Straight to medical school or do a degree first?

4

Im in year 10 right now and i really want to get into dermatology. I have been recearching my options to see how to reach my goal and i recently found out that you can go to medical school right after 6th form. What do you think would be better? Doing 6th form and going straight to medical school or doing 6th form,doing a degree of my choice and then going to medical school?

Reply 1

stilllearning123

16

Original post

by mannatkumar

Im in year 10 right now and i really want to get into dermatology. I have been recearching my options to see how to reach my goal and i recently found out that you can go to medical school right after 6th form. What do you think would be better? Doing 6th form and going straight to medical school or doing 6th form,doing a degree of my choice and then going to medical school?

The usual route is that you go into uni to do med straight after 6th form as you said (undergraduate medicine), the majority of people do this.

The only reason you would do another degree first and then med (Postgraduate medicine -much harder to get into than "normal" undergraduate medicine) is due to something like not getting the grades you need in your A-levels etc.

Again, don't worry about specifics now, many doctors still don't know what they want to do because the career opportunities are too vast to make the decision so simple. It is important not to close doors to good opportunities.

So I'd recommend that for now, while your curiosity into the career is admirable, you focus on getting good grades in your gcses, then around the summer of year 11 into year 12 and onwards you try to sort work experience.

Best of luck!

Reply 2

McGinger

20

4 year Graduate-entry Medicine (GEM) is even more bonkers-competitive than 5-year Undergraduate Medicine. And that's 9 years of being a student and 9 years of student-debt to pay off. Definitely not recommended.

Either do the 5 year Undergrad degree - after a gap year is fine, you do not have to go 'straight from school' - or find another way to work in healthcare such as Nursing, or Allied Health - Explore roles | Health Careers and NHS apprenticeships | Health Careers

Reply 3

mannatkumar

OP

4

Original post

by stilllearning123

The usual route is that you go into uni to do med straight after 6th form as you said (undergraduate medicine), the majority of people do this.
The only reason you would do another degree first and then med (Postgraduate medicine -much harder to get into than "normal" undergraduate medicine) is due to something like not getting the grades you need in your A-levels etc.
Again, don't worry about specifics now, many doctors still don't know what they want to do because the career opportunities are too vast to make the decision so simple. It is important not to close doors to good opportunities.
So I'd recommend that for now, while your curiosity into the career is admirable, you focus on getting good grades in your gcses, then around the summer of year 11 into year 12 and onwards you try to sort work experience.
Best of luck!

Thank you so much!!!!!! this is really helpfulll

Reply 4

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

21

Original post

by mannatkumar

Im in year 10 right now and i really want to get into dermatology. I have been recearching my options to see how to reach my goal and i recently found out that you can go to medical school right after 6th form. What do you think would be better? Doing 6th form and going straight to medical school or doing 6th form,doing a degree of my choice and then going to medical school?

As above in the UK the typical route into medicine is after finishing school (inclusive of gap years etc).

Graduate entry medicine is designed really for people who weren't originally considering medicine but decided they wanted to pursue after starting (or completing) another degree.

If you know at the outset medicine is your goal, you should aim for standard entry medicine as a school leaver. As noted above, graduate entry medicine is normally considerably more competitive than standard entry medicine.

Straight to medical school or do a degree first?

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