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Urgent help, resit a levels or do biomed

Hi there, so I'm in a bit of a sticky situation.

I didn't do that great in my a levels recently and was offered a foundation year at qm for biological sciences which i initially rejected for pharmacy as my family strongly suggested it. However, upon reconsidering, i realised that i would not like doing a degree in pharmacy. So now I'm trying to apply to any good uni for bio med and then to do post grad dentistry.

However, post grad dentistry is considerably more competitive than undergraduate dentistry. So now I'm in a position where I'm waiting to hear back from unis to see if they will make me an offer for bio-med, starting pharmacy and contemplating whether or not to resit my a levels.

1) Doing a pharmacy degree that i will most likely end up hating
2 Hopefully get an offer for bio-med and then do post grad dentistry -- Much more competitive
3) Resit my a levels and apply for dentistry with hopefully a lot better grades -- risky, no garuntee that I will get 3 A's

Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated. If any of you are in a similar situation please reach out I would love someone to talk to

Reply 1

Original post
by MrMoser
Hi there, so I'm in a bit of a sticky situation.
I didn't do that great in my a levels recently and was offered a foundation year at qm for biological sciences which i initially rejected for pharmacy as my family strongly suggested it. However, upon reconsidering, i realised that i would not like doing a degree in pharmacy. So now I'm trying to apply to any good uni for bio med and then to do post grad dentistry.
However, post grad dentistry is considerably more competitive than undergraduate dentistry. So now I'm in a position where I'm waiting to hear back from unis to see if they will make me an offer for bio-med, starting pharmacy and contemplating whether or not to resit my a levels.
1) Doing a pharmacy degree that i will most likely end up hating
2 Hopefully get an offer for bio-med and then do post grad dentistry -- Much more competitive
3) Resit my a levels and apply for dentistry with hopefully a lot better grades -- risky, no garuntee that I will get 3 A's
Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated. If any of you are in a similar situation please reach out I would love someone to talk to

I am in a similar situation but for medicine. I decided against doing graduate entry because I can't afford two degrees and also I don't want to study anything other than medicine. It's really depressing seeing my friends at uni and I have to reapply.

Reply 2

Original post
by MrMoser
Hi there, so I'm in a bit of a sticky situation.
I didn't do that great in my a levels recently and was offered a foundation year at qm for biological sciences which i initially rejected for pharmacy as my family strongly suggested it. However, upon reconsidering, i realised that i would not like doing a degree in pharmacy. So now I'm trying to apply to any good uni for bio med and then to do post grad dentistry.
However, post grad dentistry is considerably more competitive than undergraduate dentistry. So now I'm in a position where I'm waiting to hear back from unis to see if they will make me an offer for bio-med, starting pharmacy and contemplating whether or not to resit my a levels.
1) Doing a pharmacy degree that i will most likely end up hating
2 Hopefully get an offer for bio-med and then do post grad dentistry -- Much more competitive
3) Resit my a levels and apply for dentistry with hopefully a lot better grades -- risky, no garuntee that I will get 3 A's
Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated. If any of you are in a similar situation please reach out I would love someone to talk to
I’m in a really similar situation flopped my ucat twice and I got offered a foundation year for biosciences at Manchester which I declined, the only university who would take me is the University of Huddersfield for there extended science degree which is like a foundation year, where I can progress onto pharmacy or optometry if I get 70% throughout the academic year. The only problem is I’m Muslim and don’t wanna be in debt. My parents are saying to take the foundation year, but the course has started and I heard only 30 people who did the science extended degree are guaranteed a place on optometry or pharmacy the following year. I have a week left to enrol as the course has already started, but I’m considering resitting.

My options are:
1) take the foundation year and try progress onto pharmacy which is really risky as like I said on certain number of people are guaranteed on the course and it’s highly competitive.

2) retake my a-levels in biology and chemistry I received a B in chem this year and a C in bio, but I’m not guaranteed A’s if I resit as I’ll be resitting as an external candidate with no help from my sixth form.

I’m steered more towards resitting because like I said I’m Muslim and debt. @MrMoser, I’m in a similar situation, so maybe if I resit and you do too, we can both resit together. I’ve got a week to decide.

Reply 3

Original post
by Ztries
I’m in a really similar situation flopped my ucat twice and I got offered a foundation year for biosciences at Manchester which I declined, the only university who would take me is the University of Huddersfield for there extended science degree which is like a foundation year, where I can progress onto pharmacy or optometry if I get 70% throughout the academic year. The only problem is I’m Muslim and don’t wanna be in debt. My parents are saying to take the foundation year, but the course has started and I heard only 30 people who did the science extended degree are guaranteed a place on optometry or pharmacy the following year. I have a week left to enrol as the course has already started, but I’m considering resitting.
My options are:
1) take the foundation year and try progress onto pharmacy which is really risky as like I said on certain number of people are guaranteed on the course and it’s highly competitive.
2) retake my a-levels in biology and chemistry I received a B in chem this year and a C in bio, but I’m not guaranteed A’s if I resit as I’ll be resitting as an external candidate with no help from my sixth form.
I’m steered more towards resitting because like I said I’m Muslim and debt. @MrMoser, I’m in a similar situation, so maybe if I resit and you do too, we can both resit together. I’ve got a week to decide.

I'm thinking of taking biomed at reading and then doing post grad dentistry. But I'm also considering resitting bio and chem at the same time. My family are very much against me resitting and I dont know if i would be able to do that much work as well.

At this point i feel as if ive exhausted all my other options. At the end of the day allah knows what is best for us. Let me know what you decide on beacuse even now im still unsure on what to do 😭

Reply 4

I know this is a really late reply, but the last two weeks have been so stressful. I felt the same about exhausting all my other options, so I ended up enrolling at the university of Huddersfield for their science extended degree which is like a foundation year because I thought I could do that and maybe resit at the same time too.

But, after a week and a half I decided to drop out because I don’t think I can do both; I have to get up really early because the commute is an hour and a half and the bus only comes every hour and I get really home late because my lectures run into when the bus comes, so I have to wait even longer to get home and then study.

I’m currently in the process of dropping out before I have to pay back 25% of my tuition fee and I’ve emailed my sixth form to resit as an external candidate, I’m just waiting for them to get back to me.

Like you said Allah knows what’s best for us and inshallah everything goes well for you. Hopefully, my sixth form gets back to me and I resit both biology and chemistry. I know it’s gonna be hard either way but inshallah everything goes fine for both of us 😊

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