Med Reapplicant rejected 🫨🫠

Hey.. so I reapplied to medicine for 2026 and have been rejected by 3/4 places. I don’t even wanna go to my 4th place, my 5th option is a pharmacy course.

A bit of context. I did my a levels in 2025 and the day before maths paper 1 (which was my first exam) my little brother who is non verbal had his first seizure, and he’s been having them frequently since then. That was obviously really hard to handle around exam season, i grew up as a young carer and as a family we found this really upsetting as there was nothing we could do to control it. Despite this I achieved an A in both chemistry and biology, I missed out the grade I needed in maths by 3 marks.. and yes I got it remarked and it went down 🫠. So I missed out an offer from my DREAM MED SCHOOL by 3 marks!!(( I did edexcel maths and paper 2 got leaked or something and they replaced it with a crazy hard paper and tbh I know if they didn’t swap it I’d probs be in med school rn. I was able to get extenuating circumstances for my exams cause of what was happening at home which gave me a few extra marks tho so that helped. I reapplied for med schools and did Ucat I didn’t do great I got 2090 B2, been rejected by 3 so far including my dream med school. I’m not sure what to do whether I should do another year and apply again? I was thinking of enrolling into my pharmacy course and doing the med application on the side, so if I get in that’s great and if I don’t I’ll continue with pharmacy.. is this a good idea? I rang up UCAS and they said that this is totally possible and wouldn’t put me at disadvantage whatsoever. I don’t want to do a gap year cause I’ve hated it so far and I’m struggling to find a job aswell booo.

I was just upset cause I feel so unlucky and wanted to vent some more, I’m also wanting to know if anyone else is/was in the same situation. Has anyone applied to med school whilst doing first year on a different course? I moved sixthforms so had to restart year 12.. currently on a gap year and now planning to be another year ‘behind’. I’ll definitely be a lot older than some of the students and it makes me feel like I’ve lost out.

Does anyone have advice 😭 I tried to give context to my situation without oversharing too much lol

Hello there, I'm really sorry to hear about everything that has happened to you
I just want to point out that, firstly, you are yet to hear back from one medical school so who knows, you might get in still! I know not getting into your dream medical school sucks - I aimed and got rejected by Oxford once upon a time, thinking it was the be-all and end-all of Medicine and that I wouldn't settle for anything else... and now, a few years and several unwise decisions later, I'm reapplying to Medicine and I'm much more pragmatic in my approach, in the sense that, yes, I have a dream now to go to a particular medical school (not Oxford anymore, changed my targets!), but what's more important to me is to get into Medicine, period. Getting into my top choice is a welcomed bonus, but not essential - I want to be a doctor and I'll take any vehicle/uni that gets me there. So don't give up on your 4th option yet!
But if that 4th and final option doesn't pull through, you'll need to do a little research and thinking about your options. Although don't worry about your age nor don't go thinking you're "behind" - you aren't. We all move through life at our own ryhtm, and this isn't a race. And I can assure you that your peers at university won't even notice the age gap - it really doesn't matter in young adulthood. But I digress! The potential problem with choosing to go for pharmacy and then apply while you're on the course is that many universities will now not consider you until you finish your degree, which isn't ideal. Not all of them are like that (I know for example Southampton is fine with you applying in the first year of a different degree), but a fair few will care, so you would be narrowing your options for no good reason, plus getting yourself into an extra year of student debt. It's up to you to do your research as to which universities you could apply to, but I personally think it's better to avoid this issue entirely and take a second gap year to really ace your UCAT and get more work experience.
Good luck!

Hey.. so I reapplied to medicine for 2026 and have been rejected by 3/4 places. I don’t even wanna go to my 4th place, my 5th option is a pharmacy course.
A bit of context. I did my a levels in 2025 and the day before maths paper 1 (which was my first exam) my little brother who is non verbal had his first seizure, and he’s been having them frequently since then. That was obviously really hard to handle around exam season, i grew up as a young carer and as a family we found this really upsetting as there was nothing we could do to control it. Despite this I achieved an A in both chemistry and biology, I missed out the grade I needed in maths by 3 marks.. and yes I got it remarked and it went down 🫠. So I missed out an offer from my DREAM MED SCHOOL by 3 marks!!(( I did edexcel maths and paper 2 got leaked or something and they replaced it with a crazy hard paper and tbh I know if they didn’t swap it I’d probs be in med school rn. I was able to get extenuating circumstances for my exams cause of what was happening at home which gave me a few extra marks tho so that helped. I reapplied for med schools and did Ucat I didn’t do great I got 2090 B2, been rejected by 3 so far including my dream med school. I’m not sure what to do whether I should do another year and apply again? I was thinking of enrolling into my pharmacy course and doing the med application on the side, so if I get in that’s great and if I don’t I’ll continue with pharmacy.. is this a good idea? I rang up UCAS and they said that this is totally possible and wouldn’t put me at disadvantage whatsoever. I don’t want to do a gap year cause I’ve hated it so far and I’m struggling to find a job aswell booo.
I was just upset cause I feel so unlucky and wanted to vent some more, I’m also wanting to know if anyone else is/was in the same situation. Has anyone applied to med school whilst doing first year on a different course? I moved sixthforms so had to restart year 12.. currently on a gap year and now planning to be another year ‘behind’. I’ll definitely be a lot older than some of the students and it makes me feel like I’ve lost out.
Does anyone have advice 😭 I tried to give context to my situation without oversharing too much lol