Medicine 2021 - Part 4

[MaddieElla]

Fingers crossed for those final offers coming in!

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

[quote LaLaFlottes]@ljmutti DD has been deciding where to firm and insure and was advised to look at course structure, things like intercalation opportunities, the location, ease of travel home etc.

Also - if one offer was to be taken away, which would she be most disappointed about! This was a good way for her to get an idea of her gut reaction.

Sheffield and Leicester are both excellent medical schools so there’s no wrong decision - if DD can’t decide based on the course she should perhaps just go with gut feeling.

Congratulations to her on the offers [/quote]
Thank you so much for your kind reply. should she wait to hear from other Uni? still hoping on one, as interview went well, but with current situation it looks increasingly uncertain. Should she wait to speak to her teachers to get an idea of grades ( don't think they might actually be able to divulge any info) and then confirm out of the two offers in hand or wait a bit longer. I think she wants to book accommodation as well.How long can she actually wait before confirming?

In order to firm / insure, applicants have to have either received all their responses, or to have withdrawn their application to any universities which have not yet responded.

If all responses have been received (or those still outstanding dropped) by May 20th, the deadline is June 10th.

@MarchingFrogs

In order to firm / insure, applicants have to have either received all their responses, or to have withdrawn their application to any universities which have not yet responded.

If all responses have been received (or those still outstanding dropped) by May 20th, the deadline is June 10th.

Thanks for your reply, might have to withdraw and confirm / insure soon. I wonder why Uni s are waiting so long . any idea?

Hi @ljmutti

It’s been a strange year and some Unis are taking a while, or sending out offers really slowly. Where are you waiting for? (don’t say if you’d rather not ) Have they given any indication of how much longer they will take?

If your DD is keen on the one she is waiting for then I’d hang on a bit longer maybe. If she knows she definitely wouldn’t put it as firm or insurance, then maybe soon you could think about withdrawing so that she can sort out accommodation, but I wouldn’t worry or rush too much right now.

I know that Sheffield’s accommodation is available to book now - however they release it in phases so that it’s fair and not a big rush, so don’t worry about that. I’m not sure about how Leicester’s accommodation works though.

@LaLaFlottes

Hi *@ljmutti*

It’s been a strange year and some Unis are taking a while, or sending out offers really slowly. Where are you waiting for? (don’t say if you’d rather not ) Have they given any indication of how much longer they will take?

If your DD is keen on the one she is waiting for then I’d hang on a bit longer maybe. If she knows she definitely wouldn’t put it as firm or insurance, then maybe soon you could think about withdrawing so that she can sort out accommodation, but I wouldn’t worry or rush too much right now.

I know that Sheffield’s accommodation is available to book now - however they release it in phases so that it’s fair and not a big rush, so don’t worry about that. I’m not sure about how Leicester’s accommodation works though.

She is waiting for another northern Uni shall we say. They should come back next week and after she gets her score from Mocks, she might put in her final decision. It is such fun every week .......a nervous wreck !! Cannot thank you enough for your reply, feel supported .

@ljmutti this whole process is a real rollercoaster isn’t it! That would be good if she hears this week and then she can consider all of her options. I think it’s best to wait if you can (unless she decides 100% against the other Uni) as sometimes until you have all of the options in front of you it’s hard to know exactly how you feel!

Best of luck to DD for the final Uni and mock results - what a week!! and please do stay on the thread for DD and me it’s been a steep learning curve getting through this application process and having all the support on here has been so helpful

[quote LaLaFlottes]@ljmutti this whole process is a real rollercoaster isn’t it! That would be good if she hears this week and then she can consider all of her options. I think it’s best to wait if you can (unless she decides 100% against the other Uni) as sometimes until you have all of the options in front of you it’s hard to know exactly how you feel!

Best of luck to DD for the final Uni and mock results - what a week!! and please do stay on the thread for DD and me it’s been a steep learning curve getting through this application process and having all the support on here has been so helpful [/quote]
aww
you are so sweet . At least I have met a wonderful person like yourself. Steep learning curve it is indeed. Is your DD in medical Uni? sorry for being clueless . Lovely weather her down South.

@MarchingFrogs

In order to firm / insure, applicants have to have either received all their responses, or to have withdrawn their application to any universities which have not yet responded.

If all responses have been received (or those still outstanding dropped) by May 20th, the deadline is June 10th.

Hope we hear about all the outcomes soon. Put on a reserve list on one,( not keen on this Uni ) and waiting to hear from another one.

@ljmutti my DD is at the same stage as yours and making her decisions on where to go - starting in 2021

It’s been so stressful! Especially waiting for offers, but they came in the end thankfully! She’s revising constantly at the moment for all the assessments and we are just all hoping she gets over the last hurdles and makes the grades etc!

@willowsmumsy

If it's any consolation to your dd, my got 4 interviews and no actual offers even with full house of top grade at GCSE, UCAT in top decile, BMAT score sufficiently high to get an Oxbridge interview too and predicted all A* s for A Levels.

I think there may be enough parents with dc in the same situation this year to almost have our own "re-applying for medicine 2022" thread !

DD will have to resit UCAT and/or BMAT and try to sort out whatever let her down at interview but we can't pinpoint it exactly as the feedback she has managed to get from a couple of Uni's has varied so much.

I guess your dd's action plan is getting the UCAT score up. Has she considered any BMAT Uni's/looked at the difference between UCAT and BMAT style of tests ?

[quote SATSmadness]**@willowsmumsy

If it's any consolation to your dd, my got 4 interviews and no actual offers even with full house of top grade at GCSE, UCAT in top decile, BMAT score sufficiently high to get an Oxbridge interview too and predicted all A* s for A Levels.

I think there may be enough parents with dc in the same situation this year to almost have our own "re-applying for medicine 2022" thread !

DD will have to resit UCAT and/or BMAT and try to sort out whatever let her down at interview but we can't pinpoint it exactly as the feedback she has managed to get from a couple of Uni's has varied so much.

I guess your dd's action plan is getting the UCAT score up. Has she considered any BMAT Uni's/looked at the difference between UCAT and BMAT style of tests ?[/quote]
If you need tips on interview I can give my two cents. All I can say is stay strong and don’t look too far ahead. I found this helped both me and my DD with dealing with immense stress that came with physical manifestation. Keep posting it helps when we talk

@sSATSmadness - if DD did well at bmat and ukcat plus has a string of 8, 9 and A* can't do any harm ringing round on results day as may end up with a place. Some of DD's friends did this and were successful

@SATSmadness - please encourage your daughter to go through clearing. Mine secured an interview on results day after spending all morning phoning around (two phones on the go and don't hang up if it goes quiet!!). She's now in her 2nd year at med school and couldn't be happier.

With teacher assessed grades it is not likely that anything will be available in clearing this year - my understanding is that med schools expect applicants to be awarded the grades they need, so there will not be much results day uncertainty.

@Monkey2001

With teacher assessed grades it is not likely that anything will be available in clearing this year - my understanding is that med schools expect applicants to be awarded the grades they need, so there will not be much results day uncertainty.

*@Monkey2001*

That is precisely what DD is anticipating.

Just yet another layer of the unfair reduced level of opportunity applicable to this year's cohort of applicants.

Great for those who get offers but a second blow for those who don't, especially as awarding A*s to the pupils who need them in order to meet their grade requirements reduces the amount available for those who hold no offers. (despite anticipated grade inflation, there surely has to be a reasonableness limit applied if only to try and prevent the school being selected for external review/moderation).

Last years CAG has resulted in this mess and I can see the trend continuing for at least three years. Correct me if I am wrong. Nobody is bothered about the mental health implications of candidates affected.

There could still be medicine places in clearing. My understanding is that medicine places are usually in clearing for deliberate reasons not because they have too few students for their course (in normal years I think their algorithms tend to work well. I appreciate this is not a normal year). But for example SGUL goes into clearing to try and attract some very high scoring students who got no offers - apparently it deliberately underfills its places each year so it can do this. There's been no suggestion that it's changed its policy this year?
In addition medical schools last year were caught out - offers had been made prior to the decision about A levels. This year there are a few who have been - UCL seems to have over-offered early and therefore not interviewed many students who could have expected an interview normally - but lots of them will have offered places very carefully based on their expectations of inflated grades but with no idea at all how many students will get 4 offers and how many 1. I only know one student who has an offer from her original top choice (and no offers anywhere else). Another has only an offer from her 4th choice (where she will be going) but in a normal year I'd have expected her to have had other offers.
What I'm trying to say is that I think it's impossible to predict clearing this year - yes there will be some deferrals from last year but there could easily be medical schools that over-estimated their popularity as well. My dd and her friends are lined up to help their two friends without offers (but with fab GCSEs and UCAT) to call around on results day and there's still a chance.

(Those students are on the waiting list for medical schools that some of your children are deciding between. Again, depending on the decisions that are made, some people will be offered from the waiting lists but other schools don't seem to have created waiting lists in the same way).

SATS - I totally agree that this is yet another blow to many excellent candidates.... There is just no way of knowing what will happen on results day, and I tend to agree with Chilldonald that some unis could have overestimated the number of firms it will receive. The toll it is taking is unfair and demoralising, and drags out another period of angst for everyone waiting.

I can't believe schools are going to be able to simply offer the necessary grades to those with offers that need them, thereby doing down those without offers. I don't know about other schools, but all the ones I know (DS's, DS's old comprehensive where he did his GCSEs and a friends private school) are doing three sets of exams that will all count (the first of DS's was middle of March, the second will be next week right after Easter and the third mid to late May). DS knows what he got in his first set, and knows pretty much his ranking in each subject within the school. I do not see how, for example, they could give him a grade higher than somebody else who ranked higher on the exams who perhaps didn't have an offer or alternatively only give him an A because that is all he needs for his offer when somebody who ranked lower in the exams is given an A because they need that for Oxbridge. I do see that they could lower the threshold for an A to make sure that the person going to Oxbridge (assuming they continue to rank lower than DS after all the exams are taken) got an A, pushing both him and hence DS up to an A, whereas if that person wasn't there, maybe they would have set the threshold differently. Because realistically only the school knows how much teaching they have done, and how reasonable it is to set the threshold of an A or A* at a particular point. But they have to provide (or at least have to provide if requested) evidence, and just about every school I know is doing this with exams. And if one student ranked consistently higher than another in these exams, then how can they then boost the other student over the first just because the first has a university offer? The second student would be sure to appeal, and it would all come out, and the school would end up with all its judgements questioned.

*second has a university offer

SGUL is the only one which uses Extra/Clearing as part of its strategy.

In recent years there has been a move towards usng reserve lists for the juggling after applicants choose Firm and Insurance. I am expecting to see quite a lot of coversion from reserve places to offers after 20th May, there may also be some coming up on Extra, particularly SGUL and Lancaster, who have been in Extra for the last 3 years, but I still think it is unlikely that much will happen in Clearing as that is really the time when they fill places of students who have missed the grades, which will be a much smaller number of people than usual.

@bimkom the reason I think almost all offer holders will get the grades is because marginal students will be put the right side of grade boundaries and because they are being assessed across multiple dates, there is less danger of a "bad day". We also know that there will be grade inflation.

I don't think there will be the abuse there was last year of grades (in a small number of centres), but if a student gets A grade 75% of the time and B 25% of the time, the teacher would presumably give them an A, although a real might have been on a B day.

There will be students consistently getting B/C grades who will, hopefully, be given a B even if that means they miss achieving an offer.

I know my DD is worried about physics, it is looking ropey at the moment. I don't think she or the school assumes an A grade is a given.

With regards to assessments, has anyone been given any detail about the May assessments? DD has been told they are releasing the papers to the students; surely this is madness!

What’s the difference between grade descriptor and grade boundary? Will there be set marks for grades this year as the papers used for mocks in my DDs school used recent locked papers. DDs school is very cautious about not attracting undue attention for dishing out high grades