele which is why DD applied there) it does help when answering some of the interview questions or scenarios. DD answered a lot of hers with a healthcare head on as she works in that environment. Might be worth asking if there are any jobs in your local pharmacies etc.

@Mazarineblue sorry to hear your news, it has indeed been brutal this year and past "safe" cut offs have no longer been safe.

It is a huge unknown how much will come up in Extra and Clearing this year. SGUL seem to have made a policy decision to recruit from Clearing as they have been in for the last few years, but who knows what will happen this year? Lancaster have been in Extra for the last 2 years, and the number of people who can apply through Clearing is fairly small as you have to have done the BMAT.

Med schools may think that this year Clearing is a good strategy to fine tune numbers.

My advice would be to:

• Focus on getting the best possible grades now

• Decide when to do UCAT and sign up for medify around 2 months before the exam.

• Look at Extra/Clearing as a little possibility, but don't emotionally invest in it. Extra is not a great rush thing like Clearing, if they come up, you have days/weeks to apply unlike Clearing where every minute counts.

• Don't worry about a job yet, it is really easy to get a job as a HCA in a gap year. A friend of my DS's son applied for jobs as a hospital porter with no success but then we found the local health authority temp bank and he trained as a hospital porter and gets lots of shifts, with excellent pay at weekends. He has also been able to carry on whilst at university, so it might be worth looking into that.

• Most other jobs are also just as good for giving you something to reflect on in applications/interviews.

• Think about all the things he could do in a gap year which he has missed this year - start university with a nice bank balance, learn to drive? travel once it is allowed again?

• Have some Domino's and Ben and Jerrys (or whatever your go-to treat food is) and remember that a year is nothing in the context of becoming a doctor. Also that med schools might be back to normal if he starts in 2023.

Good luck!

@Mazarineblue sorry to hear your news. Is DS 18 ? Because signing up as a volunteer either as a vaccinator or a helper is a good option - it's a great way to meet doctors. Lots working as volunteers (Van Tam was doing it last weekend) and know some are giving great advice to students. Also looks fab on PS.
Hopefully next year UCAT levels might be more normal. It's been brutal this year.

Thanks all - some very constructive suggestions which I'll pass on to him. He was disappointed , particularly with the thought that his friends would be racing off to uni ahead of him - but after a chance chat with some of the other med applicants at his college he's realised that he's by no means the only one which has made him feel less of an anomaly!

He's looking a lot less stressed and concentrating on his post half term tests now - I think he'd be happier re-applying next year (and college have said they'd support him doing this) than scrambling through clearing. He's probably going to take the BMAT as well to widen his choices -and as a pp said upthread perhaps apply for some of the newer courses (although I'm sure all bets are off re thresholds for next year!).

Good luck everyone else with your applications - fingers crossed for you all🤞!

@mumsneedwine - yes he has already been accepted by SJA and will soon be deployed (you can't vaccinate until you have achieved A levels though). He's looking forward to shifts as a focus over the summer - although I have also ( completely separately!) been accepted as a SJA vaccinator he's no doubt dreading the chance he could be on shift with his mum😂

He certainly won't be the only one, at his school, or on this thread. There is always a way and he sounds really mature.

@Mazarineblue that's fantastic. Might find yourself next to Whitty or JVT. If you have any spares my arm is dying for one (53 year old secondary teacher). If I had time I'd do it too but too exhausted from the day job.
Fantastic experience for DS too. As is hospital porter job as previously mentioned. Most important people in the hospital ! If people can't move on no one else can move in.