My chances

[Domadams31]

As my first post I dont mean to be selfish but an experienced opinion would be welcomed

I am currently in my fourth year of a biomedical science degree at Aberdeen Uni - I am set to achieve a 1st or 2:1. In my third year I was awarded a scholarship from the society for reproduction and fertility. I have not had much work experience in medicine but I hope to over the coming year. I have not taken the UKcat test either however I hope to score highly.

I was wondering what my chances were for getting a place on a 4 year or 5 year medicine course? and possibly any ways I could increase the likelihood of being award a place?

any and all input is welcome

Dominic

[Chwirkytheappleboy]

I am currently in my fourth year of a biomedical science degree at Aberdeen Uni - I am set to achieve a 1st or 2:1.

Good, you'll meet the minimum requirements to apply then

I have not had much work experience in medicine but I hope to over the coming year.

Make sure you start looking immediately. If you're hoping to apply in October for 2011 entry then you're starting this quite late... it can take a long time to get work experience. Additionally, most medical schools state that they consider long term commitments to be more preferable than short sharp stints of work experience. I'd advise that both are necessary to have a competitive application - get some long term volunteer work going, and get some shadowing/experience in a hospital and GP practise.

I have not taken the UKcat test either however I hope to score highly.

I think most people have this hope

I was wondering what my chances were for getting a place on a 4 year or 5 year medicine course?

It's very difficult to comment on your chances at the moment. You have no work experience and don't know what your UKCAT score will be. *IF* you manage to secure some work experience, and do some volunteering then you'll at least be in a position to make it worth putting in an application, but that's about all I can really say. You'll always have a better chance with 5 year courses than 4 year because they're much less competitive, although depending on what A levels you did, it's not uncommon for someone to be eligible to apply for a 4 year course but not for the 5 year course at the same University.

[biomed12]

to domsadams31:

Hi, i felt like i was in a very similar situation to you this time last year. I was also doing my final year fo biomed with predicted 1st and alike i didnt know my ukcat or didnt have much work experience. what i did was did voluntary work ' fund raising for alzheimers compagne, i was a medical receptionish at a hospice for eldery patients, i shadowed a biomed at hospital, i take notes as a job at uni for dyslexic and disabled students' i ended up getting 640 for ukcat (which is not good enough) and i applied to al 4-year courses (St georges, warwick, bham, imperial) and.. i did not even get one interview.

if i was to go back in time.. i.e if i was in your shoes. i would do a lot of work experience and aim for 670 ish for your ukcat. also.. what i have come to realise is that being an undergrad applying to a poast grad 4 yr course (before you actually graduate) most likley means you will be competing with mature students who have actually graduated their undergrad with a firm grade or they may even have masters or phd's. or they may have more work experience as they would have taken gap yr to do so. So not only will the competition for the rare amount of positions be great, but teh competition between applicants will also be more fierce. If you think.. if you apply to 5 year course you will be at teh top of the criteria list. if you apply to 4 year.. you are near the bottom ot average.... this may be a very pessimistic way to look at it but its kind of the other end of the spectrum. so i advice 5 year course.

saying that, i did know someone who applied to 4 year course during their final year of biomed and ended up getting in! so its not impossible. but its a risk.
maybe you could apply to both 4 and 5 year courses?

best of luck. i hope this helps.

[foxyamy]

As my first post I dont mean to be selfish but an experienced opinion would be welcomed

I am currently in my fourth year of a biomedical science degree at Aberdeen Uni - I am set to achieve a 1st or 2:1. In my third year I was awarded a scholarship from the society for reproduction and fertility. I have not had much work experience in medicine but I hope to over the coming year. I have not taken the UKcat test either however I hope to score highly.

I was wondering what my chances were for getting a place on a 4 year or 5 year medicine course? and possibly any ways I could increase the likelihood of being award a place?

any and all input is welcome

Dominic

It has been said many, many times before on these forums, but basically your chances are good as long as you tailor your applications wisely.

So get as much work experience in as you can ASAP - ideally this needs to include some work in an NHS setting (to give you insight into issues in the NHS), and other more diverse areas, for example GP practices, care homes, St. John/Red Cross - this will give you much more to talk about in your personal statement/interviews.

Also, whether you decide to do the UKCAT/GAMSAT or both, scoring highly on these is a major step to getting an interview. There are many of the GEP universities which use cut-offs as the main means of rejecting for interview, so if you do really well on one of these then look for those universities which generally offer interviews over a certain cut-off. E.g. for Newcastle I think it was about 690 ish this year, about 670 ish for Warwick and over 700 for Kings. So you would be best to sit the tests as soon as you can in the cycle so that you can then apply based on your test results. I know a lot of people missed out this year because they had already applied when they sat the tests and then scuppered their chances at some of their choices due to poor results.