Any teenagers done the MEDLINK course?

[NotAnOtter]

not sure what to make of it?

ds not sure what he wants to do yet but seems keen to attend this..

looks a bit 'commercialised' to me - is it worth the money?

do you have to do it?

The contemporaries of my older DCs who applied for medicine all seemed to do this (at grammar school) but couldn't comment on whether it is worth it or not. I think when applying for medicine you are encouraged to have done a lot of work experience so anything 'extra' is encouraged, although obvs MEDLINK isn't work experience but presumably an experience of what studying medicine at university is like. Suspect it is one of those things that all the students who can afford it/go to schools who know about it etc go to.

DS1 did this as he has always wanted to study medicine (he is now a 4th yr medic). He enjoyed it but thought it was expensive and quite "gimmicy" for what it was. He thought it was useful if you were undecided about Medicine, as some of his friends were, so it may be useful in making up your Son's mind one way or the other. A lot of the Med schools attended the last day, when the parents could visit, so quite useful for chatting to them. However DS1 said that most Med schools don't place much value on attending this course - he only mentioned it briefly on his ps, as it is clearly not open to all students due to the cost. Much more useful is long term work experience in a care home etc and find out if your local hospital runs any medicine "taster" courses as ours runs a 4 day Hospital Experience course.

gosh sorry that i did not reply at the time i have no idea why not

thanks so much for the input - very informative

ds has done this now and seemed to enjoy it but agreed it was a bit gimmicky - also very very hard sell and shocked food was not included

helpful advice re selection procedures and now at least ds seems set on what he wants to do

thanks again