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.

Invites to Sheffield, Leicester, Cardiff and Liverpool.

Has anyone received actual offers yet?

Merry Christmas! You can tell I have teens, I am the only one awake!

Same here @Iwab82, both are teens and both are still on bed.

DS has 3 interviews. He's already had ARU and Sheffield, Plymouth is on the new year. He missed out on Bristol by 30 points, which is a shame as that was his preferred choice but he did know it was a risky choice, thanks to the wonderful guidance received on here.

Merry Christmas everyone. Looking forward to hearing about offers on the New Year

Have been lurking on this thread since the start. Thank you for all the advice DD got an offer for Dundee. Delighted for her. She's had a hard year at school socially. Wanted to share as hard to share with others as only one of applicants in group to get an offer. Hope it's ok. Good luck to everyone

Woo hoo @wishiwasacollie, that is great news! I saw a grad who posted they had an offer from Dundee on TSR, but was not sure whether to believe it as nobody else posted an offer - probably because Dundee offers to RUK are so rare! It is one of @GANFYD's favourite medical schools.

That's fantastic news @wishiwasacollie!

She's the first offer holder we've heard of on this thread so deserves an enormous pat on the back! What a she is!!

That’s amazing @wishiwasacollie - did she have a positive feeling after the interview?

DD is doing interview prep/Birmingham maths prep/Biology test on all Year 12 content prep this morning, then heading off for Christmas dinner with her close friendship group. She is in charge of potatoes…

Thanks all. It's where she wanted. We both liked Dundee when we visited. Dundee city has changed so much from when I was young ( long time ago)For the better The interview she thought went ok but no feelings about how it went save for usual "wish I'd said" after . Said they were really friendly and she liked interviewers and how they spoke about the uni and the course
Do appreciate the help on here. Kept me sane

A big Congratulations to you DD and the whole family!!! Such a relief x

Huge congratulations @wishiwasacollie. Great to have an early offer and especially at Christmas. Dundee is a brilliant medical school and Ninewells an excellent teaching hospital. Your DD has done so well. My DS loved Dundee and the only reason he didn't apply was the RUK cap which I think was about 15 last year.

Anyone worried about A levels and if they will go ahead?

We have mocks starting next week

We are treating mocks as the real thing, I think exams are on a knife edge and if I was in charge I would cancel them because the variation in educational experience for the last 2 years has been so huge and may well continue to grow with absences for to Omicron and some schools better able to cover or provide dual teaching than others. I think schools used to say that taking a week off for a holiday during term time takes you down a grade, I expect most schools are no longer providing remote teaching for people isolating. Having said that, I think DS would do better if exams were not cancelled as our school is not generous with grade boundaries.

I assume we will find out in early Feb, when they will either releases info about what will be in the exams or announce teacher assessment.

@Monkey2001 that's v wishful thinking ! Be nice if a decision was made in Feb, and a countrywide plan implemented. But if the last 2 years have taught me anything it's that there will be no planning by DfE and it will be a last minute dump on schools to do their own thing. We sat exams last year, written, marked and moderated in school and our students mostly got the grades they expected. Personally I see no reason external exams can't be sat, but with the option to choose from a selection of questions. But that takes planning (& money). So who knows 🤷‍♀️. Sure Boris will tell us on a Friday at 5pm to implement on the Monday.
I'd suggest taking all exams seriously from now on, just in case. I don't want to do TAGs again as it's horrible. I know my students dreams and I don't want to crush them, but I also won't risk everyone's grades by being dishonest. Unfortunately some schools may not have been quite as rigorous and this has caused the ridiculous grade inflation - it is v v type of school dependent.
Grrrrrrrrrrr🤬🤬🤬.
Happy 2022 and hope lots of lovely offers start popping up soon.

Dd has had one interview, which she feels didn't go well. It seems unlikely that she is getting any others 🙁. She does have an offer for pharmacy, and announced today that she might do one year of pharmacy, resit UKCAT and then apply for medicine again. Is this even possible to apply for a university course when you are already at university?
I would have thought that taking a year out and doing HCA work would have been better, but she's worried if she doesn't get in again that this will be a waste of time.

@seekinglondonlife I think you are right and taking a gap year and doing HCA work would be much better. Not only will it mean she has loads to talk about in her interviews next time around, but it will also show dedication and commitment to medicine.

Maybe right now she's feeling quite nervous about whether she will have a place, and she's feeling like she just wants to go to Uni, one way or the other, in September. I'm not sure what the implications are of starting another degree first and then applying - but I really don't think it's a good idea.

Anyway - she's had an interview which is great! That's an achievement in itself and may well result in an offer. I've seen time and time again, people thinking their interviews have gone badly, and then they get a place.

Hang in there and good luck. If the worst thing happens and she has no offers, many applicants are successful second time around, and it's not that long to wait.

@seekinglondonlife she needs to decide what she wants to do and focus on that. If her focus is medicine it is I'll advised to start another degree as it's highly unlikely she will ever get into medicine if she does that. Taking a gap year and finding a job in the NHS whilst she reapplies seems like the best way to get into medicine.

Yes I agree with you both, I think she's just so worried that she won't get in second time around either. On TSR there are so many people with really good stats that aren't getting interviews this time around either.

The rational answer is definitely that if she doesn't get an offer this year, getting a job as an HCA would improve her chances at interview and enable her to get offers at Keele and Sunderland if she doesn't get a great UCAT score. Some universities don't allow you to apply if you have already started a university course unless you are in the final year.

There is a very low correlation between how people think they have done and whether they get offers! Where was her interview? Have either of you liked at the offer to interview ratio?

Was the reason she didn't get the other interviews down to UCAT? If she doesn't get an offer, she could book an early UCAT in 2022 so she knows how many interviews she is likely to get.

The reason people with great stats don't get interviews is usually down to strategy, and that can be learned.

@Monkey2001 her interview was with QUB. Her UCAT was 2730 which she knew was low so applied strategically. She did loads of work for it but her score never really improved over the months, and the thought of doing it again is really putting her off.

@seekinglondonlife that is not a low UCAT ! I have several with 2400 who have got 2 interviews so far - strategy it so important. My own DD got 2710 and is happily a 4th year, so please know it's a good score. Hopefully she might get a few more interviews - where is she waiting for ? It's a tough process (there's a reason for my username !). And this year is particularly tough with all the uncertainty.
Starting pharmacy is not a good plan as has been said by Monkey. A year as an HCA or working in a care home will be fantastic experience and build confidence.

She got rejected from Manchester (which we knew she probably would as her UCAT was 69th centile) and waiting for Keele and Cardiff.

@mumsneedwine I thought it was OK until I went on TSR and everyone seems to have 3000+!

I thought Manchester cut off was 2710, band 2 - did she meet all the other criteria? They rejected some people by mistake.

QUB offer to interview ratio in 2020 was 55%, which is a fairly average rate, so lots of people without "amazing" interviews will get offers.

2730 is 80th percentile and a very good score.

@seekinglondonlife - my dd was in the same position last year. She had only 1 interview and did not get an offer. She withdrew her ucas application and decided to take a gap year. She started her UCAT revision earlier and did much better second time round. She is using the time to volunteer at the vaccination clinic and to do part time work. She has received 4 interview invites and fingers crossed then will get at least one offer from those. If not then she will decide whether to try again one last time or take the 5th non medical offer.

I would encourage your dd to consider taking a gap year and re-applying - it is only one year and she can do so much in that year to improve her chances.

Manchester just replied saying her application wasn't competitive enough.
@FanSpamTastic Al the best for your daughter, hopefully this will be her year!