Could I get all rejections?

There is no such thing as a Medicine insurance.
Apart from your fifth choice- biomed, clinical science...ect.ect.

There is no such thing as a Medicine insurance.
Apart from your fifth choice- biomed, clinical science...ect.ect.

Poor thing. You sound like a worrier. It sounds very very unlikely, but don't worry it's not the end of the world even if you do get rejections, there are other things you can do. Best of luck!

The main problem with medicine is how completely different the criteria are for entry compared to the other, traditionally academic subjects.

You could have the best grades at your entire college, a 850 on the UKCAT and 8, 8, 5A on the BMAT, and still be rejected, because you might not have the ideal amount of work experience/ voluntary work for that medical school, or because you slipped up in the interview a little bit.

Compare that to say, Physics or Maths. You have the best grades at your college, an S on STEP I, II and III, and you managed to solve some relatively trivial questions at your Oxbridge interview, and they'll be knocking over chairs to accept you.

It's an inevitability (unless you're either super lucky or super amazing in every regard) that you will get SOME rejections. The important thing is that you get one. If you get one, you've already bucked the trend.

wrong.

if you got 850 on the UKCAT and applied to UKCAT whore unis then they will beg you to come. Also you would not get rejected with 8, 8, 5A on the BMAT especially from some of the larger cambridge colleges who base a lot of their decision on the BMAT.

But if you don't apply smart, then it doesn't mean your excellent scores will be appreciated. Even then, if you had no work experience, you wouldn't have a chance, no matter what your scores.

You can get all rejections, its part of the process.

maybe if you didn't apply smart. But i think oxbridge would forgive you for not having work experience if you had an awesome BMAT like that.

Best friend got 11 A*s at GCSE, and is predicted 3 A*s at A-level. She got a UKCAT score in the 720's (can't remember exactly what), but she has been rejected from all her universities.

It's just one of those things unfortunately.

But if you don't apply smart, then it doesn't mean your excellent scores will be appreciated. Even then, if you had no work experience, you wouldn't have a chance, no matter what your scores.

You can get all rejections, its part of the process.

wrong.

if you got 850 on the UKCAT and applied to UKCAT whore unis then they will beg you to come. Also you would not get rejected with 8, 8, 5A on the BMAT especially from some of the larger cambridge colleges who base a lot of their decision on the BMAT.

dunno i'm sure someone who gets 8,8 would think of something. I only say this because after emailing some cambridge colleges I get the feeling they basically only care about AS UMS, interview and BMAT (and in some cases I believe a strong BMAT would compensate for a weak interview)

It is not "very very unlikely" medicine is a competitive subject, loads of people get 4 rejections no matter how awesome their grades are. Why give false hope?

Best friend got 11 A*s at GCSE, and is predicted 3 A*s at A-level. She got a UKCAT score in the 720's (can't remember exactly what), but she has been rejected from all her universities.

It's just one of those things unfortunately.

I'm not a medic, so I won't be as informed as others on this thread, but I think that the comparison made between medicine and maths was not fair. The point the poster was making was that if you had 10 A*s, bio and chem (+ 3rd science if applying to Cambridge) at A(*)A(*)A(*), relevant work experience, 850 UKCAT and 21 BMAT, you could be rejected by having a bad interview and/or applying to the wrong universities, whereas if you had those other conditions you would definitely get into maths at Cambridge. Like I said, this isn't a fair comparison to make.

First of all, the maths applicant has applied to the right university, Cambridge, whereas the assumption is that the medic has not. Whether you have SSS for maths, or 995 in the BMAT for medicine, they would both put you in an equally excellent position, IF applying to Cambridge. Obviously if you apply to uni who ignores UKCAT/BMAT, outstanding scores won't boost your chances, but then the same could be said for maths. Oxford don't look at STEP.

The second possibility for four rejections is that the med applicant has weak interviews and fails to sell himself as med student. A maths student who failed to sell himself through the PS and any interviews would also get rejections.

Medicine is a tough subject to get a place for no doubt. It is the subject with arguably the largest set of admissions criteria. Since it doesn't matter which med school you go to, the key is knowing which schools to apply to based on your strengths and weaknesses. What I disagree with is the suggestion that it is the only subject where you can get five rejections. For example, if you apply for economics, my subject, and go for the top 5 or 6 universities (the ones which I would say are on par with medicine in terms of general prospects), it is very easy to get rejections for small things, since they have 15-20 applicants per place.