Medicine 2026 Part 3

[MyGreyBiscuit]

Hi everyone, here's the new thread!

Congratulations to your daughter @inae Good to hear the offer holder day is good. We're at the one on the 18th. My daughter will be firming Sheffield since it's her only offer. She'll be a home student - I was surprised that she applied there with it being home, but she loved the Open Day and the course.

Well done to all the offers rolling in. My DD has now firmed Newcastle and has HYMS as insurance. DTS has also got all his offers in (Law) and they have both been sorting out their student finance. Both qualify for the maximum which is a relief as I am very strapped for cash.
The money side is making me anxious as I don’t think DD will have time for a part time job due the the course being so full on.

@inae Ah massive congratulations to your DD getting Southampton! I've heard nothing but good things about Sheffield so I am sure she will thrive there.

@Curlyshabtree another Newcastle firm! Is your DD going to do the accommodation today? DD is eagerly awaiting the portal to open but I feel the site may just crash when everyone tries to access it. She wants Park View flats but they ofc are most popular and closest to med school.

DD has a pt job atm and I am hoping she can come back and do shifts each holiday to start with. Not sure if working alongside is doable from yr3 onwards but we will see.

@bluefineliner @Curlyshabtree NCL sounds great, congrats! I hope DD's friend gets an offer from the pool/waitlist, to join your YPs.

DD's heart is really set on Sheffield and she refused to wait until the Soton open day (9th of May btw), to firm and insure. I don't know why they organise it so late, to be fair. They seem so organised otherwise, I like their curriculum.

Hope all your YPs waiting for Southampton get offers today! Sending you all positive vibes! 🤞

Yea she did and it’s all sorted. She got into one of the cheaper options not far from the med school. It is all very real!!

DS got Southampton!! so far 3/3 but I think with the St George's outage, we might just withdraw... I don't know what the rules are in terms of firming/withdrawing etc.. can anyone point me to the relevant websites please? (I'm overseas atm for work and there are restrictions on web searches!!!)

Congratulations to your DS.
I don't think you can firm/insure until you've had all of your decisions or withdrawn. I think it's just going onto UCAS and withdrawing from those he's no longer interested in and he should then be able to firm/insure.

@MyGreyBiscuit congratulations on the Southampton offer for your DS! What is the outage issue at St Georges? Is it one of his favourites for firm or insurance?

Such a difficult decision and so frustratingly slow. I am sure your DS will choose wisely from his offers.

thanks!! and thanks @Itsallstressstressstress for ucas info. St George's appears to have had an IT outage. and it's resulted in alot of offers not being processed/sent/decide... No one really knows. I think given that the Southampton offer is same as QMUL, he'll have to choose between them, and then insure Sheffield (where he's had a drop in grades due to EPQ)... but I want him to visit Sheffield before he decides.

I mean, would it make sense to insure Southampton if it's the same grades as QM? I think his 3 that he liked were always these 3 so he's very fortunate.

Congrats to your son @MyGreyBiscuit! If he is waiting until the 18th of April (Sheffield OHD) then maybe SGUL will come through?

Thanks @inae! I think he will wait but I think his mind is pretty much made up now... and he's just waiting for me to get home this weekend to talk it over (or convince me!!).

Sheffield is a great city for students - I hope he's going to OHD, as it might lead him to decide he wants it!

Sheffield (apparently) has one of the hghest rates of students choosing to live there after graduating, because they like it so much.

thanks for confirming this - both his father and I went to Sheffield (ergo, we met there). So, we were quite pleased to potentially be bringing the 'second gen' there... I will be forcing him to attend the Sheffield open day - it'll be another opportunity for me to connect with my ex-colleagues/friends! :)

Not been on this thread since dd did UCAT. She has offers for UCL and Sheffield. Rejected from Nottingham and Manchester. Manchester have put her on waiting list.

Congratulations @MyGreyBiscuit on your DS's offer for Southampton!

I've only been to Sheffield in a swim parent capacity, but we did look around the uni area when we were there last summer, such a lovely small city.

Congrats on those offers @aintnothinbutagstring and @MyGreyBiscuit
My daughter got a Southampton offer this morning too - they kept everyone guessing this year! She’s very fortunate to have a choice - looks like the Soton offer holder day isn’t till May though, right before her first exam!

Congrats @aintnothinbutagstring and @PurryGrowls!

I very much doubt DD will attend the OHD at Southampton on the 9th of May, as she's visited twice now, for the open day and interview, and she's already insured it. Plus, it's too close to the exam period. She's booked it, just in case.

My son also had a Southampton offer this week but is probably going to firm Imperial and insure Bristol. Shocked the government have withdrawn the extra training places offer in response to the proposed strike. I hope this all gets resolved. We're going to the offer holder day at Imperial next month but very pleased to see their generous bursary scheme has got even better for medics during the clinical years which takes a bit of the London cost worry away

DD has firmed Sunderland and has Anatomy at Glasgow as her insurance. At least two of her friends are going to go to Newcastle so I bet she'll end up living there in later years (they are on the same metro system so easy to go backwards and forwards, apparently about half of the Sunderland medics choose to live in Newcastle in later years).

Did DD ever hear back from Keele? I think she had applied there too? I'm wondering how close they are to finishing sending out their offers. My DD wants to apply there next year but I think you have to truely love the place/course given how long you may have to wait to hear back😬

I bet she feels happy to have made her choices, less distractions for the exams.

Does anyone have any knowledge about which 5th choices to avoid with a medicine PS (such as I believe Manchester pharmacy will reject applicants with a medicine PS)? And which will accept a second PS?

DD won’t accept a fifth choice as she will go for a gap year rather than graduate route, but she plans to apply for a fifth in case something crops up for UCAS Extras and wants to have at least one offer in case of no medicine offers (for self esteem).

Does anyone have any recommendations? School have told her they will give her 3 x A star for her predictions (bio, chem & maths) and she got 99998889776 in GCSEs (6 was English lang 😬)

(obviously UCAS dependent, but current medicine unis she hopes to apply to are Keele, UEA, Exeter and Leicester)

Doesn't really matter if they won't be taking it. Just put any science subject down (or anything really !). Even if rejected it makes extra easier (not likely at moment as can't see places being expanded while doctor unemployment is in the press).

Hope you all had a great Easter break!

Quick question to those with Southampton offers. DD has firmed Sheffield and insured Southampton. She's just discovered a foot note in her Soton offer on UCAS (when you click "view offer" and scroll down) that asks for GCSE exam certificates. The Soton offer conditions listed are AAA including biology and a 2nd science, and 7 GCSEs at grade 6+ including bio, chem, maths, and eng lang. This might be a silly question, but does she need to send those certificates by the 3rd of June, even though she's insured Soton? The offer email doesn't actually say anything about certitficates. Do all unis ask for copies of GCSE certificates to confirm the offers?

"Please send copies of certificates listed, excluding those currently being sat, to the Faculty by 3 June 2026. This offer is also subject to completion of satisfactory health screening. The Health Questionnaire to be submitted by 3 June 2026. Failure to meet these deadlines may result in your place not being confirmed. Please wait at least 24 hrs for full offer email.

The institution regards you as home for fees purposes"

@SuperSue77 Bristol is known for not using PS when offering, and their faculty of health and life sciences has a long list of courses that your YP can choose from depending on interest:
https://www.bris.ac.uk/unit-programme-catalogue/FacultyRoutes.jsa?ayrCode=26%2F27&selectedCatalogue=PROGRAMME&orgCode=FHLS

Many of those courses use a "80% predicted grades and 20% GCSEs" ranking formula when making offers. My DD had an offer from Bristol Biomed, but she's now declined it, as she firmed Soton.

Or, they could choose a course that allows transfers to medicine, but that route is extremely competitive, from what I know. Newcastle biomed is one example, but there might be others.

Yes, send them, as otherwise won't fulfill offer if goes to insurance on offers day. Some Unis do ask for them as some people do 'exaggerate' their GCSE results on ucas 🤷‍♀️