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Cardiff University Medicine Applicants 2017

Poll

What is your academic score?

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As it is fast approaching the next admissions cycle I thought now is the right time to begin a new thread for all potential applicants to Cardiff University Medical School (A100, A104 and A101) for 2017 entry. Hopefully this will allow everyone a chance to discuss applications and ask questions to the small number of current Cardiff medical students which can be found lurking on these forums from time to time (myself an @futuremedic19 are both second years as of september).
Below is some very useful information regarding all things Cardiff medicine as well as some more general information about the university, all of which can be found on the various relevant pages of Cardiff's website and Cardiff's School of Medicine website.

Admissions policy and entrance requirements.
The admissions policy for 2017-2018 entry to medicine at Cardiff can be found here. An FAQ section can also be found here.
All the information regarding entry requirements can be found within the admissions policy, but for simplicity (and the lazy among us) I have condensed the useful information below (open the spoiler and all will be revealed)...

Academic entrance requirements:

Spoiler

UKCAT:

Spoiler

Non-academic:

Spoiler

The selection process: Pre-interview.
The schools admissions process once they have received your UCAS application can be found in the spoiler below.

Spoiler

Welsh students:

Spoiler

The selection process: Interview.
No offers are made without an interview, and interviews are offered to applicants who have the highest academic rankings for the year of entry.
For 2017 applicants will attend an MMI style interview consisting of 10 stations (each lasting 6 minutes), these will take place over a 3 week period:
30 November 2016 - 14 December 2016 AND 18 January 2017 - 25 January 2017
Interview invites will be sent via email which will link applicants to an online booking system. In fairness to all candidates no offers will be given out until all the interviews have been conducted.

As a guide Cardiff in 2015 received approximately 3,500 applications for 309 places, roughly 1,500 of these applicants were invited to interview.


The course: C21
Cardiff will be entering its 5th year of the new C21 course when you will be starting in september 2017. Information about the course structure can be found here, and a video about the course can be found here.
As a general run down Cardiff university use an integrated CBL style medicine course which features:

Spoiler

For anyone looking to see what the CBL course is like from a students perspective, I have a blog post on this over on my blog.


I hope this information is useful and can get you started if your thinking of applying to medicine at Cardiff University.
Sorry to be a bug bear but as a rule of thumb from here on out, no discussion of interview questions or general topics is permitted on this thread, it is not fair to fellow applicants and will not be tolerated.

Contact information for Cardiff medical school can be found here.
(edited 7 years ago)

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Reply 1
Woooooo
Absolutely adored Cardiff at the Medical Open Day - will definitely be applying this September :smile:
Reply 2
Original post by Orlanda
Woooooo
Absolutely adored Cardiff at the Medical Open Day - will definitely be applying this September :smile:


Glad to hear it! Hoping all is well with your application thus far!
Wanted to apply here but can't because as a Scottish applicant I only have AAAAB at higher sadly. And a low UKCAT.
Reply 4
Original post by OneAfrica
Wanted to apply here but can't because as a Scottish applicant I only have AAAAB at higher sadly. And a low UKCAT.


Sorry to hear that, no idea how the scoring works for scottish applicants but you could always contact admissions via email.

Unfortunately Cardiffs academic cut off is very strict once set each year, and it makes it a very academically heavy medical school. Good luck with your applications.
Reply 5
Are we able to find out what the academic cut off score is for 2017 entry? Thanks!
Reply 6
Original post by Bella909
Are we able to find out what the academic cut off score is for 2017 entry? Thanks!


No I am afraid this will not be set until after everyone has applied, it totally depends on the applicants for that year. It does state clearly in the admissions policy that it will not be set until after october 15th.

for 2015 and 2016 entry the cut off score has been 26/27 for an interview. It also depends on how many people they can interview this year as it is now MMI style.
The reason why the cut off is so high is because it is one of the most popular medical schools in the UK currently, many people apply here as most medical applicants have very strong GCSEs and because Cardiff use the UKCAT only in certain occasions after interview it means that people with lower UKCATs apply here.

Absolutely no clue on what the cut off will be this year im afraid, the MMI interviews may allow more people to be interviewed or they may allow less people to be interviewed causing the cut off to shift.
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 7
Original post by Natalierm2707
No I am afraid this will not be set until after everyone has applied, it totally depends on the applicants for that year. It does state clearly in the admissions policy that it will not be set until after october 15th.

for 2015 and 2016 entry the cut off score has been 26/27 for an interview, a couple of applicants gained an interview with 25/27 because they had amazing personal statements. It also depends on how many people they can interview this year as it is now MMI style.
The reason why the cut off is so high is because it is one of the most popular medical schools in the UK currently, many people apply here as most medical applicants have very strong GCSEs and because Cardiff use the UKCAT only in certain occasions after interview it means that people with lower UKCATs apply here.

Absolutely no clue on what the cut off will be this year im afraid, the MMI interviews may allow more people to be interviewed or they may allow less people to be interviewed causing the cut off to shift.


Oh right I see, thanks :smile:
Reply 8
For anyone interested in finding out a little more about the curriculum at Cardiff as a medical student, I just wrote a blog post about what it is like to study under the CBL curriculum. Its a great read if your interested in what CBL at Cardiff will actually be like from a students perspective.
Link to blog post: https://natalierm2707futuredoctorblogs.wordpress.com/2016/08/08/what-is-it-like-to-study-under-a-cbl-curriculum/
Reply 9
Original post by Natalierm2707
x


This is a brilliant thread - very helpful indeed!

I was just wondering, do you think there's any possibility of the GCSE cut off being increased further to 27/27 points for 2017 entry?
Reply 10
Original post by Kozmo
This is a brilliant thread - very helpful indeed!

I was just wondering, do you think there's any possibility of the GCSE cut off being increased further to 27/27 points for 2017 entry?


Thankyou very much!

I am unsure really, it has never been 27/27 but we cant rule it out, i personally wouldn't hesitate applying with 26/27 though.


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Hello. I'm trying to understand the GCSE point system. So is 7A*s and 3 As a 27/27?
Reply 12
Original post by natalia.medicine
Hello. I'm trying to understand the GCSE point system. So is 7A*s and 3 As a 27/27?


No an A* is worth 3 points, an A is worth 2 and the score works by including your 9 best GCSE grades to include english language, maths and the three sciences.


Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by Natalierm2707
No an A* is worth 3 points, an A is worth 2 and the score works by including your 9 best GCSE grades to include english language, maths and the three sciences.


Posted from TSR Mobile


I see, thanks! So I would get a 25. Do you think that there is a point in applying to Cardiff then?
Reply 14
Original post by natalia.medicine
I see, thanks! So I would get a 25. Do you think that there is a point in applying to Cardiff then?


25 is one below the past two years cutoffs. If you really love cardiff it may be worth having it down as a riskier choice because some people get interviews with 25 each year even when the cut off is 26.



Posted from TSR Mobile
I also love everything about the uni, including their languages for all programme and the city...of course! Can't wait to apply.

On the open day they mentioned that some medical students are sent well up north for their placements but is this common? If you had to give a rough percentage of students who would need to move out of the city for their placement what would it be?
Reply 16
Original post by YounesB
I also love everything about the uni, including their languages for all programme and the city...of course! Can't wait to apply.

On the open day they mentioned that some medical students are sent well up north for their placements but is this common? If you had to give a rough percentage of students who would need to move out of the city for their placement what would it be?


Everyone at some point will have a 5/8 week placement in wrexham, rhyl or bangor but the uni provide accommodation for you. So 99% of people will end up doing one placement in the north.
The majority of placements are outside of cardiff as it has teaching hospitals in many different towns and cities throughout wales. Even in first year i was based in bridgend but the uni put on transport for you in years 1 and 2 and for some year 3 placements and will often reimburse travel if they cannot provide it.

I personally love this aspect of the course, travelling to different NHS trusts and hospitals opens the door to so many oppurtunities.


Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by Natalierm2707
Everyone at some point will have a 5/8 week placement in wrexham, rhyl or bangor but the uni provide accommodation for you. So 99% of people will end up doing one placement in the north.
The majority of placements are outside of cardiff as it has teaching hospitals in many different towns and cities throughout wales. Even in first year i was based in bridgend but the uni put on transport for you in years 1 and 2 and for some year 3 placements and will often reimburse travel if they cannot provide it.

I personally love this aspect of the course, travelling to different NHS trusts and hospitals opens the door to so many oppurtunities.


Posted from TSR Mobile


Yh, that does sound quite exciting actually. What is the uni accommodation like at Cardiff? Take, for example, the halls closest to the medical school: is it close the centre of town? Are you placed with other medical students? etc ..fill me in haha.
Reply 18
Original post by YounesB
Yh, that does sound quite exciting actually. What is the uni accommodation like at Cardiff? Take, for example, the halls closest to the medical school: is it close the centre of town? Are you placed with other medical students? etc ..fill me in haha.


Well Cardiff's medical school is based on heath park campus, this is about 1-1.2 miles away from cathays campus (which has every other subject pretty much), but you will also spend time (especially for research and anatomy teaching) down at biosciences in cathays, hence it is usually better to stay at accomodation in between the two.

Talybont is cardiffs accommodation village based a 10-15 minute walk from the SU and a 25 minute walk from heath park. It is also around a 30 minute walk into the main town centre and a 5-10 minute walk from maccies, a KFC and a MASSIVE tesco. Their is also a smaller tesco as well as a sports centre and social club in taly/right nextdoor.
Talybont is made up of 4 accomodation blocks which each vary in style, size and price right from high £3000s per year to £5000 per year. All are ensuite

Other options include:
Uni halls: very far out but a big complex which has a free bus to both campuses and most are ensuite.
Liberty hall: more expensive option right next to heath park
There are also loads of different options near cathays (google cardiff accommodation)

Most medics can be found in Talybont but there are a lot of us spread in all accommodation blocks. You are not placed with other medics no its random, but there will usually be one very close by.


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Original post by Natalierm2707
Well Cardiff's medical school is based on heath park campus, this is about 1-1.2 miles away from cathays campus (which has every other subject pretty much), but you will also spend time (especially for research and anatomy teaching) down at biosciences in cathays, hence it is usually better to stay at accomodation in between the two.

Talybont is cardiffs accommodation village based a 10-15 minute walk from the SU and a 25 minute walk from heath park. It is also around a 30 minute walk into the main town centre and a 5-10 minute walk from maccies, a KFC and a MASSIVE tesco. Their is also a smaller tesco as well as a sports centre and social club in taly/right nextdoor.
Talybont is made up of 4 accomodation blocks which each vary in style, size and price right from high £3000s per year to £5000 per year. All are ensuite

Other options include:
Uni halls: very far out but a big complex which has a free bus to both campuses and most are ensuite.
Liberty hall: more expensive option right next to heath park
There are also loads of different options near cathays (google cardiff accommodation)

Most medics can be found in Talybont but there are a lot of us spread in all accommodation blocks. You are not placed with other medics no its random, but there will usually be one very close by.


Posted from TSR Mobile


Coool, yh I've just looked over a lot of the halls on the site and they all look good. Hopefully, if I get in I'll apply for a place in the Talybont complex but I'm assuming it may be quite competitive to get a room? If it is, is it first-come-first-serve?

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