Nurse to a doctor
Hi, I'm a newly qualified nurse with a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Nursing (Adult) in the third class, looking to develop my career to become a doctor.
I also have:
NCFE CACHE Technical Level 3 Certificate in Health and Social Care – Grade: B
NCFE CACHE Technical Level 3 Certificate in Health and Social Care – Grade: B
BCS Level 2 ECDL Certificate in IT Application Skills (QCF)- Grade Merit
GCSEs:
GCSE Mathematics – Grade: 5
GCSE English Language – Grade: 5
GCSE English Literature – Grade: 5
GCSE History – Grade: C
GCSE Art and Design – Grade: E
GCSE Science – Grade: C
GCSE Additional Science – Grade: B
GCSE Computing – Grade: D
GCSE Health and Social Care – Grade: A
GCSE Religious Studies – Grade: B
It has always been my dream to become a doctor, but have always thought I was never good enough due to being dyslexic. I have been working as a nurse for around 9 months now and have realised that I could do more to help people. Becoming a doctor is all I want to be. I have contacted two universities who have told me that my degree isn't a high enough grade and that my GCSEs are too low to get on the postgrad course.
I honestly don't know what to do. I was wondering if anyone has any advice or guidance on how I can get onto a medicine course.
I also have:
NCFE CACHE Technical Level 3 Certificate in Health and Social Care – Grade: B
NCFE CACHE Technical Level 3 Certificate in Health and Social Care – Grade: B
BCS Level 2 ECDL Certificate in IT Application Skills (QCF)- Grade Merit
GCSEs:
GCSE Mathematics – Grade: 5
GCSE English Language – Grade: 5
GCSE English Literature – Grade: 5
GCSE History – Grade: C
GCSE Art and Design – Grade: E
GCSE Science – Grade: C
GCSE Additional Science – Grade: B
GCSE Computing – Grade: D
GCSE Health and Social Care – Grade: A
GCSE Religious Studies – Grade: B
It has always been my dream to become a doctor, but have always thought I was never good enough due to being dyslexic. I have been working as a nurse for around 9 months now and have realised that I could do more to help people. Becoming a doctor is all I want to be. I have contacted two universities who have told me that my degree isn't a high enough grade and that my GCSEs are too low to get on the postgrad course.
I honestly don't know what to do. I was wondering if anyone has any advice or guidance on how I can get onto a medicine course.
Hey there, thanks for posting a question in the Medicine forum. 
The Medicine forum gets a high volume of questions being posted, and some of these are already answered by the resources and Megathreads that members of the community and volunteers have created. This is an automatic post which is designed to highlight these resources. Below is a list of threads and articles that could answer your question (you should be looking in the original post of the megathreads). If one of the below threads is a more relevant place to ask your question, please post a reply in that thread to ask your question. If your query is answered by one of the Megathreads or articles linked below, and you would like us to close this thread for you, please reply to this thread with just the words "thank you". A member of our team will then get it locked.
Megathreads
(Please read the first post, before then posting any further questions you have within that thread.)
The "Which Medical School Should I Apply To?" Uberthread
The Ultimate 'Am I Good Enough For Medicine?' Angst Thread
Medicine A-Level subjects queries
Work Experience and Voluntary Work
2023 Applicants:
Official Undergraduate Medicine 2023 Entry
Graduate Entry Medicine 2023 Entry
Medicine 2023 entry for resit / retake / gap year applicants
A100 Medicine for International Students 2023 Entry
Medicine Interview discussion 2023 Entry
2023 entry A100 / A101 Medicine fastest and slowest offer senders
Index of Individual Medical School Applicants' threads 2023 Entry
2024 Applicants :
Official Undergraduate Medicine 2024 Entry
Graduate Entry Medicine 2024 Entry
GAMSAT 2024 / 2025 entry discussions megathread
UCAT 2024 Entry Discussions Megathread
Other application years:
Graduate Entry Medicine 2025 Entry
Official Undergraduate Medicine 2025 Entry
Useful Articles:
GCSE Requirements for Medicine
Everything you need to know about the BMAT
Work Experience as a Graduate or Mature student
Medicine Personal Statement Advice
Medicine Personal Statement Advice (Graduate Entry)
Interview Frequently Asked Questions
MMI Medicine Interview Tips
What to do after an unsuccessful first application
If your query is answered by one of the Megathreads or articles linked above, and you would like us to close this thread for you, please reply to this thread with just the words "thank you". A member of our team will then get it locked.
The Medicine forum gets a high volume of questions being posted, and some of these are already answered by the resources and Megathreads that members of the community and volunteers have created. This is an automatic post which is designed to highlight these resources. Below is a list of threads and articles that could answer your question (you should be looking in the original post of the megathreads). If one of the below threads is a more relevant place to ask your question, please post a reply in that thread to ask your question. If your query is answered by one of the Megathreads or articles linked below, and you would like us to close this thread for you, please reply to this thread with just the words "thank you". A member of our team will then get it locked.
Megathreads
(Please read the first post, before then posting any further questions you have within that thread.)
The "Which Medical School Should I Apply To?" Uberthread
The Ultimate 'Am I Good Enough For Medicine?' Angst Thread
Medicine A-Level subjects queries
Work Experience and Voluntary Work
2023 Applicants:
Official Undergraduate Medicine 2023 Entry
Graduate Entry Medicine 2023 Entry
Medicine 2023 entry for resit / retake / gap year applicants
A100 Medicine for International Students 2023 Entry
Medicine Interview discussion 2023 Entry
2023 entry A100 / A101 Medicine fastest and slowest offer senders
Index of Individual Medical School Applicants' threads 2023 Entry
2024 Applicants :
Official Undergraduate Medicine 2024 Entry
Graduate Entry Medicine 2024 Entry
GAMSAT 2024 / 2025 entry discussions megathread
UCAT 2024 Entry Discussions Megathread
Other application years:
Graduate Entry Medicine 2025 Entry
Official Undergraduate Medicine 2025 Entry
Useful Articles:
GCSE Requirements for Medicine
Everything you need to know about the BMAT
Work Experience as a Graduate or Mature student
Medicine Personal Statement Advice
Medicine Personal Statement Advice (Graduate Entry)
Interview Frequently Asked Questions
MMI Medicine Interview Tips
What to do after an unsuccessful first application
If your query is answered by one of the Megathreads or articles linked above, and you would like us to close this thread for you, please reply to this thread with just the words "thank you". A member of our team will then get it locked.
Hi there,
Graduate entry Medicine is incredibly tough to get into. Competition can run into literal dozens of applicants per place so the entry requirements are very high. I'm sorry but I think your application would be doomed to fail at this stage because you got a 3rd class in your degree. I don't know exhaustively the entry requirements of all GEM courses but I think all of them demand at least a 2:1 classification, which is kind of a fib because most people who will get an offer will have a first in their degree. So you're sort of doomed in that regard.
The only place I can think of that doesn't ask of this is Newcastle, when it comes to healthcare professionals. But they require you to have been working for three years post-registration so you'd need to wait two more years.
For all other places, other than your degree, you'll also need A-Levels (the requirements tend to be lower than for standard entry to Medicine).
None of this leaves you in a particularly good place to apply to Medicine. So if I were you, I'd get in touch with all the universities that offer graduate entry medicine to ask them if doing and getting a high grade in, say, a Masters, could alleviate your 3rd class degree classification. Sitting A-Levels will also probably be a must if you wish to apply to other places apart from Newcastle. In fact, if you can get AAA or above in Chemistry, Biology and a third subject of your choosing, I believe you'd be able to apply to standard entry Medicine without worrying too much about your degree classification - but again, I'd ask universities to make sure. The disadvantage of doing standard entry medicine as a second degree is that you're left ever so slightly economically ruined due to a near total and complete lack of government support. But if you can afford it, it may be worth a thought.
Graduate entry Medicine is incredibly tough to get into. Competition can run into literal dozens of applicants per place so the entry requirements are very high. I'm sorry but I think your application would be doomed to fail at this stage because you got a 3rd class in your degree. I don't know exhaustively the entry requirements of all GEM courses but I think all of them demand at least a 2:1 classification, which is kind of a fib because most people who will get an offer will have a first in their degree. So you're sort of doomed in that regard.
The only place I can think of that doesn't ask of this is Newcastle, when it comes to healthcare professionals. But they require you to have been working for three years post-registration so you'd need to wait two more years.
For all other places, other than your degree, you'll also need A-Levels (the requirements tend to be lower than for standard entry to Medicine).
None of this leaves you in a particularly good place to apply to Medicine. So if I were you, I'd get in touch with all the universities that offer graduate entry medicine to ask them if doing and getting a high grade in, say, a Masters, could alleviate your 3rd class degree classification. Sitting A-Levels will also probably be a must if you wish to apply to other places apart from Newcastle. In fact, if you can get AAA or above in Chemistry, Biology and a third subject of your choosing, I believe you'd be able to apply to standard entry Medicine without worrying too much about your degree classification - but again, I'd ask universities to make sure. The disadvantage of doing standard entry medicine as a second degree is that you're left ever so slightly economically ruined due to a near total and complete lack of government support. But if you can afford it, it may be worth a thought.
On TSR I've seen quite a lot of people with weak/no A-levels and below average GCSEs asking if any medical school would accept them. They seem to assume that their only problem is getting in, and once they get there they will be fine. It's much rarer to get someone with a weak academic record wondering if they could manage the degree itself, and to be honest, I think that's one of two main questions you need to be asking yourself here. Graduating with a third in your nursing degree suggests that you found the academic side of it a struggle. Realistically, what are you expecting to be different about medicine? Graduate entry medicine is particularly intense, because all the teaching has been condensed into a shorter time frame. Rather than asking universities if they will waive their entry requirements, you need to be thinking if and how you would cope with that.
The second big question you need to ask yourself is why you want to do medicine. Even if you had a perfect academic record, telling GEM interviewers that you're applying because you've "realised you could do more to help people" would be a certain way to get rejected. All healthcare jobs involve helping people, and there is no hierarchy of helpfulness. I think you're making the mistake of assuming that the more intellectually difficult something is, the more morally/socially worthwhile it must be, and this isn't the case. Thinking about it from a patient perspective, one of my most unpleasant hospital memories is temporarily losing continence and having to be cleaned up by the HCA. Hardly the most glamorous job, but an essential one, and that person sticks out in my memory because she was kind to me at a time when I felt terrible. So "wanting to help people more" isn't a sound reason to pursue medicine on its own. Wanting to understand physiological processes in depth and to critically apply this understanding to problems that can be very nebulous and fast-changing would be a better reason, but this brings you back to the academic requirements, and whether an intense four-year course with heavy science content would bring out the best in you.
To be honest it sounds from your post that you're romanticising medicine, perhaps because you've taught yourself to see nursing as second best when it's just a different job. In your situation I'd be looking around at the various roles and specialisations that exist within nursing, and thinking about how you'd like to progress there. If your idea of yourself as a nurse is "not good enough to be a doctor", you're setting yourself up to feel unhappy and inadequate in your career, but you can create a positive identity for yourself in nursing that's all about what you can do and what you enjoy doing.
The second big question you need to ask yourself is why you want to do medicine. Even if you had a perfect academic record, telling GEM interviewers that you're applying because you've "realised you could do more to help people" would be a certain way to get rejected. All healthcare jobs involve helping people, and there is no hierarchy of helpfulness. I think you're making the mistake of assuming that the more intellectually difficult something is, the more morally/socially worthwhile it must be, and this isn't the case. Thinking about it from a patient perspective, one of my most unpleasant hospital memories is temporarily losing continence and having to be cleaned up by the HCA. Hardly the most glamorous job, but an essential one, and that person sticks out in my memory because she was kind to me at a time when I felt terrible. So "wanting to help people more" isn't a sound reason to pursue medicine on its own. Wanting to understand physiological processes in depth and to critically apply this understanding to problems that can be very nebulous and fast-changing would be a better reason, but this brings you back to the academic requirements, and whether an intense four-year course with heavy science content would bring out the best in you.
To be honest it sounds from your post that you're romanticising medicine, perhaps because you've taught yourself to see nursing as second best when it's just a different job. In your situation I'd be looking around at the various roles and specialisations that exist within nursing, and thinking about how you'd like to progress there. If your idea of yourself as a nurse is "not good enough to be a doctor", you're setting yourself up to feel unhappy and inadequate in your career, but you can create a positive identity for yourself in nursing that's all about what you can do and what you enjoy doing.
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