Medicine as international student with a previous degree

Hello hive mind of the student room,

I recently graduated with a first in Politics and Social Policy from the University of Edinburgh. The focus of my empirical work was on the politics of health care and doctors as a political group. Anyway, I started to have this nagging feeling that I wanted to be on the front lines as a clinician, so I started to consider medicine. I know the main important talking points: Newcastle GEM is competitive but good, get work experience, etc. My question is, would I be competitive for non-graduate entry medicine (i.e., 5/6 year courses)? I have strong academic, quant/qualitative research credentials, but given that I am from the States, I don't have any evidence of chemistry or biology although I took those subjects in secondary school, so I could brush up quite easily. Would admission committees consider me without them, given my other credentials and (future) volunteering and shadowing experience? Thank you for any insight.

Reply 1

TSR Hippocrates

11

Hey there, thanks for posting a question in the Medicine forum. :biggrin:

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Official Undergraduate Medicine 2023 Entry
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Index of Individual Medical School Applicants' threads 2023 Entry

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What to do after an unsuccessful first application

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Reply 2

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

21

Original post by wupix

Hello hive mind of the student room,

I recently graduated with a first in Politics and Social Policy from the University of Edinburgh. The focus of my empirical work was on the politics of health care and doctors as a political group. Anyway, I started to have this nagging feeling that I wanted to be on the front lines as a clinician, so I started to consider medicine. I know the main important talking points: Newcastle GEM is competitive but good, get work experience, etc. My question is, would I be competitive for non-graduate entry medicine (i.e., 5/6 year courses)? I have strong academic, quant/qualitative research credentials, but given that I am from the States, I don't have any evidence of chemistry or biology although I took those subjects in secondary school, so I could brush up quite easily. Would admission committees consider me without them, given my other credentials and (future) volunteering and shadowing experience? Thank you for any insight.

You need to look at the actual specific requirements of the courses - either standard entry (5/6 year courses) for graduates or accelerated graduate entry (GEM) courses. There are GEM courses which accept graduates of any discipline, although usually you need to do the GAMSAT for those (and thus self study a certain level of scientific content to do well in it).

For standard entry courses as a graduate, you will need to check the individual requirements but typically you would need to meet the same requirements as school leavers in terms of subject content. So if it says it requires As in A-level Chemistry and Biology or equivalent and doesn't explicitly state graduates do not need to meet this requirement, then you will need to do those A-levels or an equivalent qualification. You won't necessarily be expected to have covered those subjects in your degree though (although if you did, this may meet the requirements for some of them).

However if they specify you need that specific subject requirement and you don't have it, you would not be considered. It's a tick box exercise, UK medical schools are very transparent in what their requirements are and what you need to do to meet them. Academic requirements are a tick box and if you tick that box, you can be considered to be invited to interview on the basis of shortlisting (however they shortlist applicants).

Medicine as international student with a previous degree

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