Second year university student but I suddenly want to do medicine.

I am currently studying a completely unrelated degree (Accounting and Finance) and I just don't feel like this is for me.
Before I applied for university, I was fixed on doing medicine for years.
During my a-levels I didn't have the best predicted grades (ABB, ended up getting AAB) and so while I was trying to apply for medicine, my 'tutor' advised me against it and told me to try look into different profession.
I had done the UCAT (got around 2550 from what I remember) and had some work experience with customers (but nothing specifically in health profession).
I got A in Chemistry and Maths, and a B in Biology.
I'm saying all this so it's not like I randomly decided I want to do medicine, I have some prior knowledge on it and how application process works.

However, my issue now is what do I do? It's my life and I feel like I have no control over it.
I want to desperately try to do medicine, so I'm wondering what my choices are?
I've seen options for GEM degrees, where it's for graduate students and you can apply with an unrelated degree, but I've heard it's extremely competitive due to low number of places in most of them. On top of that, I would have finished my current degree so I would get no student finance for it at all, which is a big concern for me.
If I were to drop out right now then I would still be eligible for partial student finance from what I've read. However, dropping out can be risky as I would not have a confirmed med offer yet and would have made the past 2 years a waste of time and money.

I have probably missed out a few things and questions I have so feel free to ask away. Appreciate all help thanks.
TL;DR: What are my choices to apply to a medicine degree when I am currently in my second year on an unrelated undergraduate degree. GEM? Dropping out and applying for normal undergrad med?

Reply 1

Scotland Yard

Volunteer Team, Clearing and Applications Advisor

20

Original post by holomt

I am currently studying a completely unrelated degree (Accounting and Finance) and I just don't feel like this is for me.
Before I applied for university, I was fixed on doing medicine for years.
During my a-levels I didn't have the best predicted grades (ABB, ended up getting AAB) and so while I was trying to apply for medicine, my 'tutor' advised me against it and told me to try look into different profession.
I had done the UCAT (got around 2550 from what I remember) and had some work experience with customers (but nothing specifically in health profession).
I got A in Chemistry and Maths, and a B in Biology.
I'm saying all this so it's not like I randomly decided I want to do medicine, I have some prior knowledge on it and how application process works.

However, my issue now is what do I do? It's my life and I feel like I have no control over it.
I want to desperately try to do medicine, so I'm wondering what my choices are?
I've seen options for GEM degrees, where it's for graduate students and you can apply with an unrelated degree, but I've heard it's extremely competitive due to low number of places in most of them. On top of that, I would have finished my current degree so I would get no student finance for it at all, which is a big concern for me.
If I were to drop out right now then I would still be eligible for partial student finance from what I've read. However, dropping out can be risky as I would not have a confirmed med offer yet and would have made the past 2 years a waste of time and money.

I have probably missed out a few things and questions I have so feel free to ask away. Appreciate all help thanks.
TL;DR: What are my choices to apply to a medicine degree when I am currently in my second year on an unrelated undergraduate degree. GEM? Dropping out and applying for normal undergrad med?

You're stuck between a rock and a hard place.

If you choose to drop out now, you'll have to resit A level Biology to get an A to meet the entry requirements. But sadly, a lot of medical schools are a bit nit-picky when it comes to letting you resit A levels so your options would be very limited, and possibly even more limited because there are some medical schools that don't like it when you drop out of a degree to apply to Medicine. You'd presumably still be able to apply to some universities but you wouldn't have a great deal of choice. At least this used to be the case a few years ago - worth doing your own research which will be a bit more up to date than mine. You'd also really want to improve your UCAT score and try to get some experience to justify this career switch.

If you choose to finish your degree, you can apply for GEM degrees which are incredibly competitive indeed (at my university, Queen Mary, we get about 36 applicants per each place in the GEM course. St George's has a slightly more palatable 16 applicants per place), but you can apply to universities that play up to your strengths to maximise your chances of getting in. And, you're wrong - if you get into one of the accelerated GEM degrees, then you'd be eligible for some student finance support. You'd need to fork out the first 3k out of your own pocket in fees and have a reduced maintenance loan, but you can work to cover the rest of the money or also get a loan from a bank (I understand that banks are exceedingly happy to give money to medical students because they know you're pretty much guaranteed a job at the end of your degree).

None of them are particularly great options. They both have their pros and cons, but I hope you're a little more informed so you can make a better decision.

Reply 2

Rjoenshfjnsns

7

Original post by holomt

I am currently studying a completely unrelated degree (Accounting and Finance) and I just don't feel like this is for me.
Before I applied for university, I was fixed on doing medicine for years.
During my a-levels I didn't have the best predicted grades (ABB, ended up getting AAB) and so while I was trying to apply for medicine, my 'tutor' advised me against it and told me to try look into different profession.
I had done the UCAT (got around 2550 from what I remember) and had some work experience with customers (but nothing specifically in health profession).
I got A in Chemistry and Maths, and a B in Biology.
I'm saying all this so it's not like I randomly decided I want to do medicine, I have some prior knowledge on it and how application process works.
However, my issue now is what do I do? It's my life and I feel like I have no control over it.
I want to desperately try to do medicine, so I'm wondering what my choices are?
I've seen options for GEM degrees, where it's for graduate students and you can apply with an unrelated degree, but I've heard it's extremely competitive due to low number of places in most of them. On top of that, I would have finished my current degree so I would get no student finance for it at all, which is a big concern for me.
If I were to drop out right now then I would still be eligible for partial student finance from what I've read. However, dropping out can be risky as I would not have a confirmed med offer yet and would have made the past 2 years a waste of time and money.
I have probably missed out a few things and questions I have so feel free to ask away. Appreciate all help thanks.
TL;DR: What are my choices to apply to a medicine degree when I am currently in my second year on an unrelated undergraduate degree. GEM? Dropping out and applying for normal undergrad med?

Hi, just stumbled across this post and thought id give my experience. I was in almost the exact same position as you. I was in second year Biology however I have now dropped out and I am going to study medicine in September at Bristol uni.

I decided I wanted to study medicine during first year and so I did the UCAT last summer and had interviews from Sep 2023-March 22024. It was really difficult focusing on both my uni exams as a failsafe as well as my medicine interviews. However, I received 4/4 offers for medicine.

Definitely email every single uni that offers medicine to see if they will consider you if you do decide to go down this path.
However, I do see an issue with you being considered as you got a B in biology and without a widening participant application, not many unis will consider you so you would most likely need to resit Biology A level to get that A.

Alternatively, you could stick it out and finish your undergrad course (perhaps whilst you apply for med and apply for graduate entry medicine). This is because most unis are happy with you having a B in Biology if you have a 2:1 in your degree.

The reason I dropped out and applied for undergrad medicine is because there are much higher odds of getting a place in undergrad med rather than grad med (something like 4/1 odds for undergrad compared to 10/1 odds for grad - so you will definitely need to have a very strong interview performance)

Message me if you have any questions, I just thought giving my experience would perhaps help you decide if its what you really want to do as it was very difficult and demanding for me to get my offers.

Reply 3

Admit-One

Universities Forum Helper

21

I would not complete an undergrad degree with the sole intention of applying for GEM. A waste of time, money and just making things harder for yourself.

Maybe consider suspending your studies for a year and getting some relevant volunteering or experience to see if you deffo want to change tack.

Second year university student but I suddenly want to do medicine.

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