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.

I can't link either, but if you Google

College of Medicine and Health - BMBS Admissions Process Policy 2023 entry

you should get the Admissions policy document. I agree that 98 might be OK this year because they are interviewing a lot more, but also last year I think more of the contextual people with 3 A* predictions got 100 points, so this year fewer will get 100 points and twice as many will be interviewed. I only meant that 2850 is a bit risky (80% chance of interview) because not top decile.

If she wants PBL, Manchester is the most obvious choice, but I get that it is very difficult to change the momentum now, so as long as she knows she is very unlikely to get interviews at Edinburgh and Bristol, and that both are "punts" you can try to manage her expectations.

Bristol is swapped out. Everyone feels better! Thank you for your help.

@Cathpot I think she should get Southampton and Sheffield 🤞🤞.
@Monkey2001 not sure I've ever bothered scoring for Exeter as I know it's 3 A stars and a high UCAT. Thanks for the links though. I do expect my students to do some research themselves 😊.

@mumsneedwine bit late now, but this is a link for the Exeter admissions document. It is the most transparent one I have seen. They are interviewing 650 applicants this year. They initially said 500 last year, but I seem to remember they reduced the number, maybe to 350. One interesting thing is that they have a procedure for applicants transferring from other medical schools.

www.exeter.ac.uk/media/universityofexeter/recruitmentsites/docs/BMBS_admissions_policy_2022-23v5.pdf

Good luck all, the die is nearly cast now that no changes can be made after midnight. I think we can expect a 3 week wait before any interviews come through. Last year Dundee was first to make offers, but I don't think we have any people applying to Dundee this year. Main offers will be in March, but lots will be waiting until May, so the next 6 months will feel long!

Good luck to everyone!!

I think dd is relieved to have sent her application now. I'm a bit anxious about the lack of strategy in her choices, but we talked about it and she understands the risks. She feels that there is time to be strategic next year if needs be - this year, she wanted to apply to the places that she really loved.

I'm hoping that her strong UCAT and good predicted grades will help her to get an interview at her two UCAT choices, but we'll have to wait and see. I'm quite anxious about BMAT as she has done next to no prep, but I felt the same before UCAT, so I'm trying to trust her to do what she needs to do. She's out this morning teaching CPR in a local shopping centre for Start a Heart day, but has the rest of the weekend off work to prepare. It would have been so much less stressful at this point if she'd have gone for 4 UCAT choices, but she never makes things easy for herself!!! Then again, I don't suppose anyone thinking of a career in medicine does!

I think dd will perform well at interview - she is very good at thinking on her feet, very articulate and genuinely passionate about what she wants to do. And people always seem to respond incredibly well to her, so hopefully the interview process will play to her strengths, but I guess the next thing is to start thinking about how best to prepare.

I guess reading up on "hot topics" would be useful? And taking time to reflect on work experience/voluntary work etc?

@Monkey2001 that is a difficult fact to hear that most offers won’t be until March :(. Do most mes schools wait until they have interviewed everyone before making their offers ? Why such a long wait before we hear anything? Do some straight rejections come quickly? I’m so glad dd put her 5th option in now as she already has an offer in the bag. Was a boost this week. And she is struggling to motivate herself to prep for potential interviews without hearing anything.

It's a long, tough wait for them, isn't it?!

Not too confident about dd's 5th choice tbh, as she picked a pretty competitive course and her personal statement obviously isn't tailored to it. Doesn't really matter though, as she will take a gap year and reapply if she doesn't get in for medicine this year.

I sometimes wish that dd could have chosen an easier option, but she is so set on medicine. The thing that I find hard is that, even if they manage to get through the awful admissions process for medicine, it doesn't get any better at the end of it... they have years of stress and pressure ahead of them. Not sure it's really what I want for dd, but it's what she has chosen and so I will support her through it. 🤷‍♀️

@MrsBennetsPoorNerves i am sure many of us parents can echo your sentiments exactly. But big picture thank goodness there are some people so set on medicine as a career. It seems overwhelming to those of us who don’t have that calling I guess. But with everything to do with our dcs our job is to equip and support them in their life and their choices..::: though this one is very hard!
and my dd will def reapply next year too. The offer has just been a mini boost to confidence but she won’t be taking it!

@Monkey2001 thanks for that. I do believe I have even printed it out and left a copy in my folder for the kids. Just forgot I'd seen it 🥴 - Exeter seems to be top UCAT and A star predictions to be safe and I've a few applying this year. Got one in off the wait list last year, and she's loving it.
I wish my DD had chosen an easier career, and she's a 5th year ! The F1 process is nuts, with students not knowing where they will be next August until March. The SJT carries so much more weight than their academic studies as only 9 points difference between top of year and bottom. Good luck with all the waiting. It's tough and they need to switch off from talking about offers so they can still concentrate on grades. Grades first at all times !!! Can reapply if needed but resitting A levels is more of a pain.

The waiting is hard and I would say the most stressful time in the process. I naively thought that it would be a relief once DS had done all his interviews and it was out of his hands. His year (2021 entry) was a longer wait than previous years but nowhere near as bad as what last year's applicants had to go through. Med school's offering timelines seemed to vary a lot. DS's first offer came through at the beginning of March and that was his favourite so the pressure was off. Others followed soon after. Manchester seemed to take ages with their offers and it was mid-April before that one came. He was only curious whether he would get one from them so it didn't really matter though. Many DC in his year group got multiple offers or none. Also, there was one who got none had seemed a dead cert and applied very strategically. There were very few who got one offer, ironic as one is all you really need. I think the rejections feel very personal as it is essentially your character that is scrutinised.

@mumsneedwine I hope your dd is feeling ok with the pressure of F1 stuff as well as all the final year surely brings. None of us can kind of comprehend that but it just seems that the pressure never ends for these amazing individuals….

I often find myself wishing mine had chosen easier careers and we are only at the very start. I imagine that feeling gets worse as the pressure develops. I ask myself how they will manage to juggle families with the demands of it all and will they ever have normal lives. DH is more measured and says would I rather they did something they don't want to do. He also reminds me of the crazy hours I worked doing something far more mercenary through my twenties/thirties. Talking to a medic friend recently, she was telling me how bad it is at the moment and how it gone in waves from fairly good to awful and repeat over the course of her nearly 30-year career. I asked her if she ever wished she had chosen another career and she said 'oh my goodness no, it is such a privilege. I couldn't do anything else. I do get a bit jaded but then I find my mojo again'. I think that's the vocation that I find difficult to understand.

My DD still loves it, despite the stupid hours and lack of staff. She may be a 5th year but has performed as an F1 already, several times. I think this generation will be less keen to specialise early. They want to travel and work abroad so lots of F3/4/5s being planned.
I think they need to be able to switch off and say no when needed. No to staying late, doing extra shifts and doing things they are not qualified for. We need so many more doctors but the NHS training path is stupid, with log jams all over the place. Needs money and someone to be bold enough to change things.
Let's hope things have changed by the time all your kids qualify. 🤞🤞

@mumsneedwine I’m so pleased she is still enjoying it: and that they can factor some down time into the years ahead …

I think one of the main reasons my DD wants to do Medicine is that she has watched me (Nurse working as an Advanced Practitioner) loving my job, dedicated and unfortunately probably to the detriment of my family loyal to the NHS/ patients- and my DH civil engineer never really liking his job.
I work with junior doctors and med students daily - even though I work in this role this last year has been a rollercoaster of learning how hard it is for this generation. Dr's recently qualified didn't need to jump through these hoops.
@mumsneedwine I work at RDH in cancer if she is ever at RDH let me know.

@coffeeandbiscuittime she's there again week after next 😂. On surgery rotation. She loves RDH. Small world !!

For anyone on FB, there is a Med school parental support group here.
Please delete if not allowed.
www.facebook.com/groups/756256325448481/posts/766769844397129/?

Thank tou, I have requested to join 😊

With UCAS now submitted with 4 medicine unis and 1 biotechnlogy uni, will the biotechnology uni potentially make an offer or do the unis wait until after the regular January UCAS submission before making their offers ? Thanks

@HAMROGUE some will offer v quickly, some will take a while. There is no real answer I'm afraid. We've got students who heard have back from Bristol, York and Warwick already, for their 5th choices.

@mumsneedwine After submitting UCAS on 14 /10, Bristol, York and Warwick have made offers for students’ 5th choices ? As these are non med choices, do they ask for a course specific PS ? Or have made offers anyway ?
Thanks

Most 5th offers (non-medicine) come very quickly and don't need a separate PS. Bristol don't read PS for any subjects, Newcastle don't read for Biomed.

@HAMROGUE ours went to UCAS on Weds 5th and offers came in on the Thursday and Friday. V v few courses read the PS, it's just computer says yes.
In fact another offer came in 10 minutes ago from Bristol.

Any school submitting on the 14th is either v v brave or a tiny bit reckless. UCAS has been known to crash ! We submit 2 weeks before BMAT so they can focus on that, not second guessing their choices.
Lots of our students have offers, not just medics.

Been following here but just checking in now. Dd is a reapplicant, got accepted for pharmacy last year but rejected it. Just put her application in a few days ago and was horrified to receive an email from her pharmacy choice to say they are now doing interviews. She was hoping she would have a very solid offer there but now there's another interview to prepare for, it's MMI too 😭. She didn't do great in her interviews last year and I'm very worried that she'll come away with no offers at all.