Tips for a year 12 student on applying to study biomedicine

So I'm studying biology, chemistry and geography. The prospect of applying to uni honestly terrifies me and I just want to maximise my chances of getting into uni, starting now. I have done a bit of virtual work experience but I want to do more - preferably not reading?
Does anybody have some advice for someone in my position?

Hey! I applied a few years back for some biomed and microbiology courses and got offers from all places I applied to so hopefully I can help!

It's great that you've already got work experience so that will be brilliant to write about! Make sure when writing you talk about the skills youve earned form the experience as well as what it's taught you about the sector and why you want to do it. You've basically got to tell them why you over someone else and skills is a good way to do it.

When discussing your subject choices for a level do a similar thing. Talk about what you found most interesting, link it to the course and, again, talk about skills and experiences! Try your best to link geography too even thought it doesn't seem too linked.

I know you said preferably not reading but it's always good to include a certain topic that really interests you and you've read around. I talked a lot about bacteria and viruses as treatments for other diseases and I had done a lot of research on it for an epq so I talked about that reading and why it interested me. I didn't quote any book titles (mainly cause I didn't read any) and you don't have to cite or name papers and authors. Just talk about an area that interests you and why! That's where reading should come in.

Other experience you can do is online courses, free lectures, experience days, epq, hobbies and competitions (just off the top of my head). Some of these are dependent on your college and covid has obviously messed pm everything up but there will be plenty to talk about so don't worry.

Online courses - known as MOOCs and generally free courses in a wide range of topics, including biology, that are great to include as experience. Websites like Future Learn and Coursera are some of the main ones to look at and many of the courses are available free. You can do just knowledge ones (e.g. Cancer, antibiotic resistance, flu, etc.) or skills ones (e.g. There's ones for learning how to do essay research, I took two on using a genome browser)

Free Lectures - some universities run free public lectures on a number of different topics. I attended one from three PhD researchers talking about their research into three areas of biomedicine and it was super interesting. I don't know how many unis run them and it may be affected by COVID so have a look around. Newcastle University definitely does them and they have an archive online of all the past ones as a start!

Experience days - universities, job providers, etc. usually run experience days through the year. I'm not sure how accessible these are due to covid and I went to all mine through my college but it could definitely be worth a Google!

EPQ - this is dependent on your college but it is a brilliant thing to write about! It's basically a mini uni essay that you do during sixth form. Check with your college to see if they provide it as it is an actual exam board qualification.

Hobbies - Now I didn't write too much about hobbies in mine but my friend who does medicine did write about his hobbies with music! There should be plenty of info out there on how to include hobbies well so it's def something to look into.

Competitions - this one is a bit hit or miss. I don't know many competitions out there so it'll require a chunk of research but I did enter the Peterhouse essay competition and wrote about that in my statement so def worth the researcj into different competitions if you're interested.

I hope this has helped somewhat! I know how stressful applications and personal statements can be so please don't hesitate to ask anymore questions! This is by no means and exhaustive list and hopefully others may pop in with some useful advice that I haven't thought of.

Hey! I applied a few years back for some biomed and microbiology courses and got offers from all places I applied to so hopefully I can help!

It's great that you've already got work experience so that will be brilliant to write about! Make sure when writing you talk about the skills youve earned form the experience as well as what it's taught you about the sector and why you want to do it. You've basically got to tell them why you over someone else and skills is a good way to do it.

When discussing your subject choices for a level do a similar thing. Talk about what you found most interesting, link it to the course and, again, talk about skills and experiences! Try your best to link geography too even thought it doesn't seem too linked.

I know you said preferably not reading but it's always good to include a certain topic that really interests you and you've read around. I talked a lot about bacteria and viruses as treatments for other diseases and I had done a lot of research on it for an epq so I talked about that reading and why it interested me. I didn't quote any book titles (mainly cause I didn't read any) and you don't have to cite or name papers and authors. Just talk about an area that interests you and why! That's where reading should come in.

Other experience you can do is online courses, free lectures, experience days, epq, hobbies and competitions (just off the top of my head). Some of these are dependent on your college and covid has obviously messed pm everything up but there will be plenty to talk about so don't worry.

Online courses - known as MOOCs and generally free courses in a wide range of topics, including biology, that are great to include as experience. Websites like Future Learn and Coursera are some of the main ones to look at and many of the courses are available free. You can do just knowledge ones (e.g. Cancer, antibiotic resistance, flu, etc.) or skills ones (e.g. There's ones for learning how to do essay research, I took two on using a genome browser)

Free Lectures - some universities run free public lectures on a number of different topics. I attended one from three PhD researchers talking about their research into three areas of biomedicine and it was super interesting. I don't know how many unis run them and it may be affected by COVID so have a look around. Newcastle University definitely does them and they have an archive online of all the past ones as a start!

Experience days - universities, job providers, etc. usually run experience days through the year. I'm not sure how accessible these are due to covid and I went to all mine through my college but it could definitely be worth a Google!

EPQ - this is dependent on your college but it is a brilliant thing to write about! It's basically a mini uni essay that you do during sixth form. Check with your college to see if they provide it as it is an actual exam board qualification.

Hobbies - Now I didn't write too much about hobbies in mine but my friend who does medicine did write about his hobbies with music! There should be plenty of info out there on how to include hobbies well so it's def something to look into.

Competitions - this one is a bit hit or miss. I don't know many competitions out there so it'll require a chunk of research but I did enter the Peterhouse essay competition and wrote about that in my statement so def worth the researcj into different competitions if you're interested.

I hope this has helped somewhat! I know how stressful applications and personal statements can be so please don't hesitate to ask anymore questions! This is by no means and exhaustive list and hopefully others may pop in with some useful advice that I haven't thought of.

Hello, I am also studying the same subjects as the person that wrote this question. I was wondering, can you send any links to MOOCs that helped you get more interested in biomedicine and is microbiology part of biomedicine?

Hi! I can't send exact links to the MOOCs I did, it was a few years back and different ones run every few weeks but here are some websites that can help you find some you're interested in:

https://www.futurelearn.com/
https://www.coursera.org/

You can filter the courses by subject (e.g. biology, science, healthcare, etc.) and new ones happen all the time so keep an eye out!

Regarding the microbiology/biomedicine bit, it really depends on the modules of the courses you look at. Microbiology is a biological science that is very specific. It covers bacteria, viruses, fungi, cell biology, cancer, genetics, etc. Biomedical science degrees tend to be A LOT broader including things from pharama, sport science, physiology, cell science, etc. You may cover some microbiology in a biomed degree but it will very unlikely be your focus. They are VERY different degrees. This is just a broad overview though, every course will have different module content even if they have the same name so don't pick a degree just cause the name sounds right, make sure you look at exactly what modules you'll do and what you'll learn in each one before making a decision.

Hope that's helped somewhat and if you have anymore questions, just ask.