Biomedical Science and then Medicine...UCAS A101, Help!

[Soda_Dreamer]

Hi everyone. I didnt know where else to post this, but please help me

Basically i'm having to retake year 12 again as i did really bad in my AS level results. However, i had looked into it, and am now working immensely hard to achieve excellent grades to do Biomedical science at uni, and then take the 4 year fast track to medicine.

However, i know that going direct from A levels to medicine iis very competitive, but can someone or anyone please help me and tell me if its going to be even more difficult to get into medicine, even if i do hopefully get a minimum of a 2:1 in biomedical science given my situation? Is it just as hard as the normal route to medicine? What would the uni's look for?

Someone please please help me! I'm starting to panic and i dont know why.

[giella]

Graduate entry medicine is just as competitive as you would expect it to be. However, you would be eligible to apply for 5 year medical courses as well, and you would have a certain edge over the school leaver applicants in applying to these. Most people apply to a mix of 4 and 5 year courses to widen their chances.
You would need to demonstrate an ongoing commitment to medicine when applying as a graduate. For some reason, medical schools consider that graduates have been in better positions to access volunteering and work in health-related settings, in a way that A level students are not.
Volunteering, work, research and evidence of your being an involved member of your university environment would be clinchers.
However, if you are redoing year 12 and working hard, what's to stop you from applying to undergraduate medicine this time around? You can see how you do this year and keep it open as an option.

[Soda_Dreamer]

Oh thank you so much, i feel a little bit better. So whilst in uni doing biomedical science, i could probably do like part time voulenteer work inbetween etc? When i was on the UCAS website most of the uni's seemed to of done a 4 year course for it. What ones if you know...do the 5 years?
But i will bear in mind the whole direct method though thank you.

[Soda_Dreamer]

Why is the A101 so competitive?

[alexuk]

Why is the A101 so competitive?

Lots of highly determined, driven applicants who are more likely to be more mature and aware of what a career in medicine entails than A level applicants (I'm not suggesting you don't), and also there's far far less graduate entry medicine degree places available nationally.

If it's any consolation, I didn't do very well at all in my A levels. Back then I wasn't 100% sure what I wanted to do, yet alone had the maturity to do medicine. For me, doing a degree in Biomedical Sciences allowed me to explore my interest in science, and during this time I realised what I wanted to do was medicine. I took 2 years out to work and put myself in a better position financially - this helped me with my application too, as my job in research has led to a few publications.

Short version - if you're willing to take the financial hit, the graduate entry route is well worth exploring.

[Soda_Dreamer]

Money is of no issue to me, i'll struggle with money, but i'll do it because its the least important to me, but if i take this route, and do a year of like voulenteer work, and maybe other types of work in a different field but related to medicine (though i've already done work exp and voulenteer work already) and hopefully aim for a 2:2 or 2:1...would i stand some chance?

[mycatsmeow]

Make that a 2:1 or first class degree. And don't just do any old voluntary work, do something ur interested in, that way ur more likely to stick at it and if u get the chance to talk about it in an interview ur passion for the work u do is more genuine.

Also for diversity and to cover ur bases I'd go through all the qualities/skills that a candidate is expected to demonstrate eg leadership, responsibility, teamworking, communication etc and go for voluntary work (not necessarily healthcare related, community work is great too) that enables u develop and talk about these skills in ur personal statement/interview. This was probs the biggest difference between my applications when i was a school leaver and when i applied this year as a graduate. Hope that helps. xx

[drpr]

If I was you I would look around for med schools that accept resit applicants (there arent many but ring up admissions and ask as there are some) and work my behind off to get AAA. I would then apply to med as a school leaver and apply for 2 BMS courses also. That way if you were unlucky enough not to get into medicine then you would most definately get an offer to study BMS and then go down the route of graduate entry.

Hope this helps

[Soda_Dreamer]

Would the GCSE results matter aswel even though i got A's and B's and ONE C?

[navdeepdunn]

What's the point of doing a degree you don't want to? Schools encourage us to do Biomed but that's only so that we get in somewhere and it looks good on them. What they dont tell you is that Graduate entry is harder to get into than A100. And also you will have to fork out a LOT of money to study Medicine as your second degree. Not worth it at all.