OXBRIDGE again....DS head of sixth form 'advice' today grrrrr

[RiaParkinson]

DS is hoping to do medicine

Today the head of sixth form called all the boys hoping to do medicine to a meeting. He asked them all where they were hoping to go and then with much tut tutting - told them to have a rethink

The schools head boy has this year received NO OFFERS and the teacher is 'warning' them off the top universities

DS said the teacher said look 'further down the list' ...

DD (14) was in the room when ds recounted this tale to me and she said ' I see - so basically what MR Soandso is saying is 'Aim Low'

I agree with dd

How would you feel ?

My gut reaction is to ring the school - but is it irrelevant what this bloke says???

Or should ds be heeding his advice- despite misgivings?

Hmmm. I'ld say it's reasonable to gently suggest that 6th formers include applications to some non Russell Group unis for such a popular course. I think it's a overreaction by school to base this advice on a prize candidate of theirs not getting in - it's so competitive getting into Oxbridge that I am sure great candidates could miss out due to sheer numbers involved.

Alot of the 'further down the list' universities have alot to offer as well as the top ones, I work in a hospital and it really doesn't matter where the doctors trained, they are all very capable. Leicester has a good medical school, stear clear of some of the new ones, they won't particularly have their act together yet (ie, peninnsular). Maybe he doesn't want them to not get a place.

I don't really have much advice to offer but I remember having a teacher that told me I wasn't Oxbridge material and that I needed to set my sights lower. He said the same thing to quite a few people in the class and we almost all ended up at Oxbridge or other top universities.

Thankyou
From what i can gather he said 'put the odd top one and then go down to 15 ish and look again' doing a hard sell on Queens for some reason ( he went there )

I maybe worded the thread title wongly as mean all 'top' or 'top ranked' universities

Thanks Scrooged for comments on Penninsular we were struggling to ascertain exactly what it was!

Maybe the Hof6F tut-tutted because the students weren't doing voluntary work in hospitals etc.?

Queens Nottingham? That has a good reputation, does it not?

Thats good heffa!

Medicine is phenomenally competitive to get in at the moment and Oxbridge isn't necessarily the place to go for it either. Best thing to do is have a good look around the whole UK, focus on how they teach their medicine and look for programmes that suit him then apply there. All medicine programmes are regulated and monitored to ensure parity of teaching and general competence by the end of the programme so it's worth seeing where he would actually be happy than just looking at a 'name'.

Nottingham is a good university and is hard to get into because of the competition for places. Your son also has the option of studing something else and doing a 4 year graduate course after, the 4 year graduate course at Nottingham Uni is excellent and I'm hoping to do this. They value the extra life experience and the maturity of the students. I work in a hospital near Nottingham, we get alot of both the 5 year and the 4 year students and I can honestly say the 4 year students are more motivated and better with the patients. Maybe he should consider this aswell.

Thanks hannas for the advice

DS is terribly gullible - he has been focused on oxbriddge for so long that it is difficult getting through to him that it is not the be all and end all

Should i actively discourage him from applying

silly question i know - i just want to help him make the right decisions and it is so hard - i feel so out of touch with it all

Don't discourage him, just expore all the other options.

thankyou scrooged

yes he has considered this

1. DP poo pood it saying wasn't it just for people who could not get in

1. i was bricking it for financial implications...

shallow i know!

Ria - I think this teacher just enjoyed being negative about top-ranked universities and it did put a lot of us off applying initially which was a shame.

does he know that (assuming same as in my day 10 years ago) 1)it's a 6 year course and 2)there aren't enough places for all the students to remain at Oxbridge for the clinical course, so he may end up doing the last 3 years at another uni medical school (often London IIRC).

Oxford or Cambridge would only be one of the places he applied to though no? Surely all the headteacher is saying is spread the choices, as others have said.

It's for people of any degree who decide that they want a career change etc. They fund the first year themselves then are able to get a NHS bursary for the remainder so it's not that expensive. The NHS also pay the course fees for the last three years.

Science teacher i dont think he asked them if they were doing stuff

I am worried that after a poor oxbridge take up has made the school lose confidence..

A friend of a friend who got a First in English from Oxford and had a career in TV then refocused and did the postgrad medical course in London. As scrooged says, it's not true at all.

Also bear in mind (assuming things haven't changed radically in last ten years) that even within Oxbridge some colleges are more popular than others, so if you apply to a modern less plush college there may be a bit less competition for places.

I think for top university spots, they need to be getting work experience. It's not as if volunteer opportunities are hard to come by. No one should expect to walk into a Medicine course.

Thanks science

ds is doing that and has some nice work experiences lined up

never simple

dp has just uttered the old adage 'he can only try'

he has also said 'i see' when i read out the posts on converting from another course so i am assuming he is chastened

It's a long time since I applied to university, but in my day what you did was put a couple chosen from Oxbridge, St Andrews, Edinburgh, Durham and maybe TCD at the top of your list, then go down to somewhere you were pretty sure of getting an offer from at the bottom (Hull in those days - sorry) It was just hedging your bets, not aiming low. Is this possibly what he meant?

Yes could be seeker
certainly sounds wise
ds seems eager for St Andrews as well....
said the Head of 6th had said 'hull-York was a good bet'

I think there is probably a separate list for medical schools. Last stats I was aware of Nottingham had most applicants per place available - 17 - of anywhere in UK. So be careful how you interpret overall university rankings.

And it is much more important how the course is structured - integrated vs pure science in years 1-3, basic science degree as standard, having to move for clinials, and look carefully at the oxbridge terms. Even for medicine they are short, and as a consequence very high pressure.

Although someone has cautioned about Pennisula, I have heard that its teaching methods are adult learning orientated, and it will be very dynamic, as it does have to prove itself. It may suit your son.

FWIW my son's grammar school normally has at least 14 Oxbridge offers in Y13; this year they have 7.

rempy good thinking ds may have to research more closely

ponders 2 years ago 14 went from ds school
last year 4...dont know yet about offers this year