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Medical School: Where to set the bar?

Hello all, Well, before I start I'll just mention that I think this is gonna be a pretty big post >.< But it is also a big thing for me at the moment. Also whenever I post something about Medicine, there is always someone telling me how 'its not just about this, but also this, this and that'- So I'll include as much as I can and hopefully a bit more! So, I'm planning to apply for Medicine come Septemeber / October, and don't really know where to set the bar for myself. But this isn't the only thing that this post is about- the past few months have been very up and down for me concerning applying to Medicine and typing this just gives me a chance to get it off my chest (something which I've not really been able to do.) To get it started, I'll firstly talk about the academic requirements to apply for Medicine. I'm currently studying Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics and Biology at AS Level (first year Sixth Form.) I work extremely hard at them and am averaging 96, 93, 82, 93 percent respectively (50% of the course done so far.) I hope to maintain this level come the Summer Examinations. Okay, so I can see even for myself that A-Levels aren't a problem when applying. But from here it goes kind of downhill. At G.C.S.E. I got 3A*s 5As and 2Bs first time round. (1B in English Lang., the other in Mathematics Statistics which I took 18months early.) I have resat some of these now to get 5A*s, 4As and 1B. Little did I know that resitting was virtually pointless as the Universities just judge your results by the initial grade (at least with a course such as Medicine anyway.) So although I was very happy with my results on results day (they aren't 'terrible' after all)- I do wish I revised for them as much as I revise for my A Levels now. Especially as a lot of people go on about the need for 5-7A*s to have a reasonable chance of success. Lastly for the academic requirements, theres the UKCAT. Well, theres very little I can go by for this- but after doing the Official Practice Exam on the website, I'm averaging 60%. As if this wasn't bad enough I soon learned that the actual test is much much harder and that a lot of Universities rely heavily upon the result. (And even if some Universities don't rely so much on it, a score of 'below average' is going to cause some cramp on my application.) Perhaps it should be noted that I live and go to a school in a 'high crime' area. Maybe this is irrelevant, but I've read something before about Universities checking Postcodes. But the school itself is a relatively good one. So as for academic requirements, I'd rate myself by... [A-Levels: Very good] [G.C.S.E.: Average (for an application to Medicine)] [UKCAT: Below Average] But of course, non-academic requirements are very important too; perhaps carrying equal weight in applications. The problem with my non-academic record, is that it contains a lot of "have dones" or "will do's". I'll go on... (I'll just put in bullet points what I would include in my PS.) #I'm currently working towards my DoE Gold Award. This won't be complete until after my application. #I currently volunteer with a charity that gives help and support to children who need it (be it falling behind in school, or being a victim of racism.) I do this online. #I will be taking part in an exhibition to Mount Everest Base Camp, Easter 2010. #I used to play Rugby at City level- but had to leave after a serious knee injury #I teach my Autistic brother Mathematics and Triple Science at G.C.S.E. level (as he refuses to go to school himself.) #I work with first years in my school who have problems reading, writing or understand work. #I will be Head Boy starting in May. #I've been to three 'one day' Medicine Workshop courses. They were rather crap to be honest, but better than nothing I guess. I'm in the middle of arranging some extended work experience, after just being let down be some dic... loser. Though so far this is proving to be unsuccessful. If I don't get this work experience I understand it is one big bummer on my application. (If anyone knows of any private run 4-5 day courses available for Medicine, please do tell me about them!) And thats about it for my non-academic record. (I would go into more detail with each point in the actual PS.) And of course I will include hobbies etc, and I know that a lot depends on interview and me as a person. But where do you think I should set the bar for Universities to aim for? Or maybe if you don't quite like thinking about it like that... What Universities should I realistically apply for? A lot of people think that just because I'm doing very well at A- Levels, I should apply for Cambridge- But I know that applying to 'any' University for 'any' course isn't just as simple as that. What if my UKCAT result is terrible? What Universities could I realistically apply for that doesn't require that UKCAT examination? Me asking this isn't me being lazy Two very good first answers... Bravo!

Public Comments

1. Wow, you are smart and you do plenty. They take into account everything that you do :/ Don't worry man, you'll get in. Your doing Fine. I want to do Medicine but i'm so shit, if they had to pick between me and you, they'd obviously pick you Stop worrying
2. If the MCAT is anything like the UKCAT is in the UK then ALL schools require you to take it and they do base a significant portion of your application on your test results as its probably the only constant factor between you and other applicants. If you can't score well on this test, it will be very hard to get accepted to medical school. That being said, no 'bar' should really be set as to schools you want to go to. You should be applying very broadly, probably at least 5-10 schools.
3. Ok, I am in Year 13 and I have just been through the whole stressful process of applying to medicine so I am confident that I can help you out quite a lot here! Right, first of all your AS levels. Now it sounds like you're doing very well in them, can't really fault the subjects you picked either. The thing with AS levels is that universities don't really take them into account when you're applying. This is because once you've completed them and you start the UCAS application process, some schools don't actually declare their student's AS grades until year 13 A level results day.....so it will just go down as pending on their UCAS application. However there are obviously exceptions and these are Oxford and Cambridge, and if you apply to one of those, they require you to fill out a seperate application and I do believe you have to put down your AS grades on them as well as your percentages in each module. This is not to say that AS grades are completely disregarded, some unis e.g. Cardiff want a minimum C in the 4th AS subject that you drop after year 12....unless the subject is biology or chemistry in which case they would like a B. That's just an example, there are tons of different requirements, you will have to go on http://www.ucas.com/students/coursesearc... to search for university requirements and make sure you check the requirements thoroughly. Also I would recommend going on the actual university websites as well as reading their prospectuses. Ok now as for your GCSEs, they aren't bad don't worry! I actually didn't know that unis don't consider GCSE re-sits , it's a bit harsh I think! but anyway so you got 3A*s, 5As and 2 Bs which is good it's just that there are some unis which you will definitely have to cross off the list because they will not accept them for example birmingham who want at least 7A*s (they may and I emphasise the may, accept 6A*s or even 5A*s but that's for special cases). Basically, I wouldn't apply to them if I were you it would just be a waste of a choice. Cardiff do a point system on your gcses, they take your top 9 (to include science, maths and english language) and an A* is 3 points and A is 2 points and a B is 1 point and they add it all together, and I think the cut off point this year was 21/27. Oxford and Cambridge......I'm not really sure what they'd think about your GCSEs....I know for sure they don't ask for like 7A*s like birmingham but you have to understand that so many insanely good applicants with a billion A*s will be applying for Oxbridge so I wouldn't recommend applying to either unless your heart is really set on it. I mean you should see my friend who applied to cambridge for medicine, he had like 11A*s, 1 A all As at AS level with like 100% in biology, 98% in chemistry (seriously no joke) and he got an interview there, then got rejected after interview. He got offers from everywhere else because he really is in myopinion the perfect candidate, so it just goes to show how difficult oxbridge is. ok now the UKCAT! arghh the UKCAT! lol. ok well when I was practising for it on the website, I just did really awful , I kept getting everything wrong......but when I did the real thing, I got 632.5 which is a good score (600 is average so anythin above that is good). I was v. surprised about the score I got so I hope you can see that it most probably won't go as bad as you think it will. The thing with the UKCAT is is that you can sit the test before you submit your application, I did it in early september, so you'll know your score and by that you can decide if you need to change some of your uni choices. Birmingham and Bristol don't ask for UKCAT or BMAT so you might wanna think about Bristol (coz bham = bad idea coz of GCSEs remember). Also don't think that the UKCAT is like really heavily taken into account, it actually isn't for most universities e.g. nottingham. The ones I would say that take UKCAT heavily into account are king's college london, st georges , barts and the london probs...so yeah, you'd have to do some research about that but basically, don't get too stressed about the UKCAT. If you want to apply to oxbridge, imperial college, UCL you'll have to do the BMAT which I didn't do because I didn't apply to any of those but I do know that you won't sit the exam until after you've applied so that's a bit annoying ..BMAT is a bit of a nightmare in my opinion. Ok and I'm happy you mentioned your non academic activies because these are sooooooo important! Yours sound v. good, I really recommend you finding some sort of experience in a hospital, gp....and also volunteer somewhere! a nursing home, anywhere where you can help someone in person. ok on a final note, I can't stress enough how important research is. Any university that you're interested, do loads of research into their entry requirements.....go on the open days,read the prospectus', go on their websites, go on the ucas website because you have no idea how many people get rejected because they've neglected to research entry requirements and so have applied with grades that will just get them rejected. and on a final final note, this website http://www.newmediamedicine.com/forum/ is the best forum in the entire world for anyone wanting to apply for medicine! It is sooooo helpful, you can ask for advice and I really recommend going on it because there are so many people that use it that can help you out (doctors, med students, people like me in year 13 that have gone through what you're about to go through and of course people in exactly the same position as you which is nice because you don't feel like you're going through the whole thing on your own!). I really hope this loooooooong answer has helped you! And best of luck for the future! x