Medicine 2022 entry

[Monkey2001]

Support thread for aspiring medics.

We want all our DCs to succeed, whatever their school type. We share knowledge to help them to achieve their goals, celebrate success and support if things don't go well.

As we press the "send and pay" buttons on UCAS, we wish all our DC the best of luck in this tough year with so much uncertainty.

Yes DS has just started at Newcastle and he is loving it @Monkey2001.

Checking in

Nice sentiments @Monkey2001 - let's keep supporting each other 😊

Thank you for continuing the medicine 2022 thread @Monkey2001

BTW wanted to say that we took the view last year that we would put one aspirational on the list - ie one where his various scores were aspirational rather than what ought to have been safe (he would have got an interview the previous year, but only just). Of course scores shot up last year, so in fact our aspirational didn't end up resulting in an interview - but he did get three interviews and two offers from the remaining ones. I am not sure that is totally a wrong approach. We were definitely strategic with the others. I don't know. We just thought he would have really kicked himself if his aspirational had turned out to have taken his UCAT last year, and he didn't apply. That was said in relation to those who maybe, possibly, could get an interview at Nottingham with B2, but might not. Part of me thinks that if you have three where you are guaranteed an interview, and there is one where your heart is really keen, gambling with one is not such a stupid thing to do. After all, if you can mess up (or just not be as good as the other candidates) for three interviews, you can mess up four (as many do). I wouldn't go for anywhere where an interview is out of the question, but the situation here, where nobody knows how many B1s are going to apply to Nottingham, makes we wonder whether a B2 and really strong other stats mightn't be worth a punt, if you go in with your eyes open.

As previously mentioned though, we did take the attitude that if necessary this was a two year process, so gambling on one that didn't pay off over two years didn't seem so reckless.

It is about how risk averse you are, how much you like a uni and how safe your other options are, as you say.
What is going to make you most upset? Missing out on any offers or getting one from one of your other choices, but finding out you would have interviewed at your "favourite". If people are happy to gamble with one of their choices because they like a med school so much, then go for it!
I must say mine did it the other way round, and only looked at where they wanted to go when they knew what their stats were, so "favourites" were chosen from the safe list.
They are young adults and learning about risk, choices and consequences, so like you say, going in with your eyes open is the important thing, and then it is down to personal choice. We only get one life, but luckily, can have more than one go at applying for medicine

My friend's dd just started medicine at Newcastle too. She's very lovely - maybe she'll get to know your boys @opoponax and @GANFYD... 🙂

My DS certainly likes to get to know lovely girls!
The anonymity of internet forums always amuses me. I have had a couple of the students I teach out themselves to me as TSR users by suggesting I seek my own advice about where my crotch goblins should apply for medicine and it was soooooo hard not to say anything!
Nice to see that everyone in Newcastle is having a great time, and hope other new starters have having as much fun

Thanks for new thread.

UCAS paid, no BMAT here, so full focus on English coursework, Chem and Bio block tests and 18th parties!

So which unis did your DD apply to @KingscoteStaff?

DD's PS is being reviewed by school and will be going off into the UCASsphere v soon. She's going for Edinburgh, Exeter, Bristol and St Andrews.....or was as of yesterday....

@MidLifeCrisis007 - Sorry for the delay in replying. A bit busy at the moment (students back today).

Your post has grabbed my attention. So do you work in admissions for Manchester? Do you know if other unis view the UCAT and competitive sport in the same light? That's music to DD's ears as she got 3190 in the Ucat and is very sporty. I didn't think any med school would be interested in her sporting achievements!

No, I'm not at Manchester. I'm sorry if I led anyone to think that competitive sport is specifically considered as a criterion anywhere. Universities might have policies on applications from elite sportspeople; you would have to check whether the medical school implements these. Once they are at university, there will usually be policies on allowing them time off to compete, prepare for international competitions, etc.

What I was trying to say is that certain factors suggest to us particular personality traits. So knowing that someone is ex-military, for example, will give us an idea of how they will respond to being required to follow instructions. It doesn't necessarily mean that we would put in specific criteria for handling applications from those people, as we would potentially end up with multiple sets of criteria and people who didn't fit into one of the groups would feel unfairly treated.

With high-level competitive sportspeople we know that they have a high level of self-discipline and ability to manage competing demands on their time. For medical schools that use personal statements or other autobiographical submissions, these might be characteristics they are looking for evidence of when selecting for interview. However, there will be other characteristics they're interested in for which coaching might be better evidence than level of achievement. Someone who teaches kids with disabilities to swim, for example, is likely to have a strong case anywhere if they have the insight to work out why that would be such a good example of ability to communicate effectively, handle responsibility, engage directly with people who are angry, upset or - in this case - frustrated, understand how someone else experiences a particular situation (the empathy that prospective medics always talk about but rarely understand), etc. It's always important to try to work out what particular characteristics a medical school is looking for (not always easy, I know) and provide evidence of those.

Really interesting post @NoNotHimTheOtherOne, thanks for the insight.

Is anyone else following with interest which universities are planning F2F interviews this year? I was really surprised that Sheffield has decided to stay on line. The only one I know of which is planning F2F if possible is Newcastle.

Planning on line - Birmingham, Bristol, Oxbridge, Manchester, Sheffield

F2F - Newcastle

I think it should affect choices for some people as some people will definitely perform better in over forum than the other.

Even med schools planning to offer F2f interviews will surely have to have the facility for them to be remote. Covid numbers in sixth formers near us are huge -60 off in ds's year last week, another friends just told me that they have had 55 year positive this weekend between years 10-13 - it would be impossible to penalise those who are positive around the dates of interviews.

@Chilldonaldchill - This is a major risk. I'm not really sure why anyone is undertaking face-to-face interviews. It is inevitable that some people won't be able to attend because of either having Covid or having to isolate. If it's early enough in the interview period they might be able to reschedule, but some medical schools' interview periods are quite short.

If some applicants end up having face-to-face interviews and other applicants at the same medical school have them remotely, I would predict very large numbers of people who aren't made offers will appeal on the grounds that they believe they would have performed better on the other kind of interview. Much better to do them all remotely, in my opinion.

I looked up some others and Nottingham and UCL still planning to do F2F if they can. Imperial have come up with a hybrid - they want an upload answering questions in January and then a short live interview later, either F2F or on line, depending on rules.

If you have a dd/ds playing high level sport you could look at Nottingham. They have an interview route for elite athletes who meet the standard requirements (at least they did in 2021 with details in the entry website if you scroll down far enough). I don't have a child applying this year but I benefitted from all the expert knowledge on last year' thread and thought i would wish everyone luck and pass on this obscure tip as I saw elite sport being mentioned.

Just seen that Nottingham's interviews for national sports players was already covered at the end of the last thread. Sorry for repeating info.

Pressed "send and pay" last night, school deadline for early entry is Friday, so it is nice to be early for a change!

DS is applying for Newcastle (A100), Manchester (A104), Dundee (A104). He is not expecting to be shortlisted at Dundee as their "wrong A level" offer is for people with 1 Science and we think they count both Physics and Maths. He is also not sure he would want to do the Manchester foundation year even if it was offered as it is a tiny course. So everything crossed for Newcastle here! The dream scenario is that they do what they did in 2019 and offer the strongest performers at interview AAB! We are a bit worried about PE grade as we have no context for assessing his real chances of an A, results for the subject have been weak in past years at the school and Covid has limited their opportunities to train and play. Maths and Physics should be fine.

The next 6 months is going to feel very long! Your DC will be frustrated to see their friends getting offers in whilst they stagger through BMAT, interviews and continuing volunteering/ work experience. Hope they all have successful outcomes, but remember that every year excellent candidates do not make it through first time, so be prepared to deal with disappointments without letting them affect A level progress.

DD has paid and pressed the button on hers too..... so now the waiting game begins. Tic Tok!

Do you want to hazard a guess as to when we will get some news flow through @Monkey2001?

I think I'm right in saying that the UCAT scores don't get fed to the unis until early November? Do you know which med schools are typically the quickest to process applications?

It all kicked off with interview invites mid-November last year.

Yes, I think things start to get going at the beginning of November. Interviews start around 3rd week of Nov, may be a few earlier. In 2019 some were super quick with offers, there were offers from King's before Christmas. Oxbridge publish their decision dates, which are in January. Sheffield always stick to their timeline. DS1 got his St Andrews offer in early Feb, then Sheffield and Leicester in half term. I know that for 2021 some were very slow whilst they tried to work out what was going to happen to grades.

Summary - interview invitations from early Nov to Feb, interviews from late Nov to March, decisions mid-Dec to end of March, with a few dragging on. I am expecting low offer numbers and extensive use of waiting lists.

So just 50 sleeps then.

Not that I'm counting. Oh no.

Tic Tok.....

I occasionally pop up on the medicine threads as a medic parent and there are some really helpful, knowledgeable posters who help out year after year on the threads. I wonder whether it would be useful to be a medicine sticky on the Higher Education board with general FAQs, strategy advice etc? The annual threads are great for support but it might be helpful to have all the info in one place as well so it is easy to find. What do people think?

@chesirecat99 think it's a great idea. As long as all the advice is verified by a few people as sometimes information can be out of date. TSR has lots of info already though. And amazing helpers !