Medicine 2026 entry - part 1

[rockstuckhardplace]

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

@inae does rule out a few. It’s mainly down to UCAT now - has she made a shortlist ? How course is taught, campus or not, dissection, placement locations ?

You can’t apply to medicine from S5, you have to be S6. In theory it is possible to go to university age 16 from S5 for other subjects but very few do. I know quite a few medical students who either went as graduates or who reapplied so I don’t think your daughter will feel out of place if she is 19 or 20 when she starts. Students as a whole are much more variable in age so, apart from the first week or so when you are exchanging basic demographic information as you get to know your peers, no one will be that interested.

@mumsneedwine thanks, she's only started to research unis in-depth now. Has a very short list in her mind - Bristol and UCL - but no real research yet.

Year 12 was a bit mad TBH with mocks, medical experience, summer school, DofE, sports, online webinar series for med applicants, etc. Her summer will be mostly UCAT prep, personal statement, uni research, and some reading.

I've sent you a PM, thanks for being so kind.

@inae if they are her 2 favourites she is going to need a v v high UCAT 😂.

Thanks, it's all really in draft mode for now, they're favourites on paper. Got your spreadsheet, it's brilliant! thank you so much. She'll be over the moon and so am I, you saved us tons of time, although we will double check everything ofc.

When you say high do you mean 9th decile and SJT 1?

@inae for Bristol it’s been in top 5%. UCL only just started using UCAT but last year was 9th decile. Other v nice Unis are available !

Wow, so high for Bristol. Any top of mind suggestions are welcome... we'll really need to narrow down the list this summer, so that she's prepared once she has her UCAT score. She's also mentioned Leeds but we haven't looked into details as I said.

Leeds good choice. Nice city, good rotations, reasonable UCAT last year. It’s more about the course and how she thinks she’ll like to learn. How soon she’d like to interact with patients. Hard to recommend as so many factors. Can just wait until have UCAT and investigate possible ones further.

Thanks, doesn't Leeds select based on GCSE grades?

Your DD GCSEs should still be good

Hi @inae 🙂 DS is also thinking of Bristol. He's also considering Newcastle, Manchester, Oxford, Leeds, maybe Birmingham, maybe Liverpool. In real life the decision is up to him, so it's nice to be able to discuss it on here!

Not planning to apply to London, for various reasons, so not looked into UCL.

Leeds score 8 best GCSEs then combine that score with UCAT. They don't explain exactly how though!

@mumsneedwine, your spreadsheet looks amazing. Could I please have a copy of it? I have just read through all the messages in the thread and they are so informative. DD has just finished her GCSEs and we have just started to look into and gather info on medical school applications. Thanks

@Peachy80 if you send me your email via message I’ll send it asap. Need to type it over a few posts as otherwise it gets scrambled. Things will change each year but I do update it.

Please keep sending in your feedback on open days. All the peevious info here has been very useful. My DD has just finished her GCSEs and we have started to research and look into medical schools recently. A friend's daughterwho studies at Abardeen Medical School recommended to start open day visit early at the end of Y11. It was indeed a great advice.
We have visited Birmingham, Sheffield, Oxford and UCL open days so far. More will follow in Sept and Oct. I am trying to be as clued up as possible to support her.
We actually liked Birmingham medical school very much. It was very well organised and the facilities are amazing and everything is in one building. Students could practise on dummies, DD used the stethoscope the first time and lived the experience. The uni has its own train station. My DD plays badminton and took part in school competitions so sport clubs are important to us. Their sport and fitness centre was very modern and well-equipped, great facilities. DD realised she would prefer campus unis.

As someone wrote it before, Sheffield's medical school's buildings are scattered around and we were not able to look at the anatomy lecture room. They also had some refurbishment going on, although the talk was very detailed and informative. Medical students and staff were super friendly and they seemed very happy.
DD didn't like Sheffield as a town though and said she couldn't imagine spending 5 years there.

DD went to UCL with her friend (we live in London), she found it very very busy and not organised. They were directed to the wrong building and missed some parts of the talk.
More open days are booked in Sept and Oct.

@Peachy80 if like campus and sport then Notts def worth a look. Med school is in the hospital and has lots of skills rooms.

Yes, we heard that the Campus is great and Notts are very good at sport. We booked the open day in Oct.

Also Exeter.

Hi! TGIF!

thanks @mumsneedwine for the spreadsheet. Sod’s Law my laptop has decided not to cooperate so I can’t really access it just yet. Looking at it on my iPad is not quite the same. Will do it soon though.

just checking - any thoughts as to what might be a good enough ucat score for this time round? I know there are calculators out there to convert…but is 2000 or thereabouts ok for this year? It looks like it’s equivalent to 2700… which I think is quite decent. I heard imperial interviewed at 3120 this year!

Hi @MyGreyBiscuit I had been trying to help DD identify plan b, c and d on estimated UCAT scores recently as I do like to have a back up plan. However after trying to work out what last years scores compared this the new scoring I felt like I was going round in circles.

Like you, my conclusion overall was that for most of the unis we looked at (what I thought were a good range) a UCAT score of over 2000 will be required for DD despite excellent GCSE grades but not contextual. For example UCAT website states 8th decile last year was 2780 which would be 2060 this year.

As DD has not yet done her first mock I have no idea if this is doable or not. We have QUB as a back up so far but no idea on the others! We just need to wait for UCAT now, I just don't want DD to waste any choices applying to a uni where the UCAT requirement is unknown but this year I think that may be all of them!

Hi @bluefineliner !
yes I’m finding this whole medical school application rather stressful… have you looked at some of the questions? They are quite impossible and I like to think I’m fairly intelligent, with a PhD! 😅

Anyway, which part of the country are you looking at? We looked at quite a few, but the furthest has been Sheffield (we are in the south east), that being our alma mater. I know that it’s a strategic application so roll on UCAT!

@mumsneedwine Thanks so much for being such a guru on this thread - what would you think about DS’s GCSEs? He had a major health incident - ended up in A&E the weekend before exams started on Monday. He brought his Dr J and Mr H book along…!! lol! And the incident lasted quite a while - we did notify the exams officer and they did send in the hospital notes etc. I think we got the 2% for a couple of papers.

999887776 - physics, maths, design, bio, computing, chemistry, mandarin, english, english literature. So he’s got the required 7 for English.

Predicted As are star, star, A for bio, maths and chem.

hope you all have a great weekend - it rained in the night so it’s feeling slightly cooler!

@MyGreyBiscuithis GCSEs are v good. Avoid Belfast and depending on UCAT any that score GCSEs. For most he’s passed the threshold.

Predicting scores this year is tough. I’ve guessed it will be 3/4 of previous but it’s not quite that simple as Abstract there’s up some strange scores. But it’s a guide to what to look for. 2,000 will likely be good. No idea what Bristol and Imperial will be !

@mumsneedwine thanks so much for your swift reply! That’s a relief then. Bristol and imperial aren’t really on our radar. We did check out imperial coz it’s in London and we are nearby. Reading other people’s comments about the lack of care, I worry about surviving there for 5 years or more. He did meet a few F1s when he did his work experience at a hospital and they were on their placements, and has heard recommendations or none, from these recent grads! I think he’s quite liking the look and feel of St George’s and possibly QM/Barts. Sheffield would be a good back up with their consideration of the EPQ I think.

thanks again!

@MyGreyBiscuit I think this is why I am silently stressing about UCAT, I couldn't understand the questions when I had a quick go. I'm just leaving DD to it and hoping she finds how to tackle them using the resources we have got for her (medentry/medify).

We are in the north so have been looking at Manchester/Sheffield/Newcastle/Hull York and also Leeds/Liverpool/Lancaster. Avoiding London due to cost but I am hoping DD will have enough to choose from up here. I need to try and not put my worries about UCAT on to DD, I just know what a perfectionist she is and is not used to 'failing' things so this could be a shock for her if things don't go to plan 😬.

@bluefineliner we did put Manchester and Liverpool on the long list but haven’t checked them out. Depending on how the ucat goes we may also check them out. We have family living there so it’ll be helpful.

having said that I’m thinking even if we do end up further north, the cost of travelling up there and back will probably still add up to end up the same!

we are bracing for an extra £10k contribution ….