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Oxford Medicine

Hi everyone! I had a few questions to those who are studying any course in Oxford especially medicine or biology.

1: what is the best college for Medicine.

2: how to get invited to an interview? What makes me ideal?

3: do I need to write a admission letter like they do in the US? Or do we just fill forms.

4: best extra curricular and volunteering I can do from this summer ( I am still in yr 11) until summer of yr 13?

5: any tip that can really help me get in? How can I be different than thousands of others who are smarter than me? ( I am somewhat smart, I get all A* and As mostly A*) so what can set me apart

Thank you very much I really appreciate it.
Also anything I MUST avoid if I want to even have a chance to get in? Anything that can be an instant NO.
Thank you !
Original post by Sunshine_Summers
Hi everyone! I had a few questions to those who are studying any course in Oxford especially medicine or biology.
1: what is the best college for Medicine.
2: how to get invited to an interview? What makes me ideal?
3: do I need to write a admission letter like they do in the US? Or do we just fill forms.
4: best extra curricular and volunteering I can do from this summer ( I am still in yr 11) until summer of yr 13?
5: any tip that can really help me get in? How can I be different than thousands of others who are smarter than me? ( I am somewhat smart, I get all A* and As mostly A*) so what can set me apart
Thank you very much I really appreciate it.
Also anything I MUST avoid if I want to even have a chance to get in? Anything that can be an instant NO.

1) As I've heard other people say "the best college is the one that makes you an offer" 😛 No college is "better" for medicine, and whilst some teaching is in tutorials, other teaching is in the pre-clinical school (and then in years 4-6 in the clinical school) where students from all colleges are taught together. When choosing a college you might want to look at the facilities, if there are in-college societies that are important to you, or having access to kitchens, ensuite rooms, location in the city etc. You could also look at the tutors' research interests. But this year I think the statistic is nearly 50% of successful applicants got an offer from a different college than where they originally applied (you can look on the medsci.ox.ac.uk website for the admission statistics), so it's best not to get too attached to one college.
2) If you're a home student, your GCSEs and your UCAT score. It's as simple as that - they have a 50% weighting on each and draw up a shortlist of the top applicants. Extenuating circumstances are also looked at, and applications reviewed and they add an extra 80 people to the interview shortlist based on their applications as a whole. (They interview 2.5 people per offer so 420 total)
If you're an international student, it is 100% on your UCAT score.
3) You'll need to write a personal statement. The structure of the personal statement is changing across UCAS this year so this is something you'll need to research more about.
4) Clinical work experience placements are really useful, but these might have a minimum age requirement if you're in Year 11. Otherwise, volunteering, particularly long term volunteering - in places such as a care home. For Oxford, a scientific work experience such as in a research lab can help show your interest in medical science as the medicine course in Oxford is heavily science focused.
5) Make sure you prepare well for your UCAT! This is key for any UK medical school application.

I think this website will be a useful read for you: https://www.medsci.ox.ac.uk/study/medicine/pre-clinical
As well as the UCAS website for the personal statement.

Sorry if this might be a little clunkily worded, I'm quite tired! I'm not an Oxford student (yet!) but I'm an offer holder for the A100 course at Oxford, and will hopefully start as a medical student in October 2025 after I take my A Levels in May/June.
(edited 1 month ago)

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