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undergraduate into medicine/dentistry ?

if i applied to medicine/dentistry via an undergraduate route like biomedicine, could my rly bad gcses still hold me back ? is there a point in going through this route ...?

Reply 1

spectrum84

Clearing and Applications Advisor, Universities Forum Helper

Original post by fmksjdjdjd

if i applied to medicine/dentistry via an undergraduate route like biomedicine, could my rly bad gcses still hold me back ? is there a point in going through this route ...?

As would say, don't do an undergrad course with the sole intention of doing graduate entry med/dentistry.
With low GCSEs ur options would be limited but not impossible.
I believe Uni of Newcastle and Buckingham don't look at GCSE grades so those may be options worth considering.

(edited 2 years ago)

Reply 2

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

It's a little unclear exactly what "route" you are referring to. As above, doing another degree to try and get into GEM is a bad idea for many reasons, including that GEM is actually more competitive than standard entry medicine.

If you mean those biomed-medicine internal transfer programmes, you should be aware that these are even more competitive, with usually 1-3 spots and hundreds of students applying internally, and also they normally require you to meet all the requirements of the main medicine course in the first place anyway. So it's not really a good option.

As noted above though, there are plenty of medical schools that put little or no weight on GCSEs except for specific required subjects (normally English and Maths, sometimes science) and don't score them otherwise. Some also have no formal GCSE requirements at all (e.g. Cambridge). You just need to carefully select the medical schools you apply to in order to avoid the GCSE heavy ones (like Cardiff and Oxford).

Although slightly out of date this page: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/results/gcse/medical-school-gcse-requirements might be a good starting point. Note that with the CAG situation I gather some medical schools are actually putting less weight on GCSEs now...so some of those requirements may have changed and put less emphasis on GCSEs.