Medicine 2025 entry - part 2

[HGC2]

Not sure how to link old thread, can anyone help me do this?

Onto UCAT and personal statements now - good luck everyone!

@Miloarmadillo2 My DD has also applied to QUB & Birmingham. Did you see QUB has put out that their first interview dates will be 11th &12th Dec so will probably contact those with highest points on their scale mid Nov. Ny DD has 40 points so should get interview for Queens as we call it here; not so confident about Birmingham.

@Optimum19 he has 39 points for QUB so hopefully will get an interview. Where else did your DD apply?

@Miloarmadillo2 The other two are Leeds & Liverpool - again Liverpool she should get interview, but Leeds risky. All a bit of a learning curve here. QUB is closer & cheaper so would be top choice, but she'd be happy with anywhere. So fingers crossed. Best of luck to your son.

I'm at Leeds and I think you may be surprised. I have heard a lot of people who got interviews with low(ish) stats especially their UCAT. Also Leeds actually went into clearing for medicine which was surprising to me so maybe it's not quite as hard as people make out. Only time will tell I guess

Disclaimer : I know a course going into clearing doesn't mean it's therfore easier to get into.

Thanks @Chemistrytutoring That's great to know. Are you enjoying it?

Slightly off-topic, but did anyone else get ads for overseas medical schools popping up at times? It seems there is quite an industry out there. Several tiny Caribbean islands (population often well below 500,000) hosting several medical schools. A good number are not accepted by the GMC, others you won’t know until you have finished your course. Often accepting low A level grades (eg CD). Plus accompanying ‘agencies’ to help you get in that may or may not be scammers and may or may not be pushing their ‘partner’ schools which may or may not be accepted by the GMC. It is quite eye-opening.

Yes I get the pop up ads too - mainly Caribbean islands that have also had severe hurricanes!

We have looked more seriously at Greece and Bulgaria - but Greece is a 6 year course with a requirement to learn Greek which put DD off as she hates languages! Also obviously far away from friends and boyfriend .. so I think she’d just change course and do an allied health course (physiotherapy probably) with the hope of maybe medicine apprenticeships being more available in a few years and getting clinical exposure in the meantime.

But I’m surprised generally about the amount of industry around med school entry - from ucat and interview prep to private tutoring - I’m bombarded ! A whole market.. not sure how I feel about it.

Yeah it's good thanks. Good luck to you and your child on the application

but Greece is a 6 year course with a requirement to learn Greek

While off-putting, it does seem a reasonable requirement. Even if you are taught in English, unless you know the local language you won’t be able to communicate with patients. So another questionable aspect of overseas schools must be attitude to patients from doctors who graduate without having to communicate with them.

Yes I agree it is a reasonable requirement- which is why DD ruled it out, as she’d definitely struggle with a language requirement (is dyslexic).

A friend’s DS just got a rejection for his fifth option. It was for quite a competitive course and his personal statement was apparently too medicine focused. My DC is now pondering his fifth option (currently blank) and thinking of courses, trying to decide whether to put an interesting but competitive course or if that would just be a waste of time and he should look at a less competitive course and uni. I would rather he took a year out to apply to competitive courses he is keen to study if he doesn’t get medicine rather than accepting a poorer course but the friend’s rejection has knocked his resolve.

KielderWater
really sorry to read this- even though it is the “last” choice this reassuring for applicants - especially as they are seeing non- med early applicants get their offers.
we have had a different experience, offer for fifth choice from KCL but DD phoned them and asked if her med based PS would go against her and they were positive in their response. Another uni did say that she would not be considered at all. Might be worth phoning round you DS’ shortlist to check?

Good idea to ask. It does make sense for courses to turn down applicants whose personal statement shows no interest in that course - a reason I think UCAS should allow separate personal statements for each course. It is not as if they send photocopies of a paper form anymore! It will impact more than just medicine. It is especially crazy when medical applicants have to apply to a different fifth choice.

Dd put dentistry at Plymouth for 5th choice. Plymouth advertises the fact it does not read personal statements and that dentistry would be an acceptable 5th choice for medicine candidates (and vv, medicine 5th choice for dentistry) - and dentistry ucat cut off has been historically lower. Appreciate this has its downsides but otherwise Dd would have put a biomed course, and these were all still available in clearing for 2024 entry when she was looking. She wanted the interview practice and has done a couple of days dentistry w e - we will see what happens but the 5th choice was always going to be random - she will all most certainly reapply next year if she doesn’t get medicine.

My dd did this with Plymouth

She got offers for both med and dentistry from them

Hi everyone
just wondering if DD applied to study medicine in Ireland - is an Irish medical degree recognised in the UK? Would it be a possibility to do Foundation in UK and continue specialism in UK having done the degree in Ireland?
any advice / information very welcome
thank you

I’m pretty sure it is recognised; but having looked into it a little bit (as the funding situation is better) I believe DC would need pretty much straight A* at A level (and possibly either 4 A levels or 3 plus an EPQ) to have a chance - things may have changed this year as I think there was an issue where N Irish students were effectively being discriminated against as they sit A levels and Ireland has different qualifications and their tarif system for A levels was very harsh … but basically it looked even harder to get into Irish uni than UK unis when I last researched.

Thank you - and yes the CAO points are tough but I think the A levels won’t be a hurdle… the UCAT was!!. Looking at some sample HPAT they seem to suit my DD better so this really might be an option. My worry is that if she wants to come back to UK for foundation or specialism will that be harder for her as annoys medical degree holder than a UK one.

One of the issues with the current F1 allocation system is they give no priority to British graduates - not just compared to British students with accredited overseas medical degrees, but foreign students with overseas medical degrees and no other right to live in the UK. It is crazy that we don’t prioritize our own.

Anyone wishing to practise in the UK from 2025 will have to have passed the UK medical licensing assessment (MLA). Graduates of overseas medical schools have to do the professional & linguistic assessment board (PLAB) exam, which is now accredited as MLA-compliant. There have usually been arrangements between the UK and Ireland so that requirements for other international students/graduates aren't applied to rigorously to Irish ones, but I don't know whether this is the case for the MLA or what the arrangements would be if it is.

I know this is very much a how-long-is-a-piece-of-string type question, but are there any "normals" in terms of when med schools start to send out interviews etc?
DC being admirably (on the surface) relaxed about the wait, but I'm starting to twitch a little!

No idea but Edinburgh have indicated that they will send out invites from the 11th November, thats the only one I know about

But not getting an invite as quickly as next week does not mean you won’t be invited later and get an offer, though it does add to the stress as you wait.

The universities don’t get the UCAT results until this week. I guess the unis that only use UCAT to rank applicants will be quicker than those that look at lots of factors. I am also on edge about it all!

@CopingHagen DD trawled through last years TSR threads for her unis to see what happened last year. She's concluded very earliest she will hear is around third week of November (Manchester and Newcastle). And then in December for Leeds and Oxford (who both have published their interview dates already).

I seem to remember picking up that the Scottish ones are usually quickest off the mark. But as has already been said (but is going to be hard to do), not being in the first tranche of interview invites isn't a sign of anything and it could all be a long process.