Medicine 2026 entry - part 1

[rockstuckhardplace]

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

But the sad thing is so many of them say they don’t read the PS!

We were feeling more settled about choices but now I’m going to be thinking about UEA this weekend. 🤯 It does sound fab!

Could I get some direction please? Any suggestions for choices?
My daughter is aiming for QUB as she could walk to college!
She would really rather not go mainland but obviously Im encouraging her to be practical. Im looking for options that offer MMI interview, as thats the style QUB use and I think it would be better for her to work towards one style of interview? She is willing to consider options with easy travel from belfast.

She has a good UCAT I think - 2250 band 2
with excellent though not perfect GCSEs - AAAAAA (6) and AAAA (4)
She doesnt know what her predicted grades will be - she says she wont find out before her UCAS application.
She thinks AAA is comfortable, A*AA likely.
(She got AAAA in AS level)
Any thoughts?
I appreciate some/most would say she should be prepared to travel as far as necessary and so if far away options are recommended Ill get her to look at that.

Also, I know that its complicated to say the least, so should we book a consult with a medichut advisor - someone linked to medichut earlier and I see its one of the services they offer..

Hi @wobblyweewoman would her school be able to help? Also I’ve seen medichut being advertised and also myucat - think that’s run by an Oxford third year medic and seems to be the holy grail of all things medic and strategic applications.

good luck!

I’ve asked DS about UEA and he said that it was on the list but fell down due to distance so I think if we hadn’t liked Southampton then we would have put it down. Ok we won’t think anymore and wait for the headmaster’s ‘blessing’ or see if we need to reconsider.

have a good weekend everyone!

Thanks grey biscuit. The school have told her it's good training for her to figure these things out for herself!
So she's thinking Edinburgh because we all love JKR and HP!
And so I'm here trying to figure it out 🤯

What you need is @mumsneedwine ’s spreadsheet!!

I have it! I think I must not understand how to use it because I don't know if my daughter is a good candidate or an average one? I'm going to take a closer look now and see if I can better understand things...

@wobblyweewoman what about universities near airport? Leeds would be an option with her grades as would Newcastle.

That may be code for ‘we don’t know’ which is much better than ‘we don’t know but are pretending we do’!

Hi my son has 4 predicted As for bio, chem, psychology and Spanish. He only has 5 x 8, 2 x7 and a 6 in english language at gcse. He only scored 1910 in his Ucat. He did get a Ucat bursary. Is there any point in applying this year? Could I have access to the spreadsheet please? Im so out of my depth

If he wants to apply for medicine then definitely worth applying this year. I presume he is contextual if he got a UCAT bursary? There are still a few universities worth a shot especially if the alternative is not applying and a gap year as if he doesn’t get an offer then he would just be where he would be next year anyway. If he is realistic about his chances and still considering a potential gap year then what has he got to lose?

Hello

have a look at uea a104. You only need the ucat bursary to apply.

See if you meet any of the contextual criteria for bristol, lincoln, southampton, uea, leicester, keele, hyms, leeds, plymouth six year courses

Eeek DD's UCAS has now been submitted (her lovely teacher is working today). Big relief for DD for the time being but I'm sure the stress will reappear when interviews are being given out.

Feels like its been a long time to get to this stage but I am not looking forward to the next bit either 😂. So come on Newcastle, Leeds, Liverpool and Lancaster be generous with your interviews!

Well done @bluefineliner!! you can relax now! DS is currently doing maths homework!

@bluefineliner now's the tough bit. You wait. Unis will get UCAT scores by end of October and then they'll start analysing them. Hopefully some news before Xmas this year 🤞

Does anyone know if Edinburgh needs A A A* for RUK students?

I tried to type 3 A Stars

They say AAA here, for standard offer. But it’s very competitive, so thats the minimum .

Oops forgot the link

study.ed.ac.uk/programmes/undergraduate/354-mbchb-medicine-6-year-programme

@wobblyweewoman It is unacceptable that she doesn’t know her predictions before submitting - surely you can point this out to her school? As long as she has 3As it doesn’t really matter for most med schools, but for a few it does, (eg maybe Leeds, definitely Exeter, maybe King’s, maybe Edinburgh (am away from desk!)) so it would be useful to have all the facts.

@wobblyweewoman And yes, I think she would be classed as strong applicant with that UCAT. She could apply to many places safely.

Edinburgh University though I think is always a stretch - an expert will be along with more colour, I am sure. I known of a RUK applicant with 4 A stars, 3100 (old money obvs)but B2 not get interviews, although they were surely on the edge.

It's NOT a minimum. It's what they ask for so it's what you need. You get no benefit being predicted (or having) 3 A stars if they need 3 As.

It used to be that a RUK ( non contextual) student needed around 3200 in old money ucat and a band 1 to be considered.

Ds applied in 2021 with 2900 b2 contextual and got an offer but Edinburgh requirements for RUK are mad.

There may well be safer choices than Edinburgh.