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Offer at a BMAT university. But rejected by three UKCAT universities

Doctor2014

I have got an offer from Cambridge for medicine, but got rejected at three UKCAT universities . My UKCAT score is very high . My other stats are 100 % A* at GCSE and UMS above 95% for AS level. In my view the interviews at UKCAT universities went very well. I was careful not to look over confident due to my Cambridge offer. Still got rejected. I am now in a situation where I have no insurance.

Please post if you had similar outcome for your application. I am trying to understand the trend

Reply 1

The Doctor!

I don't think there is any sort of 'trend' to understand really, my offers didn't pan out like that.

Maybe your UKCAT interviews didn't go as well as you thought they did?

Reply 2

Chief Wiggum

Original post by Doctor2014

As above, I'm not sure there'll be much of a "trend" really.

Often, it could just be that there are too many good candidates for places. At any rate, if you miss the Cambridge offer, but still get "medicine standard" grades, you could reapply next year.

Reply 3

cactus_farmer

Just work your ass off to get the Cambridge grades. By far the hardest bit is getting the offer in the first place. Getting the grades should be easy for you.

Reply 4

Doctor2014

Original post by The Doctor!

I don't think there is any sort of 'trend' to understand really, my offers didn't pan out like that.

Maybe your UKCAT interviews didn't go as well as you thought they did?

May be. For me the Cambridge interview was extremely tough . Compared to that UKCAT uni interviews were straight forward, with typical questions like Why medicine, why this uni etc. I regret not applying Imperial or UCL . In my view they value scientific knowledge and analytical skills above personal charm. Anyway enough of my sour grapes moaning. I should now concentrate on getting the grades.

Reply 5

DiabeticPanda

Original post by Doctor2014

Congratulations on your Cambridge offer!

One thing to think about is that most UKCAT universities offer a level playing field once you get an interview. So as long you have a 3A prediction and meet the UKCAT threshold, your academics are not used any further.

E.g. Newcastle's cutoff was something like 740 this year. I got 755 meaning that I just got an interview. Even someone with a 900 UKCAT and 100% in all of their AS modules would have 0 advantage over me at interview.

I've noticed a trend with Cambridge medics getting rejected from other less prestigious medical schools. I think each medical school is looking for a certain kind of person. I know a guy doing medicine at Cambridge who got rejected from Manchester post-interview. It's probably because they realised that he's not a good fit for Manchester's more relaxed PBL approach.

Reply 6

Helenia

Original post by Doctor2014

Clearly not in the view of your interviewers though. They're the ones who get to make the decisions.

Work hard, and hope to get your Cambridge offer. If you don't, then reapply next year and have a think about your interview technique.

Reply 7

Kinkerz

Original post by Doctor2014

Pre-medical school scientific knowledge is largely irrelevant. Analytical skills are difficult to assess.

This 'personal charm' that you seem to be subtly disparaging is what gets you into many learning situations once clinical years hit. The people who function best in ward environments are those who can quickly form a rapport and bond with people, not those who understand the biochemistry of advanced glycation end-products. Don't be too quick to turn your nose up at 'soft skills'. Having them will get you into more purposeful learning situations as a clinical medical student and, in all likelihood, make you better with patients.

Reply 8

Doctor2014

I totally agree with the importance of the soft skills. I believe you are a medical student , so obviously you know better regarding the skills required for a doctor. My statement was mainly highlighting that I had a better chance of getting entry into a BMAT university. I was not implying that students from BMAT universities make better doctors

Reply 9

DCMed96

Original post by Doctor2014

What's your BMAT score and which college did you apply to?

Reply 10

Doctor2014

Original post by JackTeh96

What's your BMAT score and which college did you apply to?

If I tell you that it will be easy to identify who I am from the Cambridge college and BMAT score. Sorry. Regarding my BMAT , higher 7 -ish score in section 1 and 2 . 3-ish in Section 3.

Reply 11

nulli tertius

Original post by Doctor2014

May be. For me the Cambridge interview was extremely tough . Compared to that UKCAT uni interviews were straight forward, with typical questions like Why medicine, why this uni etc.

This isn't a medicine specific point, but if you ask dull conventional questions you will get a lot of dull conventional answers. It can be harder having something interesting and distinctive to say in answer to a mundane question. You may have coped better with the stimulus of the Cambridge questioning whilst you may have given the same yawn-inducing answers to other universities' straightforward questions as everyone else.

Reply 12

studentmum2014

I was reading this post with lot of interest. My daughter has got an offer at Oxford University to read medicine. She also got rejected from two UKCAT universities. She is still waiting for the outcome from one more university.
Her UKCAT score is very high (i.e. even 900 for few sections). She was surprised with the interview outcome and she thought she did very well for the interviews . Obviously the interviewers did not think so.

So I have few theories why she got rejected

1) Universities may know that she has got an Oxford offer and she is never going to firm their university as first choice. They can get the information about individuals from Offer holders social network sites (where students over-enthusiastically post about the offers including my daughter).Or even may be information can be obtained from UCAS by some means. Lack of offer even from her fifth choice of college for a non-medicine course (which is not top in the league table) implies that. This theory does seem farfetched, but plausible

2) Oxbridge offer holders may come across as too academic and universities may doubt if they would thrive on a PBL course compared to a traditional course . They may have made that judgement based on their past experience on similar highly academic students. One of our friends did mock interview with my daughter. When she was rejected we asked about his views. According to him she is very intelligent and articulate with a good sense of humour and had lot of interesting and unique ideas. He said that qualities which worked for her at an Oxford interview can sometimes work against her in other universities.( I am not entirely sure what he meant by that)

I am sure many deserving candidates got rejected at Oxford and Cambridge as well. My daughter’s BMAT score was above average, but nothing extraordinary like her UKCAT score. Some high BMAT score candidates (above 8.00) also got rejected at Oxford. For a competitive course like medicine , this happens and you have to accept it and move on.

You should be proud of the Cambridge offer and work hard to achieve the grades. All the best for that. My daughter has definitely cut her social life and is now completely focused on her studies when she realised Oxford may be her only offer.

An advice for the future applicants; if you are considered highly academic with perfect GCSE and A level ; don’t feel scared to apply for top universities (at least perceived as top in league table). Trying for less popular university does not give you a better chance of offer.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 13

locomotive99

Original post by Doctor2014

Imperial do not value scientific knowledge. That is why I regret not performing better at my cambridge interview; I believe only Oxbridge value scientific knowledge/reasoning etc, as Imperial rejected me post-interview for not having enough empathy, although they noted I was very academic.

I also got a very high bmat, so clearly they didn't care about that either.