How late in your life can you apply for med school?

Always had the passion to be a doctor, always did well at science up to GCSE, then it didn't go so well in A level so I accepted the failure and I dropped chem after AS and went for the Math route

I now have a 1st class degree and a masters degree in Math

I've now looked again (leisurely) at studying medicine, and I see I can apply if I take the GAMSAT/UKCAT, is this true? Do I still need the A levels in chem/bio?

I've also racked up a fair bit of debt over the past 5 years, £30k in total from the degrees, is it a bad idea to want to add to that? With tuition prices going up I can see that I may be adding about £70k to that..

It's fine if I can't, I can just say I wasn't cut out for it, but it would be nice to know my options. (eg. Get a 5+bonus ball lottery win, pay off the 30k debt and I'd be in the same boat as school leavers!)

Otherwise, if I worked for 2-3 more years to clear the debt, is it possible after that? I'll be 26 at that point though..

Reply 1

username356927

Original post by Firepanda

Many people enter medicine at university older than 26! In my year alone there are at least three students in their late 30s or older.

Reply 2

Beska

If I remember, the average age for my year is 20-21. So 26 isn't particularly "old", there's a fair amount of people about that age here. So perfectly possible!

Reply 3

Helenia

The age bit is not a problem - as has already been said, there are people on both normal and grad med programmes of all sorts of ages up to 40s (rarely older than this though).

Thinking about A-levels/GAMSAT/UKCAT, each med school has slightly different requirements for its graduate entry programme, so it's worth looking into them in detail - there's not loads so it wouldn't take too long. I'm pretty sure some of them don't necessarily require science A-levels. Some (Leicester springs to mind) will want a certain amount of work experience, and it will be beneficial for any application, so you should start thinking about that.

Regarding finance, it will add significantly to your debt, and if you're not entitled to a student loan this time round you may end up taking out commercial loans which are a lot more expensive and less forgiving, so you'd need to find out more about exactly how much you'd need etc. But if you do your research there's no reason why you shouldn't apply if it's what you want.

Reply 4

Dr. Cool

26 would be younger than the average age on my course (grad entry) so don't fret about that. I was told the average age on our course this year is 28, that's off the rumour mill, but it seems about right!

You don't need science A levels for quite a few of them. SGUL/Notts won't ask you to have them and they won't make a difference to your competitiveness, for Swansea they may help. There are a few others that won't ask for them either.

Debt - I don't like talking about that.

Reply 5

select the right name

Just think of the debt as being a mortgage for your education! I don't think of it as 'real' debt, you don't even notice the repayments coming out of your salary. So please don't let the thought of debt put you off studying medicine.

As for age.....well I'm 40 and a single mum of 5. I start in September.

Reply 6

asif007

The eldest person on my course turned 40 last week. Also some students in their early 30's and a few who are 27-29. I think early 40's is the latest you can apply though, as you would need to work for a substantial amount of time in order for all the money invested in you by the NHS to be worth it. So by no means is 26 too old to apply!

I wish you the best of luck for the future. :smile:

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 7

select the right name

Original post by asif007

Although early 40's is probably the latest you can apply if you want a decent length of service in the NHS, there are people 50 and older who are at medical school at the moment. There is an F2 in her 60's in the South West and students in their 50's on GEP in Nottingham.

How late in your life can you apply for med school?

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