Medicine 2021 - Part 4

[MaddieElla]

Fingers crossed for those final offers coming in!

Hope no one minds me starting the new thread...

BTW for help with interview prep, I didn't realise this was what my DS was using until the Cambridge offers came out, and he told me he was very chuffed that he had "interviewed" a significant group who got Cambridge offers, and I said - "what do you mean you interviewed them?", and it turned out that he had been part of a Discord channel made up of medical applicants (a few medical students I think as well) and they had been interviewing each other and that a very high proportion of those on this server went on to get Cambridge medicine offers (much better ratio than any of the private schools apparently), and he had helped to interview a number of them. He said it was much better practice than TSR, as there you were writing, and here you were actually talking - and I thought how sensible this was, as it meant that not only did he get practice, but he got to be on the other side of the table and have to look at it from the perspective of an interviewer, which surely will have helped give a level of insight that is otherwise not available. He hadn't found it for Sheffield (which was his first interview in early December), but we think he might have scored quite highly in his Nottingham interview, given that he was in the first batch (we shall see about Liverpool, as their offers are not out yet), and he attributes that to all the practice he put in on this server. Below is the link:

"Discord invite to Medical Applicants server: discord.gg/BHr8vPFjhy
To those who are new to discord and may not know how things work you need to visit the #roles channel and select the right emoji to be able to see and message the rest of the server"

I know he originally tried to set up something similar at his school, but there were only five of them, and i got the impression that he was generating most of the questions for that (yours truly was tasked with finding graphs in the newspaper that could be used for analysis), and then of course school shut down. The discord server gave him access to a much wider pool of very keen students, a number of whom may have been the only ones in their school applying (I had thought he was just talking to his friends).

Thank you for your nice messages for DD on the previous thread

@monkey2001 DD must have been on the same wavelength choice wise as your DS! That's great your DS is meeting so many interesting people

@MaddieElla the elation over offers quickly gives way to worry about grades doesn't it? It's one hurdle after another isn't it?!

@SATSmadness Thank you for your kind comments - I really do think the margins between getting an offer or being on a reserve list or not getting an offer must be tiny, especially this year. Very much hoping for good news for you and DD soon.

Thank you for the new thread. Can't believe we are heading into the end of March, Easter and the end of school for our kids! What a year.

Lancaster are saying right at the end of March now. I know that's only a week away, but they are going to lose the students with a few offers who are just impatient to get going and start accommodation searching (especially for those universities where it's first come first served!)

WHY are so soooooo much slower than others 🤷🏻‍♀️

@bimkom that’s great DS helped people with their interviews and that the practice helped him too. What a great idea!

@Powergower yes it’s been quite a year hasn’t it! I can’t believe Easter is almost here.

@GreyBow that’s a long wait isn’t it? You’re right and some students will end up withdrawing just to be able to crack on with firming and booking accommodation etc.

@LaLaFlottes it's so frustrating waiting isn't it.

Liverpool has started sending out offers this afternoon so DD has now heard from all four. It feels like it was a long wait. If anyone has any experience of Liverpool would be great to hear.

@redtulip12 there’s such a difference in time taken for offers from one Uni to another isn’t there? DD heard from her final choice yesterday so she’s now able to make her decisions but the last one she heard from was Leicester and they said all along that they would offer slowly right up until May. I know DD would have been tempted to withdraw if it had dragged on.

Congrats on the Liverpool offer and good luck to those waiting - I think there might be a few people on the thread waiting for Liverpool so fingers crossed!

Congratulations to your DD @redtulip12. Great that she can move on to the next phase now.

Congratulations @redtulip12 (and DD )

Lancaster may end up losing some good applicants...

Total stress city here. Mock week. Physics absolutely shocking apparently. Chem and Bio dream papers so that's a relief. She now won't entertain any conversation about going to do Medicine because she's terrified she's going to drop a grade. 🤦‍♀️

Pass the

And I've just realised I already said that on the last thread. Maybe I've had enough

Lancaster has started to give out offers. 🤞🤞 for everyone

Just one to go
Rejection from Liverpool today 😢
On the anyway 😂
I did say some of her answers didn't sound great at the time on a previous thread - oh well, you can't win 'em all
Waiting for the last which should be before Wednesday
She's coming home tomorrow and I can't wait 😊😊

Sorry to hear that @WithIcePlease

Fingers crossed 🤞

Sorry to hear news @WithIcePlease. Wishing your DD all the best with the last one.

Yes! Literally just after I posted, DD got an offer from Lancaster!!! 🥂

We now have to try and find a reason to visit both Leeds and Lancaster so she can gauge from the outside of a building if she wants to spend 5/6 years there 🤷🏻‍♀️😆

Sorry to hear that @WithIcePlease 😔 Rejections are crap.

It's been the toughest year yet for our children for medicine.

Thank you for commiserations
She has 2 offers inc from her first choice but still a blow to her
Selfishly it was my least preferred option because I split my time between 2 locations and it was the least convenient
Just the grades still seem like a big ask...

Congratulations on Lancaster @GreyBow 🎉🎉

@GreyBow amazing news - congratulations - sound like a road trip is on the cards for you! Exciting!

@WithIcePlease really sorry to hear your news but so glad DD has offers from two already, including her first choice.

Congratulations @GreyBow I don't really know Lancaster but Leeds is a great city.
We are also now looking into a trip to Liverpool to try and actually see the University. We managed to visit Bristol in October and she has narrowed it down to these two.

Sorry to hear your news @WithIcePlease I hope your DD isn't too upset. Mine was pretty upset about her Sheffield rejection. It's tough on them but they need to remember how amazingly well they've done. It's been such a competitive year. It's great to finally have all our decisions, I hope everyone else can get theirs soon too.

Oh congratulations!!! That's great news @GreyBow

We visited Leeds open day in 2019 and was top of DDs list until she decided she didn't want to take the BMAT. It really is the loveliest Uni, great facilities, nice accommodation and the staff were lovely. Just a short walk to the shops etc.

Yes it was a rejection for us too from Liverpool. Oh well. Still, he has two lovely offers, so we are trying to look at the positive, you really don't need more than two at most (and the other nice news he received today is that one of his teachers is nominating him for some sort of school award for some of his extra curricular volunteering, so that has rather taken the sting out of it a bit - we don't know what the means exactly, but it sounds nice). So now we just need to work out which to firm.

@redtulip12
DD and I had a super day in Liverpool between lockdowns
The maintenance man let us in to the medical school to use the loo 😊
It was a v friendly place and we both thought a good size city with lots of different parts with their own character. It's easy to navigate because of tall landmarks and the slopes down towards the docks.
Colleagues who have been there spoke about how much they had enjoyed it there - one who had recently graduated said 'omg I'm so jealous I wish I could go back' and looked v wistful. One said it used to be said that it was a diy medical school but they had changed teaching methods and someone else said that the graduates came out v well prepared as junior doctors

Actually, it must be truly awful as rejected DD and wouldn't touch it with a barge pole 😂😂😂

Enjoy your trip 😊

Thank you @WithIcePlease that's really good to hear.......and yes that's how we feel about Sheffield now 🤣🤣

Sorry @bimkom on your DS's news but well done him on being nominated for an award. You must be very proud. Hope it isn't too difficult a decision choosing which to firm. Have you managed to look around either?

@GreyBow congratulations to your DD on Lancaster. Brilliant news!

@Bimkom sorry to hear about Liverpool but it is fab that your DS has two great offers in the bag.

@redtulip12 the road trip season begins! We are hoping to visit both Newcastle and Sheffield. Luckily we managed to visit Bristol over the summer. It's so difficult for the DC to make these decisions when they haven't visited.

We are still waiting for Manchester...