Eight medicine rejections...where next?
Hi everyone,
basically as the title suggests, I have received four medicine rejections after reapplying during a gap year. As you can imagine my head is a bit of mess right now and I have no idea really of where to go next.
I have a place at Keele to do Medicinal Chemistry but I'm umming and aahing over whether or not I want that place.
I also currently have a job at a GP surgery as a phlebotomist and admin clerk.
This year I applied to HYMS, Keele, Bristol and Soton. I only got one interview which was at HYMS
A-Levels: AAAaa in Maths, Chemistry, Biology, Physics and History.
My UKCAT this year was 715 (which I thought was really good after my last one of 650).
GCSEs: 5A*, 8As and 2Bs.
Sorry for the long post but I tried to preempt some of your potential questions.
Thanks.
basically as the title suggests, I have received four medicine rejections after reapplying during a gap year. As you can imagine my head is a bit of mess right now and I have no idea really of where to go next.
I have a place at Keele to do Medicinal Chemistry but I'm umming and aahing over whether or not I want that place.
I also currently have a job at a GP surgery as a phlebotomist and admin clerk.
This year I applied to HYMS, Keele, Bristol and Soton. I only got one interview which was at HYMS
A-Levels: AAAaa in Maths, Chemistry, Biology, Physics and History.
My UKCAT this year was 715 (which I thought was really good after my last one of 650).
GCSEs: 5A*, 8As and 2Bs.
Sorry for the long post but I tried to preempt some of your potential questions.
Thanks.
Scroll to see replies
If medicine is what you really want to do, try again you could be third time lucky. You could do the degree and take the graduate route which will be more expensive, although you do have people in their 30's still trying to do medicine so your still young, don't completely give up yet things like this happen. Or you could just keep your job at the GP?
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Sorry to hear that bro.
I think you should go into something like finance because at least the pay will be good.
Medicine will only become more difficult in Med School, so you may find yourself having to retake years etc
I think you should go into something like finance because at least the pay will be good.
Medicine will only become more difficult in Med School, so you may find yourself having to retake years etc
Not getting into medicine shouldn't be the be all or end all. Have you considered other healthcare professions like physiotherapy, diagnostic radiography, nursing there is much more support available on these courses. I failed to get into medicine at sixthform and decided to do a degree in Biomedical Sciences, it was fun at the beginning but I realised it was not prepping me up to anything apart from a career in research and I hate the thought of being stuck in a lab for the rest of my life. I am now on a postgraduate diploma in adult nursing I enjoy the hands on side of things, but there are lots of health and disease in terms of nursing care I have never come across so there are plenty of things keeping me on my feet. Having done science A levels gives me a huge advantage because I can progress into becoming a specialist nurse, of course the roles and responsibility is not the same as a doctor, I dont mind at all I rather like providing round the clock care for a set group of patients, rather than consulting one patient after the next like a production line and not really getting to know them. Doctors and nurses have pretty much the same patient contact time but the difference is nursing is about quality while doctors are about quantity. Granted, the depth adn breadth of medical knowledge taught to my mates in medical school is much greater but I will eventually get there with nursing when I specialise and the knowledge will be focused on a particular field. Wheres in medicine you literally have to learn everything, nurses cut the coroners I suppose. With my degree many people say I am being stupid cos I am doing something that I am basically overqualified for. That is bs, I rather be overqualified and be at an advantage of my non-biology classmates and get a promotion faster, or become competent faster at what I am doing, than to constantly compete at medical school. I'm not dissuading you from medical school again nor am I saying that nurses are better than doctors, they just have different roles that are equally important as part of the patient care package. I'm just saying there are other options. Yes becoming a doctor is great I have many friends in that great position but don't trap yourself into a corner because of it. Nursing has many career paths too, and so does other healthcare professions. I can only comment on nursing however there are a range of specialities to go into just like medicine, but without having the final say or added extra responsibilities of a doctor (on the whole).
But its up to you, you can another degree and reapply for medicine again, a few people on my old course has done that or pursue a different healthcare profession.
But its up to you, you can another degree and reapply for medicine again, a few people on my old course has done that or pursue a different healthcare profession.
well , you dont seem to understand the whole play to your strengths thing do you ??? you would have been interviewed by plymouth , exeter , st georges for sure this year. with a good ukcat why would you apply to bristol. if your enjoying your job then id say continue and plan a mega sick gap year from feb/march 2015 onwards as you should definatley get 4 interviews next year tbh. improve your ukcat again and apply to ukcat heavier universities. dw youll be fine i had worse stats than you got in !!!!!
If you have the grades and U.K.C.A.T. score - which you do - in addition to the non-academic strengths - which you also do - then you're doing something wrong to get eight rejections.
Take more care about where you're applying. Don't necessarily apply to schools you perceive as easier to get in to. The easiest schools to get in to are those that favour the strengths of your application and your weaknesses, if any, won't hold you back too much. For some people that'd be Keele, for others that might be Oxford.
No, medicine shouldn't necessarily be the be all or end all, but doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, pharmacists, et c. all have very different jobs. I find people saying 'Why wouldn't you consider another healthcare career?' to be quite irksome. They're totally different. Just because they're in the same rough field doesn't mean that they're similar in role and equally desirable to all.
I also contest the idea that nurses are more about quality and doctors are more about quantity. That's a massive, inaccurate over-simplification.
Take more care about where you're applying. Don't necessarily apply to schools you perceive as easier to get in to. The easiest schools to get in to are those that favour the strengths of your application and your weaknesses, if any, won't hold you back too much. For some people that'd be Keele, for others that might be Oxford.
Original post by LIzzieWoo
Spoiler
No, medicine shouldn't necessarily be the be all or end all, but doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, pharmacists, et c. all have very different jobs. I find people saying 'Why wouldn't you consider another healthcare career?' to be quite irksome. They're totally different. Just because they're in the same rough field doesn't mean that they're similar in role and equally desirable to all.
I also contest the idea that nurses are more about quality and doctors are more about quantity. That's a massive, inaccurate over-simplification.
Original post by Kinkerz
If you have the grades and U.K.C.A.T. score - which you do - in addition to the non-academic strengths - which you also do - then you're doing something wrong to get eight rejections.
Take more care about where you're applying. Don't necessarily apply to schools you perceive as easier to get in to. The easiest schools to get in to are those that favour the strengths of your application and your weaknesses, if any, won't hold you back too much. For some people that'd be Keele, for others that might be Oxford.
No, medicine shouldn't necessarily be the be all or end all, but doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, pharmacists, et c. all have very different jobs. I find people saying 'Why wouldn't you consider another healthcare career?' to be quite irksome. They're totally different. Just because they're in the same rough field doesn't mean that they're similar in role and equally desirable to all.
I also contest the idea that nurses are more about quality and doctors are more about quantity. That's a massive, inaccurate over-simplification.
Take more care about where you're applying. Don't necessarily apply to schools you perceive as easier to get in to. The easiest schools to get in to are those that favour the strengths of your application and your weaknesses, if any, won't hold you back too much. For some people that'd be Keele, for others that might be Oxford.
No, medicine shouldn't necessarily be the be all or end all, but doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, pharmacists, et c. all have very different jobs. I find people saying 'Why wouldn't you consider another healthcare career?' to be quite irksome. They're totally different. Just because they're in the same rough field doesn't mean that they're similar in role and equally desirable to all.
I also contest the idea that nurses are more about quality and doctors are more about quantity. That's a massive, inaccurate over-simplification.
Yes it is a massive oversimplification. I didn't see the point of elaborating any further because it would have been off topic. I'm not here to advise one over the other. I merely providing my perspective as I can relate to OP situation. There is nothing wrong with looking elsewhere because I have seen too many intellectual people wasting their time re applying year after year, where their skills and assets can be put into good use elsewhere and it gets to a point where you need to be realistic. as I have stated previously I am not dissuading OP from reapplying. I have equally seen many people be successful in medicine after having done a previous degree.
I see you are a medical student and is a success story so we will probably be in a situation where an infinite force meets an immovable object. Haha
But of course, I agree with you to reassess what is going wrong with the application process. Perhaps there is more you can do on the personal statement to make it stand out and try harder to get better admissions score.
(edited 10 years ago)
You could try in USA/ Canada/japan/germany/ italy/ ireland??? RCSI Or just change to engineering etc
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Original post by A.Systole
Hi everyone,
basically as the title suggests, I have received four medicine rejections after reapplying during a gap year. As you can imagine my head is a bit of mess right now and I have no idea really of where to go next.
I have a place at Keele to do Medicinal Chemistry but I'm umming and aahing over whether or not I want that place.
I also currently have a job at a GP surgery as a phlebotomist and admin clerk.
This year I applied to HYMS, Keele, Bristol and Soton. I only got one interview which was at HYMS
A-Levels: AAAaa in Maths, Chemistry, Biology, Physics and History.
My UKCAT this year was 715 (which I thought was really good after my last one of 650).
GCSEs: 5A*, 8As and 2Bs.
Sorry for the long post but I tried to preempt some of your potential questions.
Thanks.
basically as the title suggests, I have received four medicine rejections after reapplying during a gap year. As you can imagine my head is a bit of mess right now and I have no idea really of where to go next.
I have a place at Keele to do Medicinal Chemistry but I'm umming and aahing over whether or not I want that place.
I also currently have a job at a GP surgery as a phlebotomist and admin clerk.
This year I applied to HYMS, Keele, Bristol and Soton. I only got one interview which was at HYMS
A-Levels: AAAaa in Maths, Chemistry, Biology, Physics and History.
My UKCAT this year was 715 (which I thought was really good after my last one of 650).
GCSEs: 5A*, 8As and 2Bs.
Sorry for the long post but I tried to preempt some of your potential questions.
Thanks.
I think you should go for it one more time ! Just play it ultra safe next year and apply to a minimum of 3 places where you'd be guaranteed an interview!
Dear OP,
A friend of mine really wanted to be a doctor through her A level years but was met with unfortunate circumstances, she ended up doing A levels over a period of 3 years. She then received 4 rejections for Medicine in her application through UCAS, and she went on to do a 3 year degree of Bio-medical Sciences instead.
This year she has started her graduate course of Medicine (4 years) and says she could not have made a better decision, effectively she started her course 4 years late but she is now doing what she loves.
With a course like Medicine, jobs are pretty much secured so if you're willing to take the long way around then DON'T GIVE UP. Have faith, and good luck with which ever decision you decide to take!
A friend of mine really wanted to be a doctor through her A level years but was met with unfortunate circumstances, she ended up doing A levels over a period of 3 years. She then received 4 rejections for Medicine in her application through UCAS, and she went on to do a 3 year degree of Bio-medical Sciences instead.
This year she has started her graduate course of Medicine (4 years) and says she could not have made a better decision, effectively she started her course 4 years late but she is now doing what she loves.
With a course like Medicine, jobs are pretty much secured so if you're willing to take the long way around then DON'T GIVE UP. Have faith, and good luck with which ever decision you decide to take!
Hey there,
I'm so sorry to hear it didn't work out for you, but I really don't think you should give up. As a re-applicant you are obviously quite sure medicine is the path for you. I don't think you'll find it more difficult than other students in medical school because your grades are great, so you are of course smart enough.
This is just my personal advice of what I would do if I were you. You're still so young, you don't have to worry about your age being a 3rd time applicant (I'm getting into medicine after a PhD!), plus hopefully you still have your job at the GP surgery to fund your year, so financially you'll be in a great position when you start medicine. I do not recommend doing an alternative course with the aim of doing graduate entry medicine at the end. Not only will you spend 3 years of your life doing something your not really passionate about, you'll have wasted over 20 grand. Plus graduate entry medicine is even more competitive that the 5 year! Though I guess it may put you one step ahead of other applicants in the 5 year course, but I just don't think it's worth it.
I honestly think you should use this year to improve your application and apply again next year! You've got the grades so your fine in that respect. I think you need to be really smart with where you apply to and work to your strengths. What stands out to me about the uni's you applied to is that Keele and Bristol are very personal statement heavy, and Southampton is UKCAT heavy. HYMS seems like a very good choice with automatic interviews above 700, though I'm aware of their 'issues' this year! I'm sorry to say that your UKCAT was definitely not high enough for an interview at Southampton so it seems like that was a wasted choice. So for next year you need to work on increasing your average, and if you don't score that highly, apply to uni's that do not weight interviews heavily on UKCAT. Also, as you didn't get an interview at 2 personal statement-heavy uni's it indicates that this is something you definitely need to improve on. Have you got the ISC medical book on personal statements? They have some examples of superhuman personal statements, but don't be put off by that, they also have some great advice about structuring it. Get as many people to read your personal statement as possible and for everything you say you observed/did, talk about what you learnt from it. Improving on this I think is vital for next year. Get feedback from HYMS on your interview, you may have been near the cut-off for an offer, but if you weren't at least you know that is an area of improvement too.
If I were you I would spend the year working on the weak points of your application and apply again this October with a much stronger application. I can understand getting 8 rejections is very disheartening and a real blow to your confidence but don't give up on the dream just yet! I think it's always good to have a back up career option, but if medicine is truly what you want to do it's worth another try!
I hope that advice was somewhat useful, feel free to PM me.
Good luck mate, all the best!
I'm so sorry to hear it didn't work out for you, but I really don't think you should give up. As a re-applicant you are obviously quite sure medicine is the path for you. I don't think you'll find it more difficult than other students in medical school because your grades are great, so you are of course smart enough.
This is just my personal advice of what I would do if I were you. You're still so young, you don't have to worry about your age being a 3rd time applicant (I'm getting into medicine after a PhD!), plus hopefully you still have your job at the GP surgery to fund your year, so financially you'll be in a great position when you start medicine. I do not recommend doing an alternative course with the aim of doing graduate entry medicine at the end. Not only will you spend 3 years of your life doing something your not really passionate about, you'll have wasted over 20 grand. Plus graduate entry medicine is even more competitive that the 5 year! Though I guess it may put you one step ahead of other applicants in the 5 year course, but I just don't think it's worth it.
I honestly think you should use this year to improve your application and apply again next year! You've got the grades so your fine in that respect. I think you need to be really smart with where you apply to and work to your strengths. What stands out to me about the uni's you applied to is that Keele and Bristol are very personal statement heavy, and Southampton is UKCAT heavy. HYMS seems like a very good choice with automatic interviews above 700, though I'm aware of their 'issues' this year! I'm sorry to say that your UKCAT was definitely not high enough for an interview at Southampton so it seems like that was a wasted choice. So for next year you need to work on increasing your average, and if you don't score that highly, apply to uni's that do not weight interviews heavily on UKCAT. Also, as you didn't get an interview at 2 personal statement-heavy uni's it indicates that this is something you definitely need to improve on. Have you got the ISC medical book on personal statements? They have some examples of superhuman personal statements, but don't be put off by that, they also have some great advice about structuring it. Get as many people to read your personal statement as possible and for everything you say you observed/did, talk about what you learnt from it. Improving on this I think is vital for next year. Get feedback from HYMS on your interview, you may have been near the cut-off for an offer, but if you weren't at least you know that is an area of improvement too.
If I were you I would spend the year working on the weak points of your application and apply again this October with a much stronger application. I can understand getting 8 rejections is very disheartening and a real blow to your confidence but don't give up on the dream just yet! I think it's always good to have a back up career option, but if medicine is truly what you want to do it's worth another try!
I hope that advice was somewhat useful, feel free to PM me.
Good luck mate, all the best!
Original post by wtpcarr
well , you dont seem to understand the whole play to your strengths thing do you ??? you would have been interviewed by plymouth , exeter , st georges for sure this year. with a good ukcat why would you apply to bristol. if your enjoying your job then id say continue and plan a mega sick gap year from feb/march 2015 onwards as you should definatley get 4 interviews next year tbh. improve your ukcat again and apply to ukcat heavier universities. dw youll be fine i had worse stats than you got in !!!!!
Exeter rejected everyone that hadn't achieved/wasn't predicted an A*...so wouldn't have been a good choice...
I do agree with you though, the only thing wrong here is the op not applying to their strengths. There are at least 5/6 unis where they'd have been guaranteed interviews!
Give it another crack, a chap in the year below me had applied either three or four times, I forget which.
It sounds like you should be more than capable of putting a decent application in with that background, make sure you target medical schools that look for what you have though, don't go for places where its clear you will go straight in the bin.
Ask for feedback from the places that rejected you.
It sounds like you should be more than capable of putting a decent application in with that background, make sure you target medical schools that look for what you have though, don't go for places where its clear you will go straight in the bin.
Ask for feedback from the places that rejected you.
Original post by 345rty
Give it another crack, a chap in the year below me had applied either three or four times, I forget which.
It sounds like you should be more than capable of putting a decent application in with that background, make sure you target medical schools that look for what you have though, don't go for places where its clear you will go straight in the bin.
Ask for feedback from the places that rejected you.
It sounds like you should be more than capable of putting a decent application in with that background, make sure you target medical schools that look for what you have though, don't go for places where its clear you will go straight in the bin.
Ask for feedback from the places that rejected you.
I wonder if u apply at 18 and get rejected for 2 times, ur 20 already, and ur telling give it a year more :21?? Maybe resitting igcses and alevels for another 6 years? If not studying atm then relevant medical experience is needed otherwise thats time wasting and life wasting
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Original post by Dr. Django
Exeter rejected everyone that hadn't achieved/wasn't predicted an A*...so wouldn't have been a good choice...
I do agree with you though, the only thing wrong here is the op not applying to their strengths. There are at least 5/6 unis where they'd have been guaranteed interviews!
I do agree with you though, the only thing wrong here is the op not applying to their strengths. There are at least 5/6 unis where they'd have been guaranteed interviews!
Oh my bad , either way those stats add up to 3-4 interviews not 1 , try again op !
Original post by beinlondon
I wonder if u apply at 18 and get rejected for 2 times, ur 20 already, and ur telling give it a year more :21?? Maybe resitting igcses and alevels for another 6 years? If not studying atm then relevant medical experience is needed otherwise thats time wasting and life wasting
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No more time lost than if you did a BSc then applied to a four year, or if you went to school in northern ireland then applied once.
I don't think the time lost is a remotely concerning issue here. If you want to do medicine, have a suitable job to tide you over whilst building the work experience etc (which they should be able to do no problem whilst working in a GP), why rock the boat. Grades and UKCAT don't sound like the problem, more likely its a simple question of writing a good personal statement.
Original post by 345rty
No more time lost than if you did a BSc then applied to a four year, or if you went to school in northern ireland then applied once.
I don't think the time lost is a remotely concerning issue here. If you want to do medicine, have a suitable job to tide you over whilst building the work experience etc (which they should be able to do no problem whilst working in a GP), why rock the boat. Grades and UKCAT don't sound like the problem, more likely its a simple question of writing a good personal statement.
I don't think the time lost is a remotely concerning issue here. If you want to do medicine, have a suitable job to tide you over whilst building the work experience etc (which they should be able to do no problem whilst working in a GP), why rock the boat. Grades and UKCAT don't sound like the problem, more likely its a simple question of writing a good personal statement.
Do people really want to go to medicine? Havent they heard of the sacrifices that you have to make ?
Original post by beinlondon
Do people really want to go to medicine? Havent they heard of the sacrifices that you have to make ?
Have a look around the medicine sub forum, its full of people trying year after year to get in, making sacrifices to put an application together let alone try and make a career of it.
Their call as to wether its what they want to do, the OP seems to still want it, and has clearly wanted it enough to take what will be a very dull job in a GP to bolster their application.
An old school friend just left her management job to take an HCA job whilst she applies. There is no way I'd have done that but she really wants the place at medical school.
Would you really want to do Medicinal Chemistry for X years? I think that's the real question! You have to take it quite seriously because say you were to apply for graduate entry medicine, you'd really need a 1st! And it's hard to get a 1st, especially if your heart/interest/talent does not lie in Chemistry. Which it may well not do, mine never did.
What about your work experience and personal statement, how are they?
Also, apply to some BMAT unis! If the UKCAT is not your strong point then mix it up a little. If I hadn't applied to some BMAT places as well as UKCAT just in case I flopped one, I would never have got into medical school, my UKCAT was way worse than yours.
What about your work experience and personal statement, how are they?
Also, apply to some BMAT unis! If the UKCAT is not your strong point then mix it up a little. If I hadn't applied to some BMAT places as well as UKCAT just in case I flopped one, I would never have got into medical school, my UKCAT was way worse than yours.
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