Medicine 2026 part 2

[mumsneedwine]

Thought I'd start another one.

Yes, we’re waiting for Southampton too! DD’s Sheffield and Exeter interviews are both scheduled for the week commencing 19 January, which is exactly when Southampton begins theirs. There is definitely a chance of a clash, but we’ll deal with that if and when it happens. It looks like they offer a choice of two dates and either AM or PM slots.

Yes, UCL has started sending invites again; their rolling system is quite stressful. There aren't many home interview dates left to fill, and since we’re 30 points off the current level for non-contextual invites, it’s looking very tight. Still, I’m remaining hopeful and positive. It was always DD’s aspirational choice, and we were aware of the risks. Thankfully, DD is much better at ignoring social media than I am!😂

hi @inae good luck with UCL!! what's it looking like for now?

Thanks. I believe current invites are around 2210 home non-contextual and 2130 home contextual, if social media is to be believed. DD's score is 2180 b1.

UCL's invite pattern is not 100% random; they appear to send random invites, but within batches, lowering the cut-off as they go along.

DD also had Leeds today. She did not think it went well. It’s hard to know how much is her being pessimistic. She thinks she saw a few 3’s on the mark sheet.

PS. Oh, and last year UCL sent the last batch of invites mid-February; they had a couple of interview dates scheduled for early March for home applicants, and it's the same this year (2 dates in March). Rejections were sent after mid-February so yeah, the wait is as painful and long as it can possibly be😂

Dn had Leeds today. Said it went ok ish, interviewers all very stern and hard to read. Managed to answer all the questions but not sure if they were correct answers and felt kept repeating themselves.

Keele rejection also received

Oh no - so sorry to hear about the Keele rejection :-( Do you have a feel for why? Sorry, that's probably an insensitive question to ask right now. I'm feeling very nervous now about my DD having it as her preference (I know it's all academic until you've done your UCAT, but we both had a really good feeling about it) but I just get the sense they favour those with strong leadership experience and that isn't my DD currently.

Sounds as though the Leeds feedback is on a par with everyone else who has fed back on here so far - fingers crossed for a positive outcome on that one - and to everyone else.

Happy New Year all - just catching up on updates. It’s been nice to take a break from the med school merry-go-round, back to reality!

Very sorry about your MIL @bluefineliner - and sounds like your daughter showed herself to be a fine future doctor, calm in a crisis. It must have been so tough for her getting through that interview, all credit to her.
Sorry to hear about the Keele rejection @Thefatbutteredpig This process is not for the faint hearted, all the best for her other options.

My worry has started to shift from interviews to actual A-levels if I’m honest. Can’t believe they’re just a few months away!

Sorry to hear about the Keele rejection @Thefatbutteredpig. Hope DN doesn't think too much and will move on - easier said than done of course.

thanks for the insights @inae. It's got me thinking about why it takes so long for med schools to shortlist, from Oct. I know there's lots of components (UCAT, predicted As, GCSE algorithms etc) but I would have thought in this day and age with computers, sifting can be quite straightforward. I would have thought the difficulty will be post MMI/interviews...! To cut down another 30-50%

They need to wait until they get the UCAT results in November. Some then start sending invites the next day. The difficulty is when they look at PS or additional information as reading a couple of thousand takes time.

yes I realise that. Many of those that we've applied to don't look at PS (which is quite a pity as I think my child's PS is strong!!)... anyway, it is what it is.

well, I don't envy med schools for the workload associated with admissions. frankly I think it's way too much, and it probably affects the quality of teaching their med school students during admission season.

I don't know why UCL takes so much time! they only rank by UCAT, once the minimum requirements are met. it makes little sense to me, this rolling system where they keep you guessing for 3.5 months if you have an interview or not - from early Nov when they get UCAT scores, until mid-February. PS is only used when interviewing, I think.

when we went to Leicester open day they said in their main presentation that they don't read any PS, as they simply don't have the time.

@inae you put it better than I did. I think that's the thing, if it's ranked by UCAT, and if there are 5000 applicants, and they want to interview 1000, then it's the top 1000/1200 that they'll longlist right? This was how it was when I was at university in my country. I applied for a competitive course, on top of the A levels needed, there was also an entrance test. On the day of the results (this is the early 90s), literally had to go to the university, stand in front of the board where they had pinned dot matrix list of the 'successful candidates'. Everyone's name is listed. Top 200 got in. So, it's whether you are confident and start looking from page 1, or you are less confident and start looking from page 20! :)

Sheffield also said they don't read PS at least at the sifting point, possibly read it at interview? I don't know anymore.

DC had interview questions based on PS a couple of times - one handed him a copy of his PS when they did so. But only one uni he applied to said they looked at it for short listing and I got the feeling there that it was a very basic tick box (eg work experience mentioned).

I am guessing universities will sit on a number of applications whilst they see how interviews pan out and successful applicants subsequent choices in firming offers. Interviews themselves are pretty resource-intensive so you wouldn’t want to invite more than you need to.

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful break, I have been off devices/ forums so enjoyed the lull but now back to the anxious wait!

@bluefineliner I'm so sorry to hear about MIL, the improvement in first 24 hours is fairly crucial though so sounds like she is one tough cookie with your DD harnessing some of those traits for herself.

We are mid mocks here with Exeter interview next Tues and driving test next Thurs! So right in the thick of things.

Brighton interview went atrociously apparently, DD is a catastrophiser so I'm hoping not that bad. Still waiting for Glasgow as RUK and rejection from Sheffield based on UCAT.

Roll on end of Feb when hopefully most of this will be behind us all with ideally everyone holding an offer to motivate them to lock in for a-levels.

sorry to hear that @Peanuts79 but hopefully she was catastrophising... the BSMS dean seemed very nice and keen. Had a nice long chat with him at open day whilst I was loitering about waiting.

Ah @Peanuts79 I have a catastrophiser DD too! She also had her driving test and an interview 2 days later, luckily she passed and had a good interview so hope it is the same for your DD. Fingers crossed for Glasgow too.

@MyGreyBiscuit DD just thought she didn't get much encouragement from a few interviewers so it was hard to read. She felt she might not have answered some stations as fully as she should, even though she was well prepared. I think she was just encouraged more at Newcastle so immediately every other one doesn't live up to that. It'll be interesting to see her views on the final two.

It is impossible to tell how they have really done though, gosh I have had what I thought was a shocking job interview and still got the job!

that’s very true about ‘horrible’ interviews. I also think it’s ok to talk about it but what’s done is done, so look forward, even if it’s to the next interview, or to the weekend when something fun is happening… or the next episode of Traitors!!!

DD currently revising at home for Biology mock - I heard a yell and went running upstairs to find she'd just got another 'we're processing your application' email from Southampton🙄- second in as many days! I did see this on one of the facebook groups - those waiting on here have probs already spotted it:

For those waiting for Southampton, I have spoken to admissions who were lovely, interview dates are now on the course page of the website, starting 20th Jan through to end Feb.
They implied that they had not sent out any dates yet (albeit the website says you'd get 2-3 weeks notice and 20th is 2 weeks today, and that international applicants get 5-6 weeks notice!), but that they would be coming out soon.

No idea with Keele. Suspect personal statement which is always going to be subjective.

Wish we had applied somewhere else that makes decisions based on ucat/grades etc

@catty29 Two clickbait emails in a single week from Southampton! My DD read it at school during lunch time, and she panicked for a moment when she saw the subject line, as it didn't really read like an invitation: "Thank you for your application".

Fingers crossed we hear soon, although I'm not holding my breath for tomorrow. If they invite in batches by score, DD won’t be in the first group; however, that may work in her favor, as she already has two interviews the week Soton starts interviewing.

P.S. I love the word 'catastrophizer'. I might be one, much more so than DD! 😂

The Southampton dates have been on the website for quite a while now. So, let’s see if they send it out tomorrow. We can’t be in the first week as we’re travelling to Sheffield on Monday and then doing the MMI on the following day. And then a consultant’s meeting on the friday. So…best if ours is in early Feb. I hope there’s a choice otherwise we can’t do it!

Can I ask about the Newcastle interviews? I think some took place before Xmas but DD’s is not until 20 Jan. Does anyone know why they are so spread out?

Waiting for Southampton too. Bristol on 29th and Imperial on 20th ..Busy months for everyone with interviews!

I note Newcastle University end of semester exams run until 20th January. Students are often involved with interviewing so perhaps that might be it?