Medicine advice help??? I got aac and need advice! Urgent.

I got AAC at A2.
a2 biology A
A2 Psychology A
A2 chem C
AS business studies B

Ive got a place for pharmacy , due to start in two weeks. Dont know what to do as i want to do medcine as thats where my heart is but i got rejected and got no offers for medicne. Do another year of college or do pharmacy? Im really unsure on my options.

Reply 1

Neostigmine

Original post by thomas7861

Most unis won't accept A levels that take 3 years due to resits so you don't really have that as an option.

You could do pharm and then try graduate medicine or look and see if you are eligible for some lower entry requirement med courses (usually need to come from a disadvantaged background).

Reply 2

Fleuves

There are around 5-6 medical schools that will consider you if you choose to re-sit.*

You can get that C up if that's where you put your focus.

Pharmacy is a difficult course, if your heart's not in it you will struggle.*

Were you rejected after your application or rejected after interview for your Medicine choices?*

Reply 3

thomas7861

Original post by Fleuves

I was rejected after application for 3 of them , then one after the interview. Im doing pharmacy , i was happy with it but im not too sure anymore. Any chance of transfering to medicne? I dont even know what to do anymore. Heads gone lol.

Reply 4

Yua

Original post by thomas7861

you should've done Biomedicine, i've heard of people transferring to medicine from that course quite often

Reply 5

JayAhm

Original post by thomas7861

You can't transfer to medicine from Pharmacy.

Complete a degree and then apply to medicine as a graduate.

Resitting your C grade A-level could bring it up to an A but the majority of med schools wouldn't accept it as it's a resit and has taken 3 years to get your A-levels. Do check with the small list of med schools who do accept resits and see if you'd have a chance with them.

There are courses which you can transfer to medicine after Year 1 but it's highly competitive. Bradford ClinSci and Newcastle BioMed are two. This would be for 2017 entry though now as it's probably too late to do those this year!

What I will say though is that you need to make a decision on how to proceed now. Don't start and drop out. Not only can it cause funding issues but med schools don't look favourably on that.

Reply 6

username2752874

Original post by thomas7861

Just resit chemistry. No point spending thousands of pounds doing a degree you dislike. I know there are only a handful of medical schools that accept resits, but it's probably the best way to go. And, if you get AAA and still don't get offers for Medicine, you'd be able to apply to better unis for other courses if you have AAA, rather than AAC.

Reply 7

Fleuves

Original post by thomas7861

Ok. So what you need to understand firstly is that to stand a chance with the re-sit unis you need to get that C up to an A*. Is there a school or college where you can re-take the year and re-sit?

The second thing you need to know is that if you got 3 straight rejections and then 1 rejection after interview is that it's not just your grade that needs work (I mean this kindly), but your entire profile: do you have a job? Do you have relevant work experience - not shadowing, but something caring and/or clinical? Have you read around the subject - books written by doctors, books written by patients? Was your PS written in such a way that it was fluent and fulfilled the criteria of the schools you were looking at? Finally, what were your aptitude test scores like? Do you think you perhaps weren't invited to interview because you didn't meet the cut-off?

You have two choices: either you take the year out, get that Chemistry A*, a good aptitude test score & a PS that reflects a profile worthy of interview at the handful of schools that accept re-sits, or you take a degree now, this year and apply for graduate entry Med - there are only a handful of courses left in clearing that are relevant so you need to start thinking clearly, quickly.

I know it's daunting to limit yourself to the re-sit schools, but there's only a slight increase in GEM schools too. And the competition for GEM is more severe than undergraduate, the course is more demanding too. So whichever way you go it will be hard. I also have a feeling that even for GEM many schools need a B in Chemistry so you'd need to re-sit either way?

Like you I considered taking Pharmacy as an alternative when I didn't meet my Med offer this year, but I don't want to be a Pharmacist. If you don't want to be a Pharmacist then don't take Pharmacy. It is a difficult degree and if you only take it to use as leverage for GEM then you won't be happy, because if it flops and you're stuck with being a Pharmacist for years on end then you'll really kick yourself about it! The job market for Pharmacists is NOT good right now ... why do you think so many Pharmacy courses are in clearing? As a 4yr rather than a 3yr course it will also make things difficult for GEM funding.

As another poster has said, if you get the Chem grade up to an A or even a B, yes it's doubtful you will make it into Medicine this year, but you could take a BSc in something that you're more likely to enjoy and is looked at more favourably by the GEM schools, such as Physiology for example.

Please don't lose faith but the people that make it into Medicine are the ones who are completely determined to get there - you need to become one of those people

All the best of luck to you!*