Considering Dropping Out of Medical School :(

Having said that, there are many factors that make me feel as though I shouldn't return, such as never having a stable friendship group or feeling as though I 'fit in', whereas I do feel like I have found my tribe at work.

From you have said, this seems to be the main reason you are having reservations about going back. If this is the case, I just want to remind you that university is a very, very small part of your life in the grand scheme of things, and you will be out of there in a few years and won't meet the vast majority of those people ever again. After uni, even if you have made a close group of friends, you will likely be seeing each other a few times a year at most anyway; so dropping out of uni for this reason seems illogical, at least to me. If you like working in healthcare and think being a doctor is something you truly want to do (bearing in mind all the current strikes, and the working conditions that are leading to a retention crisis of doctors in this country), I wouldn't let this, and narrow-minded people saying autism means you can't be a doctor (this dude needs to look around at his colleagues and take notice how many of them are neurodiverse...) put you off. And your dean accessing your confidential medical records is completely inappropriate and I really hope you have taken this further.

Good luck to you whatever you choose to do, and I'm really glad you now have are diagnosis and are getting treatment

You most likely would get an additional year funded under compelling personal reasons (CPR) I would imagine - I was granted a year of additional funding under CPR and had comparatively more minor reasons. However the key will be documentation - you will need plenty of this to support it, e.g. letters from doctor(s) including details of diagnoses etc, similar from any counsellors/therapists you've seen, admission/discharge forms if you were in hospital, etc. The idea is you want to submit as much evidence as possible to build up the picture for the assessor. If you have suitable evidence from that time I think you would have a very good chance of getting CPR funding (for at least one year). Note also that the 2 years of "suspended studies" shouldn't count towards your student finance entitlement calculations - only any prior study. So you should only need one year for CPR to cover things by my reckoning?

In terms of whether to go back to that course, no one can exactly tell you - it's going to be up to you. However there are things to be aware of. Firstly, if you do go back and aren't granted CPR then you may need to self-fund tuition fees for one or more years. So do consider whether this is something you or your family can manage, if needed - particularly as any self-funded year(s) would be the first year(s) back (not the last ones). However you would get a maintenance loan still. Secondly, if you leave a medicine degree, that is essentially it for medicine in the UK - you will be effectively blacklisted from all other medical schools, as they more or less categorically do not accept anyone who has started but not completed a medical degree for any reason. So if you are choosing to leave the degree, you will be choosing to leave medicine (most likely - I suppose you could do a medical degree in Europe but that is a challenging route I gather due to how their degrees are set up). So make sure you are absolutely certain before withdrawing.

In terms of some of your reasons why you are considering leaving...while I can appreciate that these make things difficult at the time, I'm not sure they are necessarily by themselves reason enough to consider leaving your degree. In terms of friendship groups etc, this is really small potatoes. Yes it does suck not having a friendship group in your degree, but if you just approach it as a job and your cohort as colleagues, rather than friends (or otherwise), you'll probably find it makes things much more palatable. You also note that you enjoy your work, and not so much the formal teaching on the course - enjoying clinical work is probably a good sign for continuing in medicine I would imagine? After all, the degree is a short period of your career as a doctor potentially, and much of that career would be spent doing clinical work with patients. By and large I get the impression that the medical degree is more something to just "get through" than something to focus on in of itself.

Regarding your treatment by your university, I'm sorry to hear you've had such a hard time - unfortunately in many UK unis (in my experience and seeing from others posting similarly) support for students with disabilities including (or perhaps especially) mental health conditions covered by the equality act in the same way is pretty poor. This may be something you would want to discuss with your student union if you do stay? This I can understand may be a harder thing to manage with going back...but you need to then weigh up whether this is something you need (or want) to give up your medicine plans for. Are there coping strategies you can put in place? Are you able to "grin and bear it" for the next couple years to just get the piece of paper then move on best you can? I seriously question them saying you can't do a medical degree and/or succeed in medicine (particularly as you succeeded in getting on the degree in the first place). Sure, you may find some specialties incompatible with your situation, but there may well be others that fit very well into that and your interests.

Hiya all,

I'll try and summarise my journey through medical school so far using a timeline, otherwise this post will be EXTREMELY long:

2016-2017 - Applied to medical school during Gap year, got A* (biology) A (chemistry) A (maths) at A level (did Maths A2 during Gap year due to ill health (eating disorder) during Year 12/AS year meaning I had to change from Maths AS to Art AS so could complete coursework at home/hospital). Got rejected by QMUL and UCL. Passed interview for Cambridge but missed offer Accepted by SGUL for Medicine.
2017-2018 - Started at SGUL. Undiagnosed autism - struggled to fit in with peers. Misdiagnosed with personality disorder. Suspended for 2 years on health grounds following suicide attempt.
2018-2020 - Working as a HCA. Loving life and the job (obviously not the COVID/lockdown part!) but loved my team and having the hands on approach, learning new skills etc. Cleared by Occy Health and Fitness to Practice panel to restart Year 1 in Sept 2020
2020-2021 - Completed Year 1 (mostly virtual due to COVID) whilst working full-time (then part-time in the month before exams) as a HCA. Passed Year 1 exams and achieved Second decile (top 20% of year).
2021 - 2022 - Went into year 2, lived in halls as struggled to make friends in first year due to COVID. Was very isolated in flat as the only one who didn't speak language and wasn't in friendship group. Didn't want to come back after Christmas holidays. Started having panic attacks. Sought counselling but wasn't allowed to have in person due to COVID - didn't take into account my autism as an access need/need for reasonable adjustments. Considered taking an interruption of studies (IOS) in April 2022 following a *big cry* to my mum over Easter and finally in May 2022 decided to take an IOS and not do my exams that year (meaning would have to take the year again, but now I've discovered there were other options I wasn't told about!)
2022 - 2023 - Restarted Year 2 with a new cohort. Hated being taught by my old year group/peers but otherwise was enjoying the course. Started teaching my peers clinical skills as that was what I enjoyed. Got excellent feedback from practice OSCEs. However, physically became very unwell with ?glandular fever and had no energy. Relapsed with eating disorder very unexpectedly. Occy Health said unfit to study in December 2022 and agreed I could come back and take my exams (as had already done the exams before) suggesting a 6 month IOS which I agreed to (as all learning materials online). However MBBS team said no would have to take the FULL year again as attendance for that year and that year only counts towards the scheme of assessment So from December onwards I have been on another IOS and have met with the course team to 'discuss my options'.

I was also told would have to apply for an extension to the maximum period of study (5 + 2) of 3 years because technically I have been at medical school since 2017. I would also have to apply for another year of student finance (tuition fees) as you are only granted 1 'gift' year and I took this in 2020. I am unsure as to whether I would be granted the extension and I have been told it would be unlikely. However, I still really want to become a doctor. I wish there was a way of having a 'fresh start' at another university, as I feel my relationship with the university has broken down so much. For instance, I was told by the COURSE DIRECTOR that 'students like [me] don't go on to succeed as doctors' and by my year lead that my 'autism is incompatible with studying medicine' I really wish the initial 2 year suspension was 'written off', as well as my tuition fees and maintenance loan for the first year, as the whole suspension was based on the erroneous assumption that I had a personality disorder and no reasonable adjustments were made for me to attend outpatient therapy/counselling whilst I was on the course. I have been treated horrendously by staff higher up in the university and there have been numerous examples of misconduct (e.g. the dean accessing my confidential medical records through her hospital login at the mental health trust in order to formulate a document of evidence against me). However, my personal tutor is the loveliest person on earth and I really enjoy the course. I should mention that I have also been diagnosed with ADHD this year and have been put on medication (Vyvanse) which has DRAMATICALLY improved my energy levels and ability to focus. It therefore may be different when I return as I can hopefully study without becoming burned out and stressed as I did late last year.

Having said that, there are many factors that make me feel as though I shouldn't return, such as never having a stable friendship group or feeling as though I 'fit in', whereas I do feel like I have found my tribe at work. I enjoy the clinical aspects of healthcare so much more than the science/lectures and learn better through independent study and practical work. I find group teaching (CBL) very stressful because of my autism and sort of patronising as the learning objectives (LOBs) are 'spoon-fed' to us and I have a lot of knowledge/clinical experience on certain topics that I feel I have to 'suppress' due to not wanting to come across as a 'know-it-all' and feel I 'mask' a lot during these sessions, which is so draining and became a major source of anxiety last year in particular. I have also really enjoyed placement and would often stay behind to talk to patients as well as scrubbing into surgeries where the opportunity allowed!

I am therefore asking, should I stick it out and wait for clinical years to see if things improve, or should I trust my gut instinct which is saying get out whilst you can? I still believe deep down that I would make a good doctor, partly because of my autism and my different way of viewing the world, which means I am a good problem solver (without sounding big-headed) and I can retain a lot of information. I also get told often that I have a good bedside manner and it would be a shame if I couldn't reach my ultimate goal because of something as small as not feeling like I fit in or bureaucracy of the higher/management staff. Anyway, I would be super interested to hear your thoughts - no questions or opinions are off limits!

I’m not 100% on how transfers work bc I’m not a med student but if possible you could try and intercalate or transfer at a different uni. Different unis handle mental health better than others, and you might make better friends elsewhere. The fact that you were suspended from uni for two whole years for a suicide attempt is genuinely f*cked up I’ve never heard of anything like that before. You need to be somewhere where you have the right support. I’ve seen people from kings intercalate at imperial, but idrk what intercalating even is so my point here may not be valid or viable. But to be honest, if you really want to be a doctor, you shouldn’t let anyone convince you that your autism is going to stop you. It’s not your fault you’ve had some issues with your health and it’s difficult to not feel discouraged by it. But please don’t let anyone convince you that you can’t achieve your dream. If you got this far and are still passionate, it means you’re going to make a brilliant doctor.