Nottingham A100 2015 Entry

Original post by 786687

if they both have the same offer requirements what's the point of not withdrawing and essentially giving your place to someone else?

If not enough offer holders hit their grades then to fill their quota some med schools accept offer holders who marginally miss their grades. Other Med schools prefer to contact applicants who just missed the interview threshold but met their grades. So worth having an insurance with the former approach. Gives no guarantee but some chance.

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Original post by 786687

if they both have the same offer requirements what's the point of not withdrawing and essentially giving your place to someone else?

Ohh I thiguht he meant the offer gonna be lower....well in this case I think withdrawal would be more emphatic way then just firming uni with the same requirement. Chances that insurance uni will rather take you than those who firmed their offer (in case both miss their offer) are so low there's no sense in taking this into account.

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Original post by meddad

If not enough offer holders hit their grades then to fill their quota some med schools accept offer holders who marginally miss their grades. Other Med schools prefer to contact applicants who just missed the interview threshold but met their grades. So worth having an insurance with the former approach. Gives no guarantee but some chance.

ahh I see

I agree with "786687"- it makes more sense to put your insurance as your 5th choice.

My issue is, if something catastrophic happened e.g. bereavement and you missed your grades fairly substantially (perhaps ABB or below), your position would be substantially worse if you put medicine as your insurance, than if you opted for your 5th choice (assuming they asked for ABB).

This is because neither of the med schools would accept you, and even if you chose to reapply, very very few med schools accept resits, so chances of getting in after a gap year are extremely slim.

So what you would most likely end up doing would be reapply during your gap year for a medical related course such as biomedical sciences, and apply for graduate entry medicine thereafter.

However, if you chose to put your 5th choice as your insurance at least then you'd be able to go to university instead of wasting a year of your life for no reason. You'd finish your degree one year earlier and you could thereafter apply for GEM one year earlier. In my case though, I planned for such an eventuality by putting my 5th choice as a course that allows me to transfer to second year undergrad medicine after the 1st year of the course, assuming a am in the top x% of the year.

I guess it depends on individual circumstances, but the safe bet would be to put your 5th choice as your insurance option.

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Original post by Nottie

Ohh I thiguht he meant the offer gonna be lower....well in this case I think withdrawal would be more emphatic way then just firming uni with the same requirement. Chances that insurance uni will rather take you than those who firmed their offer (in case both miss their offer) are so low there's no sense in taking this into account.

How do we know the chances are low? According to a 2013 Freedom of Information request one Med School still accepted 60% of offer holders who missed their grades. It may depend on how many miss their grades and what criteria they use ie: whether it depends firstly on how far you missed the grade, or on interview performance, or on whether you firmed. If you want to give it your best shot then don't withdraw - any chance is better than no chance. If your priority is to go to Uni next year then I agree to use your 5th choice.

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Turdasaurus Rex

1

I did maths a year early so Brighton want me to only get 2As in bio and Chem whereas Nottingham would want me to get AAB in the three sciences this year. This would still be lower than Barts who want 3As this year

(edited 9 years ago)

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Original post by meddad

How do we know the chances are low? According to a 2013 Freedom of Information request one Med School still accepted 60% of offer holders who missed their grades. It may depend on how many miss their grades and what criteria they use ie: whether it depends firstly on how far you missed the grade, or on interview performance, or on whether you firmed. If you want to give it your best shot then don't withdraw - any chance is better than no chance. If your priority is to go to Uni next year then I agree to use your 5th choice.

Yes if you put medicine as a firm choice and then miss your offer, you still may be accepted depending on how well others did. But if you put medicine as insurance too and miss offer for both choices then chances are so slim that the insurance uni would accept you.
Putting non medical offer as insurance is the best you can do in this scenario

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Original post by Nottie

Yes if you put medicine as a firm choice and then miss your offer, you still may be accepted depending on how well others did. But if you put medicine as insurance too and miss offer for both choices then chances are so slim that the insurance uni would accept you.
Putting non medical offer as insurance is the best you can do in this scenario

We may have to accept we have slightly different views. I accept that the chances are less but the University I quoted accepted 60% of Firm AND Insurance offer holders who missed their grades. Unfortunately they didn't specify the criteria used. I guess the only way to know that is to ask the admissions team of the specific Uni anybody is interested in. Even if there is a 1% chance some people will prefer to take that chance and the risk of a gap year. That's a personal decision for the individual.

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Original post by meddad

We may have to accept we have slightly different views. I accept that the chances are less but the University I quoted accepted 60% of Firm AND Insurance offer holders who missed their grades. Unfortunately they didn't specify the criteria used. I guess the only way to know that is to ask the admissions team of the specific Uni anybody is interested in. Even if there is a 1% chance some people will prefer to take that chance and the risk of a gap year. That's a personal decision for the individual.

Yes but then we have to take into account that not withdrawing your offer may mean a gap year for someone for whom Nottingham is the last chance of doing medicine and they would form it otherwise. 1% chance is almost equal to 0 and I still think it's a bit selfish to take more than 1 medical offer, especially if the requirement are the same.

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Original post by meddad

We may have to accept we have slightly different views. I accept that the chances are less but the University I quoted accepted 60% of Firm AND Insurance offer holders who missed their grades. Unfortunately they didn't specify the criteria used. I guess the only way to know that is to ask the admissions team of the specific Uni anybody is interested in. Even if there is a 1% chance some people will prefer to take that chance and the risk of a gap year. That's a personal decision for the individual.

I agree with Nottie, it is extremely rare these days that unis give offers to those who miss their grades as most universities these days know as a proportion who will and won't get the grades, and give out a set number of offers accordingly.

Apart from the occasional success story, it is unlikely that medical schools will give out offers to people who miss the grades. Even then, this only happens if you get A*AB instead of AAA.

lets agree to disagree, but the chances are so slim that there's virtually no point to put 2 medicine courses as your firm and insurance. Instead, put your 5th choice as your insurance, as most unis allow transfer to medicine after the first year of your science related degree, if you do well enough.

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Original post by Nottie

Yes but then we have to take into account that not withdrawing your offer may mean a gap year for someone for whom Nottingham is the last chance of doing medicine and they would form it otherwise. 1% chance is almost equal to 0 and I still think it's a bit selfish to take more than 1 medical offer, especially if the requirement are the same.

It doesn't work like that. Each Uni makes up to twice the number of offers as they have places to take account of applicants with multiple offers and insurance choices. And it's not a 1% chance anyway. At one Uni it's up to 60%. Nobody takes anybody else's place. When final placings are decided the Uni's work down reserve lists until all quotas are full. Some people have even received an offer on results day when they didn't even know they were on a reserve list having had 4 post interview rejections. Nobody ends up with anybody else's place. They just end up with a place they worked their guts out for. Why would they reduce their chances by giving up a possible fall back? If you don't agree then you're entitled to that opinion and I respect it but no need to go round calling people selfish just because they have a different view than your own and are just maximising their own chances.

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Original post by Turdasaurus Rex

I did maths a year early so Brighton want me to only get 2As in bio and Chem whereas Nottingham would want me to get AAB in the three sciences this year. This would still be lower than Barts who want 3As this year

it's ultimately up to you and how confident you feel in your ability to get those grades.

if you feel confident that you'll get the two As, my advice would be to cover yourself and put your insurance as your 5th choice non-medicine course, whatever that is. Research if the university allows you to transfer to medicine after 1st year. That covers you if anything catastrophic happens, which is definitely possible.

if you feel like you might just slightly miss the grades (e.g. get A*BB), put nottingham as your insurance. This gives you a very very very slightly larger chance that you'll still be doing medicine if you get A*BB. However, you are completely at risk if something goes hugely wrong during your exams (e.g. you fall ill).

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Original post by hukdealz

I agree with Nottie, it is extremely rare these days that unis give offers to those who miss their grades as most universities these days know as a proportion who will and won't get the grades, and give out a set number of offers accordingly.

Apart from the occasional success story, it is unlikely that medical schools will give out offers to people who miss the grades. Even then, this only happens if you get A*AB instead of AAA.

lets agree to disagree, but the chances are so slim that there's virtually no point to put 2 medicine courses as your firm and insurance. Instead, put your 5th choice as your insurance, as most unis allow transfer to medicine after the first year of your science related degree, if you do well enough.

Not a slim chance at all with some Uni's. As i have said before one Med School accepted 60% of applicants who missed their offer grades. This isn't speculation but fact, based on a response by the Uni concerned to a Freedom of Information request in 2013.

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s.sads

2

Does anyone have any advice or tips for the Nottingham interview? It's my last interview and I'm really not sure how to prepare for it. I'm obviously not asking anyone to tell me about the stations, just asking for any general advice on how to prepare and do well :smile:

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Original post by meddad

Not a slim chance at all with some Uni's. As i have said before one Med School accepted 60% of applicants who missed their offer grades. This isn't speculation but fact, based on a response by the Uni concerned to a Freedom of Information request in 2013.

it's important to understand that this is an exception (speaking from first hand experience).

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Original post by meddad

It doesn't work like that. Each Uni makes up to twice the number of offers as they have places to take account of applicants with multiple offers and insurance choices. And it's not a 1% chance anyway. At one Uni it's up to 60%. Nobody takes anybody else's place. When final placings are decided the Uni's work down reserve lists until all quotas are full. Some people have even received an offer on results day when they didn't even know they were on a reserve list having had 4 post interview rejections. Nobody ends up with anybody else's place. They just end up with a place they worked their guts out for. Why would they reduce their chances by giving up a possible fall back? If you don't agree then you're entitled to that opinion and I respect it but no need to go round calling people selfish just because they have a different view than your own and are just maximising their own chances.

all statistics should be approached with caution and so is this one. Why would unis then bother at all giving high offers and then accepting 60% of people who got lower grades?This may have happend once in a life time when exams were exceptionally hard and probably uni wont make same "mistake" again.
I still think its selfish to take more than 1 medical offer. Yes, its true people get offers even few days before uni starts but then they usually have everything sorted for their gap year/other degree etc. Its very very unlikely to get into insurance uni without meeting offer, at least for medicine so I wouldn't lean on that too much if I was an applicant again. And as I said, noone wants to find out they got into medicine when they already have other things planned just because someone wanted to have nice track with 2 medical offers, especially if they both have the same requirements.

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Original post by hukdealz

it's important to understand that this is an exception (speaking from first hand experience).

Yes, that's a fair comment

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student028

1

Hello Everybody

I have an interview coming up on the 1st of April and was wondering what topics came up in the MMI... I haven't yet recieved any details on topics from Nottingham

Thanks in advance

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