Leeds medical school query. HELP!!

I think they are very personal statement based in their decisions.

Apparently they like reapplicants and you get an extra point for already having your grades.

Almost every medical school will give extra point(s) for applying with your grades already achieved - it's a safer bet. It doesn't mean they like reapplicants.

Hi
I was lucky enough to receive an offer from Leeds this year, they do seem to base much of their decision on the personal statement, and look for particular qualities within it, but they helpfully have a whole document on how to write it (I didn't actually see this until after I applied, but my statement was very similar anyway)
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/medicine/admissions/docs/ps.pdf
also:
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/medicine/admissions/personal.html
I am pretty certain the statement was the main reason I got my offer, but they did mention they were impressed at the amount of work experience I had at my interview, so that might help too
i also didn't have a great ukcat score, but you only gain one extra point out of about 44 for having a +700 score, so it doesn't matter all that much.
Apparently they like reapplicants and you get an extra point for already having your grades.

If there's anything else you want to know about leeds or applying in general, feel free to ask. Good luck!!

Hi
I was lucky enough to receive an offer from Leeds this year, they do seem to base much of their decision on the personal statement, and look for particular qualities within it, but they helpfully have a whole document on how to write it (I didn't actually see this until after I applied, but my statement was very similar anyway)
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/medicine/admissions/docs/ps.pdf
also:
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/medicine/admissions/personal.html
I am pretty certain the statement was the main reason I got my offer, but they did mention they were impressed at the amount of work experience I had at my interview, so that might help too
i also didn't have a great ukcat score, but you only gain one extra point out of about 44 for having a +700 score, so it doesn't matter all that much.
Apparently they like reapplicants and you get an extra point for already having your grades.

If there's anything else you want to know about leeds or applying in general, feel free to ask. Good luck!!

How much work experience did you have?

Personally I would rather have my fingernails ripped out than go through applying to Leeds again :P

Personally I would rather have my fingernails ripped out than go through applying to Leeds again :P

But if you're certain you want to apply I'll share what I do know Four of us applied at my sixth form for medicine at Leeds:

Applicant 1) She had the highest grades at AS having achieved 90+ UMS in every exam, and also had the highest predicted grades at A2, 3 A*'s. She had the widest variety of work experience of all of us, hospitals, GP's, caring for a disabled boy for over a year, working in community centres/hospitals in Ghana, as well as an awful lot of extra-curricular stuff, pupil elected head girl at sixth form, deputy head girl at secondary school, D of E gold, brownie volunteering, young enterprise, netball player, anOU course, drama workshops, biology olympiads etc etc. She had an extremely well written personal statement, although obviously this is subjective. She received an interview at Cambridge and was rejected, as well as rejection from Edinburgh who don't interview, rejection pre-interview at Bristol and no interview at Leeds- they still haven't got around to rejecting people/giving out offers/ interviews, despite the deadline being 31st March, but she's expecting a rejection.

Applicant 2) She had good AS grades, i think there might have been a B in there, but was predicted at least 3 A's. I don't know how much work experience she's had, i know she had a hospital placement and she also volunteers at a hospice but other than that i know very little. I never saw her personal statement. She received 3 rejections pre-interview, as well as a rejection from her 5th choice, but Leeds did invite her to interview. She hasn't heard back since, despite offers being given out to those who had interviews after hers.

Applicant 3) He also had decent AS grades, a C in chemistry but the chemistry teacher predicted an A, he's worked incredibly hard this year, has done a couple of re-sits and looks set to get at least an A. Predicted 2A*'s and an A. He had hospital experience, hospice experience as well as care home experience. He's done plenty of extra-curricular stuff including big swimming competitions, D of E gold, teaching kids to swim, rugby, judo etc. His personal statement was also very strong. He received 2 rejections pre-interview, an interview and offer from Bristol, and also an interview and offer from Leeds. He applied for deferred entry, so 2013.

Me) I came out of AS with 4As and a B, predicted an A* and 2A's this year. Had work experience in hospitals, a hospice and with disabled students. I've volunteered with Brownies, was deputy head girl at secondary school, did several school productions, D of E gold, young enterprise, an OU course, biology olympiads the UKLO etc etc. I'd like to think my personal statement was good, got 3 offers from Leicester, Newcastle and Aberdeen, but no interview from Leeds, so I'm also expecting a rejection.

From this there's not much I can really draw on, it seems completely random and the biggest lottery for medical school around. They had over 4000 applications, interviewed a very tiny 400, and are giving out 300 offers, despite last year giving out 400 offers? It makes no sense. Leeds have taken their sweet time doing anything at all this year, interviews were given out extremely late, and the Leeds thread shows graduates are still receiving interviews to this day. They have left countless people hanging, rejected some people on UCAS track accidentally after they've received an interview invite, forgot to tell people to bring GCSE certificates and photo ID to interview, not even told those invited to interview what kind of interview format it would be (applicant 2 said that at her interview she was told by a member of staff that they had still been deciding on the interview format until very recently!), changed their policies on interviewing internationals halfway through this cycle, you can't get hold of them as it goes throught to voicemail saying they're finalising decisions (for the last month?!), and when you could get through to them conflicting info has been given out daily- someone yesterday was told we'd hear by the end of this week and yet i've heard nothing... honestly i could go on. In fact rumors were flying around that the reason Leeds have taken so long to do anything this year is because they deleted a large number of applicants from their database by accident and it took months to resolve- i stress this is a rumour from the Leeds thread, but honestly i can believe it. If you're dead set on applying, good luck. It's extremely competitive, and rightfully so becourse the course sounds incredible and the uni/ city is great, but the admissions procedure just seems utterly screwed up.

Sorry for the rant, but good luck!

Nice this helped abit, From what I have seen in quite a few successful applicants is they have work experience in Care homes/hospice.
And also alot of people seem to have done sort of teaching younger students and what not, compared to the 3 that have/probably been reject my list of E/c isnt half as long.

But i think leeds will be worth it, Great course/city/student life/Partys.

Thanks

Leeds likes to torture there applicants. Ask any applicant that has applied to Leeds this academic cycle and there response will be the same. But don't let this put you off applying. If you like it and think you have a chance go for it.
It will be interesting what Leeds will do next year if the applicants applying will decrease or carry on increasing. How they deal with it. Whether they make such a big cock up next year we will have to see.

Ok I wasn't sure if every medical school gave extra points to reapplicants or not.

My point was that they give the extra points to people who already have the grades, not reapplicants. You don't have to be a reapplicant to apply with your grades in-hand...

Personally I would rather have my fingernails ripped out than go through applying to Leeds again :P

But if you're certain you want to apply I'll share what I do know Four of us applied at my sixth form for medicine at Leeds:

Applicant 1) She had the highest grades at AS having achieved 90+ UMS in every exam, and also had the highest predicted grades at A2, 3 A*'s. She had the widest variety of work experience of all of us, hospitals, GP's, caring for a disabled boy for over a year, working in community centres/hospitals in Ghana, as well as an awful lot of extra-curricular stuff, pupil elected head girl at sixth form, deputy head girl at secondary school, D of E gold, brownie volunteering, young enterprise, netball player, anOU course, drama workshops, biology olympiads etc etc. She had an extremely well written personal statement, although obviously this is subjective. She received an interview at Cambridge and was rejected, as well as rejection from Edinburgh who don't interview, rejection pre-interview at Bristol and no interview at Leeds- they still haven't got around to rejecting people/giving out offers/ interviews, despite the deadline being 31st March, but she's expecting a rejection.

Applicant 2) She had good AS grades, i think there might have been a B in there, but was predicted at least 3 A's. I don't know how much work experience she's had, i know she had a hospital placement and she also volunteers at a hospice but other than that i know very little. I never saw her personal statement. She received 3 rejections pre-interview, as well as a rejection from her 5th choice, but Leeds did invite her to interview. She hasn't heard back since, despite offers being given out to those who had interviews after hers.

Applicant 3) He also had decent AS grades, a C in chemistry but the chemistry teacher predicted an A, he's worked incredibly hard this year, has done a couple of re-sits and looks set to get at least an A. Predicted 2A*'s and an A. He had hospital experience, hospice experience as well as care home experience. He's done plenty of extra-curricular stuff including big swimming competitions, D of E gold, teaching kids to swim, rugby, judo etc. His personal statement was also very strong. He received 2 rejections pre-interview, an interview and offer from Bristol, and also an interview and offer from Leeds. He applied for deferred entry, so 2013.

Me) I came out of AS with 4As and a B, predicted an A* and 2A's this year. Had work experience in hospitals, a hospice and with disabled students. I've volunteered with Brownies, was deputy head girl at secondary school, did several school productions, D of E gold, young enterprise, an OU course, biology olympiads the UKLO etc etc. I'd like to think my personal statement was good, got 3 offers from Leicester, Newcastle and Aberdeen, but no interview from Leeds, so I'm also expecting a rejection.

From this there's not much I can really draw on, it seems completely random and the biggest lottery for medical school around. They had over 4000 applications, interviewed a very tiny 400, and are giving out 300 offers, despite last year giving out 400 offers? It makes no sense. Leeds have taken their sweet time doing anything at all this year, interviews were given out extremely late, and the Leeds thread shows graduates are still receiving interviews to this day. They have left countless people hanging, rejected some people on UCAS track accidentally after they've received an interview invite, forgot to tell people to bring GCSE certificates and photo ID to interview, not even told those invited to interview what kind of interview format it would be (applicant 2 said that at her interview she was told by a member of staff that they had still been deciding on the interview format until very recently!), changed their policies on interviewing internationals halfway through this cycle, you can't get hold of them as it goes throught to voicemail saying they're finalising decisions (for the last month?!), and when you could get through to them conflicting info has been given out daily- someone yesterday was told we'd hear by the end of this week and yet i've heard nothing... honestly i could go on. In fact rumors were flying around that the reason Leeds have taken so long to do anything this year is because they deleted a large number of applicants from their database by accident and it took months to resolve- i stress this is a rumour from the Leeds thread, but honestly i can believe it. If you're dead set on applying, good luck. It's extremely competitive, and rightfully so becourse the course sounds incredible and the uni/ city is great, but the admissions procedure just seems utterly screwed up.

Sorry for the rant, but good luck!