Medicine rejection thread 2016 - what will you do next after 4 medicine rejections..?

Original post by Dr Gin

I thought it would be useful to set up a general thread for medicine 'quadruple rejectees' :frown:

Last year my daughter was rejected from all 4 of her medicine choices; this year she has 3 offers (and still awaits post-interview news from her final medicine option). She is an example of how a determined 're-sit re-applicant' can eventually succeed in this incredibly competitive environment.

Maybe sharing experiences will help you decide whether or not to give it another go next year..?

hi if you wouldn't mind answering what was her profile like In terms of the below.Thanks in advance for any help.

Year of Entry:
Deferred?:
GCSEs:
Standard Grades Int2s (Scottish applicants):
AS Grades:
A2 Prediction/Results:
Higher grades (Scottish applicants):
Previous Degree (if applicable):
UKCAT (if applicable):
BMAT (if applicable):
Work Experience/Volunteering:
Extra Curricular:
Universities applied to and decisions:

Reply 2

Rishy

8

Hi there, looks like I might be in the same position with 3 rejections already. May I ask how did your daughter improve her interview technique? I got all interviews so it seems thats where I was lacking, any help would be appreciated.

Reply 3

OP

Originally applied for 2014 entry with

GCSE: 6A*, 3A, 2B (one of which was Eng Lang)
AS: AAAA
Predictions: A*AA
UKCAT 702.5
18 months volunteering care home, 1 year volunteering in homework club, junior school medical room and in student support group, 5 clinical attachments (few days each time) in primary and secondary care settings
Charity fundraising, DofE expedition, BSL evening course
Leeds: rejection post interview
Keele: rejection post interview
Leicester: rejection post interview
BSMS: rejection pre-interview

She achieved AAB (B in chem)

Applying for 2015 she decided to resit Maths & Chem A2, do an extra A2 in Art plus re-sit Eng Lang GCSE (so that she could apply to UEA)

Overall Predictions: A*A*AA
Additional PS: Co-founded MedSoc at school supporting year 12/13 with application process and organising guest speakers/doctors to come in and help with interview practice, continued to 2.5 years of volunteering in care home, did further work experience placement in secondary care and a one day placement in prison healthcare.
UKCAT 682.5 (up one decile on last year)
BMAT 4.9, 4.0, 3.5A

Peninsula: offer A in chem
Exeter: offer A in chem and A* (in chem or other A2)
UEA: offer A* in maths, A in chem, B in art, A in GCSE Eng Lang
BSMS: waiting post-interview...

Reply 4

ForeverRed96

Original post by Rishy

Hi there, looks like I might be in the same position with 3 rejections already. May I ask how did your daughter improve her interview technique? I got all interviews so it seems thats where I was lacking, any help would be appreciated.

I can second that, my interview technique was not up to standard, any tips

Reply 5

OP

Original post by Rishy

Hi there, looks like I might be in the same position with 3 rejections already. May I ask how did your daughter improve her interview technique? I got all interviews so it seems thats where I was lacking, any help would be appreciated.

She was a year older and more confident which made a big difference I think. This year's interviews were mainly panel-style which suited her much better (all very structured task-based MMI previously). She organised interview practice sessions at school so they all worked together to cover the 'syllabus'. She realised that just 'being yourself' is not enough for everyone and that she needed a firm knowledge base so she spent a lot more time on the details of ethics, access, NHS structure, research etc. to make sure that she had a thorough understanding of the context of her answers. She didn't plan her actual answers to the personal questions but she thought it all through carefully so she knew what she wanted to try to cover if asked particular questions and became more aware of how to sell herself and the pitfalls to avoid.
Hope your 4th choice works out!

Reply 6

OP

Original post by ForeverRed96

I can second that, my interview technique was not up to standard, any tips

Don't believe anyone who says you don't need to prepare. No-one wants to listen to you nervously trying to remember every word of a pre-prepared answer however you need to have given a lot of thought to the kinds of questions that you might be asked before you go in so that you actually sell yourself and show off your strengths with each answer rather than put your foot in it (particularly relevant with issues regarding professionalism and ethical dilemmas). The way you practice will depend so much on the interview format at your chosen universities but there is always something you can do to prepare…
Hope things work out for you :smile:

Reply 7

ForeverRed96

Original post by Dr Gin

Don't believe anyone who says you don't need to prepare. No-one wants to listen to you nervously trying to remember every word of a pre-prepared answer however you need to have given a lot of thought to the kinds of questions that you might be asked before you go in so that you actually sell yourself and show off your strengths with each answer rather than put your foot in it (particularly relevant with issues regarding professionalism and ethical dilemmas). The way you practice will depend so much on the interview format at your chosen universities but there is always something you can do to prepare…
Hope things work out for you :smile:

All my interviews where MMI, and I felt I was too shallow in my analysis in some questions such the ethical questions and the station where you have to talk to a patient, oh no I did really bad in that

Reply 8

OP

Original post by ForeverRed96

All my interviews where MMI, and I felt I was too shallow in my analysis in some questions such the ethical questions and the station where you have to talk to a patient, oh no I did really bad in that

It's well worth reading-up on ethics so that you understand the main principals that you can then apply to whatever situation they give you to discuss. (she read Tony Hope's book "A Very Small Introduction to Medical Ethics" and also used the "ministryofethics" website.
Role play is a really tricky thing to get instantly comfortable with. My daughter organised for the drama teacher from her school to come to MedSoc and act the part of various characters in role-play so that everyone could practice. They all felt silly to start with but soon overcame that so it will hopefully give all the year 12s confidence for the real thing next year.

Reply 9

Okorange

17

One book I found very useful for medical ethics type MMI question was the book "Doing Right: A Practical Guide to Ethics for Medical Trainees and Physicians"

It has a lot of cases and really gives you good advice on what to do when it comes to those tricky ethical situations.

Reply 10

Curlsss

4

I reapplied to Medicine this year.
Last year I got 2 pre-interview rejections and 2 post-interview rejections.
After achieving A*AB, this year, I had limited options and had to enter to resit the B. But I ended up with two interviews and got offers from both. One of them is an unconditional from Keele (they see A*AB as equivalent to AAA)
If you have gotten all rejections this year but still really want to do Medicine, honestly just focus on getting the grades and reapply. At first I hated the idea of taking a gap year but I thank God I had to because It has truly been a blessing. I'm really enjoying it.
Also look at where you think you could have done better in your application:
Did you apply to your strengths?
Did you prepare well enough for admissions tests?
How did you come across at interview? As Dr Gin said, interview preparation is very important. Keep up to date with the news and practice loads of ethics questions. Come up with personal examples that can be used for several different questions before the interview. Definitely get some interview prep books.
Also practice with family, friends, teachers. Record yourself answering questions in front of the mirror.

Most importantly get the grades this year so you won't have to apply as a resit applicant.
All the best to those who will be reapplying next year :smile:

Posted from TSR Mobile

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 11

Parent_help

4

Original post by Dr Gin

Originally applied for 2014 entry with....

In successful re-applicant stories, there's usually a theme about how "much better they are this time" and that they are "glad I took a gap year, I'm more mature" etc. Whilst perhaps true, This is a bit misleading - Personal improvement like this doesn't come about naturally if you do nothing.

If you look at Dr.Gin's case, extra stuff was done "to show commitment" in the gap year.

In the end, each applicant has to accept that they failed for a reason, and they have to fix that reason(s). If the Re-applicant can't work it out for themselves, they need help.

......So, before commiting to a re-run, all re-applicants should consider how much access they have to focussed delegated support (Dr Gin?) and available opportunaties (HCA?) to help them improve their application.

IMO, what each Re-applicant has to do now (soon - when that person is ready), is sit down and work out what things went well or not, and methodically plan to overcome the deficiencies. Not only that the application has to be strengthened for next time. i.e. Extra "stuff" on the PS. so the re-applicant needs to start thinking what they can do.
The thing is, everyone else is starting to do that, so you need to get your skates on to organise the placements in time.
You only have until October this year to detail "extra" stuff" on your PS. It can take 3 months to get a HCA job etc. This is where Parents/contacts can make a huge difference to your application, if they know people / are already in the Health profession etc

......There is a poster on here with incredible academics, that's failed to get in for the second year running. This is of course awful, however, after the first application rejections, it was suggested to this person, that the PS and interview technique were not strong enough. The reply given back was to indicate how silly/unfair/wrong this advice was etc. Sadly, it seems the same thing has happened this year - no offers.

What I'm trying to say is that each re-applicant is trying to improve themselves, to become more competative. This means that you have to improve yourself even more than the "improvement norm".
If a re-applicant can't accept this, then IMO, they should not bother applying next time, because, the odds will be stacked against you.

With the right support and advice, any hard working and commited individual can get into med school, so choose wisely.
The above is sure to upset the few people on TSR who want to think they are something more "special" than the norm, but hey ho, its the truth about anything in life - so tough !

Whatever you do, don't trust your application to luck. Applying to med school was never a game of throwing dice with achieved academics.

YMMV

Good luck in whatever you do

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 12

usycool1

19

Firstly, I'm very sorry to the people who have been unsuccessful this year. :frown:

Getting rejected does suck but it is not the end of the world.

I got all pre-interview rejections when I applied last year. My applicant profile (as well as several other people's who had to reapply) and other things that I learnt when reapplying is here.

Dr Gin, Curlsss and Parent_help have already given good advice about reapplying on this thread so I don't have much to add. If you can, try to get feedback from the Med Schools where you applied first time to see if you can improve on those for next time. All of my places gave me very good feedback which really did help.

When I did get my fourth and last rejection, I really did not like the idea of taking a gap year as I had no idea what I'd do for a whole year. Now though, I too am very glad that I ended up taking one but as Parent_Help has said above me, make sure you actually do something or have plans for it. :tongue:

For example, I used this website: https://do-it.org/ to help me find volunteer roles which I could do in my year out.

Instead of taking a gap year, some of my friends in a similar position decided that they wanted to go to university that year so are now studying something related to Medicine with the intention of trying out Graduate Entry Medicine. Whilst this is an option, I'd personally say it's better to try your best to score AAA and reapply the next year as I've heard GEM is even more competitive (and more expensive). Others decided that they wanted to study Medicine abroad, although this didn't really appeal to me for my own reasons.

I wish you all the best. :smile:

Reply 13

portaferissa

4

Original post by usycool1

All of my places gave me very good feedback which really did help.

How did you manage to get feedback? Which universities? Some medical schools like Manchester specifically state on their website that they do not provide a feedback.

Reply 14

usycool1

19

Original post by portaferissa

How did you manage to get feedback? Which universities? Some medical schools like Manchester specifically state on their website that they do not provide a feedback.

By emailing them although as you said, not all of them will give feedback. I applied to Birmingham, Bristol, Imperial and Oxford first time.

Reply 15

OU#50

Original post by usycool1

By emailing them although as you said, not all of them will give feedback. I applied to Birmingham, Bristol, Imperial and Oxford first time.

Most med schools will give feedback, Newcastle do but prefer you to send the request in writing not by email, also you may have to wait for a reply as they will be busy finalising the offers etc so maybe end of the month beginning of April is a good time to request this.

Reply 16

jess.olo

7

I got rejected from 3 of my medical school choices this year.
I applied to:
1) Oxford: rejected pre-interview due to my BMAT score
2) Imperial: rejected pre-interview due to my BMAT score
3) UCL: rejected post-interview
4) Keele: I withdrew from because I realised it really wasn't the place for me

My stats: 10 A*s at GCSE, AAAA at AS level (Physics, Chem, Biology and Maths) and I'm taking my A2s in about a week!! EEEEKKK!
I am definitely taking a gap year and still want to do medicine. I feel as though it was my BMAT score (and UKCAT) that definitely let me down this year. I want to secure good grades at A2, and hopefully go to Tanzania to work at a hospital there with the Gapmedics programme. I have also applied to phelbotomist jobs in the NHS to get some experience.
anyone know any good interview, BMAT and UKCAT courses I could go on to better my application?

Reply 17

TooSaltyRamen

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by jess.olo

I got rejected from 3 of my medical school choices this year.
I applied to:
1) Oxford: rejected pre-interview due to my BMAT score
2) Imperial: rejected pre-interview due to my BMAT score
3) UCL: rejected post-interview
4) Keele: I withdrew from because I realised it really wasn't the place for me

My stats: 10 A*s at GCSE, AAAA at AS level (Physics, Chem, Biology and Maths) and I'm taking my A2s in about a week!! EEEEKKK!
I am definitely taking a gap year and still want to do medicine. I feel as though it was my BMAT score (and UKCAT) that definitely let me down this year. I want to secure good grades at A2, and hopefully go to Tanzania to work at a hospital there with the Gapmedics programme. I have also applied to phelbotomist jobs in the NHS to get some experience.
anyone know any good interview, BMAT and UKCAT courses I could go on to better my application?

Oooh yah, have fun on your gap yar to tanzah neeyah.

Reply 18

She-Ra

21

Original post by Dr Gin

I thought it would be useful to set up a general thread for medicine 'quadruple rejectees' :frown:

Last year my daughter was rejected from all 4 of her medicine choices; this year she has 3 offers (and still awaits post-interview news from her final medicine option). She is an example of how a determined 're-sit re-applicant' can eventually succeed in this incredibly competitive environment.

Maybe sharing experiences will help you decide whether or not to give it another go next year..?

You are wonderful - this thread is absolutely brilliant, thank you so much for setting it up :smile:

Reply 19

OP