Medicine Applications

If you're a home student applying via UCAS, you get five choices in each application cycle. You can't submit one batch of applications for one course and then start a second batch for other courses.

I would really recommend against trying to apply for vet med and medicine together - your personal statement is likely to throw up massive red flags for admissions tutors. Both are competitive courses, but very different, and trying to fit both into one statement is going to come across as if you aren't fully committed to either. You need to decide which one you really want before you apply.

5 applications in total, thank you for clarifying.

And that is great advise regarding the courses. I will definitely think on it... Vet med is my first choice and my area of previous qualifications and work. I assume that they admission board will also see my other applications (back up's/different avenues) I assume that they will be aware what is my other options.. would they penalize me for this too or is it just because the medical courses are so competitive?

The reason both play on my mind is that my avenue into medicine is slightly different... I am completing a SWAP medicine course this year as a mature student and I recently had an interview where they told me the criteria. For Vet Med all college exams need to be 80%+ with no resist available. So one fail, no matter how close and vet med is distant memory. Even with this you still have to pass interviewing which I have heard even for the straight A student's is tough. The 80% replaces the need for a UCAT aptitude test. Doctors however need to just pass these tests but do not have the pressure of the % scores, however they have the UCAT test. There is no end of year exam in SWAP just as modules pass. So it wasn't that one is a back up to another it was just circumstances and I would enjoy both. It is a shame that they don't see it that way... 'not dedicated' as I am just truly passionate about being a doctor and in honestly don't mind what species.

I will need to get my thinking cap on! Thank you for telling me this.

I don't think universities are able to see your other choices, unless things have changed since I did my undergrad. The problem would be writing a joint personal statement. Admissions tutors are unlikely to select someone who doesn't seem fully committed to the profession, not when they have so many candidates to choose from. It may also add an extra layer of competition for you. With five applications for two or possibly three different degree programmes, you may be closing doors rather than opening them, just on the basis on probability. Someone who applies to four medicine courses is statistically more likely to get an offer than someone who only applies to two, even if their qualifications and experience are equivalent. So to maximise your chances it would make more sense to focus on one course.

I applied for dentistry this year and my UCAS advisor told me that universities can't see your other UCAS choices

Thank you!

I totally forgot about the joint personal statement. I have already gained experience lambing, shadowing and volunteering within the veterinary field this year with the aim to strengthen my application. I have done no medical based experience - haven't honestly had time or opportunity given Covid and full time work etc. I know that some places are not looking for work experience due to covid.

It seems by everyone's statements that the joint personal statement will be tough. So yes, I can confirm that at present my personal statement is focused on veterinary only. I assume however that it is the same personal statement that will be used to apply for 'back up's' which at present for me are dietetics, marine biology, human biology (intention of post grad teaching) and nursing. Having had the taste of veterinary nursing in my past I do not want to go this avenue... there is not the pay or opportunities within Scotland to truly make a career from it, especially given my areas of interest. With the personal statement being Veterinary Medicine based am I also reducing my chances of getting into human based undergraduate courses that will open later in the year as well? As in face the same problems I would when applying for medicine? Or do I get to upload a different personal statement with the applications that open in October? Or will they know that they are my second options???

I'm going to honest... I'm 27 and this application process seems a complete mind field to me. I agree that given the competitiveness of the medicine course they will want 'committed' individuals but it seems silly that I would have to focus on one and lose the opportunity of another that is a great interest of mine because of a personal statement... ? then use the same statement to apply again for human based medicine courses like nursing... like dropping my aspirations because I can't get all the work experience under my belt. Seems slightly unfair...?

Why don't you sit the UCAT and see what your score is? If you are looking at Scottish med schools, they will all use UCAT quite heavily, so that may give you an idea of whether medicine is a possibility.

Other courses are aware they will be a 2nd choice, and many are OK about it. A lot will ask for you to upload a separate PS, but some won't, depends on uni and course.

Med schools are ridiculously oversubscribed, and have to cut their numbers down somehow, and they often use commitment to medicine/PS as a means of doing that. And how can you know if you want to pursue a career of the intensity of medicine, if you have done no work experience? This is what the med schools will be asking themselves......

Yes, I completely understand what you are saying....

It's a tough one. it really is... I tried to get experience within my local hospital but I couldn't (dietetics department). I have personal experiences as I a full time carer but nothing official. I suppose I could focus on veterinary being my main area of choice and if I am not successful, potentially/hopefully successful in a back up and then look to apply again the following year for medicine? If I have my SWAP medicine and my 1st year of 'X' under my belt I could potentially apply again and sit my UCAT ?? . The more annoying thing is the SWAP medicine is solely human based but is shared with aspiring doctors dentists and vets. Starting in August and my application for university will be a month later so some have said that you could use this to try to twist your PS but I wasn't to keen on this idea.

Looks like I'm going to need to pick one...

I will aim to call the admissions board and ask whether my PS statement can be changed for the courses applied to later in the year. If it is a waste of time to apply for both medicine courses and only having 5 option I don't want to sacrifice an option to apply for medicine that I could have used to apply for .. .say dietetics or marine biology etc

I think you need to decide what you would prefer to do, as 50 years is a long time to be doing a 2nd (or 3rd or 4th) choice. Commit yourself to it for this year and reassess your options if you get nowhere. We do not regret what we try for and miss in the same way we regret not giving something we want our all! I know you think time is moving on, but in the great scheme of things, another year is nothing either way, so if vet med is your top choice, put everything into a full application for this, without being distracted by noise from elsewhere. If you miss your SWAP grades, then you still have options for alternatives and can get WEx and sit UCAT next year. The other stuff should probably go to one side for now, I would have thought, as trying to keep too many balls in the air means you may drop the wrong one!