Medicine 2026 entry - part 1

[rockstuckhardplace]

Starting a new thread for parents of prospective medical students looking to start in 2026.

If you're not going to go then it doesn't really matter 😊

Well, that won’t be at all confusing with QMUL. (Maybe they can go back to being Bart’s) I guess it is back to the old Mary’s med school. We just need someone to resurrect Tommy’s now….

I wonder if there is an argument on one’s first medicine application round for using the 5th slot as a grades insurance. So if no luck getting a medicine place but a levels are fine, one plans to come around again, but having a fallback fifth in case A levels go badly might be a comfort. I know some people apply again while doing resits, but not everyone would want to tackle a problem on two fronts, as it were.

just a thought

That's what I'm telling DD1 to do, she needs a backup for if she doesn't get an offer and then also doesn't get AAA+. She really liked the anatomy course at Glasgow so is very tempted by that (and I like how broad the first two years are in Scotland and then she can decide what her final degree will be), anatomy at Liverpool might be in the running as well after yesterday. The campus university in the city feel is very similar although of course Glasgow has a much higher world ranking for research.

One of the things that DD really liked at Liverpool was that one of the students that spoke had a Scouse accent, she was surprised at Leeds how southern all the students she saw were and there's various things on social media about northerners at Leeds getting abuse for their accents which put her off quite a bit. Her (Londoner) cousins said Leeds was the most popular Uni to apply to at their school, think it's attractive because of the speed of the east coast rail line.

@JaninaDuszejko she might want to consider Anatomical Science at Dundee which has a world leading facility with Thiel cadavers and forensics options. Its top in the UK for student satisfaction in anatomy and the grades are only CCC.

DD is not choosing a 5th option. She says there is nothing else she wants to do and will take another year if she isn't successful this year.

My DD says the same, though not applying until next year.

@mumsneedwine I just saw a post on facebook and knew you would know the answer. If you apply for 4 medicine places, can your fifth be dentistry or veterinary? I thought it could, but people on facebook are divided so I just wondered what the correct answer is.

@SuperSue77 it can. But dentistry read your PS and vet you need relevant work experience so be hard to fulfil criteria for a mixture. Be a v strange thing to do !

The UCAS website doesn't give a clear answer but this page does:

https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/career-planning/study-and-training/considering-or-university/applying-university-through-ucas

"For medicine and dentistry courses, you can only make four choices, but you can use your fifth choice for another subject (including dentistry if you apply for medicine or medicine if you apply for dentistry)."

Id be amazed if vet med or dentistry would consider an applicant who has a personal statement that is clearly aimed at medicine ( even if it was allowed ). And I can’t imagine what a referee would write.

Both these course are even harder to get into than medicine, they have many well qualified applicants who are desperate to make dentistry or vet med their career , they don’t need to consider the rejects from medicine.

If you wanted to become a maxillofacial surgeon you would need to gain a medical AND a dentistry degree. It would be unusual to set your sights on such a specialism so soon…

Remember, with a few exceptions, you can add a fifth choice anytime until 14th January for equal consideration. You don’t need to submit it at the same time as your medicine application.

My niece and nephew went to Dundee and I know it well. DD would ideally want to live in a big city so Dundee feels a bit small, I agree that it's excellent for biomedical sciences though (I applied there to do a PhD in Biochemistry there 30 years, I didn't get in and went to Oxford instead) and is a great little city.

Sheffield is one of my DD's top choices - we couldn't make the summer open day as she had a rowing fixture but we kniw Sheffield fairly well as we have family there (and 2 of my cousins went there). We're planning to go up on the 18th October even though past UCAS deadline and no med talk so anything you can tell us in terms of the curse would be great - is your DD enjoying the course and Sheffield generally? What were the interviews like (and what did she get to get in?!) Thankyou!!

Yes you certainly can at Plymouth.

dd applied for 4 medicine and 1 dentistry ( plymouth - they do allow it)

I am sure its on Plymouth website somewhere.

She got an offer from both plymouth med and dentistry.

DS seems to be rejecting all the biomed suggestions (and variations of those words)... and then suggested Plymouth for Dentistry... argh.

Biomed can be a bit of a default alternative. I think a lot of aspiring medics are also drawn to biomed by the courses which dangle the prospect of entry to medicine (though if you have decent A levels then your odds would probably be better with a gap year and reapplying). You shouldn’t do an alternative degree in anything that doesn’t interest you enough that you would be happy to potentially continue a career in it. It is definitely worth stepping back and thinking ‘if medicine was completely out of the picture, what would I want to do?’. For some it might be allied health, others engineering, chemistry, or something completely different like plumbing!

Thanks - DS's predicted scores are really decent, but of course, get to next year, and I expect a bunch of 'paper2 was rubbish!!!' comments from social media. Interestingly when he did his GCSEs (and had 4 days of no sleep due to some kind of severe allergic reaction), his own predictions of how his papers went were quite spot on (as were his predicted grades from school). He seems to think engineering would be too difficult and competitive to get in (even though, until he started talking about medicine, I was sure that he was going to go into something techy/engineering/maths/CS type thing!

My DD actually considered biomed research before deciding on medicine. I think she is very set on medicine now, but does want to use the 5th slot. She's also talked about medical biotech.

DD not wanting to drop her 4th Alevel subject worries me more than the 5th UCAS choice though, as she is taking an unnecessary risk (stubborn as mule :D) She has max two weeks to decide, she would need to drop her 4th prior to submitting the UCAS application. She's predicted A in physics (and A stars in Bio, Chem, Maths).

Most med schools never read the PS. Or vet ones !

@inae - she sounds very capable... she doesn't need to drop the 4th, esp if she wants to keep the 'tech' bit of a 5th option. I say this because when we went to Imperial to check out medicine (and because it's a specialist school, the programmes they ran only filled up a small hall), we saw the med biotech stand, and they all said we'd need physics or F Maths. I was cross with DS because he chose at that time to drop Further Maths (and he'd got a comfortable 9 in GCSE Physics).

Thanks @MyGreyBiscuit but all of our YPs are very capable, since they got to this stage where they have a good chance to get multiple interview invitations if they apply wisely.

It's just a matter of taking extra risks, extra workload, stress, etc. Yr 13 already looks too busy - mocks in Nov and Feb, interview prep, weekly NHS volunteering, her usual sports, driving lessons, and a little bit of social life. There is very little revision time left in her timetable as it stands. Year 12 was also quite full-on. She will ultimately decide but even if she works hard the risk remains higher with 4 subjects.

For sure - friends of ours did 4 A levels. Was predicted really highly (like our kids). Did EPQ too. They are now doing engineering.

We are officially UCAT free!! It's a horrific test, and that's just me on the sidelines cheering DD on - proud of them all for just doing it tbh and not crashing mid way through.

So everything feels a bit risky now it has come down to it - 2070 B1 which is on the cusp of 7th decile. So blooming relieved it's over!

Predicted 3 A-stars in chem, bio and maths. Probably not relevant but A in AS further maths this summer.

GCSEs 9998888877 - 7s in Eng lang and lit

DD would love to apply to Exeter, Lancaster, Brighton and then maybe Sheffield, Manchester or Liverpool.

Exeter (82 pts), Sheffield feel pretty aspirational. And even Brighton borderline.

What does everyone think? We have looked at so much but when it comes down it pretty daunting....