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Medicine Application - No offers?

2018-02-17 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali, Marcus, Chidera, a guest · recording, 18:49 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Medicine and his doctor years · mode: List of tips or lessons · tags: Aimed at students

Ali, who got into medicine first time, passes on five tips from friends who reapplied (decide whether you really want medicine, find the weak points of your application, apply tactically, use the gap year, do not blame yourself), then medical-student friends add their own advice on resits, feedback, gap years and persistence.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — What to do with no offers for medicine; Ali got in first time and relays friends' tips

  • ★★ Ali, a final-year Cambridge medical student, says he got into medicine first time and so has no personal experience of being rejected for it; he relays tips from friends who got in on later attempts. — 00:00:00 · University of Cambridge
  • ★ Ali says one of his friends got into medicine on, he thinks, the fifth attempt. (hedged) — 00:00:29
  • ★★ Ali says he has a lot of experience of rejection in general and will make a video about dealing with it, probably in a few weeks. — 00:00:29

00:00:58 — Five tips: missed offers, whether you really want medicine, improving the application, applying tactically, getting excited, not being too hard on yourself

  • ★★★ Ali says applicants who got a medicine offer but missed its grades should apply again if still interested and work very hard on the grades, since the offer means the rest of the application was already good. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ Ali passes on his friends' first tip for applicants with no medicine offers: use the rejections to ask whether medicine is really the career you want, and apply again only if it is. — 00:02:04
  • ★★★ Ali advises reapplicants to medicine to go through every part of their application with friends who got in and students in the years above, and ask where the weak points were: personal statement, work experience or interviews. — 00:02:33 · Personal statement, Work experience
  • ★★ Ali says an applicant who got medicine interviews but no offer had a strong enough application and should work on interview performance. — 00:03:32 · Medicine interview
  • ★★ Ali says doctors he has spoken to say the job goes to whoever performs or prepares best at interview, not the best person, so the interview is the most important part of an application. — 00:03:32 · Medicine interview
  • ★★ Ali says improving medicine interview performance mostly comes from practising with friends, family, teachers and anyone else available. — 00:04:01 · Medicine interview
  • ★★★ Ali advises reapplicants to research medical schools in advance and apply tactically: some accept retakes or gap years and some do not, and friends with an average UKCAT score had applied where scores in the 700s were needed. — 00:04:01 · UKCAT
  • ★★ Ali says most reapplicants he knows want to go to medical school rather than a particular one, since medicine is much the same wherever you study it in the UK. — 00:04:30
  • ★★★ Ali's fourth tip is to get excited about the gap year: everyone he spoke to who did not get into medicine first time was, in hindsight, glad of it. — 00:04:30
  • ★★ Ali passes on gap-year ideas from friends: travel, a job, work as a healthcare assistant, volunteering in a hospital or for a charity, experiences that enrich you more than a year of university. — 00:05:18
  • ★★★ Ali's last tip, from a friend who got four rejections despite a solid application, is not to be too hard on yourself after rejection from medicine. — 00:05:47
  • ★★ Ali says his friend came to see that the rejection may not have been her fault: medicine is very competitive, with many applicants and relatively few places. — 00:06:17
  • ★★★ Ali says that after a rejection the way to improve is to think your performance in that domain was not good enough, not that you are not good enough: after a failed interview, he works on his interview performance. — 00:06:57

00:07:58 — Gap years are good experiences

  • ★★ a guest: A medical student says every friend in their year who took one or two gap years before medicine is glad of it, and none wishes they had got in first time. — 00:08:30
  • ★★ a guest: The same student says missing a medicine offer may feel like the end of the world, but a gap year used well is something you will be glad of in the long run. — 00:08:30

00:08:58 — Gauge your disappointment

  • ★★ a guest: A student advises judging how disappointed you are: if you were really upset and still have a passion for medicine, go for it again, since retaking and reapplying shows universities determination. — 00:09:01
  • ★★ a guest: The same student says that if medicine no longer appeals, do something else, such as a three-year science degree, and decide afterwards on undergraduate or graduate medicine. — 00:09:30

00:09:59 — No fifth choice: trying again until getting in

  • ★★ a guest: The same student says they applied to no fifth choice besides medicine, because there was nothing else they wanted to do and they would have tried again until they got in. — 00:09:59
  • ★ a guest: The same student says taking a fifth non-medicine option is fine for applicants who may want to do something else. — 00:09:59

00:10:29 — Four attempts, a year as a healthcare assistant, and graduate entry

  • ★★★ a guest: A student says they did not get into medicine from sixth form or in the final year of their degree, then spent a year as a healthcare assistant, which they count among the best things that ever happened to them. — 00:10:29 · University of Leicester
  • ★★ a guest: The same student says they learned how to learn at Leicester and won a graduate-entry medicine place on, they think, their fourth attempt. (hedged) — 00:10:52 · University of Leicester
  • ★★ a guest: The same student says there is nothing wrong with not getting into medicine straight away and is grateful for it, having gained more life experience. — 00:10:52

00:11:18 — Bounce back: resits, feedback, entrance exams, determination

  • ★★ a guest: A student advises applicants who miss their medicine grades to do resits, or to go to university, prove they can succeed there and apply with that grade. — 00:11:18
  • ★★ a guest: The same student advises asking for feedback after an unsuccessful medicine interview, since some places give it, so you know what to fix. — 00:11:18 · Medicine interview
  • ★★ a guest: The same student advises an applicant with a poor UKCAT score from early September to apply to universities that do not use the UKCAT. — 00:11:50 · UKCAT
  • ★★ a guest: A student believes that anyone destined to do medicine will get in eventually, if not the first or second time. — 00:11:50
  • ★★ a guest: The same student says motivation, determination and hard work define medics rather than intelligence or exam counts, since medical content is not difficult, only plentiful. — 00:11:50

00:12:39 — Learn from feedback and make the most of time off

  • ★★ a guest: The same student advises rejected applicants to write to universities asking why an interview went badly or why they were not interviewed, and to work on that feedback. — 00:12:39 · Medicine interview
  • ★★ a guest: The same student advises making the most of a year off before reapplying to medicine: volunteer, spend time in hospitals and work on science and retakes. — 00:12:39

00:13:10 — Be realistic about grades and what you really want

  • ★★ Marcus advises applicants who did not get into medicine first time not to beat themselves up and, if it is what they really want, to keep going, do work experience and reflect on what they could have done differently. — 00:13:10 · Marcus, Work experience
  • ★★ Marcus says applicants must be realistic about grades: medicine is quite academic, so a weaker student might do something similar to medicine instead. — 00:13:37 · Marcus

00:14:03 — Reflect, then work hard; many routes into medicine

  • ★★ a guest: A student says not getting into medicine may be a big knock to confidence and the first of many big failures in life, so it matters to deal with it productively and constructively. — 00:14:03
  • ★★ a guest: The same student says rejected medicine applicants may wallow in self-pity for a little while, then should get up and reflect realistically. — 00:14:41
  • ★★ a guest: The same student says medicine's grade requirements are very high, but what makes a great doctor is working hard, empathy and talking with and understanding patients. — 00:14:41
  • ★★ a guest: The same student says there are many routes into medicine: an applicant who misses the grades for undergraduate medicine can do graduate medicine. — 00:15:25
  • ★★ a guest: A student says medicine is a very long career with many hurdles even without setbacks, so a year lost to a rejection is negligible. — 00:15:25

00:15:38 — A year or two is nothing in a long career

  • ★★ a guest: The same student advises rejected applicants to ask for feedback and send their personal statement around, and not to be put off: medicine is a lifelong commitment, so wanting it in 2017 means still wanting it in 2018. — 00:16:06 · Personal statement
  • ★★ a guest: The same student says a couple of friends now studying medicine at Cambridge had been rejected by all four medical schools they applied to, sometimes including Oxbridge. — 00:16:35 · University of Cambridge
  • ★★ a guest: A student advises applicants who really want medicine to think about retaking A levels. — 00:16:35

00:16:55 — Retakes, pitching applications, using the gap year, taking the long view

  • ★★ a guest: The same student says some applicants are rejected for applying to schools that demand higher grades than they got, and should pitch their next applications to the grades they now have. — 00:17:03
  • ★★ a guest: The same student advises using a gap year to explore medicine as a career: charity work, part-time or full-time work as a healthcare assistant, or work as a phlebotomist. — 00:17:32
  • ★★ a guest: The same student advises taking the long view of a medical career, a long path all the way to consultant, and thinking before starting whether you really want it. — 00:17:32

00:18:00 — Closing: look to the future

  • ★★ Ali closes that dealing with rejection from medicine is never straightforward and is about looking to the future rather than dwelling on the past. — 00:18:30

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Marcus · Medicine interview · Personal statement · UKCAT · University of Cambridge · University of Leicester · Work experience

Taking part: Chidera

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