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What were your grades that got you into med school?Will my age pose a problem?URGENT!

I am a Canadian student, and I am scoring 85 percent, intending to bring it up to 90 percent before submitting my uni applications. I will be two years younger than the average 1st year uni student (as I joined school a year early, and there isn't a year 13 here!!) Is there age discrimination in the UK?
My sup application will only have two lines:
1 - I volunteered in a hospital for about 200 hours.
2 - I took a course in sign language, and I am now fluent in it :stomp:

lolz.

And based my grades and my extracuricculars, what universities should I consider getting into for med school?? I've shortlisted Queen Mary, St. George's, and University of Birmingham..... THANKS IN ADVANCE!!!!!!

Hey, did you guys know that in USA and Canada, an MBBS equivalent (an MD) is a graduate only degree?? Sucks for us I know.

Reply 1

thatloserkid

I know someone in their mid-twenties who's just started at manchester after doing a pre-med course, so it didn't seem to be too much of a problem there :yep:

I seem to remember reading somewhere that you won't be accepted if you're over 35, because you won't work for long enough after training before you retire.
Hope this helps!

Reply 2

Happy_Holidays

15

You'll have to be at least 18 years old to get on the course due to NHS requirements.

Reply 3

Kingston_x

1

I'm so sure the youngest age you're allowed to do medicine is 18 no matter how smart you are.

Reply 4

annread

11

i think you have to be 18- but dont count me on it. best to email unis and find out.

When you say you are scoring 85% atm, do you mean in your AS?
What qualifictions are you doing- im not reallly uptodate with canadian system!?

oo you do know for Birmingham- great uni- that you need 7 A*s at GCSE (thats assuming you do GCSEs in Canada)

also do you not have any hobbies? it might help if you have a few. and get some work experience.

ok med schools- depends which course you want to do- modern-PBL or traditional or a bit of both. Bascially do you want to have clinical contact immediately- thats what you have to ask yourself.

hope that helps

Reply 5

YoSuis

9

nope you can start when you're 17 at a Scottish uni as long as you will turn 18 during the 1st year...

Reply 6

Kingston_x

1

Do you want to study in Canada or the UK?

Reply 7

xo-Heva

14

maplesyrup23

2 - I took a course in sign language, and I am now fluent in it :stomp:

lolz.

I know its a bit off topic, but I'm seriously intrested in learning sign language. Can I ask how you did it? Through school, college etc. And how hard was it? What does the course involve? Any anything else you can think of :smile:

Thanks a bunch xx

Reply 8

maplesyrup23

OP

annread

i think you have to be 18- but dont count me on it. best to email unis and find out.

When you say you are scoring 85% atm, do you mean in your AS?
What qualifictions are you doing- im not reallly uptodate with canadian system!?

oo you do know for Birmingham- great uni- that you need 7 A*s at GCSE (thats assuming you do GCSEs in Canada)

also do you not have any hobbies? it might help if you have a few. and get some work experience.

ok med schools- depends which course you want to do- modern-PBL or traditional or a bit of both. Bascially do you want to have clinical contact immediately- thats what you have to ask yourself.

hope that helps

THanks for reply, and I'm sorry, I have no clue what GCSEs or AS exams are.

Over here, we select subject courses, and our universities require a percentile of at least 80 in each course. (a good uni).

Each course is 1 credit, throughout hi school from grd 9 - grd 12, a student will have to collect a minimum of 30 credits to graduate.

My Grade 12 final exams are what universities usually look at. We do couses for half a year here and change at the second half. That's how it is in my province Ontario, it varies acc to school board and province.

Reply 9

maplesyrup23

OP

Kingston_x

Do you want to study in Canada or the UK?

I want to study in the UK as I will be saving approx 3-4 years. I will have to do an undergraduate degree before I do medicine. (A 4 yr B.Sc) and then do a medical exam. LONG process.

Reply 10

psyche87

8

I think it depends on university and what type of course it is. I know two people at my college who started their medical course before they were 18...

Probably best to email admissions offices to ask about their policies regarding age...

Reply 11

annread

11

ok does this system have a name? have you researched to see what unis require from you? -- they will have academic requirements that you need to pass -- so you kinda need to find them out. AND also you are studying chemistry at the moment, most medical schools (well there might be 1 or 2 thst ask for Biology instead) require you to study chemistry some shape or form.

heres a link to Birmingham med school requirements-

http://www.undergraduate.bham.ac.uk/entry/international.shtml

Reply 12

moneyfaery

11

maplesyrup23

THanks for reply, and I'm sorry, I have no clue what GCSEs or AS exams are.

Over here, we select subject courses, and our universities require a percentile of at least 80 in each course. (a good uni).

Each course is 1 credit, throughout hi school from grd 9 - grd 12, a student will have to collect a minimum of 30 credits to graduate.

My Grade 12 final exams are what universities usually look at. We do couses for half a year here and change at the second half. That's how it is in my province Ontario, it varies acc to school board and province.

Hello, fellow Canadian. :yep:

AS = grade 11, A2 = grade 12. The UK has GSCEs which we don't. Would international unis require less to get into med? Apparently, 95%s often get rejected from Mac for Health Sci (and that's not even med!), so I'd imagine international unis would be more competitive (especially due to the shorter time frame).

Reply 13

maplesyrup23

OP

xo-Heva

I know its a bit off topic, but I'm seriously intrested in learning sign language. Can I ask how you did it? Through school, college etc. And how hard was it? What does the course involve? Any anything else you can think of :smile:

Thanks a bunch xx

At the University of Western Ontario, sign language courses are thought. It was 80$ a course (VERY VERY CHEAP!), and there are 3 courses. Beg, Inter, and Expert.

It's very awkward when you start it, you start feeling quite stupid for just waving your hands around at times lolz, but then you get used to it. I'm no linguistic expert, but IMO, it's fairly easy to learn. if you are interested, you should pursue it. Loads of universities have special ed faculties, you should try contacting them I suppose. Best of Luck!!!! Feel free to ask if anything else.. will do my best to answer.

Reply 14

maplesyrup23

OP

moneyfaery

Hello, fellow Canadian. :yep:

AS = grade 11, A2 = grade 12. The UK has GSCEs which we don't. Would international unis require less to get into med? Apparently, 95%s often get rejected from Mac for Health Sci (and that's not even med!), so I'd imagine international unis would be more competitive (especially due to the shorter time frame).

Oh, right and I am doing my AS then.

Yeah, so I've heard. I was just wondering if I've got a shot at it. Mac is an awesome school for health sci. It depends on the high school board as well (talking about the 95ers); usually these small town school inflate marks just to give those kids a shot and their applications are looked down upon. I suppose they get rejected because of lack of volunteer experience or extracurriculars... If that's the case I'll have to sign up for a few more activities or something... Are you planning to go into medicine? Where? What's going to be on your supplementary app?

Whoa, I get replies on these UK forums so friggin fast!! The Canadian ones like studentawards and all are horrible.

Reply 15

maplesyrup23

OP

annread

ok does this system have a name? have you researched to see what unis require from you? -- they will have academic requirements that you need to pass -- so you kinda need to find them out. AND also you are studying chemistry at the moment, most medical schools (well there might be 1 or 2 thst ask for Biology instead) require you to study chemistry some shape or form.

heres a link to Birmingham med school requirements-

http://www.undergraduate.bham.ac.uk/entry/international.shtml

yes I have done my research, and what system are you talking about? My marks are significantly above the cut off mark, and come this semester my 90 will get my above the cut off of st. andrew's too. . . I've heard that the cut off means nothing! That's why I've resorted to this forum to see how I can improve myself so as to put myself at par with a UK student has a shot of getting into med school.

Reply 16

xo-Heva

14

maplesyrup23

At the University of Western Ontario, sign language courses are thought. It was 80$ a course (VERY VERY CHEAP!), and there are 3 courses. Beg, Inter, and Expert.

It's very awkward when you start it, you start feeling quite stupid for just waving your hands around at times lolz, but then you get used to it. I'm no linguistic expert, but IMO, it's fairly easy to learn. if you are interested, you should pursue it. Loads of universities have special ed faculties, you should try contacting them I suppose. Best of Luck!!!! Feel free to ask if anything else.. will do my best to answer.

Thank you very much :biggrin:

I am going to look into it a bit further. I may end up doing the course a bit further own the line because at the moment I just don't have the time. Although my local college does do evening courses... hmm... :p:

Reply 17

Kathryn128

8

Minimum age requirement to do medicine at a UK university is 17 years. I know, because I'll be 17 and 10 months on entry later this year. Just whiz off an email to the places you want to apply before you do so. Most either aren't fussed, or want you to turn 18 before the end of the first term.

You'll be stuck for going out for a while, and have to sign a special contract for accomodation, but nothing much else should be different, OP :smile:

As you'll be two years young though, I'd apply for 2011 entry if I were you, and take a gap year. You could live in the UK in that year to get used to the lifestyle changes before you have to chuck stressful university life on top of that, doing some work experience in the time.

Reply 18

buny

Finally another Canadian applying to medicine! I'm doing grade 12 in On too (non-semestered school though) so if you have any questions about applying you can PM me.

And the cutoffs don't mean much, you can still get rejected if they don't like you. Most universities will only look at your "predicted marks" not your actual current marks.