Scottish Unis or English Unis for Medicine?

Original post by muchensmile

Hi I'm a Scottish applicant hoping to apply for medicine but I want to apply to universities strategically to boost my chances. My results are 8As at National 5s, and 6As at Highers, 720 sjt band 2 at ukcat and doing Advanced Highers this year. I am wondering how do universities such as Kings College London compare with Edinburgh/Glasgow in terms of competitiveness and Ukcat requirements? Also do English univeristies stress more on work experience? Since some Scottish applicants start uni at 17, there is not really a lot of time to do work experience/volunteering. Any advice on whether I'm better off applying to an English uni or Scottish uni?
Thanks!

I'm doing some research in english unis too, and I think a few english ones actually requires you to have certain hours of work experience/volunteering, or they actually put emphasis on the length of your work experience placements (so much for quality not quantity haha)

Reply 3

OP

Original post by Asklepios

If you are still 17 when you would start uni, then do check with the universities you are applying to. Some English unis do state you have to be 18 by a certain time.

Other than that, I suppose the main difference is that Scottish unis will place more emphasis on your Highers and English ones will want 3 advanced Highers, usually at AAA (though some may want A1AA and others will be happy with AAB). A number of English universities also ask you to sit the BMAT (Oxbridge, Imperial, UCL, BSMS, Leeds, Lancaster) and others don't require UKCAT or BMAT (Bristol, Birmingham). Even amongst English unis that require the UKCAT, there is a lot of variation in how it is used. KCL and Newcastle (I think?) are quite heavy on UKCAT but 720 is a good score so this could work to your advantage. Not all medical schools will use the SJT section so that is something to consider.

Thanks for your reply, after checking Kings website, it seems like a viable option if I make it over the cut off for ukcat, my other choices will probably be Scottish Uni', not too sure about Newcastle yet. But yeah thanks for the advice!

Reply 4

OP

Original post by idklol

I'm doing some research in english unis too, and I think a few english ones actually requires you to have certain hours of work experience/volunteering, or they actually put emphasis on the length of your work experience placements (so much for quality not quantity haha)

Only really thinking about Kings, and so far don't think they state the amount of work experience they require, but only that it is "very desirable" so I guess 2 weeks is enough :biggrin:

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X_s

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[QUOTE=muchensmile;58833593]Only really thinking about Kings, and so far don't think they state the amount of work experience they require, but only that it is "very desirable" so I guess 2 weeks is enough :biggrin:

720 ukcat is fine for kings

Don't Scottish people get free tuition at Scottish unis? If that's true then I wouldn't bother with english unis

Reply 6

OP

Original post by X_s

720 ukcat is fine for kings

Don't Scottish people get free tuition at Scottish unis? If that's true then I wouldn't bother with english unis

Yeah it should be free if we register for the funding, but really it just depends on how much I want to go to Kings, otherwise I'm still sticking with Scottish unis :biggrin:

Reply 7

axccl389

1

On a side note you might want to avoid University of Edinburgh with a band 2 on SJT since it makes up half of the non-academic criteria. if you have read the admissions handbook for Edin MbChb, two marks will already have been deducted from your 40 final marks and people who get in tend to have than >47 marks. Try look at unis that use UKCAT cut-offs since they tend to look less heavily on SJT.

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Original post by muchensmile

Only really thinking about Kings, and so far don't think they state the amount of work experience they require, but only that it is "very desirable" so I guess 2 weeks is enough :biggrin:

can i ask what work experience you've got? because I'm a bit worried that I don't have enough :s-smilie:

Reply 9

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Original post by idklol

can i ask what work experience you've got? because I'm a bit worried that I don't have enough :s-smilie:

Hah not a lot to be honest, 1 week at local hospital (mostly powerpoints and stuff), will do 4 days shadowing in october just before UCAS application. Will start hospice very soon. And trained with Barnardos and volunteered for a bit.

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Original post by muchensmile

Hah not a lot to be honest, 1 week at local hospital (mostly powerpoints and stuff), will do 4 days shadowing in october just before UCAS application. Will start hospice very soon. And trained with Barnardos and volunteered for a bit.

I've only got 1 week (well 5 days) at a hospital, 1 week at a daycare for elderlies which I volunteer at now so I'm not sure if that counts as work experience?

Reply 11

OP

Original post by idklol

I've only got 1 week (well 5 days) at a hospital, 1 week at a daycare for elderlies which I volunteer at now so I'm not sure if that counts as work experience?

I think it does count as you get to see more the caring side of medicine probably. Also how do you even get GP experience, seems like too many confidentiality issues and GP's in my area has stopped doing it :P

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Original post by muchensmile

I think it does count as you get to see more the caring side of medicine probably. Also how do you even get GP experience, seems like too many confidentiality issues and GP's in my area has stopped doing it :P

ugh tell me about it, and even those who got a placement said that most of them were doing admin work. Hopefully what we have will be enough to talk about though!

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 13

OP

Original post by idklol

ugh tell me about it, and even those who got a placement said that most of them were doing admin work. Hopefully what we have will be enough to talk about though!

Yeah hopefully...You got a pretty neat UKCAT score though didn't you? I hope our Ukcat will somehow make up for our lack of GP work experience :P

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Original post by muchensmile

Yeah hopefully...You got a pretty neat UKCAT score though didn't you? I hope our Ukcat will somehow make up for our lack of GP work experience :P

i got 755, which im quite pleased about, although I really hope the average scores aren't raised this year! Yeah hopefully the ukcat score will make up for it, and there is the interview as well! But either way I think if you reflect lot on the experience you have then it should be fine :smile:

Reply 15

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Original post by idklol

i got 755, which im quite pleased about, although I really hope the average scores aren't raised this year! Yeah hopefully the ukcat score will make up for it, and there is the interview as well! But either way I think if you reflect lot on the experience you have then it should be fine :smile:

Yep hopefully! Also are you going to any open days next week?

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Original post by muchensmile

Yep hopefully! Also are you going to any open days next week?

I might be going to the dundee one, but I don't think I'll be able to make it there on time though :/

Reply 17

OP

Original post by idklol

I might be going to the dundee one, but I don't think I'll be able to make it there on time though :/

Hi sorry I've got bad news, I can't seem to make it to Aberdeen either (why is it so far!) because I need to come back to Ayr from Dundee to go to Glasgow with the school on Wednesday. Sorry about that! I think we can email Aberdeen to see if they could send us the presentation of their talks.

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