St. Andrews Medical School Applicants 2012

I'm not sure if A* predictions give you much more of an advantage though, I know they don't at most unis, but I guess it's a competition and any little advantage helps...

I'm an offer holder and I applied with A*A*A predictions. I keep hearing that St A really like achieved grades, but I got in, and a few other english first timers did, so it's perfectly possible to get in with just predicted grades.

I don't think predictions will make or break your application, so long as you get AAA, I think for St A I'd actually be more concerned over GCSEs and UKCAT.

ohhh i wasnt aware that ranking could affect specialty applications! although everything might have changed by the time i get there

are the st andrews students actually integrated into the manchester med school, mixing with the other students, or do they tend to keep to themselves?

the whole, 2 degrees, 2 unis, 2 experiences, is really appealing to me atm

Finally firmed St Andrews! Eeek exciting times

Wooooo, wow really happy for you!! You're basically a St Andrews Medical Student now

Aww thank youuu! It confused me that I got a notification of you posting in this thread, it's like you're treading on alien ground! haha

I'm just curious, are there still people waiting for offers, or have they all been given out?

I received the offer through email and UCAS track update. Should I receive an offical package by mail soon? How can I firm the offer?

I received the offer through email and UCAS track update. Should I receive an offical package by mail soon? How can I firm the offer?

I received the offer through email and UCAS track update. Should I receive an offical package by mail soon? How can I firm the offer?

The overall rank of st andrews is 3rd, compared to KCL which is lower than 15th or so... Not that it would matter much on your CV for your FY years, but it might matter when applying for your specialty.

I am thinking about firming St Andrews, and to be honest I'm probably going to end up choosing it in the end!

But if, like you say, the ranking affects your application for specialty training, then wouldn't they consider the ranking for medicine, not the university as a whole? St Andrews as a university does rank third in the UK which is great, but their medicine course rarely ranks highly when compared to KCL.

Don't get me wrong, I love St Andrews and as I say, I'm probably going to end up going... but just a thought to consider!

I got a letter from them with an information booklet about St A, which also contained information about visit days, you should get one soon after your offer, but they send them to every person they offer, so it could be quite a while before you get it. I firmed them as soon as I got my offer, but they still sent it, so it doesn't matter if you've firmed you'll still get it.

Oh yeah. you do have a point. haha...

Well it depends on what the people want to see when you apply for specialty. I know it doesn't matter for FY, but at specialty they want so many stuff from you (especially if you aim for surgery). Some people might look at rank, but I think it's important to see what you did in uni. For surgery, dissections will look good compared to a uni where you did no dissection and very little anatomy.

I only looked up a bit into surgery because that's what interests me. And I know it's a good idea to have a nice full CV.

But don't choose your uni based on ranks anyways. Yes, a good rank makes us St. Andrews students feel proud of our university, but I think all UK med schools offer quality teaching. Ranking is just a bonus

Seriously don't choose your uni according to rank. It was more like a joke, rather than a serious point to consider

I completely agree with you, after all, every course is approved by GMC so it would make sense for them to base their decision on the "extra" things that make an applicant stand out for specialty training.

I am interested in surgery at the moment (but I know I will change my mind!!) and that's why I think St Andrews will be really good - to have that extensive scientific knowledge that is unrivalled at other med schools.

I only have one concern about St Andrews though: the clinical contact. I was wondering if you could share your thoughts on this?

I don't know if this will make sense to other reading but I know what I mean haha... I want to go to uni and feel like a medical student, not feel like a science student. What I mean is, the science stuff is vital and one of the reasons medicine attracted me (as is the case for everyone) but I don't want it to come at the expense of a very limited clinical experience. Is this the case at St Andrews?

To tell you the truth, I'm very happy with the clinical experience we have at the moment. In the first year we didn't go to any hospital, but we do have clinical skills classes, along with real and simulated patients (for communication skills). We also have clinical lectures. i.e. we studied upper limb, so we had a consultant come and talk about cases of upper limb injuries etc.

From second year, we will be able to go on GP attachments etc and see real patients, so there will be a bit more clinic into that.

Before coming to uni i worked in the emergency department for 2 weeks, which does not seem a lot, but with 12 h day and night shifts, I did get to see many patients. For the last 2 summer I shadowed a doctor who works both as a GP and as an ultrasound specialist (I did 2 ultrasounds myself as well). By the time I did this WE, I had pretty advanced anatomy knowldege for a highschool student (as an example I knew all the anatomy of the first semester at uni... and I know bits of stuff from 3rd year anatomy). So it's not like I didn't know anything when I did all that work experience. Yet, honestly, I didn't understand much. In the emergency department, I did the nurse jobs - using the monitors, ECGs etc. But besides the physical part of the job, I couldn't understand a thing.

My opinion is that, if you put me in a hospital now I'd probably understand nothing of it because I do not have enough understanding of anatomy, physiology and pathology to know what's going on with the patient. So I'd again end up doing practical hands on jobs with no understand of the results.

So I'm glad with the way we approach medicine here.

On the other hand, people like polldoll will have different opinions. She's a trained nurse and she likes the clinical part of medicine, so she misses clinical involvement. But I thinks he has the advantage of 3 years of nurse school and some more years in her career, so she did see loads of cases compared to a school leaver.

Each student will have a different opinion. From my past experience, I think st andrews does the right thing to take it slow on the clinical side as long as we can't make sense of it anyway.