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Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

Medicine - 2024 Entry

1000 replies

LaMereDuChat · 24/12/2022 13:48

Just thought I'd start a thread for anyone else who feels like me... Dd has just announced that she'd really like to apply for medicine. It seems pretty much impossible to get into and I'm dreading the process as the odds are stacked against her - private schooled, grades a bit iffy as she's chosen a language as an A-Level and it's hard, though she loves it. Anyone want to join the pity party 😬?

OP posts:
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Sybill · 10/10/2023 13:54

@Ib1234567 good explanation here on the UCAT website - given the timeline, it makes sense why first interview offers don’t come out until mid Nov
https://www.ucat.ac.uk/results/ucat-results/

UCAT Results | UCAT Consortium

https://www.ucat.ac.uk/results/ucat-results/

Ib1234567 · 10/10/2023 14:22

@Sybill I understand now, Thanks.

losingtheplot999 · 10/10/2023 15:02

How soon after an interview would you get an offer/rejection?

Sybill · 10/10/2023 15:15

Depends on the university I think @losingtheplot999

Unexpecteddrivinginstructor · 10/10/2023 15:57

Oxford/Cambridge come through early and I have heard of outright rejections coming fairly quickly. Most of the responses came for dd towards the end of Feb/ March, until then just waiting.

Bimkom · 10/10/2023 16:12

losingtheplot999 · 10/10/2023 15:02

How soon after an interview would you get an offer/rejection?

Except for Oxford and Cambridge, who tell you on a specific day, and Sheffield, who usually give something of a timeline (although even that is a bit inprecise, and they changed it DS's year and pushed it back weeks, but at least they published they were doing that once they had decided they didn't have enough time) - you just have no clue until they start coming out. And even when they start coming out - Sheffield tend to do it over about a week, places like Bristol tend to offer their top scorers in the interview months before they give out their last offers (so you can get some desperately early offers from there, but only for a real handful). You are "lucky" if you have heard by March, and many have finished interviewing in December. Others are still interviewing in March or April and not giving out offers, even though your interview may have been in November. It is a long, painful, waiting game, so it is worth bracing yourself for it. And Kings in particular have been known not to have the decency of even sending a proper rejection, just having you default to rejection after the deadline for offers expires.

All I can say is, try not to let it stop focus on the A levels, although it can be hard. And some universities tend to send out their offers every evening at - say 6pm, or 8pm, or so, so every day you are waiting all day for the deadline, to find out if maybe, maybe you have been dealt with that evening (and then they skip days, or weeks, and you think maybe they have given out all the offers, before another one trickles out). Your first indication (unless you are one of the very lucky ones) that your particular university has offered is likely to come on TSR, so it is worth stalking the relative threads. (we were very, very lucky, as we got an offer from Nottingham in their very first batch, which I think was late February, and even though we had an agonising week waiting for Sheffield, at least we had the Nottingham offer first, once you have one, it is so, so much more bearable). But most do them in batches, and there is only going to be a very few in every first batch, and it can be day after day after day, month after month.

losingtheplot999 · 10/10/2023 16:17

Thanks for the replies sounds like a long and painful process.

Unexpecteddrivinginstructor · 10/10/2023 16:22

Actually dd kept off the student room at that time. We agreed that I would monitor that but if there were messages on the student room suggesting emails were going to spam etc I would prompt her to check.

Africa2go · 10/10/2023 16:47

DD had 4 interviews - didn't hear back from any of them until mid - March. It may have been said already, but even when you do eventually hear back, you can be asked to join a waitlist. Some unis also seem to offer an unofficial wait list - with offers being made right up to A level results day. It is such a long drawn out process and incredibly difficult when you have non-medic friends (or a twin in our case) getting multiple offers within days of submitting their UCAS form.

losingtheplot999 · 10/10/2023 21:41

School have submitted DS application today. His final 4 choices were

Cambridge
UCL
KCL
Leicester
Nottingham (biomedical course)

I presume it is now just a waiting game.

Sybill · 10/10/2023 22:27

Fingers crossed for interview offers coming his way soon @losingtheplot999 !
My DD submitted hers last week and her fifth choice (Bristol) has already made her an offer! Didn’t think it would be that quick. Even though she would do a gap year rather than accept a non-med course, it’s been a positive boost to know that she could go there if she wanted to. Pleased that she put a fifth choice down now tbh

Groundhogday2021 · 10/10/2023 23:12

How lovely to have an early offer in the bag @Sybill Well done to your DD and best of luck to everyone for the coming few months! 🤞😊

Bananaandmarmite · 11/10/2023 06:49

Submitted to college who are sending them off this week.

Exeter
St Georges
Dundee
Kent and Medway
Sussex (neuroscience)

not sure if it’s nerves or excitement now….

Sybill · 11/10/2023 08:16

Thanks @Groundhogday2021 and a big good luck to everyone! Looking forward to hearing some interview invitations coming through next month.
Great to have it submitted now @Bananaandmarmite - same here, some days it’s more nerves, others more excitement and that’s just me 😂

UCASstuffiskillingme · 11/10/2023 09:45

Am I missing something to be puzzled by this business of the government giving Brunel 50 U.K. places just 10 days before the ucas submission deadline? Isn’t it really really odd?

LaMereDuChat · 11/10/2023 10:37

Ours was submitted on Monday and Dd's 5th choice made her an offer within 24 hours, which was great - though her first thought was that one of her choices had automatically rejected her when she got the notification of her UCAS status having updated :)

OP posts:
Notcontent · 11/10/2023 14:38

My dd has submitted hers now too. I can tell it’s going to be a difficult few months. Good idea about now staying away from TSR.

Unfortunately there are quite a few people at DD’s school applying for medicine so I imagine that will lead to some angst when people are getting their invitations to interview and offers at different times.

W0tnow · 11/10/2023 16:01

UCASstuffiskillingme · 11/10/2023 09:45

Am I missing something to be puzzled by this business of the government giving Brunel 50 U.K. places just 10 days before the ucas submission deadline? Isn’t it really really odd?

Yes it is odd! I didn’t know whether to encourage my daughter to apply or not. I decided to ignore. She’d agonised enough!

@Bananaandmarmite we had Sussex Medical Neuroscience as a 5th too.

losingtheplot999 · 13/10/2023 18:07

Good luck to all the DC sitting the BMAT on Wednesday.

Sybill · 13/10/2023 18:53

Absolutely @losingtheplot999 hope all the prep is going well and that the last few days aren’t too stressful. I think DD will need a stiff drink come Weds evening!!

Mumofboys2006 · 15/10/2023 09:18

Yes good luck to everyone doing the BMAT!
DS is quite nervous as the prep time has been so much smaller 😬🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼

Bananaandmarmite · 17/10/2023 15:16

Dd got an offer for Sussex this morning. Despite it being her 5th non medicine choice, it was still nice to have something positive come back.

mumsneedwine · 17/10/2023 17:27

😊 those 5th place offers can be a nice boost when everything else takes so long. It's always nice to be wanted.

Mumofboys2006 · 17/10/2023 18:32

Amazing - my old uni!;)🙌🏼🙌🏼

Sybill · 17/10/2023 19:43

Brilliant news for your DD @Bananaandmarmite - congrats!!

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