Applied for GEM? - Application Progress Thread

[zhangyuzhi]

im an international applicant from Uni California Los Angeles. Applying to Ox, Imperial, Kings, St. Mary's (delayed entry)

hi there! we are applying to the exact subset of medical schools!!!

[zhangyuzhi]

Hi everyone,

I am an international student. I was wondering how many places are available on the GEM for international students?

I made my application with these stats..
I am getting a 1st from Cambridge in Natural Sciences, topped my cohort in my first and second years, received quite a number of prizes and scholarships. Spent 2 summers on various research scholarships. UKCAT of 780, for the 3 referees they come from 2 world renowned medical professors and the last from the director of cancer research uk charity for my 1 and a half years of volunteering with them.

I know my application stands a very good chance but like always as an international student doubt my chances much.

hi Charles! great to see another applicant with a lot of research records!! I worked with CRUK too, but not their Cambridge site. I was in a joint lab with someone in LRI (I bet you know it) working on prostate cancer metastases. and apparently my referees' background is similar to yours- one my personal tutor (didn't they want someone commneting on our academic performance and grades?), one I worked with on Chlamydia biology (lol...), one from CRUK (which I worked with for 11 months; how did you managed to work for 1.5 years?!?! impressive really..), and my UCAS referee (a principal scientist in GSK Biopharm, my supervisor during my industrial year). A bit too academic isn't it? (I did not have substantial clinical experience although worked with UNICEF for some while) With my not-as-impressive UKCAT score I think I should worry more than you do...

are you from Asia? I am from Hong Kong, but doing my degree in this country!!

good luck with applications! I think you at least have no problem getting an interview, and things after depends a little bit on luck

[zhangyuzhi]

Also, on a positive note for you internationals, at my Oxford GEM open day someone asked how many spots they have for international students and the man said "as many as we want". i know there's government set quotas on foreign medics but i don't think they do it in the way e.g. we have 2 international spots, who gets them.

if they don't specify the exact number of places, I assume they are doing the darkbox game. Imperial is operating 20% limit for internationals so I suppose the 8% quota does not apply to GEPs with stringency... good thing.

[zhangyuzhi]

Why do so many international applicants apply for Oxbridge?

coz the Oxbridge forums are densely populated.

[McGiller]

no they don't, neither do Cambridge for internationals (their MB PhD is for locals). It works by putting PhD and a medical degree together, justifying the reason why I want to do it this way. If they are happy they will say yes.

Coz I want to do my PhD somewhere else (probably in an institute) so I need the medical school to be positive about students leaving their studies for 3,4,5 years. There aren't a lot of them really.

I got a positive response from the GEP admission tutor, will confirm again if I receive an interview. Then I will get finger crossed to for things to work.

Who at Oxford did you speak with about the integrated PhD? You mentioned an admissions tutor? So to do a PhD, you would leave the med program after 2 years, do the PhD, and then return to finish degree?

[zhangyuzhi]

Who at Oxford did you speak with about the integrated PhD? You mentioned an admissions tutor? So to do a PhD, you would leave the med program after 2 years, do the PhD, and then return to finish degree?

Dr P.D.Dennis, he is listed on the contact section in the prospectus.

nope, the plan is I am to receive offers from both a medical school and a lab, and then start to negotiate with both parties to see whether they are happy. For the medical degree bit, this will probably be after M1 (Imperial website says M2 but the admission person told me M1, so this is subject to further enquiries). In general this will take place after the preclinical training, i.e. like the MSTP thing in US.

from my feeling this might not work at the end so I just have to make a choice. afterall I should be glad abt myself if I receive an offer from either side. It is bloody competitive for internationals to be offered a PhD position here too. not much better than the situation in US.

[McGiller]

Dr P.D.Dennis, he is listed on the contact section in the prospectus.

nope, the plan is I am to receive offers from both a medical school and a lab, and then start to negotiate with both parties to see whether they are happy. For the medical degree bit, this will probably be after M1 (Imperial website says M2 but the admission person told me M1, so this is subject to further enquiries). In general this will take place after the preclinical training, i.e. like the MSTP thing in US.

from my feeling this might not work at the end so I just have to make a choice. afterall I should be glad abt myself if I receive an offer from either side. It is bloody competitive for internationals to be offered a PhD position here too. not much better than the situation in US.

No, I think the PhD position is rather easy to get. I have an offer from a Cambridge supervisor. I will do the PhD if I don't get into med at Oxford or ICL...

[zhangyuzhi]

No, I think the PhD position is rather easy to get. I have an offer from a Cambridge supervisor. I will do the PhD if I don't get into med at Oxford or ICL...

w/ or w/o $$? international fee means 24k GBP+ college fee (another 3-4k), and I personally do not know any people from my course getting full funding although they are typically brilliant in research and degree study.

One of the institutes (which pays full fees for me) I am applying received 700+ applications for <20 places, and I know someone getting straight rejection with a first author on Mol. Cell...

life's tough isn't it. congra on the PhD offer btw.

[McGiller]

w/ or w/o $$? international fee means 24k GBP+ college fee (another 3-4k), and I personally do not know any people from my course getting full funding although they are typically brilliant in research and degree study.

One of the institutes (which pays full fees for me) I am applying received 700+ applications for <20 places, and I know someone getting straight rejection with a first author on Mol. Cell...

life's tough isn't it. congra on the PhD offer btw.

Which institute are you speaking of? Well the thing is, I have a MSc and a first author paper in a reputable journal, and the new supervisor works in the same field as my current boss. In fact, I think they know each other too...It all helps...

[zhangyuzhi]

Which institute are you speaking of? Well the thing is, I have a MSc and a first author paper in a reputable journal, and the new supervisor works in the same field as my current boss. In fact, I think they know each other too...It all helps...

that's great!

London Research Institute, part of Cancer Research UK. I am interested in 2 labs really, struggling with applications.