Medicine 2023 Entry - Part 3

[opoponax]

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

If your income goes down in your semi-retirement, your DC may get more loan/bursary. I think that if you have 3 children at university, you may be better off if you give up work as if your income is under £25k, the DC get full loans and university bursaries at many places!

@Monkey2001 cannot access pensions til 55 years so a a few years off yet. Honestly just want to make sure money is not an obstacle for them achieving their degree because even getting to interview stage has been a battle!

I was also hoping to take semi retirement in 2 years but with 3 kids ( 19,17 and 13), I'm not going anywhere until I am 60!

As well as where in the UK your dc is studying, the total cost of a medicine degree might also depend on the optional extracurriculars that generous parents choose to help with. Our rough agreement with ds has been that we support him to the extent that we make sure he has enough for rent, food and bills, but he's responsible for all his socials, sports tours, holidays and weird and wonderful fun things medics get up to. DS has managed to fit in a couple of summer and evening jobs which have helped him pay for the 'extras'.
We did help him fund his elective in an exotic location because various plans of his had fallen through at the last moment due to covid and global politics but he could equally well have done the elective from his desk at home at no cost at all.

Added up our numbers are probably close to @mumsneedwine's estimates and ds thinks his budget is roughly on a par with the majority of his course mates (barring a couple of noteable exceptions).

@Haffdonga thank you for being so detailed I am relieved the norm for most students falls between 30k to 40k and not 50k to 60k!

@mumsneedwine thanks for your insight too very informative 3 out of the 4 choices are more affordable cities and DC loved Newcastle. Will have to wait and see. DC only turns 18 in August 2023 so even if no offers this year my feeling is that a year working would not be a bad thing and it would certainly help with the cost!

Hi,
My son has applied for medicine this year and so far has had 3 out of 4 interviews. He is still waiting on Southampton but they are very slow. His UCAT score was 2780 so wondering if he will make the cut off. Has anyone heard what UCAT range Southampton are offering interviews for currently? I’m more anxious than my son at the moment!

Thanks again to wonderful group support here. DD has a Brighton interview on Friday and Leeds next week. Fingers crossed!

Hi @MerchSwyddEfrog . On TSR there are Year 13s with 2910 UCAT (non contextual) saying that they haven't heard yet. The view on there is that it all is still moving and more interviews to come. Cut off last year was around 2750 but there there can be some variation from year to year. Hope your DS gets a Southampton invite soon and that his other three interviews went well.

Thanks for that. I think his interviews went well but he never says much! He has applied to Liverpool, Cardiff, Plymouth and Southampton. He also applied to Edinburgh for medical sciences and hasn’t heard anything for that one either. We didn’t realise that the cut off last year for Southampton was so close to his UCAT score. But hopefully it won’t go up much.
good luck to all the students having interviews.

I think parents need to be resilient as well. It is a long and stressful process. I have been feeling very anxious recently. Getting in is hard but then it is a long and demanding education and career. The financial burden aspect of it is also adding to the concerns for both parents and children. I sincerely hope the system will get better since I am having second thoughts about a career in medicine at the moment. It can be a wonderful and rewarding career and I hope all our children will be happy and healthy in the future.

That's our first (only need one!) offer from Aberdeen come through...she was actually crying....so stressful! Good luck everyone!!!

@Pip4764 fantastic news, something to celebrate and help her focus on. We have at least another month to wait, but with all the interviews over and just A levels to focus on I can already see my dd is a little lighter. Many medical students we spoke to said that they found yr13 more hectic and stressful than the first few years of the degree.

@Unexpecteddrivinginstructor indeed, think we will have a wait to see if any other offers. It certainly isn’t a fun year!!

Congratulations @Pip4764 ! The Scottish ones are turning offers around so much more quickly than the others.

@MerchSwyddEfrog I think Southampton will be marginal as most of the cut offs are up this year, but if you are Welsh, the other three should be fine. I hope I am wrong about Southampton, but we have seen some big jumps, so best approach is probably expect the worst, hope for the best:

Sheffield up 70 from 2780 to 2850
Leicester effectively up from 2650 + full GCSE points to 2750 + full GCSE points
UEA up 90 points from 2620 to 2710
ARU up 30 from 2640 to 2670

Newcastle may be unchanged at 2850
Edge Hill may still be around 2620 (no higher than 2640)
Bristol appears to be up from 2870 to around 2900, but not clear yet.

SGUL is the only one I have seen going down - 2710 to 2630

@Pip4764 yay!!!! 🥳🥳🥳🥳

@Pip4764 I think you may be Scottish. A few years ago (maybe 2019?) Aberdeen made all their offers to Scottish applicants unconditional after the initial conditional offers - wouldn't that be nice!

@Monkey2001 lol I won’t hold my breath. I also need to change my user name, there are some fabulous names on here which are much better than mine 😂

Congratulations to your daughter Pip4764. We have a while to wait yet.

Congratulations @Pip4764 ! Well done to your DD! In our neck of the woods we have to wait till April and even May - that's what the sites of medical schools are saying. Where to find the strength?

@Monkey2001 yes we live in Wales. Fingers crossed for Southampton. We tried to apply strategically but missed the UCAT cutoff for Southampton unfortunately. My son has very strong GCSEs and predicted grades. UCAT was a bit low, he said there was lots of noise due to roadworks but he didn’t realise he could complain about that! You live and learn though.

Congratulations @Pip4764 . Great news! 🍾

Fab news @Pip4764 , that must be brilliant for your DD knowing one offer is safely in the bag.

3rd interview done here this morning, DD not quite as positive as the other 2, but lets wait and see. The waiting really is hard - wish we were Scottish too

4th interview has just come in. I can't thank the helpful people on here enough @Monkey2001 and @mumsneedwine to have offered such positive advice.

and @opoponax sorry! In fact, there are lots of people I should be thanking! Fingers crossed for offers x