Any former Graduates that were succesful for standard course? KINGS BARTS IMP

I'm a Law grad applying for standard 5 (and 6) year courses, but am finding it hard to find information from former succesful candidates in my position. This is due to most standard course discussion threads being dominated by college leavers, and most graduates applying to the 4-year GEP courses.

I'm however applying to the 5 year standard courses at Barts and Kings, and I wanted to ask whether any current students at these institutions are graduates? I am finding it difficult to decipher what exactly the admissions teams are looking for as most information is aimed at college leavers, with typical entry eligibility criteria set at AAA at A-level, and with GCSE's playing an important role after that.

As a graduate with a 2:1 in Law, I am alreadt eligible for these courses academically. However I don't have 10 straight A's at GCSE. I have self-taught and completed A-levels in Bio and Chem in the last year and I got a 695 UKCAT score.

So basically I wanted to ask if many graduates are sucessful in gettin at least interviews on the the standard courses, and if so how do admissions teams choose who to itnerview? Do they say have a set number of places available to grads and then interview purely based on ukcat, so long as minimum academics are met?

Thanks

(ps I ahave also applied to Imperial, which uses the BMAT)

Reply 1

singh12

Hey.. I'm also a graduate who applied to standard 5 yrs course. As long as you meet the minimum requirements through your academics, your chances of getting an interview will be more likely on your UKCAT score. Of course every med school is different in terms of assessing the applications but I know for sure that for King's and Barts they rank applicants on the basis of their UKCAT scores, unless you have very strong academics (first class degree, all A's in the A-levels etc)..

For Imperial, you would need to meet the minimum cut-off score for BMAT to be considered for an interview.

Reply 2

byebyebadman

Original post by singh12

Thanks, how do you think I'd fare with a UKCAT at Kings and Barts?

I know for college leavers a score of 695 would be good enough for interview at both (Kings cut-off last year was around 685). But do they use different cut-offs for graduates? Ie have a set number of grads they interview?

Just out of interest how did you get on with your application?

Reply 3

singh12

Original post by byebyebadman

My application was unsuccessful last year mainly because of my UKCAT score (665 average). King's take around 20% graduate students for the A100 course. The cut-off for school leavers has been around 685 in general. However, they treat graduates in a different way.

Having studied my BSc at King's, I know they have an internal application system for students in the final year applying for Medicine. These students can apply for medicine before sitting the UKCAT exam and those who have strong academics are given a conditional interview (given they sit the UKCAT exam before the deadline and put King's as one of the choices on the UCAS form). Which means, some of the interviews have already been allocated to these candidates. In addition, anyone who apply for the 4yr graduate programme is also considered for the normal 5yr course.

When I spoke to the admissions last year, I was been told that most graduates who applied for the standard 5yr course had an average score of 675 so i think you do have good chances.

Barts on the other hand rank all the graduate applicants and interview around 30% of the graduates on the basis of their UKCAT score. The cut-off has been around 660 so you have decent chances. I do not know how much emphasis they put on the first degree. But I'm sure as long as you meet their AS/A-level requirement you should be fine.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 4

byebyebadman

Original post by byebyebadman

Just got this info from a fellow TSR'er, hope they don't mind me quoting:

Seems strange that the UKCAT cutoff for grads is lower than that for college-leavers? Less competition? More re-applicants who got a low UCKCAT the first time around?

look

Reply 5

Pkysam

Original post by byebyebadman

There used to be lots of grads on the 5 year course at king's (around 80 in my year), from a variety of routes (some applied for GEP and got a 5 year offer, but obviously were assessed as GEP entry students. Others applied straight for 5 year courses). That said, now that the new fees regime means you need to pay £9000 up front every year and can't get a tuition fee loan, the number of grads has plummeted. Obviously I haven't read your personal statement, but my understanding is that 5 year places for graduates are now considerably less competitive than they've been in the past, as they are really only an option for those with very significant financial backing from their family.

In terms of King's, it's my understanding that UKCAT is used heavily in the process to decide who gets an interview, and then how well you answer interview questions and your ability to demonstrate experience/skills required will determine who gets an offer. Given the massive drop in graduate applicants for the 5 year course though, I would have thought your chances are very high if you can afford to go this route.

Reply 6

J1mmy

Original post by byebyebadman

(ps I ahave also applied to Imperial, which uses the BMAT)

Doesn't Imperial have a check-list which must be complete before you can be considered eligible to apply? It seems that they want applicants from not just 'science' background, but those from strong related disciplines like biomedical science, chemistry and biology.

That checklist itself put me off applying to them because my degree was in psychology and they didn't teach any of that stuff. It also has to be signed off by a tutor on the course.