Y12 Aspiring medic programmes? Helpp

I’m currently in year 12 and applying to uni programmes, should i just apply to every single programme i find related to medicine regardless of uni? Or should i selectively apply based on unis id consider attending for medicine?

Reply 1

UEA Rep Grace

Original post

by nmaaa

Hi @nmaaa

It sounds like you're thinking of applying for medicine. As medicine is usually a long journey I would recommend researching different universities to see what appeals to you, as you're going to be spending a long time there.

For instance:

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Course (content, modules)

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Location (far from home, near home?)

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Ranking (you can look at league tables etc...)

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Entry requirements (do you meet them?)

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University life

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Expenses (e.g., London will be more expensive)

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Opportunities

I chose UEA for my undergrad and made a table in Excel with most of these things so I could easily compare unis. It was only an hour and a half away (so my parents could come and pick me up for the holidays), ranked well for psychology, had achievable entry requirements and I liked Norwich as a city.

It was also really helpful to go to Open Days because that's how I got a feel for the unis, so I would highly recommend going to a few. UEA's next open day is on Saturday 23rd November if you're interested and you can find our medicine course here.

And if you have any more questions just let me know!

All the best,
UEA Rep Grace

Reply 2

UEA Rep Lucy

Original post

by nmaaa

Hi @nmaaa

As my colleague @UEA Rep Grace said I would recommend doing some research before applying.

There may be some universities that you prefer or are more suited to you and you would probably want to prioritise their application.

Some factors to also consider would be: the type of course (rankings), university/city life (do you like the area), modules in the course (whether you like the course programme) and societies (clubs/extracurricular of that university).

Also, it may be worth looking at university websites to see any videos/content that they have on what the university is like as a whole and when the upcoming open days are. Would be worth maybe having a top 5 for now and also researching on which ones you really like the most.

For me, I looked at all these aspects and also read university guides on the ranking of the universities. I also looked at all the websites to see which ones I wanted to shortlist. Here is a link to our website here at UEA: https://www.uea.ac.uk and here is a link to specifically medicine at UEA: https://www.uea.ac.uk/course/undergraduate/mbbs-medicine

Hope this helps

If you have any further questions please let me know 🙂

UEA Rep Lucy
MSc Banking and Finance, BSc Economics with a Year Abroad

Reply 3

UEA Rep Lucy

Original post

by Songbird19

I’m not sure what you mean by aspiring medic programmes. My daughter was part of the UEA’s Preparing for medicine outreach course so do you mean something like that? I believe the unis that run those sorts of programmes only do so for local students (at least those that are in that area of the country or county only). Perhaps if you are in London there are several you could participate in? For the UEA course you had to be contextual in some way and even then it was luck of the draw who got in as they limit places. It is a good idea to look into which courses might be available to you and definitely do one or two if you can. However it is comparatively pointless having specific unis in mind for medicine before you have done your UCAT and got your predicted grades as those have such a big influence over where you might get in. Always remember that studying medicine is the priority not which uni. More than half of med applicants don’t get a single offer, so applying for unis that suit your results is key. Any pre-med course will help you develop the traits, skills and knowledge to make your application to any university stronger so pick whichever course you can get into and complete. The uni that runs it is comparatively irrelevant. The only difference being if some courses offer you automatic interview (very sensible if you can get onto one of those) or the UKWPMED course as that course gets you automatic interviews at any participating uni, so that’s a no brainer!

Hello @Songbird19

Thank you for sharing your insight.
That is great that your daughter was part of our Preparing for medicine outreach programme at UEA. For anybody that is interested here is the link with more details: https://www.uea.ac.uk/study/information-for/young-people/events/preparing-for/medicine

Preparing for Medicine is a free programme designed for Year 12 students, where you will be mentored by students who were in the same position. This includes a residential on campus, mock interviews and shadowing at a GP surgery/placement (for 3 days). If anybody has any further questions about this programme you can contact: [email protected].

Yes, as you have recommended @Songbird19 this is a great way to prepare for the course and to get a further idea for what it is like. Including increasing the skillset and knowledge to then improve applications! 🙂

If anybody has any questions about preparing for medicine at UEA or would like to find out more about this, please let me know.

UEA Rep Lucy 🙂
MSc Banking and Finance, BSc Economics with a Year Abroad