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!

been lurking on these threads for a while now, some really good and eye opening advice. My DS is applying this year and has had some good advice from his teacher about where to apply but I thought I’d ask on here for more opinions. He got 2980 UCAT but SJT 3. He got very high for Verbal reasoning which his teacher said some unis will look highly on. Predicted 3 a stars (chem, bio, maths) and an A for further maths. GCSEs were 5 9’s, 3 8’s, a 7, a 6, and a BTEC distinction.
He wants to apply for Cambridge, but then not sure where best to look for the other more likely options. Any advice for strategic applications?

Yeah I second this got offers from Leeds and Birmingham GCSEs were 99999999987 also got offers from Sheffield and York. The UCAT may be a little low if not contextual for these and Leeds only went to UCAT last year (my score was 3000 B1) but I know people did get offers with lower.

You should be good at loads of unis but must make sure not to apply to ones that say they reject band 3 immediately

what skew towards Scottish applicants do St Andrews have / do they have a small rest of UK quota? Is it even worth considering?

Can I just ask about what people’s DCs are planning to put as their ‘non-medicine’ option on UCAS application?

Before you look at application criteria you need to consider if you want to do what St Andrews offers. Do you want to do a BSc in Medicine and have to move after three years to get your full medical degree? Or do you want to do a community based medical degree with very limited hospital experience?

Sorry wrong quote

Probably going to fill that one in later. Get the medicine application away first. At the moment DC thinks they will take a year out and reapply for medicine if they don’t get an offer. That might change depending on the process/results but a gap year is likely to stay. I have been discouraging simply opting for biomedical sciences and thinking what it is about medicine as a career that is attractive and what else might offer similar.

All Scottish universities are skewed towards Scottish domicilled students. As part of their charitable status, they have to take the vast majority of their intake of Scottish kids due to the way they are funded.

As a result they have very few RUK places and the competition for them is fierce = high Ucats required.

Have a read of this

https://www.sfc.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/University-Intake-Targets-for-Medicine-AY-2024-25.pdf

My son interviewed at Edinburgh in 22/23 cycle as a RUK.

Off the top of my head they had 30 odd RUK place, I think Aberdeen / Dundee had like 15 odd places.

Thanks, that makes sense - I think biomed is what people tend to veer towards, but I will ask her to think more carefully about what she’s hoping to get out of it.

My DD is thinking of physio degree as her 5th choice. Not sure how a physio department would view being a plan B option but that’s her current thought anyway.

We didn't have a fifth for the yr13 application and she was offered a place. The longer term plan if second/ third application needed was paramedic or psychologist. Biomed might be more relevant if they are more into the research aspect, but then it might be worth considering that route as a career anyway. Or pharmacology perhaps aiming for a career in drug development.

We put dentistry down as 5th choice.

Daughter wants to do max fax

Not sure what the 5th choice will be yet, maybe biochem or neuroscience although current thinking is a gap / work experience year. Who knows!

It's Scottish universities' funding by the Scottish Funding Council that determines how many places for Scots, not their charitable status as such.

DD not planning on putting a 5th option. If she doesn't get a place this year, Plan A is a gap year and reapplying; she's really unsure if Plan B would be a science-y degree or a different caring/health allied profession and would probably take a bit of time to work that out.

Dd put neuroscience down as her 5th choice. She didn’t need it but it was nice to get a quick offer (within a couple of days of submitting application) as the medical application process is so long and drawn out and all her friends were getting offers whilst she had to wait for interviews (and then wait for offers). Don't underestimate how long and psychologically tough the journey is. Even if they never want to use their 5th choice, it’s a relief to have something early on when all of their friends are receiving offers too.

Even if planning on a gap year pleas put a 5th. One, it's nice to get an early offer. And two, more importantly, it's quicker and easier to go into Extra (it can happen) and Clearing, if you have a 5th offer to decline.

I never put a 5th option because I knew I would just take a gap year if needed so it is okay not to but doesn't hurt if you do put one

I agree with @Groundhogday2021 DD put Civil Engineering (!) down as her 5th choice and had an offer within 48 hours. Even if they don't plan to take up the offer, it was definitely useful in her case for her motivation / confidence that she got a very quick offer, much like her non-med friends, and when she was having a hard time waiting for an offer, she could tell herself that had she applied for 5 non-med courses, she'd probably be sitting on 5 very good offers - just like everyone else.

That's a really helpful steer, thanks. DC was disinclined to put a 5th, but I'll feed this back.

Still struggling to decide where to apply to here. Lots of deliberation over whether or not to risk Edinburgh as rUK.

You can add the fifth later. We were prepared to but didn't need to as had offers before Extra was open.

Does anyone know what the lowest UCAT score for Aberdeen might have been last year? Non contextual. Thanks

Sorry, should have added as RUK

Aberdeen 2024 data