Medicine 2023 Entry - Part 2

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

@Peachy2005 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 😩

Neither had we. And DS applied during Covid, so had to apply completely sight unseen for any of his choices. Indeed, he nearly accepted a place sight unseen, but I said no way are you accepting a place when you have a choice and have never been there - even if we just walk up and down the streets and look at the outside of the buildings, that is something. He thought I was a bit mad at first, but agreed to a trip to Nottingham and Sheffield, which were his two offers and we went in May half term, which was after all his A level exams (TAGs) were finished. We lucked out on the weather, which was glorious, so we saw both of them in the lovely sunshine, and they were both beautiful, and we were allowed to sneak in to a couple of buildings, which was nice (Sheffield more so than Nottingham, they were prepared to do tours so long as there were no more than four in a tour). But we went to Nottingham first, and the campus there is stunning - beautiful lake and grass and rabbits - and even in Covid times the city really felt like a student filled place, it had a really young vibe - and we chatted to a medical student and met various people outside, and DS was already pretty much sold on it before we got to Sheffield. But Sheffield was really nice too, lots of trees, and hills and nice views, and we could see he could have been happy there, and the student union was really very impressive, a real sense that they looked after you in all sorts of ways. I am afraid I have never been to either Newcastle, Leicester or Southampton (DS didn't apply there, so obviously no offer) so can't comment on those. Sheffield is more of a city, and Nottingham a campus, but it is just about walking distance (or public transport) to the city centre, so really close.

Thanks for all that info @Bimkom

DD is going to put Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham and now the decision for 4th seems to be between Sheffield and Newcastle. Today I’ve had people telling me Newcastle is an amazing place to study but all the med schools sound good from the Life of a Medic site. Can anyone compare Sheffield and Newcastle from their visits? Thanks so much!

Full body dissection tipped the balance to Sheffield for DS1, but a lot of people apply to both as there are similarities in their feel. Both compact, cheap to live in, loads of students. Newcastle gym is better if you care about that and the accom is much closer to the medical school than it is at Sheffield. Newcastle is more of a campus in a small city. At Sheffield most students live in Endcliffe Village on first year which must be about 20 min walk from med school, at Newcastle Park View is pretty much nextdoor to med school.

Both similar for placements. Both fine medical schools!

Should have said that Sheffield Admissions people are excellent, very transparent and all offers and rejections post interview go out over a week or so - Newcastle kept people hanging on for ages. Also, Sheffield give you the questions before the interview, so no real surprises, although we will never understand how DS1 failed the "knowledge of course and city" station first time round.

Both Sheffield and Newcastle are solid choices and she can't go wrong with either. As Bimkom said, Sheffield has a really nice feel about it and the area around the med school has a character of its own. Lots of cafes and bars and separate from the city centre. Newcastle feels more of a city university. It has a campus feel with accommodation, sports hall and med school all close to each other but it also kind of merges into the city centre as it is just a ten-minute walk away. They are both great social cities with lots of going on. One thing worth mentioning about Sheffield is, if your DD is doing an EPQ, you can get a reduced offer if you get an A or A star EPQ.

Sorry cross post Monkey, but absolutely right, Sheffield was a dream in terms of transparency of process and excellent communication. Dr Julian, their admissions lead, has legend status. DS was lucky as he got an early Newcastle offer but some friends had to wait for a while whilst the Sheffield offers all came out over a few days.

I'm another with no skin in the game this year but ds2 is in his 6th and final year at Sheffield (omg!!) and ds1 in his first at Bristol so happy to answer questions about experiences so far.
To answers PPs' questions re placements in Sheffield - they include Doncaster, Rotherham, Chesterfield and Scunthorp among others. Most are commutable from Sheffield and sharing lifts is standard between the students. At hospitals that aren't commutable distance the students get free hospital accommodation. The uni tries to make sure they get a balance of placements in Sheffield and out. Max length of time is 3 months (I think) so they all keep their house in Sheff. Ds hasn't had a long distance placement but he's stayed in the free accommodation occasionally e.g. when he has an early start. He said it was pretty grotty (but that's the NHS I'm afraid).
Travel expenses are paid but the system has changed to a set payment rather than mileage so some end up out of pocket.
Overall ds has had a brilliant experience living in Sheffield.

Loving all the helpful info, thanks to all.

@Monkey2001 are there many unis where you could fail your interview due to lack of knowledge of the city? That’s really alarming since we haven’t had a chance to visit any of them except Liverpool !!

@Peachy2005 the one question you can guarantee almost everywhere is "Why this university". Have you watched the open day videos? Medical schools are embedded in their communities, so they do need a feel for what they will experience. It sounds odd, but I think my DS might have sounded over-prepared as he loved the course and city and knew loads about them, it is a mystery! He got an offer from them second time round.

Peachy nobody would fail an interview for not having visited a city but obviously they'd score higher points in an interview question if they showed a reasonable level of knowledge of the uni and town that they are planning to live in for 5 years.
Sensible areas to read up for an interview are a few basic facts about the uni (size, type, some interesting facts e.g. things that make it special) and basic facts about the town/ city such as some awareness of population demographics (are there areas of high deprivation? Particular health issues of any communities?) All of this can be found with a browse on Google - no overnight stays required!
I think every interview my 2 ds did (8 in all) included some sort what do you know about this uni and/or this city question. I think they want to be sure you know what you're letting yourself in for and you're genuinely enthusiastic about living there.

Just to add - in one of ds's interviews (online) last year he found his mouth running away with himself and saying "well I know nothing about this city" - meaning he'd never been there before. He managed to correct himself and talk about being excited to go to a new place and what he knew about it. He still got an offer 🙂

@HunkyDory69 reading this statement it looks like it could be a structured MMI fine with a panel of 2, so 2 people running through the MMI stations. With a normal MMI there is only 1 person on each station, which is efficient but difficult to moderate, so I would like that. www.bristol.ac.uk/study/media/undergraduate/admissions-statements/2023/medicine.pdf

@Haffdonga
My DS is applying to Bristol. Could you please tell us a little bit about Bristol Medical School experience, interview and the city? Thank you

Well DS got his offers without having visited either of the cities. He did do a lot of research online about them though, so knew all sorts of details. I think that is why he thought an actual journey wasn't necessary - even though I insisted it was, and he did agree afterwards that while one can sound really knowledgeable about a place during interview, there is a big difference in actually seeing it. But in some ways it is quite nice to see a place once you know that it is up to you whether you accept the offer or not, rather than fall in love with a place and then don't get that offer.

DD is going for:

UCL
Imperial
Queen Mary
Manchester

Not sure about the fifth option yet.

Her UCAT was 97th centile, so not sure about the wisdom of going for two BMAT options really, but they were her absolute favourites after open day, and she wants to take the risk.

She had a slight wobble the other day about whether she should apply to Cambridge after all, but then remembered that she didn't really like the course and hadn't warmed to the faculty at all at open day at all!

Predicted grades are marginally lower than she was expecting, which she is peeved about, not least because the teachers have changed and she feels that they don't really know her yet. However, they should still be enough to get her in for an interview so I'm not too worried about that.

I think the interviews will play to her greatest strengths, personally, so if she can manage to get a foot in the door, I'm optimistic for her chances. Bit anxious about the BMAT though... she has barely looked at it yet!!

DS applied for:
Sheffield
Leicester
Newcastle
UEA

It is a shame we live in Bristol as he would have liked to apply to Bristol if not, and on line panel is his preferred type of interview.

@MrsBennetsPoorNerves that is a great UCAT result. Good luck with BMAT.

My DS has not done much BMAT prep either and if he is not achieving good mock test results by Wed next week, we thought maybe we should consider changing the BMAT school to a UCAT school before the final UCAS submission deadline.
I am not sure if this would cause any confusion though considering that he entered Brighton university code when he booked his BMAT exam.

Could they still go ahead with this exam as a practice even if they don't apply to a BMAT school ? That is another question I had in my mind (since we will not get a refund anyway)

@Monkey2001
Best wishes and good luck to your DS with his application! We really liked Sheffield and Leicester. We couldn't visit the UEA but it looks very good.

@Cratos yes, of course you can take the exam and not apply to any BMAT universities - my DSs would definitely not agree to do that though! I think loads of prep is not necessary if you are good at science, DS1 did a couple of weeks of prep first time and got a score which got him an interview at Cambridge and would have got one anywhere else, then next year he went to a festival, came back hungover, did 3 light days of prep and got a super high score (6.8, 7.0, essay did not count for Cambridge). If you are in a good state of mind and good at science and refresh whichever of the 3 sciences you are not doing at A level it should be fine. Mental state is the most important thing for all the admissions tests in my experience.

@Monkey2001
Wow thank you for this guidance. It sounds like there is still some hope then. I will try to stay calm.

That's encouraging...I don't think dd has actually done any mock tests for BMAT yet! She has been too focused on exams in school, getting her personal statement done etc.

She is good at science though...predicted A*s in biology and chemistry, and she got a 9 in physics GCSE, though I doubt she remembers much of it now... maybe just the mechanics stuff that they do in A-level maths. To be fair, she did very little prep for the UCAT and managed to do very well, so I think she would absolutely agree with the assessment that a positive mental state makes all the difference. She went into UCAT saying that she was going to come out with a score over 3000, despite not getting that in any of the practice tests, and somehow that's what she did!!

@Peachy2005 I wouldn't worry about not yet having visited the medical school locations. My DS got four medicine offers and he had only visited one of his choices (Bristol) ahead of his interviews. It was impossible to visit the others with lockdowns in place. He eventually visited both Bristol (again) and Newcastle, only when he had to decide which one he would firm. He insured Sheffield without ever having visited it. He also rejected Manchester without having visited it. It all worked out and it doesn't feel real until they have an offer in hand anyway.

As ds1 is only in his second week at Bristol I probably can't tell you much that you don't know already know! I can only really compare Bristol with Sheffield (where ds2 is) but differences I've gleaned so far:
Bristol seems a fantastic but relatively expensive city to live in. From the third year students are based in what they call academies, which are basically longer term hospital and learning placements, often quite a long way from Bristol but there is free so students can potentially save some rental costs. In Sheffield the students are based in the city for their full time.
Bristol does prosection rather than full body dissection and I had the mistaken idea that this would mean a less active just sitting watching type learning experience but ds says that they've been encouraged to get fully hands on and has found it very powerful.
Another difference is the level of early patient contact. In Sheffield they do a day at a GP surgery once a fortnight from week 2, an early hospital placement plus a long term patient study where students visit the same patient at home several times over the year. Bristol (as far as I know) do about 3 half day GP visits a term in the first year. It probably doesn't make much difference in the long run but if early patient contact matters to you it's worth digging down into what a uni means when they claim it.
I'm sure there are much more important things to tell you but as I say, early days!