Applying for med: can I send another ucas app at the January ucas deadline?

Im applying for med this year but I am considering applying for another bioscience related degree if I don’t get any interviews. This would be in jan time I *think* when everyone else applies.

Would this even be possible? Would I be able to write another personal statement?

Reply 1

McGinger

You can just apply for your 4 Med choices now, and add the 5th non-Med choice later - any time up to 26 January.

Most Unis will accept this and will not want another PS (they all know that Med applicants will also apply for 'another subject') - but if they do, they will ask you for it.

Reply 2

harrysbar

Original post by Rosiemaexx

You don’t write another personal statement. It’s the same UCAS form but you can add a 5th non medicine choice later in the year, maybe December

Reply 3

harrysbar

I totally accept your point about graduate entry medicine being even more competitive but lots of people will want one non medicine choice because if they don’t get any interviews, they would rather give up medicine than take a year out to possibly fail to get into medicine again.

Plus it is easy to self release into Clearing now so that is still an option if some good medicine options happen to become available in Clearing and they have the right grades etc.

Reply 4

harrysbar

But not everyone does an alternative course thinking they can do GEM? Some people want a “safe” choice because they are not that confident about getting into medicine or possibly not 100% committed to it and think I will give it a shot but accept it was not meant to be if I don’t get any offers

Reply 5

harrysbar

I think I would give the same answer if being interviewed for medicine but I do also know students who have said to me that they will make 4 medicine choices and a 5th non medicine one because they would consider doing another course if they were unsuccessful at getting into medicine.

But I do agree about your GEM point and people shouldn’t apply to non medicine courses if they are thinking that they can use an alternative degree simply as a stepping stone into medicine at a later point in their lives.

Reply 6

medguy12

Do i have to submit my 5th back up choice before the med/dent deadline or do I have until the normal deadline?

Reply 7

ashleighs1996x

I would second ecolier. I was misinformed while at college and told to apply for a non-medicine degree as a final choice and then apply to graduate entry medicine as if it was that easy to get a place as a graduate.
It would have been much easier to take a single year out, work, earn money, gain experience and reapply than to do a whole three years of a course you don’t really have any passion for, get into debt , and then be faced with the hugely competitive GEM options

I just don’t see the point in using the fifth choice for a course you’ve not ever wanted to do

Reply 8

harrysbar

I don’t exactly agree that someone should plan to use Clearing, it can be a very stressful experience especially with a lack of good accommodation options for many Clearing applicants. To my mind it is better if people are realistic about the fact that they may just not be cut out for medicine. Some will retake A levels or take a year out to gain more relevant work experience but some will hopefully accept that medicine just isn’t for them.
Maybe we can agree that where they will not be obsessing over GEM they can consider using their 5th choice on a non medicine option as long as they would genuinely be happy to pursue that other option if they got 4 rejections?

Reply 9

medguy12

Haha thank you the reason I ask is because I’m a gap year student resitting and if somehow my resit is worse than expected surely the only route left is working through GEM I’m not too sure which Med schools accept more than 1 resit attempt :smile:

Reply 10

Admit-One

Universities Forum Helper

Just to note that the deadline for guaranteed consideration to non-med courses is the 26th of January this year.

In reality, a very large number of courses stay open way longer than this. But it's the 26th if anyone wants to guarantee that the course will be open and will consider them.