Edinburgh Medical school Applicants 2014

I'm really interested in applying to Edinburgh
GCSE's: 10 A*s 1A
A Levels: A*A*A (may go up to 3 after a remark)
I'm doing my UKCAT tomorrow. I'm praying it will be a 700+ average.
The only thing that really worries me about Edinburgh is their policy on AS resits. I actually only needed to resit one AS module to get the grades i got, but i ended up resitting more than two to be on the safe side. Does this automatically rule me out?

That sounds fine to me; I've never heard of the university rejecting someone because they resat more than one AS module. They state quite specifically that they're okay with something resitting "a few units", just not with entire A level resits.

Reply 21

_CATG_

10

Original post by Hype en Ecosse

That sounds fine to me; I've never heard of the university rejecting someone because they resat more than one AS module. They state quite specifically that they're okay with something resitting "a few units", just not with entire A level resits.

Thank you for your advice-I just find this really concerning: http://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/undergraduate/degrees?id=A100&cw_xml=degree.php
"All examination grades must be obtained at the first attempt of each subject. Those applying with resit qualifications (other than two GCE AS Level modules) will not be entered into the selection system unless under very exceptional circumstances"

I don't really know what to make of this-do you think it maybe only applies to Year 13 applicants? I know someone this year who got offer and they definitely resat more than two.It's just really annoying when I only needed to resit ONE module but ended up resitting more than two, only to boost my UMS. Btw , I did my A Levels in the normal two year period.

Reply 22

Hype en Ecosse

20

Original post by msewell12

Thank you for your advice-I just find this really concerning: http://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/undergraduate/degrees?id=A100&cw_xml=degree.php
"All examination grades must be obtained at the first attempt of each subject. Those applying with resit qualifications (other than two GCE AS Level modules) will not be entered into the selection system unless under very exceptional circumstances"

I don't really know what to make of this-do you think it maybe only applies to Year 13 applicants? I know someone this year who got offer and they definitely resat more than two.It's just really annoying when I only needed to resit ONE module but ended up resitting more than two, only to boost my UMS. Btw , I did my A Levels in the normal two year period.

Wow, I'm not sure what to make of that - I think that's new! I think you're best e-mailing admissions ([email protected]) explaining your circumstances (including exactly how many modules you re-sat in year 13 and that you're applying after a gap year) and let us know what they say!

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 23

lydiaruth

2

Original post by Hype en Ecosse

You get 2 sessions of PBL a week - that's 3 hours (they rarely last the full time, though!) - in first and second year. From there PBL gets ditched (although there's chatter of putting it into 3rd year, too, but nothing confirmed). It's not used so much as a primary teaching method as it is a way of consolidating and supplementing your learning. Personally, I absolutely adored PBL. The first few years at Edinburgh have a systems-based focus on the basic sciences (subject-based in first semester), and PBL acts as a great way of giving what you learn a clinical context, since they're all based around cases that the associated clinicians have created.

Thank you for your reply - it was so helpful! I'd say I can definitely 'cope' with 3 hours a week of PBL, as you say that turns it into another learning style and something that's just a little different instead of what I thought was basically self-learning a whole degree!

If you don't mind more questions - how many lectures/tutorials/lab based sessions etc do you get (in first year and further if you know)? Is there any patient contact in the early years or does Edinburgh only become an integrated course later on? How do they teach you anatomy as it's not full body dissection?

And finally (I'm assuming you'd recommend Edinburgh here) why did you choose it, and what are the best and worst things about studying Medicine and being in Edinburgh?

Thank you! :biggrin:

x

Reply 24

_CATG_

10

Original post by Hype en Ecosse

Wow, I'm not sure what to make of that - I think that's new! I think you're best e-mailing admissions ([email protected]) explaining your circumstances (including exactly how many modules you re-sat in year 13 and that you're applying after a gap year) and let us know what they say!

If I do well i my UKCAT tomorrow, I'll be straight on the phone to them. In my opinion, I think it would be very unfair of them to not even consider someone who's actually exceeded the minimum requirements by quite a bit of a margin as A*s are pretty difficult to get. I'm not saying achieving AAA is bad, and I really don't mean to sound arrogant. I guess their thinking behind this, is that doctors need to be consistent and can't make mistakes.

Reply 25

Ravin429

Hello, I have recieved my AS results and got AAABC, (the A's in Chem/Bio, the C in Maths).
I am dropping Maths but will be resitting the module that dragged me down in the summer so hopefully it should be AAABB/AAAAB by the end. My question is that since I am resitting will schools like Edinburgh whom request a B in the fourth AS still consider me and not filter me out?

Reply 26

Razer_M

5

I am thinking of applying to Edinburgh as my 4th choice (Cambridge/ Imperial/ Kings being the other top 3). Is this a bit too risky? Because I am confused as to how English students are considered, are we grouped as foreign students? Or just competing against other English students?
Fairly sure I'll have full marks academically (10A* at IGCSE/ 99% average UMS across all 4 AS of Bio/Maths/Chem/Latin) and 780 (+Band 1) in UKCAT (so full marks that too??).
I will have a read of the EC parts that someone stated on the first page of here to try and get all that into the PS (which I want to include anyway for other Unis).

Edinburgh does NOT interview right?

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 27

Hype en Ecosse

20

Original post by lydiaruth

Thank you for your reply - it was so helpful! I'd say I can definitely 'cope' with 3 hours a week of PBL, as you say that turns it into another learning style and something that's just a little different instead of what I thought was basically self-learning a whole degree!

If you don't mind more questions - how many lectures/tutorials/lab based sessions etc do you get (in first year and further if you know)? Is there any patient contact in the early years or does Edinburgh only become an integrated course later on? How do they teach you anatomy as it's not full body dissection?

And finally (I'm assuming you'd recommend Edinburgh here) why did you choose it, and what are the best and worst things about studying Medicine and being in Edinburgh?

Thank you! :biggrin:

x

Hi Lydia! You're very welcome; I'm quite happy to help. :smile:

How much of what stuff you get is a tough question; I can't measure all the lectures I got, and I'm certainly not going to go count them. :tongue:

In the first semester of first year, it's very lecture heavy. I wrote a bit about my timetable last year here. Like I said, Edinburgh ease you in wrt self-directed learning because they know most of you are coming fresh out of school and are used to being spoonfed everything, so the first semester is awfully lecture heavy, giving you the type of information they want you to learn. As things progress, you get less lectures - as you can see in my timetable - and more time off because you're expected to take responsibility for your own learning.

I can't say how often you have tutorials - how many you have depends on what modules you're doing. In semester 1, you have a HES tutorial practically every week. Cycling between social science and ethics - throughout the year you have science tutorials scattered around, and then you have tutorials for other modules like Talking with Families and Health Needs of Older People.

Lab-based sessions, you get 3 microbiology practicals throughout the entire year and something like 12-15 anatomy practicals. I can't remember the exact number. You also get revision sessions for anatomy, and you can ask the anatomy professors nicely "hey, I fancied revising X, would you get Y and Z out for me?" and they'll have the technicians set stuff up if there's no clash with other teaching. They were nice enough to get 3-4 practicals worth of stuff out for a friend of mine who had missed a lot due to illness, and I went up then and spent 5 hours in that lab revising EVERYTHING before the exam. :lol:

Edinburgh does have "patient contact" in first year, but it's a gimmicky sort of patient contact - the same is true for most universities who say they've got "early patient contact". By this, they're referring to Talking with Families and Health Needs of Older People - in first and second semester respectively.
TwF is a module where you talk to a mother who's recently had a kid, and in HNOP you talk to an elderly person. You're meant to integrate this with the sociology that you learn and devise out information about lay knowledge, health behaviours and all of that...you basically talk to them about their health, and all the stuff surrounding their ideas about health and healthcare. This is meant to be your introduction and training into "clinical communication", and you basically have to write a 6 page report about your mother/elderly person afterwards.
You've also got the opportunity to interact with patients as part of your SSC, but that depends on what you do. Some groups had no clinical contact, some had loads. My group studied the perceptions of teamwork within the NHS, so we interviewed about 20 patients at the Western.

That's all the pt. contact you get in first year, but it ramps up through the years. 2nd year you have "introduction to clinical practice", where there's more patient contact and it's what it sounds like...it's an intro to clinical practice, so you do things like examination, history-taking, diagnosis, etc.
3rd year is the start of the clinical years, like I said, the "clinicalness" of it all ramps up every year.

Anatomy is taught by prosection, which means a professional anatomist dissects specimens, and then you go have a look and a poke around. For every practical, there's an accompanying pre-practical lecture, so I guess you could say anatomy is taught through prosection-based practicals and lectures. :tongue:

Why did I choose Edinburgh...well, tbh, I didn't really choose them! I was born in Scotland, so I knew I wanted to go to a medical school in Scotland because I don't need to pay any tuition fees! So I only had the 5 Scottish medical schools to choose from. I looked at all 5 of them, and decided which one I wanted to go to least - St. Andrew's - and scratched that out. Edinburgh was actually my lowest ranked choice of the 4. I'm from Glasgow, so there's a bit of a rivalry with Edinburgh, and I was sold on its "snobby", "pompous" reputation. That if I went to Edinburgh, I'd be surrounded by a bunch of arrogant toffs and I'd be stuck in this awfully traditional curriculum. By the time I was actually underway with the application process, I started to realise that my conceptions were wrong (the curriculum is super modern and FAR from traditional) and there were a lot of upsides, but it was my bottom choice still.
Anyway, Edinburgh turned out to be the only medical school that gave me an offer. I was ecstatic about this because, hey, I was going to medical school! I didn't care where it was I WAS GOING TO BE A DOCTOR. OMGGGG.

Despite all of my reservations, though, I completely fell in love with Edinburgh. I wrote a bunch of pros and cons last year, that I'll copy and paste here:

Pros

Spoiler

Cons

Spoiler

Original post by msewell12

If I do well i my UKCAT tomorrow, I'll be straight on the phone to them. In my opinion, I think it would be very unfair of them to not even consider someone who's actually exceeded the minimum requirements by quite a bit of a margin as A*s are pretty difficult to get. I'm not saying achieving AAA is bad, and I really don't mean to sound arrogant. I guess their thinking behind this, is that doctors need to be consistent and can't make mistakes.

Edinburgh don't (at least, didn't) actually consider A*s as different from As. Someone with A*A*A*a is equivalent to someone with AAAa. In fact, even someone with A*A*A*A*A*A* is considered equivalent to AAAa.
That's under the former academic scheme - they might be considering the A* as a separate grade for the coming cycle, we don't have any information about how they're ranking applications this year.

Original post by Ravin429

Hello, I have recieved my AS results and got AAABC, (the A's in Chem/Bio, the C in Maths).
I am dropping Maths but will be resitting the module that dragged me down in the summer so hopefully it should be AAABB/AAAAB by the end. My question is that since I am resitting will schools like Edinburgh whom request a B in the fourth AS still consider me and not filter me out?

Yep, Edinburgh would still consider you with AAABC (you wouldn't even have to resit). However, read a few posts above: we're a bit unsure of their AS resit policy - it seems to suggest that you're only allowed 2 AS module resits, but I have no idea!

Original post by Razer_M

I am thinking of applying to Edinburgh as my 4th choice (Cambridge/ Imperial/ Kings being the other top 3). Is this a bit too risky? Because I am confused as to how English students are considered, are we grouped as foreign students? Or just competing against other English students?
Fairly sure I'll have full marks academically (10A* at IGCSE/ 99.3% average UMS across all 4 AS of Bio/Maths/Chem/Latin) and 780 (+Band 1) in UKCAT (so full marks that too??).
I will have a read of the EC parts that someone stated on the first page of here to try and get all that into the PS (which I want to include anyway for other Unis).

Edinburgh does NOT interview right?

Nah, not too risky at all. No medical school is inherently "harder" to get into than another. They all look at different things and are harder than each other in different ways. Feel free to apply to Edinburgh if you want. Remember that your non-academics makes up a big 30% of your application, so it's important you get that PS right. :smile:

Edinburgh don't usually interview, you're correct.

You'll be classed as "Rest of the UK", which means you'll be competing for places against other students from England, Wales and Northern Ireland only. Scotland, EU and International places are separate.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 28

tvgc2000

Hi Hype,

I have mentioned my profile in the megathread before but I want to know more about the application process and my chances to Edinburgh
I am seriously considering Edinburgh as either my 2nd or 3rd choice (between UCL for 2nd) with Cambridge as my first.

I have 43 points for the IB and 776 for HLs with 6 in Maths.
UKCAT Score is 805 avg, 660, 880, 800, 880 for the breakdown, Band 2 SJT.

Volunteer work: 2 months in a community initiative tutoring underprivileged kids in math and english, currently 2 months volunteering in a hospital in a sub-acute ward taking care of elderly patients who are at risk of falling at night, and a host of fund-raising initiatives and a trip to Vietnam to build a house to help a village.

Attachment work: 2 weeks in a private hospital shadowing a doctor specialising in gastro-enterology and 3 days shadowing another specialist in a public hospital in the same area.

Extra-curricular achievements: Achieved President's scout award given to by the president of Singapore (equivalent to Queens scout award), Chief Commissioner's Award for scouts, attended one world scout jamboree. In the leadership committee in my Scout Troop. Got a certification in first aid by the Red Cross. Violin ABRSM grade 7

Academic Achievements: Not really much of the olympiad person. Will this disadvantage me? In terms of the academic portion

I know for non-academic I am basically covered with my achievement in my scouting field, winning every award possible right up to the presidential level given by Singapore's President. But the problem is that I am an international student, so I am not so sure what is really good enough for a fighting chance at Edinburgh.

Some of my friends last year were rejected outright even though they had a predicted grade of above 42 points and maybe 700+ for UKCAT, so I am not so sure

I am also applying for a gap year for entry in 2015 due to me being in mandatory military service.

Thanks

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 29

Hype en Ecosse

20

Original post by tvgc2000

Hi Hype,

I have mentioned my profile in the megathread before but I want to know more about the application process and my chances to Edinburgh
I am seriously considering Edinburgh as either my 2nd or 3rd choice (between UCL for 2nd) with Cambridge as my first.

I have 43 points for the IB and 776 for HLs with 6 in Maths.
UKCAT Score is 805 avg, 660, 880, 800, 880 for the breakdown, Band 2 SJT.

Volunteer work: 2 months in a community initiative tutoring underprivileged kids in math and english, currently 2 months volunteering in a hospital in a sub-acute ward taking care of elderly patients who are at risk of falling at night, and a host of fund-raising initiatives and a trip to Vietnam to build a house to help a village.

Attachment work: 2 weeks in a private hospital shadowing a doctor specialising in gastro-enterology and 3 days shadowing another specialist in a public hospital in the same area.

Extra-curricular achievements: Achieved President's scout award given to by the president of Singapore (equivalent to Queens scout award), Chief Commissioner's Award for scouts, attended one world scout jamboree. In the leadership committee in my Scout Troop. Got a certification in first aid by the Red Cross. Violin ABRSM grade 7

Academic Achievements: Not really much of the olympiad person. Will this disadvantage me? In terms of the academic portion

I know for non-academic I am basically covered with my achievement in my scouting field, winning every award possible right up to the presidential level given by Singapore's President. But the problem is that I am an international student, so I am not so sure what is really good enough for a fighting chance at Edinburgh.

Some of my friends last year were rejected outright even though they had a predicted grade of above 42 points and maybe 700+ for UKCAT, so I am not so sure

I am also applying for a gap year for entry in 2015 due to me being in mandatory military service.

Thanks

Hi bud, if you remember, I was actually the one who advised you about your application in the other thread! My advice is still the same: I think you can power on with applying.

Regarding the competition, medicine in the UK is unbelievably competitive for international applicants. The offer rate for 2013 entry for internationals was 10.2%, and international applicants are always insanely highly qualified. There was an FOI request for 2012 admissions statistics, and it showed 10 people being made an offer with IB and here are there stats:

Spoiler

It's also worth noting that because of the high emphasis on non-academics, lots of well-qualified applicants with better grades than those offered were rejected. Non-academics has less of a focus this year (but UKCAT has an increased one), so the offers will look different. Either way, you meet the minimum entry requirements, so I say power on with applying.

Regarding deferred entry for 2015, I'm not sure what the universities policies are on this. If you've asked them, and they said they'll let you defer, then it's fine. If not, then you'll definitely want to ask them before applying.

tl;dr: It's not possible to give you an honest answer about your chances because of the changes.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 30

tvgc2000

Wow thats insane. Do you know if theres any calculation for the academics score based on the IB points? Obviously not having 777 is a disadvantage for me.

Also, may I find out what is the difference between MB-CHB and MBBS offered at the london medical schools? And also how does the intercalated year work? Will going to Edinburgh in the undergrad years boost my chances to take a speciality at Edinburgh after my undergrad?

Thanks a million!

Reply 31

Hype en Ecosse

20

Original post by tvgc2000

Wow thats insane. Do you know if theres any calculation for the academics score based on the IB points? Obviously not having 777 is a disadvantage for me.

Also, may I find out what is the difference between MB-CHB and MBBS offered at the london medical schools? And also how does the intercalated year work? Will going to Edinburgh in the undergrad years boost my chances to take a speciality at Edinburgh after my undergrad?

Thanks a million!

I just noticed that the stats I gave you didn't format correctly because of how the forum software works, so I've just made a little adjustment to make it slightly more readable, but still legible. To be clear; the 2nd column of numbers is the total UKCAT score; the first set of IB results (2nd from the right) are the predicted results, and the second set are the achieved results (1st from the right). Some students didn't have a predicted score because they applied after achieving them, like you.

There is actually a calculation based on your results - unfortunately, we only have the information available to do that for the previous admissions cycle. Since everything has changed so much for 2014, the same calculation doesn't apply (they could score things completely differently this time around), so this only reflects how you would have performed if you applied LAST year. Not for this admissions cycle unfortunately. :frown:

The scoring for IB applicants can be found on pg. 52 here.

There's no difference between MBChB or MBBS. Or between these and the BMBS, the BM, the MB BChir, and a whole host of other initialisms. Lots of different medical schools use different initialisms, but they're all equivalent degrees. A list of the different initialisms used are here.

At Edinburgh, you usually intercalate after 2nd year. You basically take a year out to get a degree in a related subject - this is for those who want to take a deeper look at an academic subject, might want to go into research in the future, or just want a few more points on their FPAS applications. At Edinburgh, the top 40% of the year are allowed to intercalate.
Pros and cons about intercalation here.

Going to Edinburgh in your undergrad years doesn't boost your chances of working here after graduating, unfortunately! Where you graduated from isn't taken into account for foundation applications - all graduates from UK universities are on equal footing in this respect.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 32

tvgc2000

Thank you very much!

Hope I can get into Edinburgh. Would love to meet up with you if I get in there !

Reply 33

Hype en Ecosse

20

Original post by tvgc2000

Thank you very much!

Hope I can get into Edinburgh. Would love to meet up with you if I get in there !

It's no problem! It's just nice to be appreciated. :tongue:

It'd be lovely to meet you, and I wish you the best of luck with your application!

Reply 34

Paradox.

7

Would I stand a realistic chance at getting an offer if I don't have any extra-curricular achievements? I don't play competitive sports, don't have any grades on instruments etc. Obviously I have other interests, just no achievements. I have voluntary work/work experience. Any help appreciated :smile:

Original post by Hype en Ecosse

...

Thought I'd quote you as you seem pretty knowledgeable on Edinburgh Admissions. Oh and I emailed about SJT and they said it'll be half ( :eek:

) of the non-academic - meaning PS/Reference only counts for 15% this year, compared to 50% last year(!)

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 35

Hype en Ecosse

20

Original post by Paradox.

Would I stand a realistic chance at getting an offer if I don't have any extra-curricular achievements? I don't play competitive sports, don't have any grades on instruments etc. Obviously I have other interests, just no achievements. I have voluntary work/work experience. Any help appreciated :smile:

Yeah, you're definitely still in with a chance - especially if those extra-currics are now as small a part of the application as you seem to suggest. They were only worth 6/37 points before, and now it's worth an even smaller fraction. We don't even know if they'll be considering them this admissions cycle since the criteria might have totally changed!

Remember it's not just extra-curricular achievement they're looking for; extra-curriculars themselves count, too. Just to show "hey, I have a life outside of A-levels." Edinburgh are big on this "well-rounded applicant" idea.

Thought I'd quote you as you seem pretty knowledgeable on Edinburgh Admissions. Oh and I emailed about SJT and they said it'll be half ( :eek:

) of the non-academic - meaning PS/Reference only counts for 15% this year, compared to 50% last year(!)

That's insane.
I've just e-mailed admissions myself for some more information. :tongue:

Reply 36

MrSupernova

16

Original post by Hype en Ecosse

Edinburgh do release information on what sort of people are successful, but that only extends to academics. It doesn't extend to non-academics because Edinburgh aren't looking for you to meet a specific minimum or anything. It's just a subjective measurement of how the selector feels that you've fulfilled their criteria. And since they've changed everything around this year, we have absolutely no idea if they'll be using the same criteria as before, or how they'll use banding (you've got the best banding possible, though, so you don't have to worry about that. :tongue:

)
I think your non-academic stuff is fine - it certainly wouldn't be a waste. Apply on, bud! I take it you were shadowing a psychiatrist for your W/E in mental health?

Hey, count yourself lucky that 70% of the application is now made up of stuff you've excelled in. :wink:

Thank you very much! Plus it'll be more than 70% if they're using the SJT :P

I only saw one psychiatrist during the whole week I was there, believe it or not! I spent most of my time with occupational therapists, getting the patients up and about. To be honest, my first impression was that it was a glorified kids' club for the elderly, but I was told that things as simple as throwing a ball or doing a quiz did wonders for the patients with alzheimer's, and they were right. Reading through some of their notes, it was like they were a completely different person before being admitted. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it too - more than the bog-standard shadowing a doctor because, as useful as that can be, it isn't half a bit dry...

Reply 37

Act of kindness

Original post by Hype en Ecosse

I've just e-mailed admissions myself for some more information. :tongue:

How many non-UK EU students are currently enrolled in the MBChB programme? Any French? :smile:

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 38

Hype en Ecosse

20

Original post by Act of kindness

How many non-UK EU students are currently enrolled in the MBChB programme? Any French? :smile:

Managed to find this (PDF warning), which shows we currently have 4022 students that're non-UK EU, but I can't find specific figures for the CMVM. :frown:

So I'm going to have to answer anecdotally: I don't really know. We have a fair few EU students in the MBChB, I couldn't tell you where they're all from, though.

We do have a French society at the university, at least. And the 2011/2012 annual review showed that of all the students from the EU at the university, France was the 4th most populous. :tongue:

Reply 39

Act of kindness

Original post by Hype en Ecosse

Managed to find this (PDF warning), which shows we currently have 4022 students that're non-UK EU, but I can't find specific figures for the CMVM. :frown:

So I'm going to have to answer anecdotally: I don't really know. We have a fair few EU students in the MBChB, I couldn't tell you where they're all from, though.

We do have a French society at the university, at least. And the 2011/2012 annual review showed that of all the students from the EU at the university, France was the 4th most populous. :tongue:

Thanks for the answer! That was quite helpful. :smile:

(edited 10 years ago)

Edinburgh Medical school Applicants 2014

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you