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Reapplication to Oxford or do medicine elsewhere?

Hi,

I applied to Oxford medicine for this year's cycle. Of course, I was rejected post-interview (or else this thread would not exist :biggrin:) and fell into a mental crisis. On one hand, I have not been rejected by other medical schools (yet) and may be able to secure a place in one of them. On the other hand, I (selfishly and to an extend arrogantly) want to reapply to Oxford again. Should I be satisfied with a place elsewhere or should I reapply to Oxford? I really need your advice in this matter.

Anyway, since I'm already slightly depressed, let's take the situation to the negative extreme. If I fail all of my application this year, should I consider to take a master degree? Many of my friends do it this way but I cannot see a benefit in taking masters. Most MSc courses start in September and medical application is in October. In 1 month, I highly doubt I can accomplish anything significant to show off in my personal statement. I would love if someone can point out what I miss in my 2 cents.

That's all, thanks everyone :h:
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by t0311
Hi,

I applied to Oxford medicine for this year's cycle. Of course, I was rejected post-interview (or else this thread would not exist :biggrin:) and fell into a mental crisis. On one hand, I have not been rejected by other medical schools (yet) and may be able to secure a place in one of them. On the other hand, I (selfishly and to an extend arrogantly) want to reapply to Oxford again. Should I be satisfied with a place elsewhere or should I reapply to Oxford? I really need your advice in this matter.

Anyway, since I'm already slightly depressed, let's take the situation to the negative extreme. If I fail all of my application this year, should I consider to take a master degree? Many of my friends do it this way but I cannot see a benefit in taking masters. Most MSc courses start in September and medical application is in October. In 1 month, I highly doubt I can accomplish anything significant to show off in my personal statement. I would love if someone can point out what I miss in my 2 cents.

That's all, thanks everyone :h:


Honestly, it doesn't matter where you conduct your studies in Medicine, so I would suggest going to another medical school if the university's course fits you as a person.
Are you a GEM applicant or did you apply for the normal A100 course?

I guess that the right thing to do depends a lot on your circumstances - stuff like why and how much do you want to study at Oxford, how do you feel about your other offers, how would you be able to improve your application and, most importantly, whether you're ready to face the risk of getting zero offers next year.

I'm in the same situation and I totally understand how hard it is to let go of the Oxford dream. :frown: I was really emotionally invested in the uni and it all seemed so perfect. I think it's easy to get a bit carried away during the application process though and start forgetting about the good bits of other places. What are the main reasons why you'd like to study at Oxford? For example, for me it was the focus on science and research, the tutorial and collegiate systems, and the fact that the city is so freaking gorgeous lol. Now I'm hoping to go to Edinburgh and I'm starting to feel that it might even fit me better than Oxford. They focus a lot on science and research too, and I think that the tutorial system wouldn't have been good for me personally after all. (I suck at dealing with other's expectations and probably would have ended up just studying all the time in an attempt to not disappoint my tutors.) The collegiate system would have been lovely but imo it's not really a big enough reason to reapply. If you just love the city you can go there to do a Master's/PhD/academic foundation program post/just normal working later on. I think it's definitely worth thinking about these underlying reasons and seeing how your other unis fit into them. You might find that they actually suit you better or that you'd be ok with compromising just a couple of the reasons. :smile:

Whatever you do, maybe don't make any decisions right now. Time will soften the blow of the rejection and might make it easier for you to imagine life outside Oxford. However, if you still after some time and reflection feel like you NEED to do your medicine degree at Oxford (and have ideas about how to improve your application and spend the extra year productively), I guess it could be a sensible option to try again. Just make sure that if you end up rejecting your other offer(s) you're absolutely sure that this is what you want. It's risky - it could be worth it, but you need to make sure that it's so important to you that you're ready to face the risk of ending up with zero offers and an even bigger crisis next year.

Not really sure what to say about the Master's! Personally I might do it just because I'd find it interesting but it's your call really. It might make you look a bit more impressive but it probably wouldn't make a huge difference to your application. I don't know.
Some general thoughts in no particular order.

-- Oxford is wonderful but there are lots of great medical schools and plenty of excellent medical students at each one. It is unlike other subjects in that people rarely care where you went to medical school.

-- Your focus should really (I think) be on the long-term goal of training to be a doctor rather than the (very) short-term detail about where you study. If you are offered and reject a place this year, you might end up with nothing next year and have lost a pretty major gamble.

-- You can work/study with, at, for, or in Oxford at any other point in your future career.

If you are rejected by all four institutions this year (very possible if it's GEM) then by all means apply to Oxford again next year. If you are offered a place somewhere else then I personally would grab it with both hands.

DOI: I was rejected by Oxford, studied medicine elsewhere, and then came full circle as an Oxford postgraduate student and employee as well as being a member of Congregation and three very pretty colleges...
Getting into medicine will have a much, much bigger impact on your life than going to Oxford.

This may well be the first thing you've 'failed' at in your life so it's no small deal... but time is the universal healer. You will get over it.

If you do get 4 rejections and you're still committed to medicine, your best bet is gap year and reapply.
Reply 5
Original post by MonteCristo
Some general thoughts in no particular order.

-- Oxford is wonderful but there are lots of great medical schools and plenty of excellent medical students at each one. It is unlike other subjects in that people rarely care where you went to medical school.

-- Your focus should really (I think) be on the long-term goal of training to be a doctor rather than the (very) short-term detail about where you study. If you are offered and reject a place this year, you might end up with nothing next year and have lost a pretty major gamble.

-- You can work/study with, at, for, or in Oxford at any other point in your future career.

If you are rejected by all four institutions this year (very possible if it's GEM) then by all means apply to Oxford again next year. If you are offered a place somewhere else then I personally would grab it with both hands.

DOI: I was rejected by Oxford, studied medicine elsewhere, and then came full circle as an Oxford postgraduate student and employee as well as being a member of Congregation and three very pretty colleges...


First of all, thanks for all the answers here. I really appreciate you all for all the really good advices here. Anyway, a specific question for MonteCristo, you mentioned about studying postgraduate after medicine. Can I ask what you studied for that?
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by t0311
Can I ask what you studied for that?


I'm a PhD/DPhil student but there are also a range of MSc and MPhil courses run by Oxford that are either full- or part-time if that's what you want to do afterwards.

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