Medicine 2021 - Part 3

[SATSmadness]

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

Congrats on the interview!

Depends on the Uni for accommodation. Some it is first come, like Nottingham. Most don't allocate until after results day though. And some reserve places for medics as they know this happens every year. So hopefully will all be ok.

I am a bit concerned about accommodation too as, apart from Bristol who have made some offers, his other three choices won't be making any decisions on anyone for a while yet and they will already have made offers to non-medics so not sure how that works. Do they generally ring fence a portion of their accommodation for later offer courses or is it first come first served across all faculties? I hadn't even thought about this until a couple of days ago. Also if you have an offer for another course at a university you have applied to do medicine, I am guessing that any accommodation you would book through being an offer holder for another course would be cancelled once you rejected that course, which DS will definitely do, even if he has no medicine offers. The next piece of the jigsaw!

We looked at Glasgow accommodation and there you must have accepted an offer before you can apply

Most Unis ask preferences now but won't allocate until August. I know Notts do it in order but my DD firmed in March and still got on campus. It will be ok. Happens every year

Thank you @mumsneedwine. Is that asking preferences once you have firmed an offer or as soon as you have received an offer?

Normally once firmed an offer. Sometimes if insured too. Liverpool it's if you've applied ! But most allocate after results day - easier for them as don't know whose coming until then. Even Notts had on campus places for insurance in the end. Deep breaths

Thank you @ mumsneedwine. Really helpful. Yes, deep breaths for sure!

Liverpool start to allocate accommodation early - we were told all DDs 1st choice Hall was allocated by end of January, 2 months before she even received her offer. Some obviously don’t take up accommodation after results day but the girl on the helpline we spoke to after results day said this happens regularly and so medics rarely get their first choice - and she was a 4th year medic!

@Mazarineblue sorry to hear about your DS. It has been so tough this year but he knows what he wants and a year out isn't a bad thing with the way things are going.

Nottingham have started sending offers tonight- not sure if anyone else has applied there.

I'm finding the whole thing more stressful than my DD!

Ooh we've been waiting for Nottingham, they are late this year.

DDs choices have offered to contextual/achieved grades first so we may still have a wait for good/bad news.

Oh never mind. 🤦‍♀️ I've just stalked TSR and they've offered to contextual and non contextual.

Good luck to anyone who interviewed there. 🤞

Did anyone see that dental schools in Scotland have told final year students they have to repeat the year, and there is no new intake of first years in September ... and we thought we were having a tough time. Nightmare!

Wow, if they defer all the dental offers from this year, what will happen next year?! What a mess! Wonder if England will follow suit.

Whaaaat! That actually made my blood run cold.

The poor people in those cohorts!

Oh my goodness, the plot thickens. Those poor dentistry kids. And what on earth does that mean for anyone having to reapply next year. Surely they won't do that for med in England, will they?

My daughter showed me a statement saying that the heads of Scottish medical schools had assessed the government that all medical students would graduate as planned. So hopefully it will be the same in England. It affects one of her friends sadly.

Thank you @emummy. I'm so sorry it affects one of your DD's friends. As if they don't have enough uncertainty at the moment.

There was a piece on the news saying that the problem for dentists is that covid in aerosol form made it too dangerous for them to practice using drills, so they just don't have the experience to graduate. Medics have not had that problem and medics also move on to more training when they graduate whereas I think dentists may go straight into real jobs.

The Scottish dental schools did say this was a possibility from the beginning of October so applicants should have been aware that it was a possibility and could have removed the Scottish dental schools as options. However Glasgow and Dundee are highly ranked so some may have still chosen to go ahead on the basis that they would still want those specific unis.

Whilst I really feel for the students repeating a year and those who will now be deferred I can understand the reasoning. Dentistry during the pandemic is very different and new dentists are going to need to be confident and have had sufficient practice on patients - not models. Must have been a really tough decision to make.

I do wonder what will happen in terms of student finance/fees for those students.

The Scottish students don't pay fees and it may be like medicine where NHS pays after 4th year.

Even if they knew this might happen, taking the Scottish places out of the system when there were all those gap year applicants with higher than usual grades must mean it is so hard to get an offer. There has also been a fiasco with Plymouth sending out offers by mistake an withdrawing them a few days later.

Feel sorry for the dental students in Scotland. What a mess! And as for Plymouth, they've handled the whole year appallingly. I think Liverpool have also had some issues, they emailed ds friend saying there are no more interviews and the cut off was 94.5. Ds friend had a score of 99 and when he mentioned that Liverpool said they'd have relook at his application! I personally think some unis panicked a little in Jan when schools closed and decided to interview less people irrespective of thresholds and cut off scores.

Well the good news is, DS has a Nottingham offer. It actually came in last night on track, but we didn't get the email until tonight, and hadn't been checking UCAS (complicated story). No formal email from Nottingham, just a UCAS email saying a decision had been made, and then he logged into track, but the entry on track is very clear (I peered over his shoulder). Still feeling a bit stunned, so pleased and relieved though. Very happy/ . He really loved all of his choices, don't know if he has a particular favorite, very happy to go to any of those that want him.