Medicine 2023 Entry - Part 2

[opoponax]

Anyone out there with DC applying or reapplying for Medicine 2023, please join a friendly thread for mutual support and useful advice.

@Peachy2005 how about Leicester? QR is a virtual station at the interview. The interview is on line.
Manchester allow a choice of on line or F2F if you have any feelings for/against on line.

Thank you so much for checking! Makes me wonder if it’s the overall package and a general good impression at the interview that would tip the scales anyway. DD decided to go for Newcastle anyway. Oh the optimism of the youth! I hope the gamble pays off!!! Good luck to everybody’s DC 🙂

the child’s heart is still set on Newcastle it seems… her first choice is UCL, so fingers crossed that BMAT goes well

Go for it then, I think there is a better than 50:50 chance of an interview! UCL is changing the way they shortlist this year, so who knows what the cut off will be, but fortunately for you lots of people with good UCATs are not keen to risk more than one BMAT, and I think that has driven down competition rates at non-Oxbridge - people are choosing Imperial OR UCL rather than both.

thank you for pointing this out, @Monkey2001 This is extremely helpful!

@Monkey2001 this is a very good point about UCL vs Imperial. Mine loved UCL so only put one BMAT uni down, too. To be honest, I think BMAT is the type of exam which she would be better at but of course, you never know! It’s all the uncertainty that is extremely stressful. I just want to wake up in mid-November tomorrow morning… by which time we will hopefully hear some news on the applications.

Never been to Leicester…is it a nice place? Never been to Sheffield or Nottingham or Newcastle or Southampton…wish we had done more UK travel 😩

DD has 38 for QUB, 5 A* and 4A (I got that wrong)…but seems risky if 38 the likely cut-off. We initially thought it might be less competitive as UK residents might not fancy moving to NI.

She has 136 for Nottingham.

Manchester just uses UCAT score as far as I can see from the chart posted previously.

We have pretty much ruled out Scotland now as DD would prefer an extra year to be a choice rather than a requirement…and also I got the impression from earlier discussions on here that there aren’t very many places for non-Scottish applicants.

It’s a minefield, things seemed simpler before my SIL sent me a link to here 😱

We also ruled out Keele because a high ucat isn't a great benefit and I think they were interviewing really late last year because there were so many applicants and R&R forms to read. Plus they said their standard offer for 2023 would be A* AA. They do take school leavers, but they look for lots of volunteer work and I think having the low ucat threshold attracts many with lower scores who might not get an interview elsewhere.

Kent is probably only good if she goes to a school where her GCSEs are substantially above the average GCSEs for her school - and it helps if the average GCSEs for her school are easily available. They favour people from widening participation backgrounds, dd really liked it but her school has high average GCSE grades so she would be less likely to get an interview.

Sheffield seemed nice, very friendly, lots of hills though. The Peak district is on the doorstep.

@Peachy2005 I can vouch for Nottingham as a city. Lived there in the early 2000s (in a job not at uni). Really lovely city then: felt very studenty, enough culture and music going on but small enough to be friendly. Been back a couple of times since - the city centre seems very posh now, shopwise! Will always be very fond of it. It's also easy to get anywhere from as it's so central.

So we heard today that earlier the ucas application is submitted the better because universities have started shortlisting once ucat ended. Surely this can't be true? Our DS is in his first gap year and school he was in, is taking time to give him a date to do application. This has worried us a lot today!

@kk10 that is a load of nonsense! The medical schools do start doing the academic checks when the applications arrive, but they don't get the UCAT scores until early November. It MUST be in by 15th October, but our school tends to get them all in around the 10th. Has he filled it all in and done PS? We sent ours to school today, I think they will submit to UCAS within a week.

@Peachy2005 Just to confuse you further, Glasgow is a 5 year course and they shortlist on UCAT, your DD would get an interview there! I am re-linking the Life of a Medic site I linked earlier. You can see what medical students say about each place. They also give guidance on how to work out what sort of course will suit you.

She needs to think about whether she prefers

• Integrated or traditional
• Early patient contact or not
• Dissection or not
• PBL v lectures
• London or not
• Big city or smaller city

Luckily there are lots of open days available on line to help get a feel for courses and places, but time is running out!

It is possible that the QUB cut off will go over 38, she would probably be OK, but there is a risk. If she wants to go there for the Irish connection, it worth risking it. Are you considering applying to Ireland too? They do it all on academics, no interview, and I believe the Admissions Test is similar to the UCAT.

If she liked Liverpool's campus feel, maybe people on here can advise which medical schools felt similar (we never looked there). If she did not like Bristol I wonder whether she would like Manchester, which is bigger and busier.

What does she like doing? Is she a clubber, walker,

Southampton might be interesting - I think that is a very green campus in a decent sized town.

oops, forgot the link lifeofamedic.com/2020/05/31/welcome-to-the-virtual-medicine-open-day/

@Monkey2001 DS has done his bits plus PS. Only waiting now for school part

Good luck to everybody. We didn't realise how stressful all this was going to be. We have submitted the application to school and we are already considering to change one of the options. Do you think we will get another opportunity to do that? My son will ask.

@Cratos My DD was told she could change her options once submitted to school (but she submitted a couple of weeks ago) but before their final cut off - which has now passed - so it depends on the school. I have seen a post which says you can change your options even after 15 Oct (the UCAS deadline, rather than the school deadline) but I don't know how true that is or whether it affects the application.

You cannot change your options after the UCAS deadline of 15th October. Also, schools will have different approaches regarding changes while they are still reviewing pre-submission. However, any changes will need to be finalised by the date your school is submitting the UCAS forms.

@Africa2go and @opoponax thank you for clarification. We better discuss the deadlines with school.

Would you consider a QR score of 740 high enough to give an advantage for Leicester? I couldn't find any information on their website about the specifics of how QR station is scored.

His total points for Leicester is 61.5 (non-contextual applicant)

@Cratos yes really important to clarify the deadline with school. 740 is a good QR score. We had a chat with an admissions person at the Leicester open day and, from that conversation and Monkey's table, 61.5 seems a safe score.

@Monkey2001 sorry, would you mind posting your table again?

@Africa2go obviously just use it as a guide and check minimum requirements.

@Cratos school can release it back to your DS so he can change it. You can also change it on the UCAS site up to 15th October once submitted. Changes after 15/10 will lead to rejection.

If the cut off is 59, you need at least 27 from UCAT, so a minimum score of 2700 or 650 per section (although VR has lower average than others, so should maybe say most interviewees will have at least 660). As scores are on a normal distribution I would expect 740 to be comfortably in the top half of interviewees.

I have seen a post which says you can change your options even after 15 Oct (the UCAS deadline, rather than the school deadline) but I don't know how true that is or whether it affects the application.

UCAS allows you to do this within 14 days of receiving their welcome e-mail, but they make the following point:

If you swap after the relevant deadline for your new course choice, it will be considered late. Contact your chosen uni or college first to check they'd consider your application. www.ucas.com/undergraduate/after-you-apply/making-changes-your-ucas-undergraduate-application

I would never agree to consider an application on this basis; I don't think any other medicine admissions tutors would, either.

@NoNotHimTheOtherOne thank you for that - @Cratos please ignore that part of my post!

@Monkey2001 sorry I wasn't aware that you could make changes independently of the school up to 15th October. DD has been told by her school that, if she intends to change one of her options, she needs to go to the school office and change it under their supervision ahead of their submission date to UCAS.