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Is there any chance for Medicine?

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Did she say something untrue?

There is no postgraduate coure, GEM is an undergrad course that is exclusive to graduates and you only have to pay £3.5k yourself.

Also, it is possible to study a Biosciences course (usually Biomedical science) and transfer to medicine but as far as I know you have to go to specific universities for this, for example Newcastle. I don't think you have to fork out any of your own cash, it still paid but the SLC (however you'll need to check this). This is an incredibly competitive option but everything will be based on your first year grades and performance (and interviews plus admissions exams), not GCSEs or A-levels. There are a few threads on TSR but here's one to get you started :smile:

https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2502313

In terms of GEM, I would suggest doing a Life Sciences related course, however, if you are more likely to do better on another course, do it. But be aware that you may be limited in choices when it comes to picking a university. Also, if you sit the GAMSAT but haven't studied science for a while, you'll probably have to revise pretty hard for Section III. Though if you study English you'll ironically probably do very well in Section I, which apparently catches a lot of people out.

EDIT: I just read your OP and completely forgot you'd already started a degree. I don't know how funding would work out and if you'd have to pay £9000 or only two terms worth, if you wanted to study another undergrad degree. Keep in mind that if you did go for a second undergraduate degree, you wouldn't have to pay the £9000 all in one go. If you're planning to enter this year and have no savings, I have no advice since I don't think earning £3k+ to pay everything off by January is feasible, unless you have some help from somewhere. But if you were to apply for 2018 entry, I would advise working your socks off in your 'gap year'. Also, a small hint for earning money; medical trials can be very lucrative and you don't even have to do phase I trials to earn £££ 😉 Just keep that in mind...

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 21

Dora amos

Original post by BarryAllen

Hi everyone.

My education has gone down a pretty messy route since the start of my A-Levels, and at the moment I'm trying to really figure out what to do.

In my GCSEs, I achieved 4A*s, 5As, and 2Bs.

I then started my AS Levels, and achieved ACDD. I then moved onto Year 13, and, while resitting some AS Levels at the same time as my A2s, came out with ADE in Psychology, Chemistry and Maths respectively.

These grades are pretty horrendous but there were some extremely significant extenuating circumstances throughout all my A-Levels (obviously I'd rather not go into detail).

In clearing I somehow managed to get onto a Mechanical Engineering course. I didn't have a clear direction, and was thrilled I'd gotten onto anything at all, so went for it.

It wasn't for me at all, and I dropped out. I returned home around February time and decided to resit my full A-Levels in Chemistry and Maths. In hindsight this was a bad idea as I had very little time to cover the material. I'm not particularly optimistic about how my results will turn out. The previously mentioned circumstances also had a lasting effect.

However, now I'm in a much better place, and am really trying to consider all my options going forward. Frankly, I feel that I'm just as intelligent as the people in my year who went onto Medicine; we got similar grades until my A-Level collapse.

I know nobody can say for certain, but does anyone have an idea of if there is a chance of being accepted for UG or Graduate Medicine? (Guessing I'd have to get my A-Levels up to scratch, and I have no doubt I can do it now that these circumstances have subsided). Does anyone have experience in similar situations? If so, what is the best way to go about it?

Thanks.

Further to my comment about funding I've since done some research... I believe you completed only 1 year of your degree if that is correct then you still have a full course of funding available to you (as you get funding for the length of your full course plus an additional year (I suspect that's because people change their minds and they cover one change) right) so you could do a biomedical science degree and then still get funding for medicine
I spoke to student finance and NHS bursary about this and here's what they had to say:
Hi there, funding for graduate entry medicine is different from the Postgraduate Loan Funding. The funding available for a graduate entry medicine course is as follows: Maintenance Loan (which can be Means Tested) and a partial Tuition Fee Loan of: up to £5535. The first £3465 of the tuition charge is self funded. Students can also apply for the following:Adult Dependents' Grant, Childcare Grant, Parents' Learning Allowance, Disabled Students' Allowance. £3465 would be paid by the NHS bursary scheme.
So there is funding. However if you need to work on your gap year to save I would do that... also bare in mind that you could get a long term loan or even see if you could get a go fund me etc.... you don't know until you try Furthermore I second medical trials....
Now I suspect you wouldn't finish the biomedical course because you'd want to do medicine I don't know if that would entitle you to graduate entry medicine financial help as explained before

What I'm trying to say is if this is what you want to do you have a chance with a decent grade in your first year of biomedical and then that will hopefully give you the ability to transfer into medical school...

I hope this helped

Original post by gradmed305

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but studying in other countries can be cheaper than studying here. Obviously saving/family help would bw needed

Gradmed305 further to your comment about trials which I'm unable to quote (glitch perhaps) I would say being that it's exclusively for graduates it's a fair assumption that people would think it's for post graduates right?!

Reply 22

gradmed305

Original post by vickie89uk

What I'm trying to say is if this is what you want to do you have a chance with a decent grade in your first year of biomedical and then that will hopefully give you the ability to transfer into medical school...

I hope this helped

Gradmed305 further to your comment about trials which I'm unable to quote (glitch perhaps) I would say being that it's exclusively for graduates it's a fair assumption that people would think it's for post graduates right?!

They need to get way more than just a decent grade. Newcastle, for example, requires 75+ overall and no less than 65 in any modules. There are other requirements too but anyway, they only accept around 7 applicants.

Yeah but then people end up think that 'postgraduate application to medicine' is the same as 'postgraduate medicine'.