Medicine 2026 entry - part 1

[rockstuckhardplace]

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

thanks for confirming that for Southampton and Sheffield! (saves me looking for these two!!). Might see you there! :)

@MyGreyBiscuit That would be v cool, but please double-check all info! 😂

Lower interview to offer rates just means they interview more. So you've a better chance of getting an interview. If interview well this can be a bonus !

UCAT score of 1890 (5th decile) but 9sand 8s at GCSE and A* predictions for Biology, Chem and Maths. Bit of a late decision to apply for medicine and going for Liverpool, Leeds, Hull/York and was thinking of Lancaster. Teacher has said that Lancaster is too aspirational with UCAT score. Thinking of Dundee now but we are not Scottish so not sure if she has a chance. Which other unis place less emphasis on the UCAT?

Have a look at Leicester @nomoreforks - I have DC there who absolutely loves it - they put more weighting in GCSEs for interview shortlisting. Also worth a look at QUB and she might just edge in at Exeter as she has all Astar predictions (but riskier). Aston also scores GCSEs as does Aberdeen

That's reassuring! DS is not engaging with me anymore everytime I say 'but what about xyz university?!' so I think we've fixed. Apparently they might get their EPQ grades tomorrow (predicted? real? I have no idea), so I think once we have that, we'll press send.

Which brings me to my next question - how does one prep for interviews? I don't mean whether it's an MMI or panel (well, a little bit about that), but DS isn't the most outspoken individual. He's had leadership roles at school and in his other activities, he's done/doing volunteer work at various places, and has tutored primary aged children but he's not Mr Chatty Pants. He's worked open days at his school, and as part of the school student leadership team he does speak to teachers and parents and the younger kids I guess. I fear he'll clam up! Help!

Apart from reading and watching videos, my DD is planning to organize practice sessions at school with the other two schoolmates who are applying to medicine. I don't think the school offers help with interview prep, although there is a team of early applicants (Oxbridge and med) supported by the head of science.

This is maybe a good place to start from:
studyinghealthcare.ac.uk/interviews/medicine-interview-preparation/

This is really good for interview prep - my DC got a copy from the school library

I've never come across this website before. Just been taking a look and there is some really good stuff on there. Thanks for sharing.

ah yes we have that book!! I will be strapping that book onto his head!

And also thank you for the link - will check it out @inae !

@nomoreforks. Might be worth scoring Lincoln too?

Hi, a friend from outside uk is asking me about St Mary’s London (SMU) for Medicine: she thinks her DD isn’t likely to get the grades to apply through UCAS. DD is in Yr 3 NCL Med and doesn’t know anything about it. All I can find online is that it’s a new program for 2026 and can only initially accept international students and it’s nominally Catholic (not sure how that affects entry). Does anyone know any more about it? Thanks so much!

DD submitted her UCAS yesterday. She has put Newcastle down. I don’t know much about the uni but I’m also concerned as we live in the far, far south west, so I don’t know how she’ll find living there…

@Peachy2005 It's a lovely campus (and area); it shares its grounds with Strawberry Hill House. Locally, it has quite a good reputation for sports sciences, nutrition, and physio. We used to live next door to it and trained at their athletics track, but we have moved away (still regretting it; it's become unaffordable to move back 😂).

As it's a brand new medical school, I'm not sure if you will find someone to give you specific feedback on it.

Hello.
my daughter has just been diagnosed with scoliosis. It’s severe and she needs a big operation. She is just about to submit her UCAS to Sheffield, Nottingham, Exeter and either Newcastle or Bristol. Does anyone have any experience of the pastoral care at these uni’s. She might need to defer at the last minute if recovery doesn’t go as expected. She’s very strongly academically so we would hope she gets offers to at least some of them but we need somewhere where they are on it from a pastoral side.

@France8857all v good for pastoral. Before interviews let them know so they can make any necessary adjustments for her.

hi @France8857 I can't comment about any of them other than Sheffield and they sounded like they were very accommodating of people with needs (my DS is one of them). Every other university we've visited have been accommodating and no one blinked an eye when we mentioned what was needed. Good luck with the operation.

Hi all, my DD has submitted her application, including the 5th choice, and got her UCAS welcome email. She's just texted me on her break to tell me that the welcome email says she has 14 days to swap one of her choices, should she need to.

Does that mean that she can only swap one of the five choices? Or can she swap each of the five choices once? Sorry if the question is silly. I don't have the exact email wording and was just curious what the options were in case she does change her mind.

@inae you can swap all of them, but it's a bit of a process !

Oh, thanks, that's good to know. I don't want her to swap any choice, but just in case 😁

Am I right that the medicine choices would have to be substituted before the 15th of October, and the 5th choice within 14 days of the welcome email?

@inae all 14 days after ucas form had been sent.

Hello. Ds at Newcastle. We had a death in the family at the start of the year.

The pastoral support he received from the medical school and his peers was exceptional.

Thanks @Millaiss and @Michaelah for the recommendations!

This link has expired and I didn’t download the information 🤦‍♀️ Does anyone else have a link they could share? It was so useful 🙏

Scrap that I’ve found it in MyUCAT 😅