Post-grad entry. Am I a lost cause?

According to the Medical Schools Council, there are 15 unis offering accelerated 4 year graduate entry medicine courses, so it shouldn't take too long to double check - they provide the links:
http://www.medschools.ac.uk/Students/Courses/Pages/Graduate.aspx

Looking at the first on the list - Barts - entry requirements are:

■Only your first undergraduate degree will be considered for entry.
■You can only apply in or after the final year of your degree and must be predicted or have achieved at least an upper second class honours degree in a science/health related subject.
■Either, there must have been a significant component of Biology and Chemistry in your degree programme, at least equivalent to AS level and both must be approved prior to application by the Admissions Office.
■Or, you must have achieved grades of at least BB in A-level Biology and Chemistry prior to starting your degree or you must be completing or have completed AS levels in Chemistry and Biology and be predicted/have achieved B grades in both.

http://www.smd.qmul.ac.uk/undergraduate/courses/medicine/A101/index.html

This means that an undergrad degree in History won't be appropriate. To get past that, you'd need Biology *and* Chemistry A Levels at grade B or over, which you won't have unless you do Chemistry later. Even that might not trump the requirement for a degree in a science/health-related subject. Looks like it's more subtle than just your undergrad degree result.

It's worth investigating each of the unis listed by the MSC, as there might be some which are a better fit for your academic profile. Where you did your undergrad degree is unlikely to be a factor.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 3

EloiseStar

OP

Original post by HCubed

Shouldn't be a problem - keep a close eye on him, make sure he is eating and pooing as normal, and feel his abdomen regularly. If he tenses when you feel it go to the vet. Incidentally nearly all vets have an out of hours arrangement, sometimes with the PDSA.

LOL what?

Reply 4

skumgummi

1

Original post by HCubed

Shouldn't be a problem - keep a close eye on him, make sure he is eating and pooing as normal, and feel his abdomen regularly. If he tenses when you feel it go to the vet. Incidentally nearly all vets have an out of hours arrangement, sometimes with the PDSA.

hahahha wrong thread buddy. This isn't the condom eating dog thread :smile:

Reply 5

Original post by EloiseStar

Hi,

At the end of this school year if thing go well I could be leaving with AAC (English, History and Biology). I'm hoping to study History at univeristy mainly because it is something I am interested in and it will open up a lot of doors for me.

However, in the back of my mind I keep thinking that I want to go on to do medicine at PG entry. If I graduate with a first(being optimistic) or a 2:1 would I have a chance at getting an interview? I'm hoping to pick up some work experience over the next three years, starting this summer.

Will it matter that I haven't gone to a Russell or 94 group univeristy?

Having just completed my graduate entry UCAS cycles I hope I can offer you a bit of hope. The first thing to do will be to find the universities that don't mind which subject you have done at University, as those that do will no doubt want some kind of life sciences. The second thing will be to find those that have no A level requirements that you don't meet; I know that all seems patronisingly obvious but if you choose the right uni's to apply to you will have as good a chance as anyone.

From my memory (of where I applied), Warwick would be a really good bet they only want a 2:1 (and couldn't care less if you have a 1st/2:1) from any degree and don't look at A levels or GCSE's so that would be a great option for you.

At graduate entry the UKCAT (or GAMSAT depending on where you apply) is often a huge factor for interview (although Warwick have changed the policy somewhat), although this is depressing if you don't do well, if you get a high score (high 600's, 700 +) you suddenly have a really strong application.

Obviously work experience at graduate level is key and ideally the will want to seen some kind of care in the community, voluntary/paid whatever, although people certainly get in with all kinds of backgrounds. Also like you say some kind of shadowing would be ideal, overall you simply need to have some experience and in your PS demonstrate exactly what you learnt from it and why it makes you suit bale for medicine (2 pieces of w/e well discussed in terms of skills learnt and how it prepares you is infinitely better than a vague list of 10+ pieces of w/e).

Sorry for the essay but in summary:

1). Apply to the Uni's that don't care about a degree not that ones you just like even though you don't meet the entry requirements.

2). Try and get a really good UKCAT score as it will definitely help.

3). Get some good work experience and discuss it in a meaningful way in your PS

4). Send it off, fingers crossed and good luck :biggrin:

Hope this helps :smile:

Reply 6

Original post by EloiseStar

Hi,

At the end of this school year if thing go well I could be leaving with AAC (English, History and Biology). I'm hoping to study History at univeristy mainly because it is something I am interested in and it will open up a lot of doors for me.

However, in the back of my mind I keep thinking that I want to go on to do medicine at PG entry. If I graduate with a first(being optimistic) or a 2:1 would I have a chance at getting an interview? I'm hoping to pick up some work experience over the next three years, starting this summer.

Will it matter that I haven't gone to a Russell or 94 group univeristy?

Hey!

I can appreciate you want to study something else first, and there's nothing wrong with doing so :smile:

Your A-levels are good; you're certainly not a lost cause! There are a few considerations you need to think about, though:

A) Graduate medicine is far more competitive, so you'll likely have to do a lot more voluntary work and score better on either the UKCAT or GAMSAT, and;

B) It's more expensive; you'll already be in debt from the previous degree, and you're going to end up having to fund the first >£3500 of the course in the first year. SF will give you a loan for the rest, but you're obviously going to come out of the course with around £50,000 of debt you'll need to pay back. If finances aren't an issue for you then great, ignore this :smile:

NB: With the above considered, are you sure you're not willing to forego history and apply for a foundation undergraduate course? (A106) This would be cheaper and probably easier than getting into GEM. If you're really set on the idea, then continue :smile:

C) You only have biology at A-level. This isn't an application killer, you just need to apply wisely as some courses require either AS/A-level chemistry, or chemistry as part of your undergraduate course. Hence if you did apply, you'd need to look at courses which are open to non-science backgrounds. You can find all that sort of information here: http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/Graduate_Entry_Medicine_-_a_guide

Luckily some of the big schools are okay with that, e.g. Warwick (the largest GEM course in the country) accept applications from anyone, assuming you score about >675 on the UKCAT. If you're willing to learn A-level chemistry, biology and physics (with some English Language, though I suspect you're already okay at that!) you can use the GAMSAT schools: Nottingham, Swansea, SGUL.

NB: For UKCAT courses you'll usually be expected to attain a 2:1 in your degree. For GAMSAT, they'll accept a 2:2 at Nottingham and SGUL assuming you score well on it, though sometimes the cut-off for the exam will be higher as result.

Good luck!

Reply 7

Original post by JumpingJonny

At graduate entry the UKCAT (or GAMSAT depending on where you apply) is often a huge factor for interview (although Warwick have changed the policy somewhat), although this is depressing if you don't do well, if you get a high score (high 600's, 700 +) you suddenly have a really strong application.

Could you clarify that bit? :smile:

I wasn't aware they took it less into consideration these days?

Reply 8

Original post by MattKneale

Could you clarify that bit? :smile:

I wasn't aware they took it less into consideration these days?

I can't say officially as this is purely from seeing the applications from this cycle, but the cut off style system (like 680 or something last year?) didn't seem to take as much effect this year. As some people with massive scores got rejected (obviously PS etc) and some people had a shot with lower scores. It seems like this year they used it more 50:50 with the PS rather than as an ultimate cut off. Again, this is just an observation (and I seem to remember reading it somewhere) so it may be speculation and you would still need a decent score :smile:

Having typed it out I realised how vague and speculative that was :p:

sorry

Reply 9

EloiseStar

OP

Original post by JumpingJonny

awesomess in essay

Original post by MattKneale

Awesomeness in essay

Thank you! I really appreciate it!

Reply 10

Original post by EloiseStar

Thank you! I really appreciate it!

Good luck, 3 years is more than enough time to get some good work experience and in a strange way having done history and explaining why you want to do med could make your PS really interesting/stand out :smile:

See you on here in 3 years time :p:

Reply 11

Original post by JumpingJonny

I can't say officially as this is purely from seeing the applications from this cycle, but the cut off style system (like 680 or something last year?) didn't seem to take as much effect this year. As some people with massive scores got rejected (obviously PS etc) and some people had a shot with lower scores. It seems like this year they used it more 50:50 with the PS rather than as an ultimate cut off. Again, this is just an observation (and I seem to remember reading it somewhere) so it may be speculation and you would still need a decent score :smile:

Having typed it out I realised how vague and speculative that was :p:

sorry

Ahh okay, well I hope that is the case for 2014 entry but we'll see! Did you get the offer in the end? :smile:

Reply 12

Original post by MattKneale

Ahh okay, well I hope that is the case for 2014 entry but we'll see! Did you get the offer in the end? :smile:

Yeah hopefully although (if I remember correctly you had issues with your UKCAT?) hopefully you'll breeze the UKCAT this year with no interruptions :smile:

Yeah someone somewhere made a mistake as I got 3 offers :p:

Barts, King's and Warwick so get to make a choice (god knows how that happened), hopefully you'll be in the same position next year, good luck! (not that you need it you seem to know everything about the process :p:

)

Reply 13

Original post by JumpingJonny

Yeah hopefully although (if I remember correctly you had issues with your UKCAT?) hopefully you'll breeze the UKCAT this year with no interruptions :smile:

Yeah someone somewhere made a mistake as I got 3 offers :p:

Barts, King's and Warwick so get to make a choice (god knows how that happened), hopefully you'll be in the same position next year, good luck! (not that you need it you seem to know everything about the process :p:

)

Haha aye, I'm over whining about last year and just trying to hammer out this summer with different voluntary work and UKCAT/GAMSAT revision. Fingers crossed!

Good luck making the tough decision on which of those to firm :P any ideas?

Reply 14

HCubed

13

Original post by HCubed

Shouldn't be a problem - keep a close eye on him, make sure he is eating and pooing as normal, and feel his abdomen regularly. If he tenses when you feel it go to the vet. Incidentally nearly all vets have an out of hours arrangement, sometimes with the PDSA.

OOps not sure how that finishd up in this thread - should be in teh "my dog swallowed a condon thread"!!!! Mods can you remove?

Reply 15

Original post by MattKneale

Haha aye, I'm over whining about last year and just trying to hammer out this summer with different voluntary work and UKCAT/GAMSAT revision. Fingers crossed!

Good luck making the tough decision on which of those to firm :P any ideas?

Yeah I think another year always helps, especially with writing an awesome PS, also being able to do the tests again hopefully you'll have a bit of a heads upo as to how they are :smile:

Yeah I really didn't think I'd me in this position, it's great to have but it really is tough, I'm really choosing between KCL and Barts and currently swinging towards KCL; although that might be because I've been to their open day and not the barts one yet :p:

Reply 16