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Advice needed, do I stand a chance of getting into a med school?

Hello everyone. This is probably going to be quite a long post but please bear with me, I am desparate and would be extremely grateful for your advice.

To cut a long story short, I have really messed up my high school education. During HS I have dealt with severe social anxiety (I was oficially diagnosed) and depression which made coping with the work load and HS environment very difficult. I did the IB programme and graduated with only 33 points.

Throughout HS, I never put much thought into what I wanted to study at university. So when the time came to make a choice, I picked management because I have always been somewhat interested in business. I got barely enough points to be accepted by my insurance choice - University of Leicester.

I have just completed my first year and I am deeply regretting my choice. I can't say that I hate my degree, but I realized that I am not truly passionate about it. When it comes to reading for example, I always read what we are required to, but I never have an urge to explore the topics further on my own. On the other hand, for the last 1,5 years I have been fascinated by medicine, specifically Neuroscience and Psychiatry. I love reading about these topics and learning about them feels more like a hobby.

So for the past couple of days I have been searching for ways to get into a good UK med school with my background. My work ethic has improved dramatically at Uni and I have been getting very high marks. I know that if I work hard I should be able to get a First on my degree in management.

However, from what I've read, this won't really help me to get into a med school since they primarily look at your HS performance. So I am considering doing the necessary A-levels at a local college either part-time while getting my degree (is this even allowed?) or after I graduate. I will be 20 when I get my degree so I could complete the A-levels and start med school at 22 which doesn't seem too bad.

However, I have read that many med schools do not accept candidates who retake A-levels. But is this also the case if I did the IB at HS and then A-levels for the first time at college? Do I even stand a chance of getting into a prestigious med school this way or will they automatically look down upon me regardless of how well i do in undergrad and A-levels? By the way, I am an EU student which probably makes it even more difficult. :frown:

If someone has an alternative idea, I would love to hear it as well. I really hope I did not screw up my future because of a bad phase in HS. :frown:

Thank you in advance

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 1

peter234

160 views and not a single reply, I guess I'm really screwed. :frown:

Can anyone help?

Reply 2

Sherbet

I'm no expert, but with at leat a 2:1 you stand a good chance for grad entry if you get some experience.
There are people more qualified on here than me to say how your IB affects entry.

Good luck :smile:

Reply 3

Distracted.

Hey

I have no experience with IB so can't comment on them. But it is possible to get into medicine! If you can get a first in your degree that would help you a lot. I'd recommend going on to ucas and writing a list of names of medical schools and then looking at the entry profile/entry requirements of each on the unis website. Then one by one see which accept a non-science degree and scores ones that don't out. (sounds childish but it works!) The worst that could happen is you may have to take up an access course/foundation year/pre-med year then apply. There is a wiki page that has the list of unis and what degrees they accept but I can't find it so you can have a search for that :smile: