Does anyone else find it weird...

[Chwirkytheappleboy]

...that graduates are only allowed to apply for 4 Medicine courses per year? I had always been led to believe that the restriction was put in place because the low probability of being accepted onto a course resulted in there being too a high a chance of someone not receiving any offers at all, and thus one slot is always reserved for a non-medical course as a contingency plan.

This is all very well and good for school leavers, but surely graduates don't need that back-up option? It's not like a graduate who is unsuccessful in a medical school application is going to go and do a second degree in Biomedical Sciences, so why not allow graduates to apply for 5 Medicine courses?

[House Jr.]

You make a good point but graduate entry is really competitive as it is, more so than undergraduate entry so allowing people to apply to 5 places will mean a lower percentage of applicants get called for interview and receive offers, and will also mean that there is a greater chance that graduates will reject a particular offer as they may have received up to 4 others, thereby increasing the number of acceptable applicants who don't get an offer when they should have. So I would assume that the 4 uni restriction is in place for different reasons for undergrad and postgrad.

[aspirant doc]

Perosnally, no. We are not special; there is no reason at all why we should get more choices than a school leaver.

[dotvicky]

Having worked for UCAS it's probably a system constraint as well that it's not valuable to sort out even if it were potentially a popular decision.

[Martigan]

Perosnally, no. We are not special; there is no reason at all why we should get more choices than a school leaver.

Speak for your self. I'm very "special"!

[dotvicky]

Speak for your self. I'm very "special"!

Brian: Look, you've got it all wrong! You don't NEED to follow ME, You don't NEED to follow ANYBODY! You've got to think for your selves! You're ALL individuals!
The Crowd: Yes! We're all individuals!
Brian: You're all different!
The Crowd: Yes, we ARE all different!
Man in crowd: I'm not...

[yazoo]

...that graduates are only allowed to apply for 4 Medicine courses per year?

No! Sensible, not weird.

Some people would have 18 interviews and far more would have none. It would magnify the "golden" applicant to the detriment of all, individual and institution.

Edit: well, it wouldn't disadvantage the "golden" few, but it would eveyone else.

[dotvicky]

Edit: well, it wouldn't disadvantage the "golden" few, but it would eveyone else.

Well, you could argue that it would hardly be advantageous for them either. At the end of the day, they can only take up one offer and how indecisive do you have to be to need more than 4 choices if you're really the 'golden' applicant.

[Chwirkytheappleboy]

No! Sensible, not weird.

Some people would have 18 interviews and far more would have none. It would magnify the "golden" applicant to the detriment of all, individual and institution.

Edit: well, it wouldn't disadvantage the "golden" few, but it would eveyone else.

I wasn't saying there should be unlimited choice. For every other course you apply for via UCAS, you're allowed to make 5 applications. It's just Medicine and related subjects (dentistry, veterinary science) that are restricted to 4

[yazoo]

I wasn't saying there should be unlimited choice. For every other course you apply for via UCAS, you're allowed to make 5 applications. It's just Medicine and related subjects (dentistry, veterinary science) that are restricted to 4

Your quite right. You didn't say that. Oh well....