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What to do if you don't get into medical school
From The Student RoomTSR Wiki > University > Choosing a Subject > Medicine > What to do if you don't get into medical school You have just found out that you haven’t got into medical school. This may be because you have been turned down from all four of your applications or it may be because you have missed your grades on results day. This can feel like the end of the world but it doesn’t have to be. This article will go through the options that you have should you decide that medicine is still what you want to do.
You haven’t got any offers:This is probably the best situation that you can be in. You need to work hard to get the best grades you can. Another thing that it might be useful for you to do is to contact the medical schools that turned you down and see if you can get some feedback. This might not always be possible but it is worth a try. It also is worth asking them at the same time whether they will accept a reapplication from you as some medical schools won’t if you have been turned down after interview. During the summer holidays after your exams is might also be worth organising some extra work experience, volunteering work or activities so that you can improve your personal statement. It is important that you don’t allow doing this to impact upon your studies though because getting the best grades that you can is important. Start writing your personal statement as early as you can and make sure you get as many opinions on it as you can. It might also be worth making use of the TSR personal statement checking forum which can be found here. Make sure you choose your universities carefully as you will now know what grades you have and what your UKcat score is so make sure that you don’t choose a medical schools that is out of your reach. You failed to make your gradesIf on results day you opened your results envelope to find that your results weren’t what you had hoped they would be it can be a difficult time. You have to make some hard decisions about what you want to do now. The most important thing is that you realise that this isn’t the end of the world and you do still have options which will get you into medical school. ResittingResitting your final year of A2 is the most obvious option for you. But there are things that you should consider. Are you going to be able to get the grades that you need if you resit? This is a hard question to answer but if you have got BBC in your A2’s are you going to be capable of getting AAB or AAA if you resit? If you have decided to resit the first thing that you should do is to find out which universities will consider you as a resit student and if so what are the grades that you are going to need to get. There are medical schools out there who either don’t consider resit students or who insist you get AAA. So make sure that you apply to universities whose conditions you make. It is also important that you do all you can to produce the best personal statement that you can. Organise some extra work experience or activities if you can before you submit your personal statement. Make sure that you have it checked the personal statement checking forum on TSR is located here. Applying for another courseYou may decide that resitting isn’t the right option for you and you want to go and do another degree at university and then apply to medicine as a graduate. While this is a good option it is important to be aware that applying as a graduate is much more competitive that applying as an undergraduate. If you have decided that you want to apply as a graduate you now have to decide which course you would like to do as your first degree. While it can be tempting to apply to courses like Biomedical sciences this isn’t always the best option as many people on these courses will be wanting to apply to medical school after graduation. It can be worth looking a courses like anatomy, pharmacology or physiology which are more loosely associated to medicine and so might make you stand out slightly more. While doing your degree you should try and undertake as much work experience as you can as well as some long term volunteer work to strengthen your application. It is also worth getting involved in extra curricular activities that interest you as this will come across in your personal statement. When you are in you penultimate year you need to consider which universities you want to apply to. While it can be tempting to apply to all graduate four year courses these are usually very competitive so it is worth also looking in to which undergraduate medical schools are graduate friendly. It is probably worth applying to no more that two graduate courses. You will also need to start thinking about your personal statement as early as possible, make good use of any support that your university will give you with this and also make use of the TSR personal statement checking forum here. While the graduate route does take longer you will still hopefully reach your goal of going to medical school. It is important that you choose a subject which you find interesting as this will increase your chances of both having three years that you enjoy and doing well in your degree. It is important that you aim for at least a 2.1 hopefully a first in your degree to give you the best chance of success. TransferringThere are courses at university where you can apply to transfer from the first year of a degree to the second year of medical school. This is an option but these transfers are usually only for a few applicants and are very competitive. It is important that you consider whether you would be willing to carry on with the degree if you weren’t one of the people who is accepted to transfer. Below is a list of some of the courses that will allow you to apply to transfer.
Final ThoughtsNot getting into medical can be a hard time for you but it is important to remember that you have time to consider what you the right move for you is. Make sure that you take your time and think carefully. TSR has a medicine subforum where there are current medical students who will help you with any queries that you have. Good Luck. All Medicine Articles
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