The Student Room Group

I think I have to give up applying for medicine

I’m in year 12 . I know it’s too soon to say this but everything is going horribly wrong in my persue of Medicine .
First my gcse grades are a bit crap A*AAAABBC for Medicine .( learnt from my mistakes )
2nd - been turned down from doing a 2 year programme medicine in my fav university
3rd- i made a mistake in a form (DBS) so probably I wont be able to be a volunteer in my local hospital
4th- Diagnosed with anxiety , which doesn’t affect my daily interactions but affects how I feel day to day .

This factors are all stopping me from actually applying . I decided to do medicine the day before I started y12. Now everything seems to be going against me . I mean I will still try but I can’t help but look into the future and see myself being rejected and having to do another course . Th me only thing that is going alright is my grades I’m the top in bio chem and maths .
Reply 1
I had A*AAAAAABBBB in GCSEs, DDE in A-levels and a criminal record - still got into medschool. If yoi're ready to make sacrifices like studying abroad (if you won't manage to get in jn the UK of course), then everything's possible! Keep your hopes up, but prepare for the worst and get the best grades you can.
(edited 6 years ago)
Original post by FrostedStarzzz
I’m in year 12 . I know it’s too soon to say this but everything is going horribly wrong in my persue of Medicine .
First my gcse grades are a bit crap A*AAAABBC for Medicine .( learnt from my mistakes )
2nd - been turned down from doing a 2 year programme medicine in my fav university
3rd- i made a mistake in a form (DBS) so probably I wont be able to be a volunteer in my local hospital
4th- Diagnosed with anxiety , which doesn’t affect my daily interactions but affects how I feel day to day .

This factors are all stopping me from actually applying . I decided to do medicine the day before I started y12. Now everything seems to be going against me . I mean I will still try but I can’t help but look into the future and see myself being rejected and having to do another course . Th me only thing that is going alright is my grades I’m the top in bio chem and maths .


Be honest, why do you want to be a doctor anyways?
Original post by Trinculo
Be honest, why do you want to be a doctor anyways?


Might sound cliche but I want to help people - I know there’s lots of other profession which help people however I feel like being a doctor is the closest way to reach out to people - people who are vulnerable then help them cure them or get atleast a bit better and enjoy life - that’s something I crave really.
I can’t imagine myself doing anything else
Original post by FrostedStarzzz
Might sound cliche but I want to help people - I know there’s lots of other profession which help people however I feel like being a doctor is the closest way to reach out to people - people who are vulnerable then help them cure them or get atleast a bit better and enjoy life - that’s something I crave really.
I can’t imagine myself doing anything else


Then why don't you become a nurse?
Original post by frostyy
I had A*AAAAAABBBB in GCSEs, DDE in A-levels and a criminal record - still got into medschool. If yoi're ready to make sacrifices like studying abroad (if you won't manage to get in jn the UK of course), then everything's possible! Keep your hopes up, but prepare for the worst and get the best grades you can.

Thank you . My worst nightmare is going abroad tbh , can’t imagine being away to another foreign place without family though but if that’s what hat I have to sacrifice I’ll do it . I’ll try my best :smile: thank you
Original post by Trinculo
Then why don't you become a nurse?


I would rather study medicine than nursing :wink: however being a nurse is not a bad option. I feel like doctors are more into the diagnosis than nurses
I've just applied for medicine in year 13 and honestly your GCSEs are not stopping you. They are lower than some applicants but what you need to do is a lot of research into which med schools focus less on GCSEs (for example Keele).
If your DBS has a mistake can you just explain this to the hospital and redo it? It will probably set back the start date of your volunteering, which is annoying, but at least you'll still get to do it.
If you are still unsure about whether it's worth you applying for medicine, honestly get a placement anyway if you can. I knew I wanted to be a doctor but on placements I found there were so many healthcare professions that I didn't even know existed or knew very little about, like neurophysiologists, radiotherapists, community psychiatric nurses etc. This has led me to pick a healthcare science degree for my 5th choice, because I can still work with patients, which is what attracts me so much to medicine (I didn't want to do medical researh as a backup, I too want to help people so I understand), and I'll be working with doctors still.
As for the anxiety diagnosis, honestly I relate strongly - me too! I can give you tonnes of advice about this but really you need to work through it yourself - and don't let it hold you back! My anxiety has made me very self aware and help me more to understand other people, and this is a great attribute for doctors to have.
Possibly your anxiety is leading you to panic about these setbacks that you've listed, but it's good that you're aware of the challenges with applying to medicine - better than to apply naively.
Just do your research - not just into medicine, but other healthcare careers, and work out what's best for you :smile:
Original post by FrostedStarzzz
I would rather study medicine than nursing :wink: however being a nurse is not a bad option. I feel like doctors are more into the diagnosis than nurses


But you said you want to help people in the closest way, and make them a bit better - that sounds more like a nurse than a doctor.
Original post by FrostedStarzzz
I’m in year 12 . I know it’s too soon to say this but everything is going horribly wrong in my persue of Medicine .
First my gcse grades are a bit crap A*AAAABBC for Medicine .( learnt from my mistakes )
2nd - been turned down from doing a 2 year programme medicine in my fav university
3rd- i made a mistake in a form (DBS) so probably I wont be able to be a volunteer in my local hospital
4th- Diagnosed with anxiety , which doesn’t affect my daily interactions but affects how I feel day to day .

This factors are all stopping me from actually applying . I decided to do medicine the day before I started y12. Now everything seems to be going against me . I mean I will still try but I can’t help but look into the future and see myself being rejected and having to do another course . Th me only thing that is going alright is my grades I’m the top in bio chem and maths .


So regarding your concerns:

1) You can't change what's already happened, but your GCSEs are okay and certainly not a reason to give up altogether. You would need to apply to medical schools carefully though and not apply to ones which want lots of A*s. What was the C in?

2) I don't understand what you mean here. You're in year 12, so what do you mean you've been turned down from your favourite uni?

3) I'm sure if it's a simple mistake it can be resolved easily if you contact them and explain? It's the beginning of year 12 so you've still got enough time to get it all sorted out before applying.

The fact that you say you're doing well in your A levels should provide you with some encouragement - keep going and stay focused :smile:
Original post by FrostedStarzzz
I’m in year 12 . I know it’s too soon to say this but everything is going horribly wrong in my persue of Medicine .
First my gcse grades are a bit crap A*AAAABBC for Medicine .( learnt from my mistakes )
2nd - been turned down from doing a 2 year programme medicine in my fav university
3rd- i made a mistake in a form (DBS) so probably I wont be able to be a volunteer in my local hospital
4th- Diagnosed with anxiety , which doesn’t affect my daily interactions but affects how I feel day to day .

This factors are all stopping me from actually applying . I decided to do medicine the day before I started y12. Now everything seems to be going against me . I mean I will still try but I can’t help but look into the future and see myself being rejected and having to do another course . Th me only thing that is going alright is my grades I’m the top in bio chem and maths .


Okay so I think as you said it's still too soon to give up hope. Addressing your points one by one:

1) Okay so your GCSE grades may not be 'stellar' BUT for most unis particularly with medicine they weight heavily on A Level grades rather than GCSEs. They understand that students grow and develop and if you look into your unis of choice - often or not GCSEs really arent make or break. They have to factor in a lot when deciding such as what kind of secondary school you went to e.g if you went to a school that objectively speaking did not do as well as other schools but still you did better than average - that is equally as impressive as a kid who got idk all A*s at a school that on average were known to perform better u feel?

2) Being rejected from a uni you really anticipated to go to must really hurt and dishearten you. However a point to make is that if you truly desire to study medicine - as long as you like the uni course - at the end of the day it doesn't really matter which one you go to. All medical students at the end must achieve a certain standard wherever you graduate from - I've heard that in a hospital when applying for certain positions they won't even allow you to list your uni because they do not care about that sort of thing. Also you have a gap year as well if you want to retry - you've still got a lot of time :smile:

3) I have done the whole DBS thing as well but honestly if you've made a mistake it can be rectified - it just takes some administrative effort to sort things out - it should be really easy to correct don't worry about that. You haven't done anything drastically bad and this doesn't mean you can never volunteer anywhere.

4) From personal experience as well like pretty much every medic has baggage - like committing to the medical course at ANY uni (some worse than others tbf) but no one is 'chill'. Even the best performing students will struggle. Obviously how one deals with their own baggage is something one with time will learn to deal with. Being diagnosed with a mental illness does suck (I have clinical depression :'( ) but being able to learn how to cope and deal with it at the end of the day is going to give you that personal experience which will help you become a great doctor. However first of all you should focus on reaching out and getting help - you should never let something like mental illness define you but real talk - committing to such an intense course like medicine may be even harder for you compared to other people. So if these setbacks are affecting you quite a bit - it's not to discourage you by any means - but you may have to reconsider if doing medicine is the best path for you and your happiness.

Hope any of this is helpful - I also kinda didn't read over so if I've made any stupid grammar or spelling mistakes just ignore xD
Original post by Democracy
So regarding your concerns:

1) You can't change what's already happened, but your GCSEs are okay and certainly not a reason to give up altogether. You would need to apply to medical schools carefully though and not apply to ones which want lots of A*s. What was the C in?

2) I don't understand what you mean here. You're in year 12, so what do you mean you've been turned down from your favourite uni?

3) I'm sure if it's a simple mistake it can be resolved easily if you contact them and explain? It's the beginning of year 12 so you've still got enough time to get it all sorted out before applying.

The fact that you say you're doing well in your A levels should provide you with some encouragement - keep going and stay focused :smile:

To answer your questions :

C was in Art
Birmingham uni has this 2 year programme for those who want to do medicine what you do is get help for bMAT ..etc , go to mini lecturers , talk to current medic students , do projects and more .
Original post by Callie0507
I've just applied for medicine in year 13 and honestly your GCSEs are not stopping you. They are lower than some applicants but what you need to do is a lot of research into which med schools focus less on GCSEs (for example Keele).
If your DBS has a mistake can you just explain this to the hospital and redo it? It will probably set back the start date of your volunteering, which is annoying, but at least you'll still get to do it.
If you are still unsure about whether it's worth you applying for medicine, honestly get a placement anyway if you can. I knew I wanted to be a doctor but on placements I found there were so many healthcare professions that I didn't even know existed or knew very little about, like neurophysiologists, radiotherapists, community psychiatric nurses etc. This has led me to pick a healthcare science degree for my 5th choice, because I can still work with patients, which is what attracts me so much to medicine (I didn't want to do medical researh as a backup, I too want to help people so I understand), and I'll be working with doctors still.
As for the anxiety diagnosis, honestly I relate strongly - me too! I can give you tonnes of advice about this but really you need to work through it yourself - and don't let it hold you back! My anxiety has made me very self aware and help me more to understand other people, and this is a great attribute for doctors to have.
Possibly your anxiety is leading you to panic about these setbacks that you've listed, but it's good that you're aware of the challenges with applying to medicine - better than to apply naively.
Just do your research - not just into medicine, but other healthcare careers, and work out what's best for you :smile:

Thank you so much. Wish you the best
Original post by Callie0507
I've just applied for medicine in year 13 and honestly your GCSEs are not stopping you. They are lower than some applicants but what you need to do is a lot of research into which med schools focus less on GCSEs (for example Keele).
If your DBS has a mistake can you just explain this to the hospital and redo it? It will probably set back the start date of your volunteering, which is annoying, but at least you'll still get to do it.
If you are still unsure about whether it's worth you applying for medicine, honestly get a placement anyway if you can. I knew I wanted to be a doctor but on placements I found there were so many healthcare professions that I didn't even know existed or knew very little about, like neurophysiologists, radiotherapists, community psychiatric nurses etc. This has led me to pick a healthcare science degree for my 5th choice, because I can still work with patients, which is what attracts me so much to medicine (I didn't want to do medical researh as a backup, I too want to help people so I understand), and I'll be working with doctors still.
As for the anxiety diagnosis, honestly I relate strongly - me too! I can give you tonnes of advice about this but really you need to work through it yourself - and don't let it hold you back! My anxiety has made me very self aware and help me more to understand other people, and this is a great attribute for doctors to have.
Possibly your anxiety is leading you to panic about these setbacks that you've listed, but it's good that you're aware of the challenges with applying to medicine - better than to apply naively.
Just do your research - not just into medicine, but other healthcare careers, and work out what's best for you :smile:

Thank you so much . Wish you the best
Original post by FrostedStarzzz
To answer your questions :

C was in Art
Birmingham uni has this 2 year programme for those who want to do medicine what you do is get help for bMAT ..etc , go to mini lecturers , talk to current medic students , do projects and more .


Oh I'm with you now. Well those sort of programmes are useful and interesting but they're by no means mandatory so you can still get an offer without having gone. You can get books on how to do well in the BMAT, do past questions, talk to current medics on here, go to med school open days etc to try and gain the same knowledge.

Quick Reply

Latest

Trending

Trending