Placed on a reserved list for medicine

[Cheeseismymiddlename]

DD has had no offers for medicine. 1 Uni has placed her on a reserve list, another has offered Biomeds. This is her first shot , leaving sixTh form this year. I have so many questions but she’s not in the mood to discuss it at the moment .
Do medical applicants go through clearing and get a place ?
How likely is she to be offered a place from the reserved list?
Should she take the Biomed course with a view to hopefully moving to medicine as a graduate ?
Gap year with work experience?

For what it’s worth, no one in the close or wider family have been to University. She will be the first. I have no experience to draw on. She’s pretty stressed and I would like to be able some reassuring words / guidance based on something other than just being her Mum and believing she is great. Given, her pretty normal back ground and upbringing I’m pretty impressed she even got on a reserve list but that kind of support isn’t going to help her progress her application if you see what I mean.

Hi @Cheeseismymiddlename it is stressful my DS only got one offer.

Do medical applicants go through clearing and get a place ?

Yes they can I know one applicant who did. I know last year at St. george's there were places

www.sgul.ac.uk/news/st-georges-applications-for-clearing-opening-online

How likely is she to be offered a place from the reserved list?

Your DD could contact the medical school and ask her place.

Should she take the Biomed course with a view to hopefully moving to medicine as a graduate ?
Gap year with work experience?

I would recommend reapplying after gap year. Grad medicine is more competitive and expensive.

Thank you. Appreciate the reply.

Hello - I’m sorry to hear this, it’s been a really tough year for applications and you are right to be very proud that DD has made it on to a reserve list. Even getting to interview stage was a lot trickier than normal this year.

Clearing is definitely an option - this year there could even be more places in clearing if Unis have been too cautious with offers of places. In my limited knowledge, I believe to be successful in clearing you basically need to meet the Unis requirements, ie their A level requirement and UCAT/BMAT - they go into clearing to fill their last remaining spaces with good candidates. I think you phone on results day and then they would invite you to interview.

It’s also worth keeping an eye on UCAS Extra. If you don’t have offers, you can see courses in here any time - not results day. I think it’s open already. Basically I think from here you can then apply for one “extra” course at a time. So if Medicine popped up then your DD could apply.

If your DD uses The Student Room there is a thread for Medicine Extra and Clearing which would be really useful to follow as people on there will explain things much better than I can! Also there are people keeping a close eye on what is available.

Regarding the reserve list, people definitely get places this way so it’s good to be on it. She may be able to call and see where she is on the list to get more of a feel for the likelihood of a place.

I agree with the previous poster in that graduate entry is probably not the best idea - a gap year is a more sensible option. Graduate entry is apparently much more competitive than undergraduate entry (I read it’s 10 x more competitive somewhere) and also it then ends up being so much more expensive. A gap year with potentially the opportunity to get more work experience would be the best way to go I think. I have read many times that the success rate second time around after a gap year is much higher.

Best of luck to your DD.

Thank you both for the great replies.

Good luck to your DD @Cheeseismymiddlename here is the link to the student room clearing thread.

www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6915438

I would recommend a gap year working as an HCA or similar. Graduate medicine is even more competitive than undergraduate medicine, not to mention all the extra time and costs of that route. Although things might be very different in the future if doctor apprenticeships go ahead. She will be in a much stronger position applying once she has her A-level grades.

St George's often has places in clearing but only for applicants who were not rejected by them that year already. Pre-COVID an important criterion for selection at St George's was work experience so it's worth checking what their requirements are currently as she may be able to strengthen her chances of a place in clearing by doing extra work experience.

It's also worth looking at past TSR threads for the med school she has a reserve place to see how many people on the waiting list got in. It will vary between universities. When mine were applying, almost everyone on the reserve list at Kings College got in. There was a big second batch of offers for people on the reserve list after the UCAS deadline for accepting/declining offers in May, then more in the summer.

There is also the medicine transfer scheme - some universities allow a handful of students to transfer to medicine after the first year of certain degrees eg biomedicine or pharmacology. It is incredibly competitive, there are just a handful of places, but it could be a plan B for next year to choose a university that offers that as her back up choice to give her another option. I wouldn't do that this year though, it will be far easier to get a place at med school next year than to start biomedicine and try to transfer.

I think 40% of applicants don't get an offer the first time they apply, some don't even get an interview. She has done amazingly well getting a reserve place. I've been through med school applications with 2 DC and if you look at all the medicine threads on here, there are always DC who don't get an offer or miss their grades but they usually get in the second time around.

Good luck!

Thank you. Really helpful.

I'm just reiterating what everyone else has said really.
There are clearing places in a few unis each year - she will need to exceed their requirements in terms of UCAT or BMAT and A levels. I believe St George's is one that always has places available - deliberately to try and get students who are excellent but didn't get offers.
She will have had to turn down her non medical offers though.
I think often people do get offers from the reserve list. This year has been so hard for universities though (their algorithms just won't be working) I think it's harder to predict.
Given that she's in year 13, if none of that works it would be better to reapply next year. GEM is very competitive and expensive. Most graduates doing medicine are doing normal undergrad courses (even more expensive).
The best foundation doctor I ever had had done GEM (first degree in history then worked in politics for a couple of years). The second best got no offers in year 13, got a job in a hospital lab and re-applied with a little more life experience and got 4 offers. It's common and very sad at the time (he would have described himself as devastated especially as all his friends/gf etc were going off to uni) but he's now 5 years into his medical career (11 years after that experience) and very happy with the way his life has turned out...

Aw I feel for your daughter but like others have said hope is not lost!

My cousin got rejected/reserved lists for all her medicine applications. She took a gap year - earned money got experience in nursing home, reapplied and got into a red brick uni the following year. She ended up graduating as top female in her year, and has gone on to do really well with her career, has 3 you g children now too and still working.

Good luck to your daughter and props to you for being so supportive x

if she does a gap year, try to work in a hosp.
they always need healthcare assistants.
it's very hard work, min pay.
will give her a good insight into hospital life, and useful experience.
also more likely to develop patient empathy than a purely academic high-flyer.
good luck.

Thanks for all the great replies. It’s given me a way in to the conversation. She’s feeling alright , better than she felt on Friday at least. I think if she doesn’t get the offer this year she’s thinking of a gap year and trying again. Because of the timing of her birthday, she was still sixteen when covid restrictions started and she will be 18 when they are over. A gap year for work experience and travel isn’t a bad idea regardless. Thank you.

Please can I ask, is it possible to do a degree and then apply for medicine or dentistry as an undergraduate again, in other words a new first degree? If so, how does student finance work?

Hi in response to ClarasZoo - my son took a 3 year undergraduate science degree and then started a 5 year undergraduate medical degree. He was eligible for a maintenance loan from student finance, but wasn't eligible for finance for the tuition fees, so it is an expensive course of action

I have worked with a fair few med school rejects who come and work as a hca in the hospital reapply and get a place. They become part of the team learn lots about how hospitals work and how to communicate well with patients. Often the ward doctors let them observe and learn things, not a bad grounding to start med training

Hi @ClarasZoo I believe you can do a do a degree first and then apply as an undergraduate again. However I'm pretty sure you then have to pay your fees yourself for the first four years until the NHS bursary kicks in from year 5.

I think if you do a graduate entry medicine course, rather than undergraduate, there is more support, with a smaller contribution needed from the student and then bursaries and loans for fees.

The graduate entry courses are very competitive though - I'm sure I read that they can be 10 x more competitive than undergraduate so it's probably not a good idea to start another degree with the end plan being to then study medicine - a gap year is probably more sensible.

However if someone already has a degree and then has a change of heart and wants to study medicine, it's possible!

Thank you all - so is that an extra 4x £9200 or so then or international fees?

@ClarasZoo

Thank you all - so is that an extra 4x £9200 or so then or international fees?

Why would you assume international fees for a home student? Home students pay home fees.

That was my question- do you always pay home fees even if it’s a second degree?

@ClarasZoo if it's for a home student then it's £9250 per year currently.

I think you can still apply for a student loan for living costs though.

Graduate entry seems to be £3465 paid by the student in first year and student finance can be applied for to make up the difference. Then year 2 - 4 it's a mix of bursary and student finance, so much less to find yourself.

@ClarasZoo

That was my question- do you always pay home fees even if it’s a second degree?

You'll always pay home fees if you're a home student. You may though pay a higher fee for some courses if you already have a degree - and that fee might be the same as an international student would pay. It's still a home fee though!

Thank you!

My son is in his second year in a medschool . He had no medicine offers at the cut off date in may.
At that point he was going to work hard on his A levels and try the clearing options and if unsuccessful consider reapplying.
He then had emails from 2 universities that had previously rejected him saying he was on their reserve list and then about a week before results day he had an offer from one. It was too late to go through UCAS though.
The morning of results day before UCAS track had updated and he hadn’t had his results he got a “congratulations you’re accepted” email.
He had to faff about a bit to get it sorted with UCAS but it was all done in a couple of days.
I would say it’s very good she’s had this already and there is a good chance she may get an offer as there could well be students with 2 or more offers and as these students make up their minds places may be freed up. And then you will get a bit more movement closer to results day.

@Cheeseismymiddlename your DD might get an offer from her ‘reserve place’ uni after the deadline by default day in early May.

Thanks @Berthatydfil and @IM0GEN

Hi there - DD is in similar position - though not even any reserve places! She had one uni convert her med to biomed - so she is currently holding 2 biomed offers while she decides what to do. That is likely to be turn those offers down and take a gap year and re-apply.