My dreadful situation at the moment :S HELP!! HELP!

[Tamxxx]

Ok so ive got 200 UCAS points and my careers advisor told me to, apply to universitys that have those points. So she recommended me to apply to : kingston, south bank, st marys, roehamptop (Uni's inside london ) basically all the dumb, low academic uni's omg im devastated. And i chose to do a biomedical's course, because she told me i can't apply to medicine because i havent got the grades.

So she told me to put down biomedical sciences for now, and choose those crap uni's just so i am in the UCAS system. She told me that after i have resitted some of my exam modules, if i get a better grade , a good grade that is good enough for medicine. Then i can discard all the uni's together and choose a good university such as Imperialm which i can apply to in march. But she told me that its not definite because i would only be able to apply if there is free available seats.

Im so worried what if all the good uni's have been taken by march and there is no seat leftthen will i end up going to a crap uni???

Can i still have a chance and apply through clearing when my results come out is that possible if i dont get a place in march

[benneh]

you will not get into medicine for 2008 entry unless your UCAS application is in by 15th oct

try to re-take and get at least AAB at A2, then apply for 2009 entry. im afraid thats pretty much all you can do now with just 200 points

[aimeecalo]

I feel for your situation but there really is nothing wrong with applying to a course alied to medicine such as biology or biomedical science and then going through the GEP route?

[anoushka]

Medicine is so over-subscribed that clearing occurs at almost no medical school, I'm sure via your research you have seen that it is clearly states on most medical school websites that they do not participate in clearing.

Are your predicted grades not good enough for any medical schools?
Btw I'm confused how can you suddenly apply for medicine in march when the deadline is clearly 15th october, what makes you or your teacher think that there will be any free places at places such as Imperial? Just seems absurd to me.

Also, even if those universities seem below you, doesn't mean you have any right to call them crap, if you think they're crap then don't go to them. Simple as that.

[benneh]

yeah you say you got told to apply to the dumb universities... but with 200 points what do you expect

[KateBiomed]

What grades are 200 points? I will be a graduate and can't remember!

Plenty of applicants have straight A grades so unless you can comete with that you will probably automatically rejected. If you can't obtain those grades then maybe looking at a graduate route would be best for you. Don't forget some universities will not accept resit applicants unless you have really severe extenuating circumstances (such as QMUL).

Unless you can tick all of the boxes on your application form so you are not immediately rejected then it is not worth applying.

You should probably look at the medical schools to find a suitable degree that will be considered 3 years down the line for graduate entry and work really hard with that.

Maybe changing your attitude to some universities would also help.

[469er]

Hi Tamxxx

You've posted a couple of threads along these lines now, and I'm sure everyone here really feels your disappointment and frustration. As Anoushka says, medicine is highly competitive, and you need to accept that you're not going to get in at this time with these grades.

You need to take a deep breath, get your sense of calm back, and make a plan from here on. You can't proceed without a plan, and you can't plan while you're panicking.

First you need to decide what you want. Is your heart still set on medicine? Unless there are extenuating factors, you should ask yourself why you didn't get the grades you needed. If what you've lacked is motivation or an understanding of how much work was needed, then you need to ask yourself if you can work harder and get better grades at A2. If so, then get your head down and go for it, and then apply with your grades in your hand during a gap year. You will only be a year older - it is *not* a tragedy, and may in fact be the making of you - you will learn motivation, hard work, patience and have a chunk of time in which to get work and life experience. If, on the other hand, you worked your socks off and still didn't get the grades, then maybe you need to consider whether medicine is right for you. It isn't enough to really really really want to be a doctor. You do need to be able to study at a certain level, and if this is a struggle, then maybe sooner rather than later is the time to face facts.

Going for biomed or similar and then applying for medicine as a graduate is an option, although, from all accounts, just as competitive 3 years down the line. If you're going to do that, you should be sure that you can get through a degree your heart may not entirely be in, and also that you can get a good result (2:1 or higher). If it's the care side of medicine which appeals to you more than the science, then you might think about a nursing degree or similar. Either way, I think you will do yourself no favours by rushing into this blindly, particularly if you have a sense that you're applying to 'crap' universities for a course that isn't what you want.

I suspect you're not getting brilliant advice at school, but you sound so panicked it may be that it's hard to advise you at this time. Not to patronise, but you're very young. You have plenty of time to sort this out. UCAS and medicine will still be there next year and the year after, if that's where your future lies. My advice, for what it's worth, is to forget applying for anything this year (you will *not* get another chance to apply for medicine in March - not sure where that came from), and concentrate on your studies. *When* you've got the grades, you can think again about how best to plan your route into medicine. Possibly this might involve an intermediate degree, or an access course, or both, or retakes, or a whole other career plan, but you won't know until you know what you're working with.

If you're dead set on applying for something, then go for biomed, I suppose, since, if you don't get good enough grades to apply for med in a gap year, and decide to do the graduate medicine route, you'll at least be on your way. But calm down, for god's sake, and make it a positive choice, not a catastrophe.

Feel free to PM me if you want to chat some more. (But I'm sposed to be writing a biology essay this afternoon, so don't expect instant service!)

[deedee01]

Hiya hunni,
I also dint get as good A-level results as i was expecting but as its really what i want to do and can't imagine doing anything else, i've bhd to apply for uni's that i wouldn't have done if i had better grades. I really wanted to go Nottingham bt they need an A i chem n i gt a B. At the end of the day, the way i see it, a med degree is a med degree no matter where you get it. Yes the experience and teaching may be diferent at different unis bt nt meaning 2 sound harsh- beggars cnt be choosers and unle you want to spend another year @ uni doin a medically related course and apply as a graduate -which is highly competitive- you might as i am jut have to apply for uni's tht woulbnt be your 1t choice. You an only apply after October by applying through 'extra' which is basically a precursor of clearing so it is highly improbable that any med places will be free.
Good luk though- as long as ur motivated nothing cn stop u being who u wnt 2 be xxx

[kiya]

Ok so ive got 200 UCAS points and my careers advisor told me to, apply to universitys that have those points. So she recommended me to apply to : kingston, south bank, st marys, roehamptop (Uni's inside london ) basically all the dumb, low academic uni's omg im devastated. And i chose to do a biomedical's course, because she told me i can't apply to medicine because i havent got the grades.

So she told me to put down biomedical sciences for now, and choose those crap uni's just so i am in the UCAS system. She told me that after i have resitted some of my exam modules, if i get a better grade , a good grade that is good enough for medicine. Then i can discard all the uni's together and choose a good university such as Imperialm which i can apply to in march. But she told me that its not definite because i would only be able to apply if there is free available seats.

Im so worried what if all the good uni's have been taken by march and there is no seat leftthen will i end up going to a crap uni???

Can i still have a chance and apply through clearing when my results come out is that possible if i dont get a place in march

Whilst I can understand that you might be annoyed with yourself for not getting high enough UCAS points to get into medicine, your comments about "crap" universities that are "dumb" and "low academic" is highly insulting. I attend one of the unis you mention and have an article published in a peer review journal - I hardly would say I've picked a low academic or dumb route by choosing a uni whose graduates have one of the highest salaries on leaving in the whole country.

If you are so concerned about going to a university that has a "prestige" attached to it, you might be best off trying to raise the number of UCAS points you have by working harder. I can't see any other way.

[elz]

actually iv heard st marys is rather good. i dont go to those uni's but i do agree it is rather insulting to say they are crap etc, why apply to them if you think that?

thats pretty mcuh rubish about being able to apply in march for medicine if u get higher grades. ucas extra opens march time i believe, which is where uni's that have spare places for courses advertise the vacnacies, but they never have medicine. same goes for clearing, med schools never advertise vacnacies. yea you can try writing to them all as i did this year, but its pretty hopeless because all the med schools have their own waiting lists of people they have already interviewed/hav applied to them, and they dont usually want any random person that hasnt bothered to apply to them previously. this was the impression i got. if u do improve your grades u would prob hav to apply for medicine next year.