Imperial or Cambridge Medicine

Hi I'm currently really unsure about whether to apply for Imperial or Cambridge as my first choice. I prefer the course as Imperial and also London as a city is always a plus. I also feel that Imperial would be slightly less stressful however Cambridge does have that higher prestige and I like the college system in place. Overall I feel like Imperial's the smarter choice but Cambridge is somewhere I've always wanted to go and I think that I would regret not trying for this opportunity. Please could someone help me with this. Thank you.

Can't you apply for both?

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What do you mean "first choice"? When you apply to unis all 5 choices are equal. You only decide on your first choice after you've got all your offers/rejections back.

It's quite likely that one of the unis will reject you, making the choice for you, and even if you get both offers you have until May to decide on your firm and insurance. No need to worry now.

Wait until you get offers then decide.

I would rather not apply to both as I think it's way too risky

That is one of the stupidest things I have ever heard. Applying to medicine is risky. You can have top marks, all the experience and great references and still not get in.

I only want to apply to one of the two since I think both would be too risky that's why I'm deciding now.

That is one of the stupidest things I have ever heard. Applying to medicine is risky. You can have top marks, all the experience and great references and still not get in.

I would not consider Imperial a risky choice, as long as you can get the A*AA. It doesn't have a particularly high applicant to offer ratio and its BMAT requirements are lower than that of Oxbridge.

It sounds like you'd prefer Imperial. You should apply to Imperial.



Perhaps you're missing the point? They don't want to apply to two BMAT unis as its quite risky. That is entirely sensible.

Ok thanks for your reply. I'm still really torn that's my problem.

Why do you want "prestige"? Given it has little to no impact on your job applications, it seems very superficial.

The college system is pretty great and a legit reason but it seems like your other preferences, like wanting to live in London, outweigh that. No?

In that case, think about which university you have higher chances of getting into and apply for that. Cambridge is said to interview 90% of its applicants, then start filtering from there (other exams are taken into consideration during final decision). Imperial, on the other hand, looks at your GCSE, BMAT, UCAS application etc. before inviting for interviews. They have a cut off score and you may want to check that out and compare it with your own prediction of your BMAT score. If you aren't doing too well, you can take your chance with Cambridge.

In my opinion, you should ignore prestige of the university when choosing between Imperial and Cambridge. Both are regarded extremely highly and it wouldn't make a difference where you graduated from.

Cambridge's medical course has just intense, hardcore science and theory for the first 3 years and limited patient contact. If you're interested in research, Cambridge is a good idea. Imperial gives you more clinical contact. Also think about the possibility of transferring schools. I'm not sure if this exists, you should factcheck. If I'm not wrong, you can transfer from Cambridge to Imperial for your clinical years.

Please recheck on all I've said as I may not be correct! Hope this helps.

I guess I feel that Cambridge something like once a lifetime opportunity and I have wanted to go there for a very long time

IThey don't want to apply to two BMAT unis as its quite risky. That is entirely sensible.

Is it risky? Wouldn't 2 BMAT and 2 UKCAT be a valid strategy? Or 4 BMAT if you did less well in UKCAT?

(I know *nothing* about medicine admissions, clearly...)

So the BMAT is taken after you apply. There are 6 unis that use it. The UKCAT is done before you apply. There are 27 unis that use it.

In general I would say that applying to 1 BMAT uni is an acceptable risk, two is risky but may be worth it, 3 is suicide.

Of course it depends on other factors though - if you have a UKCAT so poor that you stand 0 chance at the 27, then it's possible applying to 4 BMATs is your best option! But in general I stick to the above rule. As long as your UKCAT is ok, BMAT unis always present inherent risk.

That might change next year, as you will be able to take the bmat in September.