Radiography vs med school

Hi, Im going to be starting yr 13 in September (hopefully) after sitting yr 12 twice, due to horrible AS grades the first time round (still waiting on this year’s grades 😭). My dream has always been to work in the medical field but I’ve always heard negative things about med school such as the fact that it’ll “take over my life”, so I’ve been looking into other careers in healthcare, and I have become interested in radiography. I’m extremely stuck on what to do, can anyone please help me - what are the pros and cons of each? And can anyone who’s sat either course give me any advice? Thanks :smile:

Reply 1

Faa.1

P.S
I’ve booked the UCAT, and I can definitely say I’m struggling 😭 so I may cancel it, if responses help me to decide that med school is not for me. Also, I haven’t even started my personal statement and have no idea what I would write, so is it already too late for med school?

Reply 2

rotaryfd3s

you could also look into health and science if you would also value patient interaction,an then specialise into something that interests you

Reply 3

X.243llie

Im going into radiography this september and i think its been far less stressful as all you need is BBB and contextual is BBC to BCC depending on uni. Far less stressful to wait for then A* A* A or whatever crazy med is.

Radiography is also 3 years compared to like triple that for med i swear. Med is to long if you ask me. You can start of band 5 in nhs google the pay rate its really good for graduate. Do a masters and work private and you can earn 70-80k at least i know you can in sonography.

Reply 4

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

I think having restarted year 12 twice now (so you have repeated it twice, for a total of three attempts at year 12?) may realistically rule out most medical schools anyway.

Have you done any work experience for either medicine or radiography specifically (as opposed to more general caring work experience common to any healthcare professional degree)? This might also help guide you on what the work is like. Remember the degree itself is a means to an end. You'd be applying to medicine to become a doctor and have a career as a doctor, not to do a medical degree - that's just the necessary middle step. I don't think its uncommon for doctors to have been dissatisfied with their medical school experience but still enjoy working in clinical medicine once they are qualified.

However as noted I think even if you decide medicine is for you, you will need to try and find medical schools that would accept you in your situation as many either may not accept those who have resat (including sometimes restarting year 12) or may consider them less competitive.

It's probably sensible also to think about why you had to go through year 12 now three times and if the reasons are going to be issues during a medical degree (e.g. if you struggle with exam taking, regardless of your knowledge of the material, that may be an issue in a degree which has a lot of exams like medicine as I understand).