Gap year or no HELP PLEASE

college?

Sorry lol i go to school,
i meant that maybe consider going to college as in normal college (post 16) for all ages and doing your course there
also, you need to know your goal, do you want to go to uni and why?
what course are you studying, is it hard?
does studying put pressure on you and your mental health?
will going to uni make your mental health worse?
all in all, DO NOT take a gap year unless your life goal is to go to uni
ABSOLUTELY, consider to college and taking your course there and if that's not possible then take your time and do the gap year.
Remember, health is wealth, what's the point of eventually getting a degree and your mental health has not improved? How will you live in the future? There's lots of support in unis but not much...
sorry, idk your situation or what you are going through(ADHD, depression..) remember to be kind to yourself (this may take months to years but keep reminding yourself)
P.S. you may have high grades, but you may feel like it does not matter because its worthless and pointless because you are destined to be unhappy. I thought that way too. Most people would tell you to choose to be happy, that you are smart and you should go for this course and uni blah blah blah.
But you have a privilege. You get high grades despite your mental health because you are capable of it. Some people with similar mental health don't make it pass GCSEs. THey keep trying and failing. You have the privilege to even apply for unis. So go, take the gap year, and in that year revise like your life depends on it
you have a privilege, some people don't have access to unis or an education in other parts of the world. You are so young, just 22yo bro. I saw a person on the news going to uni at 70. Do it before its too late. But as i said before is going to uni going to help you?
mental health first, always.

Sorry lol i go to school,
i meant that maybe consider going to college as in normal college (post 16) for all ages and doing your course there
also, you need to know your goal, do you want to go to uni and why?
what course are you studying, is it hard?
does studying put pressure on you and your mental health?
will going to uni make your mental health worse?
all in all, DO NOT take a gap year unless your life goal is to go to uni
ABSOLUTELY, consider to college and taking your course there and if that's not possible then take your time and do the gap year.
Remember, health is wealth, what's the point of eventually getting a degree and your mental health has not improved? How will you live in the future? There's lots of support in unis but not much...
sorry, idk your situation or what you are going through(ADHD, depression..) remember to be kind to yourself (this may take months to years but keep reminding yourself)
P.S. you may have high grades, but you may feel like it does not matter because its worthless and pointless because you are destined to be unhappy. I thought that way too. Most people would tell you to choose to be happy, that you are smart and you should go for this course and uni blah blah blah.
But you have a privilege. You get high grades despite your mental health because you are capable of it. Some people with similar mental health don't make it pass GCSEs. THey keep trying and failing. You have the privilege to even apply for unis. So go, take the gap year, and in that year revise like your life depends on it
you have a privilege, some people don't have access to unis or an education in other parts of the world. You are so young, just 22yo bro. I saw a person on the news going to uni at 70. Do it before its too late. But as i said before is going to uni going to help you?
mental health first, always.

Sorry lol i go to school,
i meant that maybe consider going to college as in normal college (post 16) for all ages and doing your course there
also, you need to know your goal, do you want to go to uni and why?
what course are you studying, is it hard?
does studying put pressure on you and your mental health?
will going to uni make your mental health worse?
all in all, DO NOT take a gap year unless your life goal is to go to uni
ABSOLUTELY, consider to college and taking your course there and if that's not possible then take your time and do the gap year.
Remember, health is wealth, what's the point of eventually getting a degree and your mental health has not improved? How will you live in the future? There's lots of support in unis but not much...
sorry, idk your situation or what you are going through(ADHD, depression..) remember to be kind to yourself (this may take months to years but keep reminding yourself)
P.S. you may have high grades, but you may feel like it does not matter because its worthless and pointless because you are destined to be unhappy. I thought that way too. Most people would tell you to choose to be happy, that you are smart and you should go for this course and uni blah blah blah.
But you have a privilege. You get high grades despite your mental health because you are capable of it. Some people with similar mental health don't make it pass GCSEs. THey keep trying and failing. You have the privilege to even apply for unis. So go, take the gap year, and in that year revise like your life depends on it
you have a privilege, some people don't have access to unis or an education in other parts of the world. You are so young, just 22yo bro. I saw a person on the news going to uni at 70. Do it before its too late. But as i said before is going to uni going to help you?
mental health first, always.

you are very welcome
I was also in a similar situation where I wanted to apply for medicine my whole life, but the
highest I got was a C. in chemistry,biology,psychology. So now I'm applying for biochem. I got 9s and 8s in GCSEs, and I did worse in a levels due to the same situation. Don't apply for medicine. Even if you applied for medicine, and got in, I 100% guarantee you would not have been happy. IT is a course that requires people with good mental health to deal with various situations in the hospital etc. You feel like you could have done better if not for your mental health blah blah blah. BUT you did your BEST. your BEST at that time. Don't compare yourself to others(i do that a lot ) and think oh if it weren't for this situation, then i would ace like other ppl and i would be so happy blah blah blah. But we're talking about life here. some people have health issues, some people don't. Some people die at the age of 10 and some people live till 80. It's just one life, so we have to make the best of it. So don't beat yourself up for it. I used to do that as well, I found a way to blame myself for every situation, even if it was unrelated to me. You say you are worthless, maybe you are. But at least you can solve some problems that will make you feel less worthless. Now you want to do chemistry, chemical engineering so I'm guessing you want to work in the lab? I know that since you ace your academics, you won't really know what subject that you really like. So think of this.
1) which one is the easiest
2) i would suggest chemistry if you like physical and organic chemistry to the core but chemical engineering and electrical are way more harder in terms of applying your knowledge if chemistry to physics. pick the subject that gives you random bursts of energy
3)( waiittttt i just deeped like you went to an RG uni and they got Cs and Ds? what uni was it?)
4) Don't apply for a russel group uni. There are good unis like oxford brookes and Hertfordshire with less competition
5) are you more likely to get into your first uni and pass the exams or repeat your A levels and get into a good uni?
6) go to open days, which I'm sure you might have already done, but hand pick non russel group unis and go to them ( and look at ethnic background population if you are part of bame)
7) consider getting a part time job or if you already have one, that's good, your sole focus won't be on academics
not getting into RG uni does not equal to failure
you may have messed up, but you can still fix it!

I understand what you're saying about medicine, but I wanted to do it for so long and I still do. It's almost like I'm thinking that medicine would solve all my problems. Like I wouldn't have to decide what I want to do or think about careers. With med it dosen't even matter what uni you go to bc the course is the same everywhere, and it dosen't affect your career bc everyone is going to end up with a guaranteed job in the NHS.
Also, that's so crazy, same situation with the medicine thing! I'm sorry that you've been through this, I know how tough it can be. I
wish I'd at least gone through the application process, even if I got rejected, at least I tried. But it's hard not to say what if when I didn't even try.
Idk maybe that's the wrong way to think. Maybe one day I can do graduate entry medicine if I still want it in the future.
Also, there are basically 'good' and 'better' RGs, and also some are way better for certain subjects than others.
I really do want to go to a good uni, I want to go to Durham/Warwick. Warwick don't need an A in chem, since I got A*A in maths and bio, they said a B is okay. Butttt I have to apply for 2024 entry to Warwick, meaning take a gap year.
Durham want the A for chemistry, but offered me a place for biosciences instead, like biology, ecology etc. Maybe I should go for it since I don't know what I want. Otherwise, its a gap year, resit chem and reapply for 2024.
Bristol and York have said that if I get my A in my chem resit, I will most likely be offered a place (again, would have to take a gap year and apply to them)
Thing is, idk if I really want to go to Bristol since it's more of a city vibe and I prefer campus unis.
Maybe I should just go to Durham? I mean I don't even know what I wanna study, so maybe I should just take the plunge and go for biosciences. They said I can combine it with comp sci too, which would be good for career prospects. But idk...
Also, my current uni is Nottingham, and yeah for chem they were letting in just about anyone to the chem degree through clearing who had a C in chemistry A-level. Meaning you could get in with CCC or CCD etc. Ik clearing offers are meant to be low, but that's just showing that they REALLY needed to fill up their places. And then when I went there like I said, I was surrounded by ppl who didn't want to be there or who were just in uni for a good time, like just not a good environment for me since I get influenced.
In comparison, Warwick's clearing offer was ABB-ABC, and their usual offer is AAA-AAB.
Bristol/York/Durham didn't go into clearing.
Anyways with chem eng/electrical/chemistry, I'd say they're all tough degrees. The good thing about eng degrees is that you can get a job with just your degree, whereas with chem, you would need a PhD to get good jobs. I know I want to work in smth sciencey, but I'm interested in too many things. I like medical research, renewable energy technology, drug design, solar power, but I wouldn't be able to go into some of these depending on which degree I choose.
The thing is, my mind is too overwhelmed with all of these factors. So I can't even take a step back and say this is what I WANT/LIKE. I hate myself I'm literally such an extreme overthinker.
Also, if I wanna do chem eng, I'd go back to my current uni as the other unis I like don't have it , but they all offer electrical eng and chem.
I think that if I retake chem, I could get my A. But I don't need an A for Warwick, which is like my top choice, bc of my other grades. But for the other 3 I do need an A, but like I said, I'd choose Warwick over all of them. Also Warwick is really diverse too, so I wouldn't have to worry about that. I went to the open day for Warwick, really liked it. Durham was nice too, and York were so warm and welcoming. Not seen Bristol yet, and been to Bath either.
I don't think I'd get into Durham again, idk how they feel about resits plus they won't lime that I've spent this year at notts and not done any exams. Bristol said they don't care about resits at all and that my year at notts dosen't matter as I have my special circumstances. Bath said the same. I think maybe it'd be hard to get into Durham and maybe Bath too, since they really look at your PS quite abit, and I an write a good one but uno... Bristol and Warwick and York are safer I think, but the only one I really want to go to is Warwick, and there's no guarantee they'll give me a place esp bc of the Yr I spent at notts. So... ugh I'm so confused.
I don't even know what I wanna study😭 I though about biochem and biomed too since they're closer to medicine but I just don't knowwwwwww.
So I had a part time job in the summer holidays, but I quit last week, since it's getting close to uni time and idk if I'm going back this year or not.

You're right, it's fixable at least since I only did first year. But I have to lose a year of my life. Idk my mind could change 1000000 times within that year and I may end up going straight back to notts and losing the year for nothing. Also I wouldn't have the uni environment or friends or my sports, I'd be dealing with everything by myself since my parents are.... well let's just say I can't exactly rely on them. And if I take the gap year I'm committing to chem since the other unis don't offer chem eng. I just.... dk anymore.
My brother thinks that since I can't decide, I should choose the safe option and go back to my current uni and do chem eng since it has better job prospects. He said there's no guarantee I'll get a place at Warwick or that my mind won't change again and he thinks I may end up regretting the year.
The alternative is to spend the rest of uni at notts, but I feel I'm 'wasting ' my grades by going there and I could go somewhere better.
Btw you've been so helpful, srsly thank youuu

Also, doing a UCAS application outside of a college setting is completely doable, you can get a reference from a professional who knows you well like eg a former teacher.

The thing is, you've wanted to do medicine for so long. Don't think about that. Why do you currently want to do medicine? I think you've already answered your question. you can still do post-graduate medicine. But maybe you should follow your brother's advice. You are doing a course that you're interested in and you are more likely to get a first in Notts. Even if you are surrounded by such people, there will always be a group who are serious about their futures, you just haven't found it yet. Also, it's only been 1 year, so don't be quick to judge. you've still got 2-to 3 yrs left. Also if I were you, I would look into life sciences as a whole degree(natural sciences in Cambridge)
chin up

Speaking as an old person who is looking at going back to education in my mid to late 30s, I think you sound really burnt out and a break would benefit you hugely. Doctor burnout is enough of a problem without starting medical education burnt out! You have so much time to go to uni, there's no upper age limit. Taking some time off and getting more life experience can in fact be hugely beneficial - even if you went back to uni in your late 20s for eg, it's actually way easier to stand out as a mature student vs just another 18yo fresh out of A Levels. And honestly....your personal statement really doesn't matter much! If you're applying to competitive courses you'll quite likely be interviewed anyway especially if you take a break. Interviews are much better for communicating your passions to tutors.

The world will absolutely not cave in if you decide to take some time out, and a healthier happier you would be a better doctor than a stressed overwhelmed one. Your happiness and mental health matter more than grades or uni reputation. In the real world nobody actually cares whether you went to an 'elite' uni or not.