Going into medicine after another degree

[saintgermain]

Just throwing in my two pence.

Targeting your application is important particularly if you have a non-traditional background. This depends on course type, admission requirements, selection style, culture, and competition. Examples:

• No-one with a 2.1 should be applying to Birmingham because as a rule they generally interview people with 1sts. If you have a 1st, Birmingham should be high on your list as they are more likely to interview you.
• If you have a PhD, some schools (e.g. Imperial, Oxbridge) might give this some consideration whereas others will give it very little.
• Some schools (e.g. Oxbridge) are more likely to take a dim view of past academic "failures". Others will have a process which is blind to anything beyond a 2.1 (or 2.2) honours degree.
• If you interview well, don't pick Southampton. If you don't, do.
• Some medical schools are very keen on non-traditional backgrounds (Nottingham, St George's, Warwick spring to mind).
• Most applicants seem to pick the same medical schools even when they think they're picking a mix of competitive / less competitive institutions. People forget about Leeds, Lancaster, Keele, etc etc and tend to focus on medical schools which fall somewhere in the centre of England...

Incidentally course selectors are (to a large degree) interested in whether you will survive their programme. This should also be pretty important for you! The academic cramming types might thrive with an intense Oxbridge/Imperial approach whereas the "people" people are likely to prefer early clinical exposure, group work, problem based learning, etc.

Doing your research about individual courses (all of them!) is as important a part of your application as anything else. Books, websites, prospectuses, current students, and the admissions tutor are all good resources!

[fibonacci]

I completely agree with the emphasis on research of medical programs beforey you apply (although if you want to apply this year you better get a move on!)
I did about 6 months of extensive research of all medical schools in the UK and to a lesser extent Ireland then chose my application places based on where by UCAS application was most "favoured".
GEPs are generally agreed to be harder to get on to, so you should also think carefully about applying for some 5 year programs (a lot of these also accept graduates).

[Profanius]

• Some schools (e.g. Oxbridge) are more likely to take a dim view of past academic "failures". Others will have a process which is blind to anything beyond a 2.1 (or 2.2) honours degree.
• Some medical schools are very keen on non-traditional backgrounds (Nottingham, St George's, Warwick spring to mind).

Just to interject here but the idea that Oxbridge Unis are less forgiving of past academic failures is purely assumption and has no basis in fact. Both Oxford and Cambridge were more than willing to overlook my previous 2:2 in lieu of a more recent degree result. They also accept A-level resits and Oxford are very receptive to OU graduates and people from non-traditional backgrounds. The most helpful and encouraging advice I got from any uni about my non-conventional background was from Oxford.

I made the least progress with the apparently more modern and progressive universities like Liverpool, Barts, Soton and UEA who wouldn't accept my most recent degree under any circumstances and fixated on my 2:2 from 15 years ago.

• If you interview well, don't pick Southampton. If you don't, do.

Southampton interview all international and EU applicants for both BM5 and BM4, and all mature non-grad applicants. Remember this if you're trying to avoid an interview. Also your odds at GEP are around 30-1 and it's a bit of a lottery system. If you have a great GAMSAT score you're better off applying Notts or SGUL where your odds are 3-1, even if you don't interview well.

• Most applicants seem to pick the same medical schools even when they think they're picking a mix of competitive / less competitive institutions. People forget about Leeds, Lancaster, Keele, etc etc and tend to focus on medical schools which fall somewhere in the centre of England...

You can't apply to Lancaster directly - you have to apply through Liverpool. In 2011 Keele (3000 applicants), Liverpool (3300 applicants) and Leeds (3600 applicants) received the three highest numbers of candidates of any other UK medical schools, along with Bristol (3000 applicants) - which is hardly the "centre of England". Keele had the highest applicant to place ratio of any UK med school in 2011. Amongst the lowest applicant to place ratios were Barts, Cambridge and Birmingham. Your advice above is almost the total opposite of reality.

I'm sorry, but while I agree with your overall point, half of the advice you're giving is either only semi-true or completely wrong.

[grub]

Just to interject here but the idea that Oxbridge Unis are less forgiving of past academic failures is purely assumption and has no basis in fact. Both Oxford and Cambridge were more than willing to overlook my previous 2:2 in lieu of a more recent degree result. They also accept A-level resits and Oxford are very receptive to OU graduates and people from non-traditional backgrounds. The most helpful and encouraging advice I got from any uni about my non-conventional background was from Oxford.

I made the least progress with the apparently more modern and progressive universities like Liverpool, Barts, Soton and UEA who wouldn't accept my most recent degree under any circumstances and fixated on my 2:2 from 15 years ago.


Southampton interview all international and EU applicants for both BM5 and BM4, and all mature non-grad applicants. Remember this if you're trying to avoid an interview. Also your odds at GEP are around 30-1 and it's a bit of a lottery system. If you have a great GAMSAT score you're better off applying Notts or SGUL where your odds are 3-1, even if you don't interview well.


You can't apply to Lancaster directly - you have to apply through Liverpool. In 2011 Keele (3000 applicants), Liverpool (3300 applicants) and Leeds (3600 applicants) received the three highest numbers of candidates of any other UK medical schools, along with Bristol (3000 applicants) - which is hardly the "centre of England". Keele had the highest applicant to place ratio of any UK med school in 2011. Amongst the lowest applicant to place ratios were Barts, Cambridge and Birmingham. Your advice above is almost the total opposite of reality.

I'm sorry, but while I agree with your overall point, half of the advice you're giving is either only semi-true or completely wrong.

.....just wondering how can you find out the number of applicants?

[new2newmedia]

.....just wondering how can you find out the number of applicants?

UCAS - Statistics online

(It doesn't seem to like chrome so try it in IE or Firefox)

You can see the applications and acceptances for medicine and dentistry by university. Bear in mind though that this can slightly distort your chances at some places e.g. for SGUL, once people have been culled by the GAMSAT I believe your odds are pretty good even if lots applied in the first instance.

[Profanius]

There's also a nice little summary here.

Medical School Competition Ratios - The Student Room

These stats are for A100. I've just seen now that Kings is the leader with 4000 applicants per year, but I think most would agree this has to do with the size of the University and entrance requirements rather than any geographical preference. As the new2newmedia says above these entrance stats are misleading, especially with a view to GEP entry. Kings probably has the highest applicants to places ratio for GEP, but 75% of these applicants will be excluded on the basis of their UKCAT alone. A UKCAT of 725+ automatically improves the odds by a factor of four. The same goes for GAMSAT Unis.

In short, apply to your strengths and ignore the numbers. The only place the numbers really matter is Soton because of the way they batch and shortlist candidates... but that's a different story.