Medicine 2026 part 2

[mumsneedwine]

Thought I'd start another one.

DD has put a fifth choice but it's for if she doesn't get the grades, if she does get >= AAA then she's going to take a gap year and apply again. I'm really hoping we don't have another UCAT summer 😱. Although I guess if she chooses a very late UCAT date she might not have to do any work for it until after she gets her A level results.

DD put Bristol biomed as 5th choice and got the offer in Dec, but I very much doubt she will consider it.

It looks like we might need to wait longer for an email from Southampton now. Next interview date to be offered is the 5th of February and they send the invite 10-14 days before the interview. The first three dates were offered to 2190+ and DD is 2180 😂

I know a couple of people who got rejected from fifth choices. They never wanted to do the courses anyway and would have taken gap years if they had been unsuccessful with their medicine applications. I guess the courses in question judged them correctly and preferred candidates who actually wanted to do the courses. But it still felt a knock when the rejections came through.

Yeah, I don't really get this 5th choice thing. For those who really want to do medicine it makes no sense to not be able to keep all 5 slots for med school. I think they should make the 5th choice rule a recommendation, not a requirement, but what do I know...

V good news. UKGrad priority coming in this year. Means your DCs shouldn't end up unemployed 😊

https://www.rcp.ac.uk/news-and-media/news-and-opinion/rcp-welcomes-announcement-of-bill-to-prioritise-uk-medical-graduates-for-training-places/

DD got a rejection from Oxford today. She claims she’s ok with it but is clearly disappointed. This process is so hard.

Sorry to hear that @Tsuipen! It wasn't meant to be. Getting any med offer is a huge achievement and as @mumsneedwine says, you only need one. I hope your DD gets others! 🤗

@mumsneedwine that's great news, thanks for sharing!

Brillaint news! Do you know when it will start? DD currently in Yr 2……….thanks

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/medical-training-prioritisation-bill-information-for-applicants-to-medical-training/

hopefully the link works! It sounds like it’s starting as soon as they get it passed so it will start this year.

Current final year students were due to find out where they are going for foundation training on 26th Feb, so it might delay this a week or two, but it’s great news!

DD has received an offer from Oxford today. It’s from her second-choice college rather than her first, but we are absolutely delighted for her.

I was rejected from Oxford back in the day… and went on to have a fabulous time at another uni. One door closes and another one opens (and all that!)
All the best for your daughter’s other choices.

Big congrats to your daughter @Hi2025! Great news for her.

Sorry to hear that @Tsuipen - a friend's son also got rejected, but like others have said, one door closes, another opens. The style of teaching is also different so hopefully her other options are styles she's also happy with!

well done @Hi2025 ! which college is it? and what are the requirements usually?

great to hear about the law being passed - it's entirely illogical anyway that there's such a bottleneck, just when we actually need the boots on the ground to be the doctors society needs. I hope there's also some sort of 'rethink' about the types of specialities that will be trained to 'future-proof' the NHS. Obviously including AI technology to make it more efficient/accurate, but also specialities like geriatric care since we are an aging population!

Morning all

Yes great news about the prioritisation bill it will be interesting to see the impact over the coming years whilst our YP (hopefully) are at med school.

Sorry about your DD's rejection @Tsuipen , hopefully they will be able to focus on the other applications and keep positive. Easier said than done I know with high achieving YPs.

Congrats to your DD @Hi2025 ! Is she waiting for other decisions/interviews?

DD got an offer for her last min 5th choice of biomed at NCL, this has given her a little boost even though its v unlikely she'd take it. The wait continues for news and although I am willing the Leeds decision to come, DD is convinced it will be a no so maybe we are better in our little bubble of not knowing 😂.

That's us about to set off to St Andrews for interview for DS this afternoon.

Great news on the offer @Hi2025 , she (and you) must be relieved to have one this quickly.

@Tsuipen sorry to hear of the rejection, my DS was rejected from Cambridge and whilst he was initially disappointed he has now managed to put it to one side and focus on the other 3 interviews. Hopefully better news from other ones.

good luck @Itsallstressstressstress and DS!

Well done to your DD. That’s fab news.

@bluefineliner My DD was inning and ahhing about whether to add a 5th non Medicine. She’s worried she’s just not good at interviews. I’ve told her the decision has to be hers.

Well done on Oxford offer.

Nottingham on Friday for us.

Fingers crossed and good luck for all those interviewing this week.

Thanks - this is SUCH good news and brings the UK into line with other countries. Shame that it took resident doctors to strike to bring it about! I’ve also heard that as part of the resident doctor 10 point plan for improvements, NHS England are moving towards a single provider model to host the management of medical trainees. This will hopefully smooth out admin, reduce hassle with onboarding, health screening, mandatory training, rotas etc.

@Vista123 I do hope so because I can then stop having to do DDs tax returns ! Every 6 months she moves half hour away to another hospital/trust and gets a P45 so they then mess up her tax. And has to do all the onboarding training yet again. It's such a waste of money !

The really frustrating thing about not having priority for Uk grads is the training system worked against them as it is set up to go from FY2 to specialty training but then they were awarding points for things that were very difficult to get within that training scheme.

DS felt it went ok and they said hopefully hear this month.
Bit of a curve ball, there was a fire in the building next to the medicine building, fire brigade etc. Gets a mention on the BBC news, luckily DS seemed not to be phased, thankfully.

Well done to those getting offers and interviews and the very best of luck to those with interviews to come and waiting on news.

Just wondering if anyone knows about UK UNIVERSITY & APPRENTICESHIP SEARCH FAIRs? There is one being held at University of Surrey in March and DD's school want all year 12 to attend. I've taken a look and I'm not sure there is much there which will help her. We've already visited a number of unis and I don't feel generic uni teams at a career fair are going to give much advice on the very specific entry for medicine. There are PS talks, but DD wants to apply to Keele which requires a very specific PS which they are not going to be covering in a generic talk.

I've suggested to her that she spend the day working on something that will actually benefit her med school application, such as the ObserveGP online wex - as she's not keen to go. But I wanted to check we're not missing something. Did anyone's DC go to one of these uni fairs? Am I right in thinking that there isn't really anything there that is going to help her? I'm wondering if @mumsneedwine knows about these and can provide a view?