Medics and Applicants Profiles: Discussion

so this is what a failed application looks like:

IB 40-41 points HL: Math[7], Chem[7], Bio[7], Econ[6]; SL: English[5], Swedish [6]

Work Experience/Volunteering:
4 weeks hospital
assistant teacher for ESL 10 year olds
teaching english to orphans [sundays for 3 months]
[[Ronald McDonald house [play-therapy thing] (wrote about it in PS, but started after application was sent off)]]
Charity - Make Poverty History

Wow, thats a real strong application.
Hurts to see that you were 1 place away from offer. That said, many people here dont have an application as good as yours but still got in . Thats probably down to other important factors aswell.

yaay finally some IB marks i can (try) and relate to
edinburgh is one of the places im thinking of but they seem so hard to get into!

i really need to start bucking up some ideas on work experience...

yes i agree- i see so many people who lets face it dont have a good UKCAT- and apply to places like Nottingham, Sheffield, Edinburgh. There is no point saying 'you still stand a good chance, its still an avergae score'- people have to face reality. Thats what i did, my UKCAT was poor so i specifically did not select those unis eventhough i loved Edinburgh. My AS weren't amazing so i selected unis that didn't put a hige emphasis on them.I think people just fall in love with a place so much they forget that 1000s of other people are applying and then dont understand why they have been rejected.

How do you know though? I've been looking on the uni sites, but none of them actually state where their emphasis is, just that it's a requirement for any medical applicants to take either UKCAT or BMAT (depending on which Uni) and if UCAS application successful you'll be offered an interview and they elaborate a bit more on what they're looking for in an interview. I haven't really seen any divulge in to aspects of an application that are most important though.

Year of Entry:2009
Deferred?:Nope
GCSEs:1A* 6.5 A 2 B 1.5 C
AS Grades: AABCD
A2 Prediction/Results: ABB
Previous Degree (if applicable):N/A
UKCAT (if applicable):610 =[
BMAT (if applicable):N/A
Work Experience/Volunteering:1 week cardiac unit at local hospital, one week local gp surgery, 2 months voluntary work at local hospital, first aid qualified, experience applying first aid in real situations.
Extra Curricular: Martial arts, Gym prefect
Universities applied to and decisions:

Kings College London: Rejected w/o interview
Barts: Rejected w/o interview - UKCAT
St George's: Rejected w/o interview - Grades
Peninsula: Rejected w/o interview - grades & ukcat :s

taking a gap year to reapply 2010

Why did you apply with A2 predictions lower than the entry requirements?

because i'd already decided on a gap year, but for many long and convoluted reasons, needed to put an application in anyway.

Ok. Are you resitting or doing graduate entry?

Ok. Are you resitting or doing graduate entry?

yes you do.

i screwed up interviews... meh. but yes have you seen my lovely table of IB grade requirements?

CLICKY

(:

yeah it rather annoys me when people shout about their average grades then go on to state they recieved A's and B's

Profile of a less-than-average student with a low UKCAT, 4 days of work observation (not experience!) and predicted grades of ABB at the time of applying to study Medicine!

GCSEs: 8 A*'s, 1 A, 1 B

Universities applied to and decisions: In order of preference when I applied: (for Medicine)
Leicester University: Rejected... probably due to my low UKCAT result. I had an interview, which I thought went pretty well.

[ADVICE: Don't look at the candidate profiles and look at their grades... normally, the grades don't count as much as the rest of your application does (obviously depending on where u apply). Make sure your application/personal statement is checked over by at least five different people - including teachers, careers advisors, and even the companies where u pay money to get ur statement checked.

Your obvious academic strength, and evident lack of extra curriculars would seem to indicate:

- Oxford are grade whores.
- The other 3 are interested in more than grades.

Nothing unexpected...

I'm quite confused as to what UCL are looking for as they gave maze.e a place and not Star_struck, yet Star_struck's grades seem to be a bit higher and you both have similar extra curricular stuff.

I'm quite confused as to what UCL are looking for as they gave maze.e a place and not Star_struck, yet Star_struck's grades seem to be a bit higher and you both have similar extra curricular stuff.