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UCL Medicine Applicants 2012

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Original post by pan_93
i've been looking at their resit policy and i just have a small question about it...cos i know they dont look at it favourably. I resat one of my maths modules...which I got an A in anyway to get a better A in the hope of getting an A*. Will this hinder my application because i did get an A in the first place?


Was just flicking through the medical school forum and saw ure name in the UCL applicants thread. Good luck with the reapplication man. And make sure you apply imperial :tongue:
Reply 61
Original post by pan_93
i've been looking at their resit policy and i just have a small question about it...cos i know they dont look at it favourably. I resat one of my maths modules...which I got an A in anyway to get a better A in the hope of getting an A*. Will this hinder my application because i did get an A in the first place?


Perhaps you should quote Purplefrog, when I was applying I heard about how they try to work out your overall grade without counting resits but i'm not sure. If so, as long as you have an A overall without the resits you should be fine. Just make sure to include all your grades when you apply through UCAS. If they think that something is fishy they will just contact your exam boards.
Hi guys,
I've made a last-minute decision to go to a UK medical school. I've been keeping it off until now just cuz its too expensive for international students.. So I'm a bit short on my university research.. I would just like to know if I have to go through an interview to attend UCL. If they do, is it a MUST for my to attend the interview at the university??
Original post by histephenson007
Hi guys,
I've made a last-minute decision to go to a UK medical school. I've been keeping it off until now just cuz its too expensive for international students.. So I'm a bit short on my university research.. I would just like to know if I have to go through an interview to attend UCL. If they do, is it a MUST for my to attend the interview at the university??


Yes. And consider yourself lucky to get one! :smile:
Original post by histephenson007
I would just like to know if I have to go through an interview to attend UCL. If they do, is it a MUST for my to attend the interview at the university??


Yes, no offer is given without an interview.
Hey all, I've just done a mega-post on PS Advice here: http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showpost.php?p=34029214&postcount=744

you can also always find it by the link in my signature titled "medicine personal statement advice" - I hope it helps all you guys :smile:
@marc... I hope it isn't sarcasm
Original post by purplefrog
Hey all, I've just done a mega-post on PS Advice here: http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showpost.php?p=34029214&postcount=744

you can also always find it by the link in my signature titled "medicine personal statement advice" - I hope it helps all you guys :smile:


Hello :smile:

I'm going mad thinking about this. Basically, I am really worried that my GCSE grades will let me down because I only got 6A's 3B's and 2C's :frown: My teachers think I am capable of getting straight A*'s at A2. I have got lots of work experience from GP's and hospitals and such...I also took 2 mini medicine courses and have attended a number of lectures, for which I have been given certificates for. My extra-curricular schedule is quite busy with DofE gold, debating and paired reading with the younger students. I was thinking of re-sitting my GCSE's before applying. My questions are: Does UCL accept GCSE retakes? If I was to do really well in my BMAT...what are my chances of getting an offer? Thank you! ^_^
Original post by Pretty-Eyes
Hello :smile:

Hi

I'm going mad thinking about this. Basically, I am really worried that my GCSE grades will let me down because I only got 6A's 3B's and 2C's :frown: My teachers think I am capable of getting straight A*'s at A2.

That's a start getting support from your teachers. Make sure you are predicted straight A*s in this case.

I have got lots of work experience from GP's and hospitals and such...I also took 2 mini medicine courses and have attended a number of lectures, for which I have been given certificates for. My extra-curricular schedule is quite busy with DofE gold, debating and paired reading with the younger students.

That's all well and good, but its how you reflect up on it. Certificates and merely participating means absolutely nothing to be honest - lots of applicants get in with much less.

I was thinking of re-sitting my GCSE's before applying. My questions are: Does UCL accept GCSE retakes?

email [email protected] to see their official stance on it. You will get an official reply from one of the two admissions tutors. Don't accept anybody else's answers apart from one of the staff who replies from that address.

If I was to do really well in my BMAT...what are my chances of getting an offer? Thank you! ^_^

I cannot stress enough that UCL do look at your entire application as a whole. On my interview day I had people with much higher and lower BMAT scores than me, meaning people were called up on different combinations of merits on their application. Your BMAT score, academics etc. are only there to help you get shortlisted for interview. After that, UCL are satisfied you've met the academic requirements for the course (apart from your A2s obviously) and the interview is to see your personal suitability, not your academic suitability for the course. Your BMAT won't come into consideration once you get an interview. So, it indirectly helps you get an offer, but is not the sole reason - its your interview performance only that determines whether you get an offer.

Bear this in mind: I have friends who scored ridiculously well in the BMAT (6.0, 6.4, 4A) and not get called for interview despite having out of this world academics (A*A*A*A* predictions, AAAA all 95%+ at AS and 12A* or more at GCSE). One can only assume their personal statement was weak or they had a unsupportive reference (unlikely). You need to have a good, all round application.
Original post by purplefrog
Hi
Bear this in mind: I have friends who scored ridiculously well in the BMAT (6.0, 6.4, 4A) and not get called for interview despite having out of this world academics (A*A*A*A* predictions, AAAA all 95%+ at AS and 12A* or more at GCSE). One can only assume their personal statement was weak or they had a unsupportive reference (unlikely). You need to have a good, all round application.


That is completely crazy! What were these friends like if I may ask? Were they taking the medical application seriously enough to make the most of their work experience or were they just complete academics? I find it hard to think that you can get rejected before interviews with academics like that. Surely the whole point of the interview is to see how well you cope after considering academics? And also if someone were to achieve those grades I would be inclined to think that they would be the sort of motivated person who tries hard in anything anyway. What a shame for having put that sheer effort in and then writing a crap PS that gets you rejected..:confused:
Original post by marc_h94
That is completely crazy! What were these friends like if I may ask? Were they taking the medical application seriously enough to make the most of their work experience or were they just complete academics? I find it hard to think that you can get rejected before interviews with academics like that. Surely the whole point of the interview is to see how well you cope after considering academics? And also if someone were to achieve those grades I would be inclined to think that they would be the sort of motivated person who tries hard in anything anyway. What a shame for having put that sheer effort in and then writing a crap PS that gets you rejected..:confused:


They were incredibly driven on medicine, just as keen as any other person... I can only assume it was their PS that let them down...
Original post by purplefrog
They were incredibly driven on medicine, just as keen as any other person... I can only assume it was their PS that let them down...


What had you done that was different to them? :smile:
Original post by marc_h94
What had you done that was different to them? :smile:


No idea, as said before, the only major variable that differentiated us was the personal statement.
Original post by purplefrog
No idea, as said before, the only major variable that differentiated us was the personal statement.


Fair enough. I suppose every applicant is different and that fact seems to matter a lot to UCL. It won't dissuade me from applying!
Reply 74
hi everyone I want to apply.. I duno if I should though because I am a gap year student and don't know whether I should risk it :confused:
Original post by marc_h94
Fair enough. I suppose every applicant is different and that fact seems to matter a lot to UCL. It won't dissuade me from applying!


Nice way of putting it, they want 'interesting individuals' so to speak - whatever that may mean.

Original post by Mandy92
hi everyone I want to apply.. I duno if I should though because I am a gap year student and don't know whether I should risk it :confused:


You have nothing to lose. If you get rejected before interview, you can always reapply again.
If you do get an interview, you will either get an offer or rejection, like everybody else. However, UCL do say that if you're rejected after interview, they don't really want you to apply to the medical school again. However, there are situations where they will give people a deferred offer (even if they applied for the immediate year following) as they believe people will mature up in the gap year they take. Failing that, they also reject some people but give them special written permission to apply to the medical school again (and if lucky, sometimes even guarantee interview - though I've not heard of that in the 2011 cycle).

You pose a good a shot as any. The only difference is that you'll have to be perhaps slightly more convincing in your commitment to medicine as they're going to have to take up a slot of 2013's cohort without even knowing what the relative competition is like.
I am doing a mega-post here (in the UCL 2012 applicants thread) seeing as I've just had a flood of PMs asking the same questions over and over. I hope this helps resolve many of your queries and lays to rest any anxiety you may have about applying to UCL Medical School.

-- Purplefrog :smile:


THIS IS BASED ON 2011 ENTRY (my year of application)

SUBJECTS:

Spoiler



UCAS REFERENCE:

Spoiler



BMAT

Spoiler



INTERVIEWS:

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OFFERS:

Spoiler

Original post by purplefrog

Original post by purplefrog
THIS IS BASED ON 2011 ENTRY (my year of application)

SUBJECTS:

Spoiler



UCAS REFERENCE:

Spoiler



BMAT

Spoiler



INTERVIEWS:

Spoiler



OFFERS:

Spoiler



Thanks for all this advice Purplefrog! :smile: I don't quite understand what you mean by at the interview stage "they have a place for you". Surely they give out considerably more interviews than they do offers? (which would mean you would still be competing with other applicants)
Original post by marc_h94
Thanks for all this advice Purplefrog! :smile: I don't quite understand what you mean by at the interview stage "they have a place for you". Surely they give out considerably more interviews than they do offers? (which would mean you would still be competing with other applicants)


Yes, they do give more offers than places. What I meant to say was for every person that gets called to interview, there is definitely an offer for them. They will not call X amount of people for interview if there are < X offers left to give. Hope that makes sense?

So up until the BMAT you are competing. Once you have an interview, there is an offer waiting for each and every one of you who gets an interview.
Original post by purplefrog

[QUOTE="purplefrog;34147924"]Yes, they do give more offers than places. What I meant to say was for every person that gets called to interview, there is definitely an offer for them. They will not call X amount of people for interview if there are &lt; X offers left to give. Hope that makes sense?

So up until the BMAT you are competing. Once you have an interview, there is an offer waiting for each and every one of you who gets an interview.[/QUOTE

So then why do people get rejected post-interview? Do you mean that if everyone did amazing in their interview they would accept them all?

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