Closed - The "Which Medical School Should I Apply To?" Uberthread [Part 1 of 3]

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GCSEs: 6A*s, 3As, 1B
AS-Levels: AAA (Bio, Chem, Maths) BB (English, Critical Thinking)
A2: Bio, Chem, Maths (not sure on predictions, possibly AAA)
UKCAT: 700 average
W/E: One week hospital work, few months volunteering with Alzheimer's patients

Can anyone suggest places to apply to? ( I was considering Newcastle, Leeds, Nottingham, Kings)

Reply 141

rockyone2

Get Cape.Wear Cape.Fly.

I think not knowing what you wanted to do isn't a very good excuse for poor GCSEs...but maybe it's just me who thinks that.

IN a way it is. If you know you want to be a DR you would will be more inclined to work harder to gain the grades. If you dont have a clue motivation is limited in my opinion.

Reply 142

FFCrusader

Sunny1171

oooo a barts medic!

do you think i stand a chance with a good ps? or will i get cut off for ukcat :frown:

are my gcse's ok? :eek:

Thankss

Hey hey

I think you should be alright with those GCSE grades. A good PS would help and I think you might be alright with that UKCAT score... The cutoff in the last few years have been below that I believe.

Reply 143

Purple_monkey

Mahia

I got 640 average, is that to low for barts? Their cut off was 612.5 last year?

Hmm I got accepted to barts '08 with a UKCAT of 610. As long as you meet the minimum threshold for the UKCAT it should be fine.
In my opinion getting an interview depends mostly on your personal statement, everything else is pretty much a checklist to see if you qualify.

Reply 144

Purple_monkey

Jack_Summers

o.0 Wow that's some pretty awesome academical qualifications right there!
I think you'll have a high chance of getting into most universities..so go for whichever ones you want.
Just read the uni prospectus and see if it suits your style of learning also think about location and the number of students they accept as well.
Your going to be studying there for 5/6 years so make sure you pick the ones you like.

Reply 145

divinelord

I know that Manchester is largely PBL based and nottingham is integrated. But generally, as cities (and medical students do travel around cities quite a bit) which one would you choose? which one gives you the best ambience?
Nottingham comes across as a fantastic uni but manchester is good aswell and same can be said for leeds.

So, in short if you were to recommend a city of a person (with no opinion on which type of medicine suits him) ; which one would you?

Reply 146

RoadWarrior

divinelord

To do what?

If this has nothing to do with medicine, why is it in the medicine forum?

Reply 147

OneStepAhead

Manchester anyday. I have not even read the thread, but based on my biased footballing mind, whenever I hear Manchester - it has to win

Reply 148

denula

dont kno where to apply at all! not fussed abt the uni or the location, just wanna get in!

GCSEs: 8As 2Bs 1C
A levels: Bio A, Chem A, Maths A, English Lit (AS) B
Degree: predicited 2:1 Medical Biochemistry @ Leicester University
UKCAT: 620 Avg
W/E: Nightline call taker, summer working in old ppls home, MS physio assistant, Student union council rep, Treasurer/secretary/publicity officer for societies.

mainly worried abt UKCAT cutoff and GCSEs as everything else should b ok! also dont care if its 5yr prgm or 4 yr!

Reply 149

Alex D

OneStepAhead

Manchester anyday. I have not even read the thread, but based on my biased footballing mind, whenever I hear Manchester - it has to win

Leeds

anyone???

brokenangel

You need to do some quick research on what uni will accept your mitigating circumstance and if possible give the appropriate uni a ring to check all is ok before you apply.

Sarky

Find out which medical schools accept candidates for resits with extenuating circumstances and check that yours would count. Gather your evidence after you've chosed where to apply and submit it as soon as possible.

Thanks, I've given up on retaking bio/physics... I want to concentrate on chemistry...
but
Which universities do i have a good chance of getting in with
ABBC (retaking Chem --> A due to ext.circ.)
gcse's of A*AAABBBCC
Excellent w/e and voluntary work
Pretty bad UKCAT score (last year got about 550 :frown:

havent taken it yet this year)

Reply 152

brokenangel

SomeStudent

havent taken it yet this year)

http://www.medschoolsonline.co.uk/index.php?pageid=78 shows which uni are willing to accept AAB you then need to on the idividual uni and see what their resit policy is.

Reply 153

starxx

hey guys

im a reapplicant i need some advice on which unis i should apply to.

I have:
3A*(science, RE)
5A (maths, eng lit, business, textiles, urdu)
2B (eng language, french)

AAAa in bio, chem, psych and maths

UKCAT:
430-VR (don't know what happened there)
680-QR
780-AR
680-DA
average: 642.5

i know i cant apply to leicester because of my ukcat.i want to apply to liverpool and barts.any other suggestions would be very much appreciated. plz reply!

Thank You

Reply 154

loveisjustasong

Some of you have a lot of GCSEs...Was anyone else limited in the number they could take? :sad:

The number of GCSEs doesn't matter, right?

Reply 155

Phalanges

RoadWarrior

To do what?

If this has nothing to do with medicine, why is it in the medicine forum?

You can be spent out to all kinds of places in your clinical years (at Newcastle it was pretty much anywhere in the North East).

Reply 156

applemilk1992

So I've got to make a final choice before monday about my unis (college want my application then...) but i'm really stuck for a final medicine choice (so sorry for another 'omgz dis uni or dat' thread)

basically ive got KCL, UCL, leeds, ++ biochemistry at KCL as a backup

GCSE: 8A* 2A 1B, AS AAAB, UKCAT 637.5 (yerrrrr makes me worry about barts) volunteering work exp blerblberbler etc.

I love both bristol and barts, but I really have no idea where to go! I know about the courses and such (btww heard barts is 20% pbl and 80% traditional. any verification, just out of curiosity) so really its about making a choice :woo:

not saying which do i have better chances at getting into, obv its always a gamble wherever you go, but where satisfies what I already have in terms of gcses as-levels ukcat etc. the best? I don't want to waste my last option on somewhere that has some kinda secret cut off scores for something. It's hard to find much useful information on university websites (believe it or not!)

Any any any advice is greatly appreciated! :biggrin:

Reply 157

Hygeia

applemilk1992

From what I know about the Barts course, it is traditional in the sense that you have the preclinical/clinical split but it is basically a PBL course. On this page it says that PBL plays a key role throughout the course.

Renal

...

Saffie

...

How much PBL is there at Barts?

Reply 158

myfanwy

apple100

Woops, so my thread got moved here and I don't know where my question has gone...so I'll post it again lol. My 4th choice is either going to be Cardiff or Bristol but I'm stuck as to which to choose. I like both of the unis and the teaching style/ city etc. But I know that both of them love GCSE's. Bristol on one hand have said that credit is given for the best 8 GCSE's, while Cardiff have specifically detailed how they score GCSE's ( A*=3, A=2, B=1. They take 9 of them and last year cut off was 22 and I have 24 as I have 6 A*'s and 4 A's). I'm not sure which to choose because Bristol isn't very specific about how they use GCSE's, 'credit' could mean anything, and as for Cardiff, I just meet the cut off, I'm not sure how much higher the cutoff will go this year....any idea which would be 'safer'? I know no medical schools are safe or easy to get into, I just want to make sure I'm applying to sensible places :smile:

Don't think the cut off will increase too much for Cardiff this year - at least you know what they're going for and you seem to meet their requirements. No knowledge of Bristol, so can't comment on them. I'd say Cardiff, but I'm biased, cos loads of people get offers for here according to http://www.medschoolsonline.co.uk/index.php?pageid=78 compared to Bristol.

Reply 159

Saffie

Hygeia

We have 2 PBLs a week in first and second year, that's 4 hours a week contact time and maybe 1-4 hours a week self study time. In third year we have 1 PBL a week, that's 2 hours contact time and probably 1-2 hours self study. I don't think we have PBL in fourth and fifth years (I'm a fourth year now so should probably know!).

There are more lectures than there are PBLs, I'd estimate probably 8-ish hours a week. And there are also some histology, prosection and practical sessions in first and second year which make up probably 2 hours a week.

It varies though and they've changed the curriculum a bit now but hopefully that gives you some idea what its like.