Medicine Rejections Discussion Thread 2012 Entry

Liverpool, Brighton and Sussex, st Andrews and Cardiff :smile:

I was always under the impression that BSMS and St Andrews had quite a low cut off.

brigton and sussex lean fairly heavily on PS and grades...i think they include your gcse's in the process of giving out interviews (i think...)

is this your first or second year applying? either way my advice would be to apply again. looking at your stats, its probably your PS and UKCAT which has let you down.
this is my third year applying to medicine and ive finally got an offer, so i do know its tough but i also do know what im talking about (well...a bit anyway lol).
let me tell you from experience that if a teacher tells you your PS is good, it means its written well NOT that its good for medicine. a medical personal statement is sooo specific that unless your teachers know all about medicine and what it entials and what the unis are looking for, theres really not an awful lot they can help you with content wise. the best thing for you to do is go to your local hospital and start doing volunteer work there. talk to the doctors, consultants, junior doctors and get them to look at your personal statement (but if you reapply, write up a fresh statement and dont reuse your old one) and give you help.
as for your ukcat, im sure you practiced, but if you havent already then you should get the 600 UKCAT Q's book, and if your quite well off, theres an online thing called AceMedicine which does a package that includes 3000+ ukcat questions to practice. i bought it (and sadly waved goodbye to my savings :frown:

) and i managed to increase my average ukcat score by nearly 90 (my lowest subsection rose by 80, and my highest increased by 140) so id say it was definitly worth it.
also apply strategically to universities, you have lower gcse's than a lot of applicants, so itd be worth looking out for unis that dont use your gcses in the application process, and also ones that dont have a really high ukcat cutoff (bristol dont even use the ukcat). if they dont say on their websites or anything then try emailing the unis. i emailed every single uni asking if they consider your AS subject (i got a D in my as), and i only applied to those that dont and it worked out well for me.

but yeah. i know its absolutely crushing to recieve a rejection, but you just have to put that to the side and figure out if your place at med school is still worth fighting for. if you are thinking of giving up after your first round, then maybe you should seriously consider whether its the right career for you...you will be facing soooo many challenges and you need to know that you will be able to get past them. if you stop at the first hurdle then your dedication might not be strong enough to get you over the rest.
if its your second year then there are a few more things to consider, but it basically boils down to the same thing. is medicine really what you want to do, and are you prepared for one extra fight to try and push your barrier out of they way?
weigh up the reasons for wanting to to do biomed and grad entry, then weigh up the pros and cons of doing that against applying for another year.
you need to assess you situation and your applications and either improve them or move on for the mean time.
good luck

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 321

popsiclee67

Original post by Awesome_Sauce

Thank you for your reply! :smile:

Is it easier to get in to the five year course?

Entirely depends on the university! But it's difficult either way. That being said, grad schemes are generally more over-subscribed x

Reply 322

Venomilys

13

OP this is going to be harsh and I am going to tell you point blank; you're an idiot.

2 weeks in a hospital x2 + gap year?
Personal statement was 'ok'?

Many applicants have work experience stretching into from their GCSE years to present time and the fact that your personal statement was 'ok' is another HUGE factor.

If you want to reapply and fix-up that is up to you. You can fix the problems above in another gap year and have a decent shot at Medicine but you have to understand that even if you did reapply once more there is no guarantee of an offer; thus it would have been yet again another wasted year. Because of this I would probably take up the biomed offer (if I was in your shoes).

Best of luck

Reply 323

V__005

17

Original post by m3scrumpy

I think this year very few people with less than 5A* at GCSE will get an offer. If you follow the threads it seems that the likes of Cardiff and Nottingham are barely interviewing applicants with that number or less. Sad but true the quantity of GCSE A* counts massively.

Does this only apply to these 2 unis??
Coz I looked at Newcastle,Peninsula and Durham and they only require atleast 7 passes A*-C! :s-smilie:

And I know a med student who only got 3 A*s,4 As and 5 Bs!

Reply 324

V__005

17

Original post by haleem

I had 1A* 3A's 2B's 6C's

Are you a med student atm??? :s-smilie:

Reply 325

Awesome_Sauce

Original post by Ilyas

OP this is going to be harsh and I am going to tell you point blank; you're an idiot.

2 weeks in a hospital x2 + gap year?
Personal statement was 'ok'?

Many applicants have work experience stretching into from their GCSE years to present time and the fact that your personal statement was 'ok' is another HUGE factor.

If you want to reapply and fix-up that is up to you. You can fix the problems above in another gap year and have a decent shot at Medicine but you have to understand that even if you did reapply once more there is no guarantee of an offer; thus it would have been yet again another wasted year. Because of this I would probably take up the biomed offer (if I was in your shoes).

Best of luck

Thanks for the advise. But I am volunteering in a hospital in new Delhi for 2 months in the summer. This was the closest time I could go on it. I have had my personal statement looked at by the consultant I did my work experience with and he said it was good.

I'm not naive that I don't know how hard it is. I don't have any connections in hospitals and it's really hard to get work experience. I know because I've tried really hard to try and get it and this is all I could get.

I was also in the CCF RAF for five years and various sports teams for the whole time I was in school.

I tried the hardest I possibly could to get more work experience.

Reply 326

.eXe

11

Just post your PS here, remove all identifiable info and we'll tell you where the issue is. You've already applied twice, you have 1 chance remaining, so I suggest you use all the help you can find. Alternatively, there is also a PS service on TSR forum you can use. Your grades and ukcat are fine...its your PS that's the issue guaranteed.

I have a 615 ukcat (blows monkey balls) and yet I managed to get 3 interviews so trust me, its not the ukcat.

Edit: Also, it doesn;t matter how much WE you have...its how you talk about it that matters.

Reply 327

Historophilia

14

Your work experience doesn't have to be in a hospital.

What many people I know who've gone into medicine did was do long term volunteering in a hospice, you don't need connections for that.

Reply 328

508836

3

Original post by Wave

Knew I would see this. I argued with some other members the other day that the vast majority of people doing biomed are just doing it to get into medicine/dentistry or at the very least would of preferred medicine/dentistry but could't cut it. But medicine rejects just won't admit this.

It's a myth. I thought this too until I met a bunch of bio-medical scientists. Only a tiny handful want to progress to medicine. The rest want to become future bio-medical scientists.

Just a way to boost the medic's ego.

Reply 329

yeahyeahyeahs

16

Please do not to biomed, I have friends who didn't get in first time round for medicine and took gap years to reapply again. I think you just need to redo the UKCAT test and BMAT test again but get high scores to get an interview.

As for the work experience, I think its weak. Its great you have worked with children but you need some more experience in the hospice or as a healthcare assistant. You can even do Red Cross, or ST John Ambulance, if you're snuggling to get work experience.

Most of my friends who got interviews for medicine had two years worth of work experience prior to their application in year 13 because they kept persisting. You need to do the same!

Please don't do a course you don't want to do, you're going to spend a lot of money about £50k on a course you might end up regretting later. Otherwise it just sounds like you don't want to be a Doctor.

Reply 330

Besakt

3

Original post by .eXe

Just post your PS here, remove all identifiable info and we'll tell you where the issue is. You've already applied twice, you have 1 chance remaining, so I suggest you use all the help you can find. Alternatively, there is also a PS service on TSR forum you can use. Your grades and ukcat are fine...its your PS that's the issue guaranteed.

I have a 615 ukcat (blows monkey balls) and yet I managed to get 3 interviews so trust me, its not the ukcat.

Edit: Also, it doesn;t matter how much WE you have...its how you talk about it that matters.

Posting the PS here would be stupid. Post it in the dedicated PS help service.

Reply 331

laura130490

13

Original post by T-Toe

It's a myth. I thought this too until I met a bunch of bio-medical scientists. Only a tiny handful want to progress to medicine. The rest want to become future bio-medical scientists.

Just a way to boost the medic's ego.

I do biomed and can confirm this, in my year only about 5 people out of 120 have applied for graduate entry medicine. Most did biomed because they enjoy science and lab work. More people apply to do masters degrees than graduate med.

Reply 332

haleem

11

Original post by Varsh05

Are you a med student atm??? :s-smilie:

Yup, but this was only last year...

Reply 333

thegodofgod

19

Original post by Awesome_Sauce

Hi

I'm on a gap year. I've gotten my biomed offer, but seriously I feel like such a failure right now. Literally every single person I talk to says its really unlikely that I'll get into graduate medicine. For the past two years I've been optimistic and positive. What for? To get rejected everywhere!

Just need a little a bit of advise on what to do and my chances on graduate medicine and what I need to do to increase my chances of getting in.

Which medical schools did you apply to - your GCSE grades may have been the reason for the rejections?

Reply 334

InkyOne

Original post by .eXe

Also, it doesn;t matter how much WE you have...its how you talk about it that matters.

Very true - I only had 3 wks, if you look on the website, Newcastle has a list of stuff they want to see in a PS, which is a really good starting point for writing a PS with the stuff Unis want to see in it r.e. reflection on work experience and insight into the medical profession etc.

Reply 335

Awesome_Sauce

Original post by .eXe

Just post your PS here, remove all identifiable info and we'll tell you where the issue is. You've already applied twice, you have 1 chance remaining, so I suggest you use all the help you can find. Alternatively, there is also a PS service on TSR forum you can use. Your grades and ukcat are fine...its your PS that's the issue guaranteed.

I have a 615 ukcat (blows monkey balls) and yet I managed to get 3 interviews so trust me, its not the ukcat.

Edit: Also, it doesn;t matter how much WE you have...its how you talk about it that matters.

I actually did use the ps service under my friends name. The person there barely made any changes. Just a few tweaks here and there :smile:

I've had help from the consultant I did work experience with to also edit it!

I personally thought that I had a good application as everything seemed to be good! I mean I genuinely thought that I would at least get an interview!

Reply 336

.eXe

11

Original post by Awesome_Sauce

I actually did use the ps service under my friends name. The person there barely made any changes. Just a few tweaks here and there :smile:

I've had help from the consultant I did work experience with to also edit it!

I personally thought that I had a good application as everything seemed to be good! I mean I genuinely thought that I would at least get an interview!

man it doesnt matter what you and the consultant thought of it...we all think our PS's are good. I remember applying to a job a few years back thinking I had a godlike cover letter. I just read it a few weeks back and wanted to burn my eyes out.

Reply 337

.eXe

11

Original post by InkyOne

Very true - I only had 3 wks, if you look on the website, Newcastle has a list of stuff they want to see in a PS, which is a really good starting point for writing a PS with the stuff Unis want to see in it r.e. reflection on work experience and insight into the medical profession etc.

yeah same with Keele. I used their guide for PS and it worked wonders.

Reply 338

Samus2

17

Original post by Awesome_Sauce

I actually did use the ps service under my friends name. The person there barely made any changes. Just a few tweaks here and there :smile:

I've had help from the consultant I did work experience with to also edit it!

I personally thought that I had a good application as everything seemed to be good! I mean I genuinely thought that I would at least get an interview!

Although I don't do medicine, it sounds like it's your work experience that's the main issue.
From my friends who applied for medicine - they all had between 1-2 years of work experience in the health service.. some of them were in a hospice, some simply worked with the NHS.
If medicine is what you truly desire, I would say take the gap year.