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.

My dd has finally made her four choices, and submitted the form for school to check - now the waiting begins, it's very anxiety inducing isn't it?! I feel like a total novice, I didn't go to uni and she is my first, but the information I have got from here has been so helpful. It's nice to read of others in the same boat!

Hi, trying to select 4th option for our son. Edging towards Southampton but worried about ucat cut off might increase this year and will be too close to our son's ucat of 2830. Any thoughts on this?

@kk10 Southampton was 2750 last year, 2830 should be fine, but we will see the final UCAT stats tomorrow and you can see where that score falls. One way of looking at it is that only 3000 people (or so) will be in the top decile, so if yours is in the top 12%, something like 20% of the top 12% would have to apply to Southampton for him not to get an interview. That is not going to happen!

DS is prevaricating on PS, he knows none of his use it, so just has to be OK rather than great, I think if he spent another half hour on it it would be done and he could send it off.....

@opoponax you know that my DS found Edinburgh medical school was "up itself" although he loved the city. I think there used to be a lot of private school and a lot of Scottish, not many from RUK state schools, but they have a big WP scheme now, so that may be different. It is a great city to be a student, but does she want to be a long way from home for 6 years? In truth she will have a great time wherever she goes.

@Monkey2001 thanks. Fingers crossed. We are very split between Southampton and Manchester. My heart is with Southampton but Manchester seems to have better offer rate

@kk10 if it is any help, dd has allowed herself one choice which feels slightly more risky. She still should be offered an interview, so not entirely off script in terms of strategic applications, but it feels slightly more of a leap. The other three are more solid applictions. If his heart is in Southampton then give it a shot this year, it sounds as if he has a good chance of an interview anyway. Dd felt that if she didn't apply to her aspirational place she would be slightly more disappointed if she then got an offer from the other place. I know they have fewer choices and it is very competative but I think they can still afford to have one 'what if' place. So for your ds if he got Manchester would there be the niggle that he might have gone to Southampton?

Thanks @Monkey2001. You are absolutely right that they will love wherever they go. Once the choices are made, DD would be excited to be offered a place to study at any of them.

He is in his first gap year so very anxious to pick all safe choices but then there are no safe choices when it comes to interview I guess. Still need to perform your best. I wonder if anyone here can give their opinion on Manchester interview experience. It looks much scary than other universities

I am not sure how much we can read into recent offer to interview ratios, they have been all over the place compared to historic rates. Some will be distorted by people coming off waiting lists, so somewhere might have made 450 offers, but that included the 600th ranked candidate because people between 300 and 600 received offers elsewhere and came off the waiting list. In the old days they would have made 600 offers.

I was a bit thrown to see someone on UEA TSR thread last year with 3110, B1 rejected post interview even though he thought the interview went well and he later got offers from Sheffield and KCL, so was not bad at interviews. As they say UCAT is 50% of post interview score I assumed that would be rare.

@kk10 DS had a horrible first interview with a woman (think she was a dentist) who told him he should have known more about the GP training programme when he said he was interested in becoming a GP (I think he knew more than most applicants would have) and that threw him for the other stations. Most people had a positive experience though. You know they are allowing you to choose between F2F and on line interviews?

@KK10 my DS applied to Manchester and got an offer 2 years ago. He didn't find the interview experience particularly scary although I remember him saying afterwards that he didn't really get a feel for how well it went, whilst with the others he felt they had gone well. I know Monkey said her DS had a bad experience with his first person at Manchester though.

Did your son get the offer? How was role playing stations? Sorry to ask so many questions. My heart is breaking seeing my son so worried about his university choices so he could maximise his interview chances. He is reluctantly letting go of his favourites even after getting all A* and 2830 ucat score. Last year he had no offers because of low ucat

Thanks. This is helpful to know

Good morning 🌞
What resources would you recommend for BMAT prep ? My DS is asking.
He is considering Medify and Bmat Ninja & official BMAT website.
Thank you

@Cratos I think Medify/Medentry is pretty much essential to get a good score for UCAT, but paid resources for BMAT prep is not as necessary because all the past papers and the assumed knowledge are on the BMAT site, and there should be enough resources there for anyone! Maybe see how the past papers go before deciding?

@kk10 my DS did not get an offer from Manchester and did not request feedback because it was such a negative experience that he just wanted to put it behind him. Where does your DS really want to apply?

@Monkey2001 he is torn between manchester and Southampton. More towards Southampton as a university but he is also lured by manchester much better offer rate and low ucat. Due to last year 0 interview offer experience, he is being very cautious this time. We are waiting for ucat final scores release today then will decide between the two. Can I just also add how grateful I am for quick responses and support here. Its hard to see your child go through this transition period when they are moving into the big world yet as a mum we still see them as our babies

Thank you so much. And I am very grateful for all the support. Medical school applications are very tricky and without the advice we received here it would be very hard to go through the process.

@kk10 Could I please ask why your DS prefers Southampton University ? I heard from another mum that their open day was good and they were impressed. Unfortunately we can't apply since my DS thinks it is too close to home for him. That would be a good thing for us. I have not seen Manchester properly but I think it might be a very interesting city for students.

@Cratos Southampton is close to us compared to Manchester. It's student satisfaction is higher. Interview style seems less intimidating than Manchester (my DS though like Manchester style). Manchester course is pbl which is not first preference. Lastly so far whoever we have asked about Manchester, they have all had bad interview experience. University in itself and city is great

@kk10 I would be astonished if your DS did not get a Southampton interview - it is a safe option for him. One of the questions at most interviews is "Why this university" and if he loves Southampton he should do much better at that question there. Random fact - I think someone last year said that that one of their DC had been asked in medicine interview if they knew what the other Southampton university was called.

This is not current data (2017-2019), but when things were normal Southampton and Manchester had fairly similar post interview offer rates - public.tableau.com/app/profile/alec6322/viz/UKmedicalschoolapplicationratios2017-19/DomesticApplicanttoOfferRatio

@Monkey2001 thank you so much. Its very helpful to know all this info.

Results are out. www.ucat.ac.uk/results/test-statistics/

Average same as last year, higher thresholds up by 30 for top decile and 20 for next one. More B1s than last year, but 900 fewer took UCAT, which is good!

I think cut offs might go up a little, but similar to last year. Ones scoring GCSEs are expected to go up.

@kk10 my dd started Manchester this year and loves it! She got a good feeling from her interview, enjoys the PBL aspect of the course and is looking forwards to starting dissection this week, this and PBL were her main reasons for choosing Manchester. Truth is they will have a fab time wherever they go:)

@Thecatinthehat123 thank you. Can you please advice how did your dd prepare for manchester interview and does their NAIF has any weighting on offer scoring?

@Monkey2001 I think Southampton is looking probably fine with 2830, band 2 score?

@kk10 2830 is really OK for Southampton. Cut offs were 2730 Manchester and 2750 Southampton. Both will be fine with 2830!