Long road or High road?

[Stay_classy]

Hi all, any help or advice at all would be much appreciated.

I am currently about to go into 2nd year of a Biology course at university and the past year has seen my craving to study medicine grow and grow. As I did not have good enough grades to go to med school when I finished school I opted to study Biology as it is varied and you get a lot of choice when it comes to specialising. Now here is the crunch. After seeing the graduate entry options I am very interested in doing this, I was wondering if someone who has been there or just knows about some specific criteria can help. Does graduate entry require a minimum of a 2:1? Can it be Bachelors or does it have to be an Honours? Should I try and fast track or take time and learn the craft? I just don't want to be too old when I finished. I mean would it be better to change and do an access course? How long? One more thing by graduate entry do you have to have Biology or Chemistry Higher/GSCE, as I don’t, by having a life science degree does this cover it?

I don't mind doing the work but these long summers are really annoying (never thought I'd say that) I just want to get on with things and do the work. No more anal summer jobs.

Just any advice on whether to grind it out or to fast track (if possible) would be great.

Thanks.

[Chulalongkorn]

Sorry I have not got time to answer all your questions and many are answered on other threads/ in uni prospectuses etc but a BIG piece of advice, and one you really should follow unless you want admissions tutors in medicine to take a REALLY dim view, is:

FINISH YOUR BIOLOGY DEGREE.

They really do not like people who do drop out of courses. It shows a lack of commitment and bio has many similarities to pre-clinical sciences so if you can't hack it how do you know you will hack medicine?

Sorry to be so blunt but I am in a rush and felt compelled to let you know.

Good luck.

[dailey]

I thought about going back to college to re-sit my a-levels instead of finishing my biomed degree I am doing at the moment. All the advice I have been given is the same, finish my degree. After all I got 84% this year. I’m starting second year this year too.
the way I look at it is this; if you had got good grades at A level and gone straight into medical school it would have been 5 years anyway plus a year to intercalate a BSc. doing a degree then grad medicine is only 1 or 2 years longer, depending on GEP or not. What is 2 years out of the rest of your life if you spend it doing something you love?
It depends on which uni you apply to as to whether or not your science highers are a problem. I only have a C in GCSE English and that is a problem to some unis, even if I get a 1st in biomed.
What I would suggest is to work hard and get your 2:1 or above (some will accept a 2:2 but a 2:1 will make life so much easier!) use the extra year you will have before applying to med after your degree and get plenty of work experience and contact unis about their admissions policies.
Remember GEPs are more competitive that 5yrs.

I REALLY hate summer as well btw!!!

[rachel_fran]

You will definatly need to finnish your degree and I'm pretty sure that all medical schools will require an honours degree. I think the lack of Higher chemistry might be a problem, but you would need to contact the individual admissions departments.

The advantages of the GEP courses are you gat better financial support and it takes a year less to qualify. However they are more intense and I know some people decide that they would rather not learn that way. It also seems to be the general concensus that applying to GEP cources only is quite a high risk stratagy as the competition for places is fierce. It also seems that some unis are much more graduate friendly than other for 5 year courses so again you need to contact unis that your interested in.

One thing that you can be doing now is to get plenty of work experience. How about getting work as a HCA in a nursing home or your local hospital over the summer holidays - something more interesting and really useful!

Good luck!