Medicine 2024 part 3

[mumsneedwine]

Saw we needed a new thread. Hope revision going well.

@Randomactofkindness I said to DD when she was in the same quandary with the same med schools last year to imagine if each offer were taken away, which would she feel worst about. She said she would feel gutted about either of them being taken away 😂.

@opoponax mine is the same 🤦🏼‍♀️ I almost wish she didn’t have a choice…………will send a PM - thanks

@LaLaFlottes - Student Finance England is very strict about what time students can claim maintenance loans for. Any weeks where there isn't timetabled activity for all students won't be funded. We have had this issue previously with time before OSCEs that we give students to prepare for them: we have to timetable revision sessions, otherwise SFE would knock a week off the maintenance loan despite students' still having to pay rent.

@NoNotHimTheOtherOne interesting! To be fair, there was probably timetabled activity of some sort, maybe just not all in person. I just remember she managed an extra trip home! Or it was timetabled study leave - not really sure!

Have a child @ Sheffield, 4th year. After 2nd year there are no long summer holidays like many other universities so limited opportunities to work (if that’s what you need) they’ve not been able to join in with family summer holidays as the weeks didn’t match up. For the past year it’s been 8 week rotations then a week off before starting up again. They actually had rotation on Good Friday/Easter Monday -this is rotation specific. Would have had to request annual leave (!!) to have these bank holidays off. Course has been ok, I think like many 4th years they are just keen to finish and move on to next stage.

Agree with @ramonaquimby it would be tricky to work in holidays as there are just not long enough chunks of time. I guess it would have to be more like a Saturday job, which could be tough when they have so much going on already.

@LaLaFlottes and @ramonaquimby thank you!
Work in holidays isn’t really an issue - it’s more time to come home - she’s my eldest and I’m going to miss her 😔
We are off to Sheffield this weekend so hoping that will help!

@Randomactofkindness yes I can relate to that - it's hard when they head off. I miss DD too. Enjoy your trip to Sheffield and hope it helps. It's such a difficult choice, but both are great and I'm sure your DD will love wherever she goes.

@Randomactofkindness Something we tell parents at offer-holder days is that they have to be prepared for the fact that their sons/daughters will be very different people by the time they finish the course. The amount of growing-up they do, particularly in the last three years, is astounding. I've known parents who couldn't quite believe their children could be doctors - because they were quiet, unassertive, lacking confidence, etc. - but those children went on to be very capable graduates who were more than ready for working as F1s. I've known students whose mothers wouldn't even allow them to cook when they lived at home but who were very confident adults by the time they graduated.

I did a project a few years ago that required quotes from year-4/5 students to give sixth-formers a realistic idea of what to expect. This was completely gloves-off: I wasn't going to censor anything they said. It was incredibly useful, because they were telling people about how hospital politics can affect opportunities and emphasising the importance of learning how to work with people you don't like. But the thing they were consistently saying was that, by the time you graduate at the age of 22, you will have witnessed - and often managed - things that most people will never see in their entire lives.

We have a lot of students who have evening jobs (often in the hospital, some as bank healthcare assistants). Some apply for training to do specific hospital jobs that don't require professional qualifications (e.g. phlebotomist) so they can pick up shifts when they don't have scheduled teaching. Those who have had regular jobs before coming to university can sometimes pick them up again during the summer holiday between years 1 & 2, and possibly between years 2 & 3, depending on the medical school and its year-lengths. And many work as online GCSE/A-Level tutors.

They have worked as dog walker/overnight dog sitter, and is registered with a babysitter agency. So a little money coming in every now and then. They have loved the city and plan to (well hopefully will end up) stay in Yorkshire and the Humber for F1 and beyond. I just miss them loads!

@NoNotHimTheOtherOne I so agree !!

My DD was very quiet at school. I was always amazed she wanted to do medicine. But she's now a happy and busy F1, made loads of new friends in her hospital and has made her life in a new part of the country. We FaceTime a lot (& did through Uni). And I agree so much that by that time they qualify they've seen so much. Not many 23 year olds have had to tell someone their relative has passed away. Or been left in charge of various beeping things at 2am.

HCA jobs during first 2 summers are very common. As is tutoring as a side line during term time.

@NoNotHimTheOtherOne thats really interesting - she is quiet and tiny so I was surprised she got all 4 offers - she must have been saying something right!
The working in holidays isn’t a problem - she has a job now and plenty savings!
@mumsneedwine I can't imagine my 17 year old doing that but hopefully if she gets the grades, whichever med school she picks will prepare her well!

@Randomactofkindness your DD sounds very like mine 😊

Is anyone's DC on a waiting list - just wanting some advice about waiting lists and my DD's situation.

DD has an offer from BSMS and on the waiting list at Lancaster. She was rejected from 1 other med school, got an offer from midwifery (instead of medicine) at UEA and her fifth choice was anatomy at Glasgow where she has an offer.

The language from Lancaster's communication is a bit odd - suggests that if you have an offer from another med school you can't be on their waitlist. So are waiting lists only applicable for those who don't have a medicine offer anywhere else?

Dd needs to identify her first and second options on her UCAS form and doesn't want to waste the 2nd option if Lancaster won't consider her. She likes the idea of Lancaster as backup as requirements are slightly less there than BSMS and she is worried she won't get the grades in chemistry to meet Brighton's requirements (a mark of 6 required - she does IB).

Any advice appreciated. Thanks!

The language from Lancaster's communication is a bit odd - suggests that if you have an offer from another med school you can't be on their waitlist. So are waiting lists only applicable for those who don't have a medicine offer anywhere else?

That's how they're supposed to be used. If you're on a reserve list you will, at some point, be rejected on UCAS and told that you'll be contacted if places become available (or asked to contact them when you have your results), but they shouldn't be keeping you on a reserve list if you already have an offer for medicine. You can't use a reserve list place as an insurance choice as it has no official status in UCAS and doesn't imply any commitment on the university's part.

The universities don't know what other offers you have until you've made your firm and insurance choices, so Lancaster won't know that you have an offer for medicine at BSMS. That's why they have to tell you that you're currently on the reserve list but will be removed if/when they find you're ineligible.

The Unis will see all your offers after the deadline day in May. So they'll see he has an offer elsewhere and his name will come off the waiting list. You can only be on a wait list if no other medicine offers (can have other offers that you've accepted).

Thanks @NoNotHimTheOtherOne and @mumsneedwine - I appreciate the clarification.

I'm from and studied in North America so still find some bits of the UK system confusing. For instance we don't really do conditional offers there - you find out much later in the academic year whether you got in or not, much more simple.

I don’t understand the situation for @Waferbiscuit ’s daughter. Others who have 2 medicine offers can firm one and insure the other, but because she has one offer and is on one waiting list, she will lose her waiting list place because of the BSMS offer? Surely that is disadvantaging her?

I could understand it if wait lists only kick in once results are known and she would know then whether she has made the grade for BSMS but my understanding is that they turn wait list placed into offers throughout the whole period from now to results day (from what I’ve read on here).

I appreciate you can’t insure when there isn’t an offer but it just seems unfair that she might miss out on a second chance of a med school place. I suppose it would seem more unfair to someone with no offers that they miss out on being on a wait list, and as many have said it is such a brutal process.

@Waferbiscuit does your daughter have an idea what she might put for her insurance? I can’t remember what date they have to firm by, but could she wait until the last minute in case the Lancashire waitlist turns into an offer? Personally I think BSMS looks like a great school and think it is one that could suit my daughter (though she is still years off this stage).

Does anyone know which hospital BSMS are based at? Do they travel far for placements?

@SuperSue77 I think the above posters are right - that if the Lancaster waitlist doesn't turn into an offer in the next month then she will have to put Glasgow Anatomy (her 3rd choice) as 2nd. (Firm date looks to be 6 June.) A shame though to not be able to put Lancs as insurance! So close, but so far!

@SuperSue77 it's so Unis don't poach each others students and can plan numbers. Waitlists are a rejection, but mean you are good enough to come if they've got places - if everyone could stay on waitlists it would be carnage with people swapping all over the place. Med schools numbers are fixed and Unis are fined if they go over them.

However, on results day there is no harm in calling if you are without a place but have the grades. There is always a little wiggle room.

BSMS use mainly The Royal Sussex hospital and lectures are at Brighton and Sussex Unis I believe.

@SuperSue77 I'm sure you already know that Brighton and Sussex Universities are right next to each other, with the A27 and Falmer station between them. Brighton University's Falmer campus is right next to the Brighton & Hove Albion football ground, so the station can be pretty busy at certain times.

The main clinical base is the Royal Sussex Hospital but there are residential placements throughout Sussex & Surrey (Redhil). They used to also go to Kent, but Kent & Medway - which delivers BSMS's curriculum - took those over. https://www.bsms.ac.uk/about/our-partners/our-nhs-partners.aspx

Brighton University's Falmer campus is right next to the Brighton & Hove Albion football ground

It is also on the side of a very steep hill.

Just popping in to say good luck with this last term. 🤞🤞