Medicine 2026 entry - part 1

[rockstuckhardplace]

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

@bluefineliner DDs girlfriend was at Sheffield yesterday and had exactly the same impressions as your DD, even down to preferring Newcastle.

@mumsneedwinehello sorry to bother you but any chance I could get a copy of your excel SS thx so much

Sheffield was my DD's top choice on paper and remains so after the open day. She's swung by the location and likelihood of outdoorsy types. I've said before that she doesn't want Newcastle as it's our local uni.

@rockstuckhardplace it really is a personal choice isn't it, although not really much of a choice with med as I keep reminding DD!

Are everyone's YP prepping for UCAT now? DD started properly now and I keep getting mini updates, very up and down for now which I know is normal at this point. DD's date is 1/9, which means she'll have done 8 weeks prep, is that what others are doing? She has a Y12 peer who actually took it for fun last year and has been prepping all Y12!

@coffeegirl73 if you send me your email via message

No. Did you go? I've encouraged DD to look at this one but she's not keen. What did you / your YP think?

DD has started but I'm not sure you'd call it "proper." Her test is 21 Aug, to allow time for a holiday before back to school. Her diagnostic was not promising but she thinks she'll burn out if she gives it too long. I predict a stressful few weeks.

We didn’t go 😬 I took DD and some friends away to Spain for 5 nights to celebrate end of GCSEs and we were both too tired to contemplate the trip. We cancelled the med talk that we had booked but couldn’t see how to cancel the fact we were due to go.
It’s not one she is keen to go to, and it’s a higher offer than all the others she’s interested in - though she says that doesn’t matter as she’s planning in getting at least one A star (let’s hope!).
I’m not sure we’ll go and see Leicester now that we missed Saturday. There is one on 8 November but she’s not keen to go once she is into A levels. We do have a few more booked, Nottingham, UEA and ARU. She wants to go and see Bristol too and their next one is 1 November which is the end of half term, but she says she wants to visit it because she learnt about the city for her geography GCSE rather than wanting to apply there! Bristol doesn’t do it for me at all (I know I’m not the one going!!) no dissection, loads of student numbers (I think I was that they take 600 a year?!!) massively high UCAT needed and expensive accommodation in short supply.

It will be interesting in 14 months time once she has UCAT score, actual GCSEs and predicted A levels to see which ones are best to apply to.

😂 Bristol take 250 not 600. There are several
bigger Unis. Lots of accommodation these days and fantastic hospitals for placements. It’s also an awesome student city. Not on the payroll ! But don’t discount with wrong information 😊

Med students we talked to at Bristol were very positive. It's true accommodation is expensive though.

Morning all,

So DD is on a work experience week for aspiring Drs (at my place of work) and has seen a lot so far which is very helpful in her getting a good insight into the profession. She is hoping to go to theatre today.

I work with a lot of Drs and DD has had chance to talk to quite a few so far with varying levels of encouragement, which I expected. I did advise her to listen carefully to all opinions as they are all valid.

Interestingly (I work with Radiologists) when I have asked the question 'What made you decide to be a Dr' a significant number say they don't know but probably because they were very clever at school and getting into med school was a challenge to them. At least 2 are clearly not people 'people' and really struggle with patient interaction openly admitting they chose specialties that had little patient contact as they would hate being a GP.

Maybe things have changed a lot as ages of Drs ranged from 35 to 65 but all the open days we have attended pushed the 'patient centred care' and communication part of the course as a priority. Interesting.

Interestingly (I work with Radiologists) when I have asked the question 'What made you decide to be a Dr' a significant number say they don't know but probably because they were very clever at school and getting into med school was a challenge to them. At least 2 are clearly not people 'people' and really struggle with patient interaction openly admitting they chose specialties that had little patient contact as they would hate being a GP.

I'm in my 50s and grew up in Scotland where we do Highers at 17 and then have another year at school when you can either do exams that are a higher level than A level (historically called 'Sixth Year Studies', now called 'Advanced Highers') or more Highers. I had excellent grades in my Highers and it was amazing how many people suggested to me I should apply to do Medicine (even though I hadn't studied biology and am not a particularly caring person) so I can well believe that many older doctors did it just because it was the thing to do. I also think teenagers don't really know much about the world and the multitude of interesting jobs there are (no teenager wants to be a project manager) but they all know what a doctor is and how well it is paid.

😂 doctors are not well paid. £17 an hour ? Earn more dog grooming.
These days the interview process will stop anyone with the wrong attitude getting in. Things have changed a lot in last 10 years.

A doctor at the very start of their career might be on a salary just a bit above average salary but consultants and GPs can earn six figure sums. Not to mention the pension that is so generous the last government had to remove the lifetime pension allowance because so many doctors were cutting hours and retiring because they'd reached the limit. How many other people on '£17 an hour' can expect that? Doctors are still some of the highest paid professionals in the country.

@JaninaDuszejko52% of F2s don’t have a job in 4 weeks. Do not go on about potential earnings - many are now facing no job so no earnings.

Having done this last year, I would say waiting for my DD to sit her UCAT was worse than waiting for her doing any other exam. So much hung on it and they get the results immediately. I was waiting for her to appear from the test centre trying to adopt a very ‘neutral’ expression until I could work out how happy (or not) she was. In the end she did fine - not Oxbridge level but reasonable high. But it was very stressful!

DD would also say get used to using ear plugs while you do the test as the centres can be quite busy with people coming and going so using their foam ear buds (you had to use theirs) helped a bit but might have been more distracting if she had not used them before.

Older doctors are well paid. New ones are not. And face massive debt and none of the perks that current consultants had. Young doctors today face massive debt with high chance of unemployment, oh and a pension at 74 that they’ve paid 12% into that might be nice

@MiceandFrogsyou only need one offer

Indeed but the UCAT was still incredibly stressful to wait through as a parent!

We are also in Scotland. Unsurprisingly hardly any Scottish medical applicants apply outside Scotland due to fees. So it is a question of choosing a medical school not to apply to rather than the other way round as there are only five. It means you are competing against all aspiring Scottish medics. In terms of qualifications, offers are based principally on Highers that you have already gained (taken this spring for 2026 entry) so though offers are conditional they may seem low compared to A level offers eg BB at Advanced Higher.

Hi @miceandfrogs is your DD starting at a Scottish uni in September?

@MiceandFrogs I am a parent of a doctor, and I agree, UCAT is v stressful !

With all due respect, UCAT is nowhere near as stressful, or as difficult as the job!!

Well that’s true. And no where near as awful
as getting a job at F2. But for a 17 year old (& their parents) it’s horrible.

Fingers crossed! Find out on 5th August.

Maybe a good "first step filter" if you see what I mean? Ease them in for the decades of testing to come?