confused about reapplying

I need some advice and im not really sure where to post this. Basically i have wanted to be a doctor since year 11. After getting my as results i realised that they were not up to scratch - i acheived b c c d in geography biology economics and chemistry respectively. Therefore i decided not to apply to study medicine that year as my a level predictions were ABB. In august i had done better than expected and acheived AABb in geography biology chemistry and economics. After getting my a levels i decided to apply to medicine ahead of a gap year and applied to southampton, sheffield, manchester and leeds. I got 4 rejections without interview. I spent my gap year by travelling for 4 months and then working as a HCA for the rest. While i was working as a HCA i also volunteered at a nursing home. Now i am thinking of reapplying to medicine but am unsure about this. I will be 21 by the time i start the course and i really dont know if i could handle another 4 rejections. If i do reapply for medicine i am so worried that i will not get a place and end up having wasted 2 years of my life, when i could have applied to another course and be well on my way to finishing it. All of my friends from school are graduating next year as well which is extremely depressing. If i get another load of 4 rejections i will be 21, with no degree and 2 gap years worth of experience which is worth nothing to the admissions tutors for other courses. I just don'tknow where i went wrong with my application. I really dont know whether i should reapply so can anyone help me and has anyone been in this position before.

Reply 1

dilipd

OP

The other thing i forgot o mention was that when i asked the universities for feedback they sent a standard letter out saying that althouh my application was good, others were better. Sheffield told me my UKCAT was too low despite the fact that i had got 654 on it, which i thought was decent.

Reply 2

Gimme Gimme

You need to think about what you want out of Medicine, and whether in your opnion- it is worth taking the risk.

I am in the same situation.

Reply 3

dilipd

OP

Gimme

You need to think about what you want out of Medicine, and whether in your opnion- it is worth taking the risk.

I am in the same situation.

i really do want to study medicine (just not as much as i did before the rejections). it was so difficult to pull myself together and i have absolutely no idea what im going to do. the thing that upsets me most is have absolutely no idea where it went so wrong and i just cant understand why i have 4 rejections.

Reply 4

Gimme Gimme

Where the rejections pre or post interview ??

Reply 5

dilipd

OP

all 4 were straight rejections pre - interview. I had received all the rejections by the beginning of january aswell

Reply 6

Gimme Gimme

Ok, so the problem would lay in your grades, reference, UKCAT or BMAT scores and most importantly your personal statement.

Who reviewed your personal statement ??

Reply 7

dilipd

OP

My grades were AABb at A Level and 3A* 7As at gcse. My UKCAT was 654. My personal statement was reviewed by my GP, careers advisors, tutor, chemistry teacher, head of science at school all of whom said that it was an excellent ps. the gp even said it was one of the best she had seen and i should at least get 1 interview with it. apparently not. i think the problem was that i had too many people look at it and they changed it quite a bit. the reference was also another problem because my school had a policy where they didnt let anyone see the reference until after the app had been sent off and tbh mine was truly awful. it was well below the word limit and said all of the standard things - it really wasn't anything special.

Reply 8

0129Hippy

The first thing admissions tutors do is take all the applications with very bad grades and put them in the rejection pile. I know quite a few admission tutors and all have said that this is their standard protocol. Now, although your grades are definitely nothing to be ashamed of-they don't, however, compare favourabley to other Med applicants, most of whom will have straight As.
So, athlough you can apply again this year with your work experience ect etc...i fear you are more than likely gonna be getting back rejections in Jan, after you were filed away into the reject pile. If it was me? I'd go to a degree in Anatomy, biomed or something and try to get in off the back of that. Ok, it may be tougher competition for this but its the only way i can see you overcoming your difficulties.

Reply 9

AWZC

13

You applied to fairly good competitive med schools - try somewhere like Peninsula as well, after all its still a medicine degree. My advice would be get lots more work experience (most candidates have 2-4 placements) and use the personal statement service on TSR - maybe your GP was just trying to be polite? Also, if your schools reference was bad, then why not get someone else to be your referee? What about your boss at HCA or the person who was in charge at the nursing home? Good luck anyway.

Reply 10

AWZC

13

0129Hippy

The first thing admissions tutors do is take all the applications with very bad grades and put them in the rejection pile. I know quite a few admission tutors and all have said that this is their standard protocol. Now, although your grades are definitely nothing to be ashamed of-they don't, however, compare favourabley to other Med applicants, most of whom will have straight As.
So, athlough you can apply again this year with your work experience ect etc...i fear you are more than likely gonna be getting back rejections in Jan, after you were filed away into the reject pile. If it was me? I'd go to a degree in Anatomy, biomed or something and try to get in off the back of that. Ok, it may be tougher competition for this but its the only way i can see you overcoming your difficulties.

Ignore this, its BS, your grades are fine. My GCSE's were worse, my A levels were the same and I got 4 offers. This guy does not know what he is talking about.

Reply 11

Gimme Gimme

True, I have the lowest grades for GCSEs and I got an offer for pms, with very minimal work experience.

Reply 12

dilipd

OP

Thanks for your responses guys. The last thing i want to do is go down the graduate route - i ruled that out a long time ago. I've heard the competition is ridiculously intense. If i reapply i will probably choose pms and manchester definitely but im going to think carefully on the last 2 now. AWZC i think i am going to get my hca boss and the nursing home people to write my reference now (and give them the notes on manc's website) because i dont think my school followed those guidelines properly, even though i pestered them about it. I wasnt aware you could get people other than the school to write the reference.

Reply 13

AWZC

13

Haha that 0129hippy just neg repped me lol

Reply 14

sd91

1

0129hippy's advice is rubbish. I know for a fact that at sheffield if you meet the minimum academic requirements your application will be considered the same as everyone else's. Also at southampon if you meet the minimum requirements there your application is put into the "maybe" pile. Then from there things like personal statement, reference, ukcat are looked at. If i was you i would maybe apply to 3 medical schools and 2 others. I think you should still reapply because you've put so much work in to get where you are now that it really would be a waste not to apply for one last go - you may get in, you never know

Reply 15

crazyhelicopter

11

AWZC

You applied to fairly good competitive med schools - try somewhere like Peninsula as well, after all its still a medicine degree

All medical schools are good and all are extremely competitive! As an example in 2006 (the easiest data I could find) Peninsula has 9 applicants per place, Cambridge 4.8.

OP- If medicine is really what you want to do, apply again. But you have to face the prospect of being rejected. Get lots of work experience, good reference, PS etc and you'll have the same chance as any other worthy applicant. Don't select places based on them being the easiest plase to get into, because there is no such thing as a less competitive medical school!

Reply 16

ozd

you must have made some fundamental mistake at some point across the application process.......
How muddled was your PS? It will have to be very appealing to get past the initial stages of the application process.
your extra curriculars are definitely sufficient, and your grades are really really good as well.
people get in with so much worse!
I would say you were just really really unlucky.
I think one of the active users on here mentioned she applied once, got rejected 4 times, then re-applied with exactly the same application and got interviews/offers the next year.
You would be shooting yourself in the foot to give up now, if you make to any medicine interview they willl no doubt see your motivation/dedication.
I was almost in the situation of re-applying this year and knew that had things gone awry i had a solid 5th choice which i would enjoy.
my advice would be to apply to 4 med schools and get an appealing backup.
if you get a sub-700 ukcat this year i would rule out unis that put a lot of weight on the test, you do not want to risk being gimped out by that test again.
make a list of all the unis that will accept your A-levels, research them all, and decide which is most suited to the strengths of your application.

Reply 17

belis

17

If i get another load of 4 rejections i will be 21, with no degree and 2 gap years worth of experience which is worth nothing to the admissions tutors for other courses.

I am sure that tutors from other healthcare related courses would be very much interested in your work experience. Have you ever considered other healthcare professions. Maybe you would enjoy working as a physio, operating department practitioner, nurse, audiologist, diatetician etc etc? I don't know what has drawn you into medicine in first place but many aspects of it can be found in other jobs as well.

I am not saying don't apply for medicine if that is what you want to do but maybe it is worth looking at other options and possibly use your remaining 2 choices to apply for another health related course.

Reply 18

dilipd

OP

belis

I am sure that tutors from other healthcare related courses would be very much interested in your work experience. Have you ever considered other healthcare professions. Maybe you would enjoy working as a physio, operating department practitioner, nurse, audiologist, diatetician etc etc? I don't know what has drawn you into medicine in first place but many aspects of it can be found in other jobs as well.

I am not saying don't apply for medicine if that is what you want to do but maybe it is worth looking at other options and possibly use your remaining 2 choices to apply for another health related course.

My backup choice would be pharmacy but i spoke to several admissions tutors and although they said it was appealing to have the amount of w/e i have in a caring environment i would need to get more that was directly relevant to pharmacy. tbh i really dont want to do anything else after having tried this hard to get in and i think i will apply 4 med courses and one pharmacy.

i can't see anything that was wrong with my application apart from my reference so maybe that was the problem. i had a lot of people check my ps to the point where it wasn't mine so i'll have to make alterations on that. would it hinder my application if i got a job as a retail assistant instead of a HCA because i've done a year working as a HCA already, a year in a nursing home and tbh i didn't really enjoy the HCA job that much? It opened my eyes to a lot of things but it just wasn't what i was expecting it to be. Does anyone know who this forum member is who got 4 rejections and applied with the exact same application and got offers?

Reply 19

dilipd

OP

belis

I am sure that tutors from other healthcare related courses would be very much interested in your work experience. Have you ever considered other healthcare professions. Maybe you would enjoy working as a physio, operating department practitioner, nurse, audiologist, diatetician etc etc? I don't know what has drawn you into medicine in first place but many aspects of it can be found in other jobs as well.

I am not saying don't apply for medicine if that is what you want to do but maybe it is worth looking at other options and possibly use your remaining 2 choices to apply for another health related course.

My backup choice would be pharmacy but i spoke to several admissions tutors and although they said it was appealing to have the amount of w/e i have in a caring environment i would need to get more that was directly relevant to pharmacy. tbh i really dont want to do anything else after having tried this hard to get in and i think i will apply 4 med courses and one pharmacy.

i can't see anything that was wrong with my application apart from my reference so maybe that was the problem. i had a lot of people check my ps to the point where it wasn't mine so i'll have to make alterations on that. would it hinder my application if i got a job as a retail assistant instead of a HCA because i've done a year working as a HCA already, a year in a nursing home and tbh i didn't really enjoy the HCA job that much? It opened my eyes to a lot of things but it just wasn't what i was expecting it to be. Does anyone know who this forum member is who got 4 rejections and applied with the exact same application and got offers?

confused about reapplying

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you