less competitive unis

[Gizmo says -]

the key to cracking your ideal profession is to tailor its choice to your wants, needs and desires anyway.

[infinity]

there's a chance Birmingham ask for 6A*

not this year anywayz...i got in with 5 A*...although if you do apply for birmingham, once you get an interview, the chances of receiving an offer shoots up to 80% (or somewhere there) as most interviewees are offered places

[halcyondream]

Thanks, Spencer Wells, I suppose you're right about the money putting people off applying. But I still think medical man has a point--Imperial and UCL may ask for minimum grades, but their reputation is so big that applicants (like me) assume a string of sparkling A*s is needed. And that reputation also attracts the stronger applicants.

the key to crackin them (UCL and Imp) is tailoring your application towards them wif careful research, although arguably many of their applicants get this done for them thru background and skool, so it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy that lots of stoodents from skools that load you wif reams of A*s apply there.

Interesting... how is this "tailoring" by background/school achieved?

[Gizmo says -]

Thanks, Spencer Wells, I suppose you're right about the money putting people off applying. But I still think medical man has a point--Imperial and UCL may ask for minimum grades, but their reputation is so big that applicants (like me) assume a string of sparkling A*s is needed. And that reputation also attracts the stronger applicants.Interesting... how is this "tailoring" by backgorund/school achieved?

its not rocket science, macca.
a lot of the peeple in the group we are discussing are cultured to pick prestigious careers thru skool choice, who ave an image to maintain.
'ence the disapoointed tones of posh skoolers who return to posh skool from st georgies - despite sgul on measure being a better choice than ucl, kings or imperial, they get panned by their teacher for only getting into sgul!
Thats one example - its up to you to extrapolate this to family, background, social peers and throw in racial background for some.

Their rep is big for a reason, and one of those reasons iz becos their unis want to mek up for a shortfall of domestic applicants, by attracting the largest number of applicants of internationals of any of UK universities.

The rep doesnt attract the stronger candidates - it simply attracts those candidates who are led to believe that those requirements are provided by the strongest candidates.

[pelicans14]

Medical man I noticed that you applied to 3 unis that require the BMAT. The fact that you have taken the BMAT this year means that you have a general idea of how well you are likely to do next year (bearing in mind you have a year's experience over most people, so will probably improve, although of course you could also do worse...), so if you are fairly confident that you will score 19+ in it next year then definitely re-apply to UCL becaue of their policy of guaranteed interviews to BMAt scores of 19+. I have also heard that some unis like people to re-apply if they are unsuccessful first time since it shows dedication to that particular medical school.

I don't think your GCSE's are a problem, because i also got 5 A*'s at GCSE and I got an interview at Birmingham this year!! (rang Birmingham admissions tutor last summer and she said the threshold was 5 A*'s, if I'd known about this 7 A* rubbish that's going on this year I would never have applied). I don't think your GCSE results will put you either at an advantage or disadvantage in most places (except Birmingham and Edinburgh). I know for definite that 5 A* was sufficient this year for Manchester and St Georges so you could maybe consider those places (look at the flow diagram on the st georges prospectus). Good luck next year!

[Moony]

Yes, I was just about to say that you applied to 3 BMAT unis, so that might have been one of the problems. What did you get in your BMAT? As pelicans14 saids, if you feel confident that you can get 19+ reapply to UCL, but if you found you struggled a lot with the BMAT and not feeling very confident, perhaps it might be safer to apply to UKCAT unis (or Bristol/Birmingham who do not yet have an entrance exam).

[halcyondream]

its not rocket science, macca.
a lot of the peeple in the group we are discussing are cultured to pick prestigious careers thru skool choice, who ave an image to maintain.
'ence the disapoointed tones of posh skoolers who return to posh skool from st georgies - despite sgul on measure being a better choice than ucl, kings or imperial, they get panned by their teacher for only getting into sgul!
Thats one example - its up to you to extrapolate this to family, background, social peers and throw in racial background for some.

Their rep is big for a reason, and one of those reasons iz becos their unis want to mek up for a shortfall of domestic applicants, by attracting the largest number of applicants of internationals of any of UK universities.

The rep doesnt attract the stronger candidates - it simply attracts those candidates who are led to believe that those requirements are provided by the strongest candidates.

I know my school doesn't pressure us into any kind of career (some lady from Connexxions comes in though, do you think she's part of the plot?). I'm not sure whether I've misunderstood you though. Are you suggesting schools (selfishly) encourage their pupils to aspire to prestigious careers, no matter what the students what themselves? I must admit, the school does publish a list of which courses at which universities the Year 13s are off to in a little Prizegiving booklet.

Hmm, what makes SGUL a better choice than UCL/Kings/Imperial? Apart from expenses?

As for reputations... wouldn't any university, and not just Imperial/UCL, want to make it as big as possible to attract more applicants (international or not)? And what I meant was, clever applicants with a gamut of work experience, lots of A*s at GCSE and predicted As for A-Level and the capacity to excel in tests such as the BMAT due to their infallible logic and knowledge will feel more comfortable applying to UCL/Imperial than others who can't boast as much.

What's a macca?

Maybe I lost my rocket.

[Gizmo says -]

I know my school doesn't pressure us into any kind of career (some lady from Connexxions comes in though, do you think she's part of the plot?). I'm not sure whether I've misunderstood you though. Are you suggesting schools (selfishly) encourage their pupils to aspire to prestigious careers, no matter what the students what themselves? I must admit, the school does publish a list of which courses at which universities the Year 13s are off to in a little Prizegiving booklet.
Hmm, what makes SGUL a better choice than UCL/Kings/Imperial? Apart from expenses?
As for reputations... wouldn't any university, and not just Imperial/UCL, want to make it as big as possible to attract more applicants (international or not)? And what I meant was, clever applicants with a gamut of work experience, lots of A*s at GCSE and predicted As for A-Level and the capacity to excel in tests such as the BMAT due to their infallible logic and knowledge will feel more comfortable applying to UCL/Imperial than others who can't boast as much.
What's a macca?
Maybe I lost my rocket.

no no no macca please do not say that, u sound like a most intelligent person.
sum of these fings only occur to you when you ave been chewing nuts wurking in med skoolz for a few years, macca.
any uni wuld want to attract more applicants - aye. the question is which market groups of stoodents will it try to attract the most? the ones most profitable for it, to maximise their profit. internationals, most of the time, fall into this category. easy to sucker on the 'rep uni' fing, and least knowledgeable about the pitfalls of london study. THey're more impressed wif london altogether, in fact - sumfing u can pick up from scanning posts on these forums.
#but i wuz only pullin you up on the grades assumption, not on your revised statement, aye. Only those stoodents who mistakenly believe that higher gcse grades (beyond stated requirements) means a better chance of gettin in will ave the potential for the fear u describe.
A sensible applicant who rings up admissions and confirms that minimum graes are just that and nuffing else, will not ave any fear becos of the knowledge they possess. truth is priceless compared to a string of 20 A*s. MOst med skools do not operate a ranking system wif gcses.

macca is a friendly person who will mek you a cup of tea when you are feeling doon -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macca

(amongst other fings too, i notice)

[halcyondream]

Thank you for the compliments. Are you a macca, too?

Anyway, you do make sense concerning the international reputations. How many years did you chew for to understand that?

*sigh* If only everybody could rest as easy as you with minimum grades statements. There is an all-too-common fear of the 'two equally good applicants' scenario, where GCSEs may be the only differentiating factor. It's part of the reason why I took four A-Levels, when theoretically I only needed three.

Will you get back to me later about SGUL > UCL/Imperial/Kings?

[Hardrada]

Which Med Schools are actually concerned about GCSEs then ?

Oxbridge, Birmingham...?