@Monkey2001 - did you see the young (man, I think) on TSR who got a number of offers, but having thought about it deeply has decided that actually it is not what he wanted to do, and is turning them down. Takes a lot of courage to do that, especially given that his parents were clearly very keen on medicine. Sounds like your friend. Whereas we have a family friend (friend of my DH) who was in a similar situation, only he didn't feel able to say to his father (around 30-40 years ago now, I would guess) that he didn't want to be a doctor, so he went through the full course, but finally decided to live his own life and go and work in computers, which is what had always interested him. Been out of medicine now for at least 20 years, probably longer. But if your heart is set on being a doctor, which my DS's is (much to my bafflement, with no medics in the family and having done everything I could do dissuade him) nothing else it seems will do. I am still worried about the burnout (see eg yesterday's Times) - I made DS read Adam Kay's book as soon as I could, so at least he is going in with his eyes as open as I can make them. Being the intrinsic pessimist that I am, I made sure he was aware of how many fantastic candidates didn't get in first time even pre-Covid (lots of testimonies on TSR, not to mention your very own DS1), so we were I think somewhat psychologically prepared for a second run if needed even before the pandemic hit (one of the many reasons I also pushed him to apply for a deferred place, meaning that a second run would not seem so devastating as he has plans already for a gap year). As it has happened, assuming the grades go as we hope in August, we won't need the gap for that reason (although I still think a gap year, when you are facing seven super intensive years before you can next even contemplate stepping off the treadmill for a bit, is actually a really good idea, if you can afford it/there are jobs available). But it may be in some cases that actually, when they look back, they will see it as a bullet dodged, and if not there still is the (much more difficult and expensive) graduate route. So long as Iamsodonewith2020 's DS had done a lot of thinking about it, and is fully aware of the unlikelihood of graduate medicine, they may well be making the right choice for them. It might even be that in many years time they will thank the pandemic for putting them on a different path when in another year they might have sailed into the wrong career, hard as it may be to see that now.