Withdraw from medicine offer?

Up until now I was dead set on medicine but lately I've been having severe anxiety over the upcoming A2 exams and have felt like medicine may not be the best path for me since you keep on getting tested. I've always suffered with anxiety but lately it's been very bad and getting in the way of my revision.

I've been seriously considering withdrawing from my only medicine offer (obviously not the best at interviews :/), taking a gap year and then reapplying for something like biochem or neuroscience.

I'd really appreciate any advice from people who have maybe been in a similar situation? I just feel so incredibly guilty since I've spent like 4 years of my life focused on getting into med school and spent so much money on train tickets to interviews, vaccinations taking the stupid UKCAT and then for me to back out last minute might just really disappoint my parents.

Thanks for any help!!!!

Reply 1

Freyr

if its about your anxiety, then i'd stick with it. If you truely think you don't want to be a doctor then you should back out. ignore your parent, disappointing them is irrelevant, if its not right for you then its better you do whats best for you.
you may not need to reapply though, there's clearing, and who knows, your med school might let you transfer to their bio med programme (since the departments are generally very closely linked).

The worst thing to do is to back out now and then regret it in the future or to start and become a doctor to regret it (although you could always use it as a general degree, there are many doctor that work in other sectors- having changed their minds).

Reply 2

MS124

Whenever the going gets tough it's easy to feel like giving up, I felt like that before my exams too. The stress of it all was getting to me and to cope better the the possibility of doing badly in my exams I tried to pretend to myself that I didn't really care about getting into medicine anyway and it's fine to settle with another career path. But trust me that's just stress talking. Try to turn that fear energy into motivational energy, that's what helped me in the end.

But seriously stick with it, you know it's what you want to do so try to have tunnel vision until your exams are over you'll feel so much better that you didn't give up, you endured and persevered and you'll probably come out a better medical student in the end for it. (Also if the anxiety is severe, definitely talk to someone about it.)

Reply 3

Zakadoh

If you are really suffering with anxiety to the point it is affecting your life decisions then maybe you should speak to somebody about that before you make any changes. Your GP is a good place to start, or pastoral support at school. I would probably suggest going and starting the degree in medicine either way, because you have worked so hard to get a place and it may turn out to be just as good as you imagined. If worst case scenario and its not for you, then you are allowed a years false start at university from student finance and you could look at your other options from there. Then you are at least making an informed choice.

You are continually tested in medicine, but no more often than biochem or neuroscience, just for a couple more years. By the time you get to that stage you will have become familiar with the format of OSCEs/EMQs/multiple choice papers and hopefully it wont be as daunting. You will learn really quickly as you go along, but if you are questioning your ability, remember the medical school looked at your application and decided to offer you a place over hundreds of other applicants that desperately wanted it, so you must have been doing something very, very right!

Reply 4

UJustGotLittUp

Thank you so much for your replys!

My biggest worry is that I will regret it if I change course but at the moment I'm really not sure I can handle being a doctor anymore, the daily stresses, long hours, exams even after graduation seem too much to handle and I don't think I'm cut out for it even though I was well aware of the nature of the job when applying.

But taking your advice on board, I will definitely wait it out until maybe results day and see what I feel like then.

Thank you once again, I really appreciate the help!

Reply 5

TheConfusedMedic

I'd probably stick with it since you put so much work into it and have been really successful, and your uni(s) obviously think you're capable which is why they made you an offer :h:

Reply 6

Louiseelg0rt

Original post by UJustGotLittUp

wow!!! Whilst reading this I felt like I could relate quite a lot. I've also had med school offers but all of a sudden I feel quite anxious because of these upcoming exams. You're not alone in how you feel. The thought of doing exams constantly doesnt seem as doable as it did a year ago.

BUT heres why i wont give up! This year has been so exhausting, we've constantly been jumping through hurdles. We have constantly been working on bettering our application just to get this offer - and we haven't had a proper break since the start of the process. This whole year does not reflect what med school will be like. It'll be tough but it'll be a different kind of difficulty what we're experiencing now because you'll be passionate about medicine. I think you should keep going and see how everything turns out! Withdrawing now will just close too many doors and you haven't given it a chance yet.
Also, maybe more people feel like this than you think! It's probably just a phase due to the pressure thats been put on us over the past year, but theres only a few weeks left so try to see it through :smile:

Withdraw from medicine offer?

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