University of Exeter
Exeter
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Toughest course to gain entry on to at Exeter? Discuss.
What do you think is most difficult course to get a place on at Exeter?
I would say Medicine although I may be a little biased there!
Everything we do is taken into account including AS grades and A2 predictions/final grades, and GCSE grades to a greater extent than other courses.
Also we have to do a wide range and specific amount of work experience which we need to convey accurately in our personal statements in addition to do some voluntary work and non-academic activities (e.g. sport and music) to decent level.
A huge proportion of the candidates (the majority of whom are suitably qualified) are rejected prior to the itnerview stage. We ( roughly about 600 A-Level students) then have to face an interview which can be regarded as difficult as it tests your ability to deal with and understand ethical scenarioes.
If we manage to negotiate all of this, we get an offer.
I'd say that this is much more hard work than simply submitting a UCAS form and waiting for decision although same may argue simply submitting a UCAS form makes it more difficult to gain entry as you need to be outstanding on paper. The fact is you could be an outstanding candidate but still get a rejection for medicine not just at Exeter (Peninsula Medical School) but any medical school.
What do you all think is the most difficult subject to gain entry to at Exeter?
(I may have just lit the virtual touchpaper now ).
I would say Medicine although I may be a little biased there!
Everything we do is taken into account including AS grades and A2 predictions/final grades, and GCSE grades to a greater extent than other courses.
Also we have to do a wide range and specific amount of work experience which we need to convey accurately in our personal statements in addition to do some voluntary work and non-academic activities (e.g. sport and music) to decent level.
A huge proportion of the candidates (the majority of whom are suitably qualified) are rejected prior to the itnerview stage. We ( roughly about 600 A-Level students) then have to face an interview which can be regarded as difficult as it tests your ability to deal with and understand ethical scenarioes.
If we manage to negotiate all of this, we get an offer.
I'd say that this is much more hard work than simply submitting a UCAS form and waiting for decision although same may argue simply submitting a UCAS form makes it more difficult to gain entry as you need to be outstanding on paper. The fact is you could be an outstanding candidate but still get a rejection for medicine not just at Exeter (Peninsula Medical School) but any medical school.
What do you all think is the most difficult subject to gain entry to at Exeter?
(I may have just lit the virtual touchpaper now
).Scroll to see replies
Definitely medicine. I'd say that was the toughest course to get into at any uni, probably followed by law, for the reasons you said. There are just so many applicants that grades, especially GCSEs, matter a lot more than they do for other courses, you need work experience/voluntary work and extra curriculars and you have to have an interview, plus the BMAT at some unis. For a lot of courses, you're unlikely to get straight rejections even if your grades are a bit below par and your personal statement isn't exactly amazing, as long as you're realistic in your choices, but for medicine, you can have a near perfect application and still get straight rejections, especially as you can only apply to 4 unis. I'm glad languages are nowhere near as popular as medicine! 
University of Exeter
Exeter
kellywood_5
Definitely medicine. I'd say that was the toughest course to get into at any uni, probably followed by law, for the reasons you said. There are just so many applicants that grades, especially GCSEs, matter a lot more than they do for other courses, you need work experience/voluntary work and extra curriculars and you have to have an interview, plus the BMAT at some unis. For a lot of courses, you're unlikely to get straight rejections even if your grades are a bit below par and your personal statement isn't exactly amazing, as long as you're realistic in your choices, but for medicine, you can have a near perfect application and still get straight rejections, especially as you can only apply to 4 unis. I'm glad languages are nowhere near as popular as medicine!
I'd also add that it's easier to get onto joint honours courses than single hons (my offer for Classics and English was BBB; standard offer for single hons English is AAA). It's also easier to get onto undersubscribed courses - they're more likely to let you in if you drop a grade etc etc.
The Boosh
ive spoken to plenty of med students - my girlfriend used to live with 8 of them. they applied to exeter because it was the easiest place.
Statistically that isnt true although they do offer the lowest entry requirements which are 370 ucas points which equates to ABBb.
They have a policy of interviewing everyone holding the grades or predicted AAAb (as St George's London do) but that wouldn't make them any easier than any other medical school. Ethical scenarioes are not easy to tackle.
There's no easy medical school to get into not even UEA.
yeah maybe, i have no idea since i never applied to read medicine - im just going on what the first (or second?) cohort told me. several claimed to apply to exeter because the grade requirement was low (lowest?) and they interviewed people below the grade requirement too. they told me no other other med school would accept them with their alevel grades. whether or not medicine is the hardest subject to get onto in exeter i have no idea - just making comparisons between universities.
Well until about 2 years ago, Sheffield, the London unis and Brighton were all asking for ABB grades. This didn't make those universities any less inferior or easier to get into than the others.
Yes Peninsula's entry requirements has often been a lifeline to those who fail to get into their other three choices but it never has been in the past 5/6 years that they've admitted students a "soft" option or an "easy" option.
I know excellent students who have been rejected from all their choices which included Peninsula.
Although it would be fair for me to point that the fact that I knew I was going to get an interview having had the grades in hand was probably the reason why I applied to Peninsula in the first place.
Anyone with ABBb in hand for the last few years has received an interview. Although if you're going off predicted grades you would need to be predicted AAAb or AAAa.
Peninsula is not a "soft" option for medicine nor is it any less than the other medical schools.
According to the Guardian's league tables, it ranks above the likes of leeds, manchester, birmingham, southampton, bristol, st andrews, although the league tables don't really suggest anything (for medicine anyways).
Yes Peninsula's entry requirements has often been a lifeline to those who fail to get into their other three choices but it never has been in the past 5/6 years that they've admitted students a "soft" option or an "easy" option.
I know excellent students who have been rejected from all their choices which included Peninsula.
Although it would be fair for me to point that the fact that I knew I was going to get an interview having had the grades in hand was probably the reason why I applied to Peninsula in the first place.
Anyone with ABBb in hand for the last few years has received an interview. Although if you're going off predicted grades you would need to be predicted AAAb or AAAa.
Peninsula is not a "soft" option for medicine nor is it any less than the other medical schools.
According to the Guardian's league tables, it ranks above the likes of leeds, manchester, birmingham, southampton, bristol, st andrews, although the league tables don't really suggest anything (for medicine anyways).
lol easy tiger - i never said the peninsula college of medicine and dentistry was an inferior institution that offered inferior degrees, i was simply stating the views of those on the course (as we speak) who found it the easiest course to get on to. regardless of what you think, this is the opinion of current med students (rightly or wrongly, either way i dont really care...).
The Boosh
boredom and procrastination. you no doubt will know more than me. christ, ive never even looked at the prospectus.
out of interest, what are your offers for medicine?
out of interest, what are your offers for medicine?
Alas only Peninsula. I got rejections from Southampton and Glasgow and waiting to hear back from BSMS.
Looks like it's destination Peninsula and I would much rather prefer to be allocated to Exeter uni.
So is Exeter really full of Oxbridge rejects?
well good luck for the bsms application.
i dont know how the medschool inter-uni thing works. the people i know spent their first year at exeter, then there second in plymouth, then i *think* they went back to exeter with the view of some going to cornwall for fieldwork.
exeter is mixed - full of stereotypical oxbridge types, but some students have exeter as their first choice whilst others have it as a backup if they dont get into oxbridge. it has the same feel as bristol and to some extent oxford in terms of student make - white, well-off, middle-class. the postgrad community is far more diverse, the uk postgrads tend to be from the usual "top 25" unis (i know a few from oxford, lse, imperial and ucl but never cambridge funnily enough...). exeter simply attracts uk students from a particular cultural background, more so than many other universities (i think tradition and location plays a big part here, more than perceived quality) - london, bristol, exeter, oxford, cambridge, st andrews, durham (and no doubt a scattering of others) make up the usual suspects (statistics show this too) and i think because of this, its perceived as an oxbridge reject uni at times.
i dont know how the medschool inter-uni thing works. the people i know spent their first year at exeter, then there second in plymouth, then i *think* they went back to exeter with the view of some going to cornwall for fieldwork.
exeter is mixed - full of stereotypical oxbridge types, but some students have exeter as their first choice whilst others have it as a backup if they dont get into oxbridge. it has the same feel as bristol and to some extent oxford in terms of student make - white, well-off, middle-class. the postgrad community is far more diverse, the uk postgrads tend to be from the usual "top 25" unis (i know a few from oxford, lse, imperial and ucl but never cambridge funnily enough...). exeter simply attracts uk students from a particular cultural background, more so than many other universities (i think tradition and location plays a big part here, more than perceived quality) - london, bristol, exeter, oxford, cambridge, st andrews, durham (and no doubt a scattering of others) make up the usual suspects (statistics show this too) and i think because of this, its perceived as an oxbridge reject uni at times.
British Bulldog
So is Exeter really full of Oxbridge rejects?
There are quite a few- myself included, I suppose, since I didn't get the grades for my Cambridge offer and had Exeter as my insurance. But equally, I've met quite a few people who didn't apply to Oxbridge. Definitely very white and very middle class though.
kellywood_5
There are quite a few- myself included, I suppose, since I didn't get the grades for my Cambridge offer and had Exeter as my insurance. But equally, I've met quite a few people who didn't apply to Oxbridge. Definitely very white and very middle class though.
Well I'm not white but certainly middle maybe even upper clas but class has nothing to do with it as far as I'm concerned.
I had the grades to get into Oxford but I got rejected from them after an interview so I guess I qualify as an Oxbridge reject too!
Are there no "asians" at Exeter? I know there's a few at the medical school but I was wondering about the bigger picture.
What is it you study at Exeter?
British Bulldog
Well I'm not white but certainly middle maybe even upper clas but class has nothing to do with it as far as I'm concerned.
I had the grades to get into Oxford but I got rejected from them after an interview so I guess I qualify as an Oxbridge reject too!
Are there no "asians" at Exeter? I know there's a few at the medical school but I was wondering about the bigger picture.
What is it you study at Exeter?
I had the grades to get into Oxford but I got rejected from them after an interview so I guess I qualify as an Oxbridge reject too!
Are there no "asians" at Exeter? I know there's a few at the medical school but I was wondering about the bigger picture.
What is it you study at Exeter?
Yep, you qualify- join the club!
There are quite a few Japanese/Chinese, but no so many Indian/Pakistani etc. I study French and Spanish.in a very stereotypical way, i was at st lukes when pms interviews where taking place and the campus was full of asians wearing very expensive suits walking around with their parents. outside of that, the majority of undergrads are white and british, whilst a huge chunk of postgrads are international.
On the subject of medicine, my sister has had an offer of AAB for medicine at Birmingham, so it's not as if everywhere asks for straight As (which tbh I was slightly surprised at - they have enough people applying for medicine to be able to ask for AAA if they wanted to).
And on the subject of Oxbridge rejects - I met someone once at a psychology experiment who turned down a place at Oxford to come to Exeter. Now there's something you don't see every day...
And on the subject of Oxbridge rejects - I met someone once at a psychology experiment who turned down a place at Oxford to come to Exeter. Now there's something you don't see every day...
Angelil
On the subject of medicine, my sister has had an offer of AAB for medicine at Birmingham, so it's not as if everywhere asks for straight As (which tbh I was slightly surprised at - they have enough people applying for medicine to be able to ask for AAA if they wanted to).
And on the subject of Oxbridge rejects - I met someone once at a psychology experiment who turned down a place at Oxford to come to Exeter. Now there's something you don't see every day...
And on the subject of Oxbridge rejects - I met someone once at a psychology experiment who turned down a place at Oxford to come to Exeter. Now there's something you don't see every day...
lol that's not the typical exeter student story. i used to work behind a bar in torquay and met 2 (or was it 3?) girls who turned down the chance to study at oxford - it was really, really wierd. apparently a few of their friends turned down oxbridge too for london, bristol and other busier cities. ive never heard of it since though (perhaps because im at exeter...)
i turned it down.
not that i got an offer or even applied.
but i got the grades to apply but just didnt.
didnt appeal to me.
not that i got an offer or even applied.
but i got the grades to apply but just didnt.
didnt appeal to me.
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