is applying to only russell group a bad idea?

i’m looking to apply for medicine this year, and i’m worried the universities im applying to are too ambitious. i want to apply to Bristol, Exeter, Imperial, and either Kings or Birmingham.
I have 7 gcses all grade A* and predicted at least A*AA (psychology, chem, bio)
Is this unrealistic, am i likely to not get in at all? or is it more likely that at least one will accept me? I’m worried i need a back up but i can’t choose between the four unis. I also only want to go to uni in south UK, wales or close.

Reply 1

marble arch

12

for medicine, Russel group or non Russel really doesn't matter. the most competitive medical school to get into in the UK is actually a non Russel group (pretty sure its Brighton and Sussex). I recommend doing your UCAT first then applying strategically from there. To answer your question though, no, it isnt a bad idea as the medicine application is completely different and rejection is not due to th uni being a Russel or not, its usually based on UCAT/BMAT score and interview scores etc. all the best! x

(edited 10 months ago)

Reply 2

Muttley79

20

Original post by lkjhgfdsazxcvbnm

i’m looking to apply for medicine this year, and i’m worried the universities im applying to are too ambitious. i want to apply to Bristol, Exeter, Imperial, and either Kings or Birmingham.
I have 7 gcses all grade A* and predicted at least A*AA (psychology, chem, bio)
Is this unrealistic, am i likely to not get in at all? or is it more likely that at least one will accept me? I’m worried i need a back up but i can’t choose between the four unis. I also only want to go to uni in south UK, wales or close.

RG is totally irrelevant for medicine

Reply 3

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

21

Original post by lkjhgfdsazxcvbnm

i’m looking to apply for medicine this year, and i’m worried the universities im applying to are too ambitious. i want to apply to Bristol, Exeter, Imperial, and either Kings or Birmingham.
I have 7 gcses all grade A* and predicted at least A*AA (psychology, chem, bio)
Is this unrealistic, am i likely to not get in at all? or is it more likely that at least one will accept me? I’m worried i need a back up but i can’t choose between the four unis. I also only want to go to uni in south UK, wales or close.

The RG tag doesn't matter for any course, and it especially doesn't matter for medicine. That's basically the most arbitrary way to choose which medical schools to apply to, and is also one of the worst ways because you aren't applying tactically to those you would have the strongest profile for.

As noted, which medical school you go to has no direct bearing on any further medical training or recruitment in the UK. The NHS is the only provider of training posts for graduate medics, and they view all medical courses as equal per the GMC accrediting them all. Medical recruitment by the NHS is literally blinded to your medical school to ensure they cannot be biased by which medical school you went to.

In terms of the RG in general, the RG is ostensibly a postgraduate research consortium - membership has no bearing on undergraduate teaching. Frequently more research based universities have worse teaching as the lecturers are more focused on research (or certainly more interested in it). In reality also it's not even really a research group, it's just a self selected group of universities that acts a political lobbying group. It's literally a meaningless distinction and nobody, not employers (even outside of medicine) nor graduate admissions at other universities or anything else, care about whether you went to an RG uni or not.

Also worth noting that some of the statistically most competitive medical schools in the country are the newest ones like ARU and KMMS. Your assumption RG membership means the course is more difficult to get into is misplaced. Also before you go on that tangent, league table rankings also do not necessarily correlate to anything in that regard and are even more meaningless in terms of employment (especially as noted in medicine).

All around horrible way to choose medical schools. Just really terrible. Sorry. But please find a better way to choose medical schools to apply to.

Reply 4

lkjhgfdsazxcvbnm

OP

12

Im not choosing to apply there just because they’re russell group. What i meant by the title was whether applying to prestigious, competitive unis (i appreciate medicine is always competitive) I probably should’ve worded it this way- was a bad idea based on competition as they’re prestigious schools that get a lot of applications. My reasons for applying for them are based on the research quality as i want to do research during and after uni (hence choosing Russell groups) and also sports opportunities (i want to compete alongside my degree). I appreciate i didn’t explain that well in the post. Thank you for your response though, It’s helpful to know that they’re not necessarily more competitive to get into, i expected they would be just as people are attracted to the prestige of russell groups

Reply 5

marble arch

12

Original post by lkjhgfdsazxcvbnm

Im not choosing to apply there just because they’re russell group. What i meant by the title was whether applying to prestigious, competitive unis (i appreciate medicine is always competitive) I probably should’ve worded it this way- was a bad idea based on competition as they’re prestigious schools that get a lot of applications. My reasons for applying for them are based on the research quality as i want to do research during and after uni (hence choosing Russell groups) and also sports opportunities (i want to compete alongside my degree). I appreciate i didn’t explain that well in the post. Thank you for your response though, It’s helpful to know that they’re not necessarily more competitive to get into, i expected they would be just as people are attracted to the prestige of russell groups

you can compete alongside your degree no matter what med school you go to dw lol. russel groups have nothing to do with that etc

Reply 6

McGinger

18

Applying for Medicine isnt a vanity project.
If you actually want to be a doctor then you should include at least one, probably two, of the less glamourous Med Schools such as Hull-York, Sunderland, Edge Hill, Keel etc.

And if you want to do 'research' then you don't need to waste 5 years qualifying as a doctor.
Look at degrees like
https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/study/subjects/biological-and-biomedical-sciences/
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/2024/cellular-molecular/
etc

Reply 7

lkjhgfdsazxcvbnm

OP

12

Original post by McGinger

Applying for Medicine isnt a vanity project.
If you actually want to be a doctor then you should include at least one, probably two, of the less glamourous Med Schools such as Hull-York, Sunderland, Edge Hill, Keel etc.

And if you want to do 'research' then you don't need to waste 5 years qualifying as a doctor.
Look at degrees like
https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/study/subjects/biological-and-biomedical-sciences/
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/2024/cellular-molecular/
etc

Thank you. my only problem is these universities are so far from me (i live right on the south coast in devon) and i don’t want move far away :/

I actually want to be a psychiatrist and be able to combine clinical psychiatry with research hopefully. I have looked into psychology ofc and i’m still considering it but the length, price and competitiveness of a phd seems not worth it if i have the ability to get into medical school

Reply 8

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

21

Original post by lkjhgfdsazxcvbnm

Thank you. my only problem is these universities are so far from me (i live right on the south coast in devon) and i don’t want move far away :/

I actually want to be a psychiatrist and be able to combine clinical psychiatry with research hopefully. I have looked into psychology ofc and i’m still considering it but the length, price and competitiveness of a phd seems not worth it if i have the ability to get into medical school

You are nor all paid to do a PhD if you are accepted with funding. And there if you are not accepted to a PhD with funding you are starting of a career in academia on the backfoot already. Also a PhD is neither a necessary nor sufficient criterion to work as a professional psychologist - professional psychology doctorates (e.g. DClinPsy) are not PhDs and also are normally fully funded (hence being competitive). Working as a psychologist is also very different to working as a psychiatrist. Additionally to become a psychiatrist you will cover the WHOLE if medicine and psychiatry may comprise a fairly small part of the degree, and you will also need to work across the range medical specialties for at least two years before entering specialtytraining. It is not advisable to start deciding what specialty you want to do at the outset as thenyou spend much of the time doing things unrelated to that specialty, and you may findthereality of working in that specialty very different from your expectations now.

Original post by lkjhgfdsazxcvbnm

Im not choosing to apply there just because they’re russell group. What i meant by the title was whether applying to prestigious, competitive unis (i appreciate medicine is always competitive) I probably should’ve worded it this way- was a bad idea based on competition as they’re prestigious schools that get a lot of applications. My reasons for applying for them are based on the research quality as i want to do research during and after uni (hence choosing Russell groups) and also sports opportunities (i want to compete alongside my degree). I appreciate i didn’t explain that well in the post. Thank you for your response though, It’s helpful to know that they’re not necessarily more competitive to get into, i expected they would be just as people are attracted to the prestige of russell groups

PPrestige means nothing for medicine and if that is your goal its not a great career choice overall, since aside from it not making a difference in the long run, medicine itself is not really considered that prestigious a career by the general public. Ask the average Joe what they think about the junior doctor strike and conditions of working in the NHS...

Also, again. Choosing a uni because you consider it prestigious or competitive is frankly, stupid. Neither of those tells you anything about what life will be like at that uni, academically or otherwise, or what life will be like after going to that uni. It's a very juvenile approach to university applications.

Also all medical schools are involved in research and to some degree most medics get involved in some soects of research and publishing due to portfolio requirements when applying to specialty training.

Finally, the "top" University for sports in BUCS basically across the board isn't even an RG uni (Loughborough) so I don't understand what you think the correlation is there at all. Also going to a uni with a strong sporting presence may actually make it harder to get onto teams and actually play if you are competing for spots with professional level athletes!

Considering if they have sports teams playing sports you want to engage in is a perfectly valid consideration. Focusing only on the top sports unis may not be the best idea unless you are playing at a very high level already. Choosing them because you think they are prestigious or worse, just because you think they are competitive (without even looking at competition ratios so basing this on nothing at all!!!) is even worse.

For medicine the overriding consideration should be how well your profile scores against their shortlisting methodology. If you aren't in a position to get the maximum or near maximum points in their shortlisting methodology in the areas you can control now, and choose that over another uni where you do score the max or near max, you just wasted a choice and made yourself 25% less likely to get into medicine.

Once you identify the shortlist of unis you are in the maximal position first getting an interview, THEN filter that based on practical reasons that directly affect you - cost, location, facilities and clubs/societies/sports teams, format of the course. Nonsense about prestige and competitiveness and RG membership is just noise. Block it out.

is applying to only russell group a bad idea?

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you