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help to choose medical school please!

posting for my daughter. her stats are as follows:
GCSE 9999999988(8 in English language and literature)
Predicted A level: 3 A*(biology, chemistry and psychology)
UCAT score 2720 B1
VR 650
Decision making 710
Quantitative reasoning 750
Abstract reasoning 610
reasonable WE, including placements in hospital and GP surgery, helping local care home home and food bank.
no contextual flags except for ARU-local but she is not keen!
we have are thinking of
Imperial (studying for BMAT),
Leicester
Nottingham
Exeter

not sure this is the right choices? also confused between Exeter and Aston?
please respond
Good afternoon Sir/Madam,

With these credentials, she is likely to gain admission at any medical school - my advice to you would be to go for Oxford or Cambridge [I declined an unconditional offer from Cambridge from their end due to an exceptional academic record [sorry to sound big-headed], thinking that I did not want to be a doctor at 25 rather than 23 [medical students do an MA initially at Cambridge] [in my day, we had no such thing as work experience or career advisers at school]; I must say I regret that decision:- if you have MBBCh from Cambridge [I know it's just the name/reputation], but you are at a distinct advantage for top jobs anywhere in the world, including later on in your career for consultantship.

If your daughter is thinking of becoming a GP [tho she will not know until she is in 3rd/4th year of medical school and has had exposure to various specialties as well as to general practice as to what each entails], then this might not be a primary consideration for you.

Having said that, medical students from Cambridge often do their clinical training at a leading London teaching hospital, and in addition, some people consider Imperial or Kings/Guys to be just as renowned.

Also check out various other features of different medical schools on the relevant page here on TSR.

Best wishes!
M
Original post by mottayil
posting for my daughter. her stats are as follows:
GCSE 9999999988(8 in English language and literature)
Predicted A level: 3 A*(biology, chemistry and psychology)
UCAT score 2720 B1
VR 650
Decision making 710
Quantitative reasoning 750
Abstract reasoning 610
reasonable WE, including placements in hospital and GP surgery, helping local care home home and food bank.
no contextual flags except for ARU-local but she is not keen!
we have are thinking of
Imperial (studying for BMAT),
Leicester
Nottingham
Exeter

not sure this is the right choices? also confused between Exeter and Aston?
please respond

(Thread moved to the medicine section.)

I would recommend posting in the "Which Medical School Should I Apply To?" Uberthread after reading the first post.

Best of luck to your daughter :smile:
Original post by mottayil
posting for my daughter. her stats are as follows:
GCSE 9999999988(8 in English language and literature)
Predicted A level: 3 A*(biology, chemistry and psychology)
UCAT score 2720 B1
VR 650
Decision making 710
Quantitative reasoning 750
Abstract reasoning 610
reasonable WE, including placements in hospital and GP surgery, helping local care home home and food bank.
no contextual flags except for ARU-local but she is not keen!
we have are thinking of
Imperial (studying for BMAT),
Leicester
Nottingham
Exeter

not sure this is the right choices? also confused between Exeter and Aston?
please respond

those options look fine, either exeter or aston should be ok, but aston would likely be safer
(edited 1 year ago)
Reply 4
Original post by macpatgh-Sheldon
Good afternoon Sir/Madam,

With these credentials, she is likely to gain admission at any medical school - my advice to you would be to go for Oxford or Cambridge [I declined an unconditional offer from Cambridge from their end due to an exceptional academic record [sorry to sound big-headed], thinking that I did not want to be a doctor at 25 rather than 23 [medical students do an MA initially at Cambridge] [in my day, we had no such thing as work experience or career advisers at school]; I must say I regret that decision:- if you have MBBCh from Cambridge [I know it's just the name/reputation], but you are at a distinct advantage for top jobs anywhere in the world, including later on in your career for consultantship.

If your daughter is thinking of becoming a GP [tho she will not know until she is in 3rd/4th year of medical school and has had exposure to various specialties as well as to general practice as to what each entails], then this might not be a primary consideration for you.

Having said that, medical students from Cambridge often do their clinical training at a leading London teaching hospital, and in addition, some people consider Imperial or Kings/Guys to be just as renowned.

Also check out various other features of different medical schools on the relevant page here on TSR.

Best wishes!
M


Last year, those stats would not have made the cut off at at least 10 of the UCAT med schools, unfortunately.
A medical degree from Cambridge adds no benefit over one from anywhere else for becoming a Consultant in the UK, as job applications are blinded to an applicant's med school. No clinical medic would consider one med school to be better than any other (except their own, of course!!)
Reply 5
Original post by macpatgh-Sheldon
Good afternoon Sir/Madam,

With these credentials, she is likely to gain admission at any medical school - my advice to you would be to go for Oxford or Cambridge [I declined an unconditional offer from Cambridge from their end due to an exceptional academic record [sorry to sound big-headed], thinking that I did not want to be a doctor at 25 rather than 23 [medical students do an MA initially at Cambridge] [in my day, we had no such thing as work experience or career advisers at school]; I must say I regret that decision:- if you have MBBCh from Cambridge [I know it's just the name/reputation], but you are at a distinct advantage for top jobs anywhere in the world, including later on in your career for consultantship.

If your daughter is thinking of becoming a GP [tho she will not know until she is in 3rd/4th year of medical school and has had exposure to various specialties as well as to general practice as to what each entails], then this might not be a primary consideration for you.

Having said that, medical students from Cambridge often do their clinical training at a leading London teaching hospital, and in addition, some people consider Imperial or Kings/Guys to be just as renowned.

Also check out various other features of different medical schools on the relevant page here on TSR.

Best wishes!
M

Thank you
Reply 6
Original post by GANFYD
Last year, those stats would not have made the cut off at at least 10 of the UCAT med schools, unfortunately.
A medical degree from Cambridge adds no benefit over one from anywhere else for becoming a Consultant in the UK, as job applications are blinded to an applicant's med school. No clinical medic would consider one med school to be better than any other (except their own, of course!!)

She is not applying for Cambridge. Unlikely to get an interview there anyway.

Can you please help with your expert advice regarding the choices we made?

Many thanks
Reply 7
Original post by reubenn05
those options look fine, either exeter or aston should be ok, but aston would likely be safer

Many thanks for your response
Reply 8
Original post by mottayil
posting for my daughter. her stats are as follows:
GCSE 9999999988(8 in English language and literature)
Predicted A level: 3 A*(biology, chemistry and psychology)
UCAT score 2720 B1
VR 650
Decision making 710
Quantitative reasoning 750
Abstract reasoning 610
reasonable WE, including placements in hospital and GP surgery, helping local care home home and food bank.
no contextual flags except for ARU-local but she is not keen!
we have are thinking of
Imperial (studying for BMAT),
Leicester
Nottingham
Exeter

not sure this is the right choices? also confused between Exeter and Aston?
please respond


She would probably interview at Cambridge - they interview anyone reasonably likely to get A*A*A, but have a poor interview to offer ratio.

For Leicester, she scores 58, cut off 59.5 last year, but I would expect that to drop by possibly 2-3 points, given the change in scoring and GCSE grade deflation
Nottingham she scores 136, which should be fine
Exeter she scores 95 points (probably, they can't work deciles) and this was the cut off last year

Aston, she scores 32, cut off 31.5 last year, and may drop very slightly

She can also cosider Lincoln, ARU, Plymouth, Liverpool, QUB, HYMS, Aberdeen
She sits right around Barts and UEA cut offs, last year

Her safest options are likely to be QUB, Nottingham, Lincoln, HYMS, Aston, but none of the above are outrageous

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