*Closed* - The "Which Medical School Should I Apply To?" Uberthread [Part 1 of 3]

thanks, now I can apply to UEA

This is what we mean by due diligence! I have just spent hours looking at all the details to check these things out (and I am not even applying to med school!!)

Swansea is ranked 3rd and a top class university

Aberdeen takes care of that!!

I guess you need to decide how badly you want a place at medical school versus how badly you don't want to be at Leicester? If it came down to no offer, or an offer at Leicester, which would be worse? Applying to your strengths is all about seeing where you have most chance of an interview offer, as you have to be in it to win it!! And I would say Leicester is probably one of your strongest options. As meddad says, if you get other offers, you don't have to accept one from Leicester, should you get one, but do you really not want one badly enough to apply to a med school where you have much less chance of an invite to interview?? Only you can decide this; personal preference has to play a part, as nobody would advocate spending at least 5 years of your life somewhere you are going to be miserable. But most people are happy wherever they go to university, and there is no reason for you to live at home, but you can pop back with washing and for sunday lunch (said as a parent with a child that does just this )

I guess you've got a point, plus leciester is actually a really good uni..
Is Aberdeen a safer option?
Rly want to pick Exeter as a choice, does it really seem out of reach? Websites say as long as you've got over 2500 you should be ok

It's well known that the rankings are among other things measured on the level of academic achievement required to get in and how much research is done there. They have no relationship whatsoever with the quality of doctors turned out.

Does anyone know what percentage of your application is your PS at Liverpool? I'm trying to decide on my final medical school but I don't want it to be a risk!

Stats: 690 UKCAT, Band 1
7A* 4A
Predicted 3 x A*
I have enough work experience + long term volunteering I think

So far my choices are Cambridge, Leicester, Birmingham (I got 9.33/10 on their calculator).
I'm thinking HYMS because I'll get 15 extra points for contextual but I'm really not sure about PBL unis!!

No, not sure Aberdeen is a safer option, I think you stand a reasonable chance at either (providing your Leicester score is 55?).

Read the last 2 years' Exeter threads on here. I am pretty sure you have needed A*A*A* predicted and last year you also needed 667 UKCAT to reach the interview stage (crazy, I know......). Their cut off has been in their Tier 2, at a UKCAT 667, giving them about the highest criteria of any med school in the UK last year, I think!

http://www.exeter.ac.uk/media/universityofexeter/undergraduatewebsite/documents/BMBS-Detailed-Admissions-Process-2018-entry.pdf

But they have been a bit crap about changing their minds on how they select people after the UCAS closing date, and could do it again this year, I suppose. Not a chance I would be taking!

55.5 I believe
Ah ok, will do. Don't understand though as standard offer is A*AA but can even be AAA in some cases??

I know, but med schools are able to use whatever criteria they like to assess for interview, and this is what Exeter have chosen. Our job is not to understand, but to slavishly follow the rules........!
It is just preparing you for med school. You must have heard the joke:
Lecturer walks in and says "Good Morning"
The Philosophy students wake up and debate the meaning of the word "good".
The Politics students wake up and debate how a morning could ever be good under this Tory government and with Brexit hanging over us.
The medical students stay asleep and write down "Good morning"
Old joke, as now all lectures are available in the intranet and nobody writes anything, but was how things worked in my day!!

Ah man
Also just looked at exeter's last year thread and it's savage

It's defo what she said

Im a resit applying to HYMS liverpool exeter and Plymouth ive got 3A*s 5 As and 2bS AT GCSE (english lang and lit) got a ukcat of 643 band 3 (was just a bad day ) have AAB but will be predicted A*AA do u think its too risky applying to hyms because im defo not confident for BMAT

HYMS may be a bit bordeline (also because of your Band 3, as they use SJT pre, during and post interview), but I think Exeter is probably a no go, as the last 2 years they have required a minimum of A*A*A achieved or A*A*A* predicted with a UKCAT last year of 667 for interview. Have you thought about UEA? It might be worth a GCSE English resit to see if you could meet their criteria?

Anywhere you want! (except probably Oxford, even there they might accept your achieved A2s over your GCSEs).
Though I would avoid unis that use PS to rank, as this is always subjective, however much "stuff" you have done (that is Edinburgh, Manchester, Liverpool, Cardiff, Nottingham, UCL, Keele, Bristol, Leeds, Kings). And there is really no need for you to sit the BMAT, given the stats you have, as you can have interviews at 4 UKCAT unis and save yourself the bother?
Did you have anywhere particular in mind?