The Student Room Group

How to get onto a medicine course

I am currently in year 11, going into 12 and wanting to study maths, biology, chemistry and philosophy and ethics - the p+a would be one as level over a 2 year course ( just an hour a week). However i would like to pick another subject but the only one in the available block that interests me is Food technology. I am aiming to do medicine in one of the top universities so wondered if food tech would be acceptable to show a wide range of skills or is it too much of a soft subject? Any other ideas of subjects i could take would be of help too. Many thanks
Reply 1
as long as you've got bio and chem, medical schools are happy. people at my school got in with 2 sciences and art/sociology which are seen as easy subjects. can i ask why you would like to pick a 5th subject?
Reply 2
Taking a 5th subject won't be of any advantage in applying to medicine, except maybe for Kings. So you can take food tech if you really want, but it's no advantage and might harm your grades in the other subjects? Also, a lot of med schools ask for 'academic' subjects, so food tech wouldn't really count. It is seen as more of a vocational subject, and Imperial (considered a top university) state that they don't count any vocational subjects at all. Something like english, history or a language would look really good, but it depends if you are interested in them enough to do the hard work.
A2s in maths, chem, bio with AS in RS is perfectly fine and will be adequate
If you choose DT:FT, that will be perfectly fine too.

In most cases, so long as you have bio and chem to A2 with another A-Level that isn't general studies or critical thinking, it pretty much opens every medical school for you. I strongly suggest you check out this table: http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/Medical_School_A_Level_Requirements
I'd say do the food tech, worst case scenario it'll help you get into UCL for diversity of subjects or Barts for extra UCAS points, or, just speculation, but some uni's which require a 4th AS may prefer to see an achieved result which the food tech AS will give you.
Original post by Helloworld_95
I'd say do the food tech, worst case scenario it'll help you get into UCL for diversity of subjects or Barts for extra UCAS points, or, just speculation, but some uni's which require a 4th AS may prefer to see an achieved result which the food tech AS will give you.


It is very likely UCAS points may soon be scrapped.
UCL's preference for a contrasting subject is very slight (basically negligible, there are loads on my course that have the combo of 4 science subjects) and the RS will count towards that should be applicant be worried about it.

OP: Don't worry about the whole "I need to show a diverse set of skills". Universities really don't care. If they cared that much about taking a breadth of subjects, they would explicitly make it a compulsory requirement for their course. However, no medical school does so at the time of writing.
Reply 6
Do not take a 5th subject.

You won't benefit from it. You'll only lose.
A lot of medical schools now don't count 4th and 5th full A-Levels, only your first 3 plus an AS. As long as you have Bio and Chem though, that will please them - and I've never seen Food Tech on a "not accepted" list (General Studies and Critical Thinking tend to be on there quite often). To be safe I would check the universities that you'd like to apply to, but remember that taking another subject might detriment your other subjects as you'll have less time left for your studying. And if your university doesn't count all of them, then that could end really badly for you...
Reply 8
Thank you so much! i'm sticking to the 4 :')

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