Medicine 2023 Entry - Part 4

[opoponax]

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

@Rinkkk Sorry, daughter did the application - I just provided the credit card when the offer came through! She only got her 2nd choice though, so first must have been already full I assume - this was last week. Maybe give them a call on Monday?

Late to the party, but here we are - DD got her 1st offer last week. Huge relief. Now waiting for another 2 - so they say mid. and late April. 1 she is not that interested anymore due to change of circumstances, another is her number 1 choice. Best of luck to all who are still waiting and congratulations to those who got their offers!

HI DD has received an offer from Exeter. She is now in the fortunate position of needing to choose between Exeter and Southampton. Does anyone have any top tips I can pass along, or or against either? Many thanks

Have to add: being the first on this thread who reported in mid.November about DD interview for one of London uni and being done with 4 for of them by mid December, getting rejection, long waiting after that and an offer - a Disney World roller coaster is nothing in comparison. And now more waiting. Thanks for the support which I received here! Greatly appreciated!

@GoldieRetrieversRule1 it certainly is a roller coaster! a few weeks ago DD had no offers and was thinking gap year/something else? and now she has 3 offers that arrived all in a row like buses. For those still waiting, this might be how it works for your DC. It is a torturous wait!

I am sure I read on this thread last year that Bristol cover the costs for accommodation of student is in one of their outreach placements in Somerset and further afield.

is this right ?

Bristol halls are so expensive and with another kid at Newcastle, its going to be a really frugal few years

Great news. Well done!

Bristol accommodation is free in their 'outplacement' academies outside Bristol (Yeovil, Taunton, Swindon etc). From year 3 on students usually do one placement out of Bristol and one in, but ds has been told by his tutor that he could apply to do both placements outside Bristol in his third year and hence get a full year's accommodation free.
For those considering budgets, ds has just signed up to a second year shared house in Bristol at £650-ish a month, bills not included. This compares to ds2's shared Sheffield house at £480 a month including bills.

Thankyou to @Monkey2001 and @mumsneedwine for your suggestions re Bristol ( we ate at street kitchen curry house Friday and walked miles on Saturday!)
Also @kackle , at the lectures they said what @Haffdonga said- if students want to they can request their placements out of Bristol - but bare in mind your DD may not want to.
Bristol is a lovely city ( and hilly) , we really liked the place but did come away thinking about the expense.
They were really pushing the pastoral care - I think they have had issues in the last few years so have focused on improving their care to students - which is a good thing.
The medical lecture / session was really informative and my DD enjoyed it as it gave her the opportunity to speak to other students.
Bristol had a nice feel to it - but it's the first one we have done.
One of the points they did make is that they need students to make decisions soon so they can offer more places as they are aware that some students have more than one offer.
DD has offer days at Hull and Newcastle, then she will decide.
( Newcastle at present remains her preferred option - but this may change depending on the offer day)

@coffeeandbiscuittime glad you liked Bristol. Yes, it is an expensive place to be, it is crazy that Student Finance have London and "the rest of the UK" as if it is as binary as that. They should probably have around 5 cost bands. I took a girl I am helping with university application to Bangor at the weekend - a nice 2 bed flat is around £700/month, in Bristol you would be lucky to get a room for that! Bristol is a lovely place to be with a very high rate of students staying after graduation.

So pleased she has choices this year, even if it adds complexity to life!

Thanks for letting me know.

We sat down and looked at the costs last night.

Bristol seems so expensive.

My son’s halls and house for next year in Newcastle are all really reasonable @coffeeandbiscuittime He is in Park Terrace, 5 min walk from medical school. His house for Jesmond next year is just over £400 a month.

Due to the bizarre way SFE calculate income, first child is assessed on your total income and second child assessed on your total income less a disregard of approx £1000. We think we are going be to about £1500 a month to keep them both in uni next year.

@kackle - I have resigned myself to continuing to work full time for the next five years! I have 2 more DD - both hoping to go to Uni but not doing Medicine thankfully.
Has she got any other choices - wasn't UEA a choice? Is that cheaper?
Thanks @Monkey2001 yes it's nice to have choices - I was hoping that we may have crossed paths at Sheffield or Newcastle but I am glad your DS got UEA as I remember he really had a good feeling post interview about it.
We have Hull on the 5th and Newcastle on the 22nd.
Looking forward to Newcastle one as kids really want to see my sister as they haven't seen her since before she had her chemo. ( which is another reason why Newcastle is high on the preferred list as kids are close to my Sister).

Liverpool has started btw, on UCAS track

Hi Ladies, my ds didn’t get into Liverpool either so he’s now had 4 rejections. I’m devastated for him but he seams ok and says he’s fine. I’m so sad that he’s not got a place especially after the year he’s had. I just hope it doesn’t affect his a levels as he’s on track to get A*’s.
i just don’t understand how some kids can get 4 offers and others none. What have we done wrong? He’s such an hard working boy, who’s so kind and caring. He’s had work experience which he organised himself. He did fairly well at his ucat exam and he got 4 a’s at as level, he even got full ums for some of his exams.
I suppose we need to start planning his year out.

@MerchSwyddEfrog Sorry to hear about your son. You sound exactly like me this time last year when DD got her final rejection. I blamed myself for not researching and realising quite how competetive medicine is. I know others have said it too, but a year out can be a really positive thing. DD was pretty down as everyone else's offers came rolling in, but she increased her hospital volunteering (I'd really recommend that if you have a hospital nearby), has worked in a public facing roll with the elderly and vulnerable and has done A LOT of interview practice this time around. And applied very strategically this year. It's amazing how much they grow up in a year out and of course manage to save lots of money. Your son will be far from alone in taking a year out and will be in a much better position next year. Just got to keep him cheerful and with things to look forward to whilst everyone else is heading off to uni.

@MerchSwyddEfrog ah so sorry to hear that your DS got bad news from Liverpool. Here's wishing him a very productive and positive gap year and offers this time next year. It's a tough process isn't it. I really feel for you both

@MerchSwyddEfrog I'm so sorry about Liverpool. Don't blame yourself. It's what we do as parents but it's really not your fault. In the final stage everything rests on somewhat random interviews and sometimes the outcomes just don't seem to make sense. I hope some positive gap year plans are in place soon.💐

Thanks for your words of support ladies. My son will apply for a job in the local hospital, it’s only 20 mins walk away, as a hca. He’s quite looking forward to that. He’s also wanting to learn how to drive before going to university. He seams quite upbeat.

Has your dd got offers this time around@Felixinthefactory ? What did you do for interview practice if you don’t mind me asking? I think my son must have fallen at the last hurdle and not come across very well at the interview.

thanks for what you said @opoponax, it is quite random. My son said his Liverpool interview was weird. There were only 2 people interviewing him and they barely even said hello to him.

@MerchSwyddEfrog I bought a couple of interview books. To start with her dad and I picked questions and did mock interviews, but that didn't really work as she found it hard to take it seriously when it was us. So we gave her one of the books and she practised filming herself. I gave the other to my mum (retired HR manager, so lots of non med specific interviewing experience) and DD did lots of practice with her.
Ended up with 3 interviews and an early Feb offer from Leicester, which was where she wanted to go, so withdrew from the others.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0993571107?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1905812051?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

@Felixinthefactory That’s great news about the place at Leicester. I really hope she enjoys her time there. I spent my industrial placement in Leicester at a knitwear factory and really enjoyed it. Long long time ago now though!
Thanks for the book recommendations I will have a look now.

@MerchSwyddEfrog the Olivier Picard that @Felixinthefactory linked is the 'bible' one. You could start with that one and see how he goes. That was the one both my DS and DD used and lots of other DC on here.