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Graduate Entry Medicine - A comprehensive guide + Q&A

2018-09-24 · Podcast or interview · Ali, Samah · recording, 33:37 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Medicine and his doctor years · mode: Conversation and interview · tags: Aimed at students

In a Medical Mondays episode, Cambridge graduate-entry medic Samah takes Ali through the graduate medicine application: be predicted a first, research courses and funding, pick entrance exams and universities as a numbers game, sell research and university life in the personal statement, and go into interviews feeling you have already got this.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Ali introduces his conversation with Samah on graduate-entry medicine

  • ★★★ In a Medical Mondays episode, Ali interviews his friend Samah, a third-year graduate-entry medic at Cambridge, about the whole graduate medicine application, and they answer viewers' questions. — 00:00:00 · University of Cambridge

00:00:55 — What makes a good graduate medicine application: grades, research, work experience, extracurriculars

  • ★★ Samah says many graduate-entry applicants decide on medicine before their first degree and use it both to get the grades and to build up their portfolio. — 00:01:25
  • ★★ Samah says research is the main thing graduate medicine applicants have over school-leaver applicants, who have little chance to do proper research at school. — 00:01:54
  • ★★ Samah says research is not required for graduate medicine: Cambridge accepted applicants with any degree when she applied, while other universities are prescriptive and ask for a list of modules taken. — 00:02:16 · University of Cambridge
  • ★★ Samah says graduate-entry applicants must research much more than school leavers: funding, which degrees each school takes and course length, since some graduate courses take five years, not four, which affects funding. — 00:02:54
  • ★★ Samah says many graduate medicine courses require A-level chemistry, some taken within about the last seven years, otherwise applicants must redo it. (hedged) — 00:03:45
  • ★★★ Samah advises graduate-entry applicants to be predicted a first, since that wins interviews; once they have a place, the offer usually only requires a 2:1. — 00:04:58
  • ★★ Samah says applicants per place for graduate medicine are almost double those for undergraduate medicine, because there are so few graduate places in the country. — 00:04:58
  • ★★ Samah says work experience for graduate medicine is as for undergraduate entry: have a range, both GP and hospital. — 00:05:36 · Work experience
  • ★★ Samah says many graduates who have been working take healthcare assistant roles for a whole year, which gives them a lot of experience and looks good on an application. — 00:06:20 · Work experience
  • ★★ Samah says that, as in undergraduate applications, having contributed well to university life gives graduate applicants an edge over school leavers. — 00:06:20

00:07:24 — Deciding where to apply, entrance exams and the personal statement

  • ★★ Samah says choosing where to apply for graduate medicine took her about an afternoon: she made a table on an A4 page, and websites already tabulate the courses. — 00:07:39
  • ★★ Samah confirms that graduate applicants, unlike school leavers, can apply to both Oxford and Cambridge. — 00:08:08 · University of Oxford, University of Cambridge
  • ★★ Samah says that when she applied there were three entrance exams for graduate medicine: the BMAT, the UKCAT and the GAMSAT. (hedged) — 00:08:08 · BMAT, UKCAT
  • ★★★ Samah advises deciding strategically how many entrance exams to prepare for, since final-year applicants juggle a dissertation with applications, which is a lot tougher than A-levels. — 00:08:37
  • ★★ Samah says reapplicants who already sat the UKCAT or the BMAT as school leavers often do well to stick with what they know. — 00:09:06 · BMAT, UKCAT
  • ★★ Samah says the GAMSAT takes much more effort: about a six-hour exam that takes a whole day, with a lot of preparation. (hedged) — 00:09:06
  • ★★ Samah says the GAMSAT is heavy on science, needing a good knowledge of biology and chemistry. (hedged) — 00:09:35
  • ★ Ali says people often message him about his SixMed courses for the BMAT and UKCAT, but he knows nothing about the GAMSAT. — 00:09:35 · 6med, BMAT, UKCAT
  • ★★★ Samah advises that a graduate's medicine personal statement focus on being a graduate, with more experience than the school leavers applying. — 00:10:41 · Personal statement
  • ★★ Samah says extra research stands out in a graduate personal statement: she did three lab internships in her summer and Christmas holidays, experience no 18-year-old would have. (hedged) — 00:11:10 · Personal statement
  • ★★ Samah's second point for a graduate personal statement is university societies, proof of contributing to university life; she was president of a women's fitness society at King's. — 00:11:10 · Personal statement
  • ★ Samah agrees to share her graduate-entry personal statement, to be linked in the video description. — 00:11:10 · Personal statement
  • ★★ Samah says her Cambridge graduate-entry interview was an MMI rather than the college interviews she expected, and more universities are moving to MMIs, which she thinks fairer. — 00:11:56 · University of Cambridge

00:12:05 — Graduate medicine interviews and offers

  • ★★ Samah says the Cambridge MMI had 11 stations, and graduate medicine interviews split evenly between reasons for studying medicine, what experiences taught you, and ethical scenarios. — 00:12:35 · University of Cambridge, Medicine interview
  • ★★ Samah says graduate-entry offers are usually conditional on a 2:1, while someone who graduated long ago and has worked since should get an unconditional offer. — 00:13:05
  • ★★★ Samah says strategy is the important part of a graduate-entry application, something school leavers choosing by the feel of a campus at open days rarely do. — 00:13:05

00:13:26 — Application strategy and funding

  • ★★★ Samah treated her graduate-entry applications as a numbers game, starting from which universities offer the most places, since the numbers vary so much. — 00:13:46
  • ★★ Samah says Warwick has the only UK medicine course that is graduate entry alone, with nearly 100 places, while most medical schools offer 20 to 40 graduate places. (hedged) — 00:13:46
  • ★★ Samah: Working through places, applicants and interview rates, Samah calculated that at Cambridge, once at interview, she had to beat two other people to get a place. — 00:14:50 · University of Cambridge
  • ★★ Samah says fewer people apply to Cambridge graduate medicine than you would think, probably because its prestige scares people off. (hedged) — 00:14:50 · University of Cambridge
  • ★★ Samah says King's College London has about 15 or 16 graduate-entry applicants per place. (hedged) — 00:15:19 · London
  • ★★★ Samah advises serious graduate-entry applicants to play the statistics: they know they want to be doctors, so they should find the surest way in and not leave it to chance. — 00:15:44
  • ★★ Samah: To balance applications with her degree, Samah spread her choices across entrance exams: two UKCAT and two BMAT universities, plus Cambridge, which then required no entrance exam for graduates. (hedged) — 00:16:33 · UKCAT, BMAT, University of Cambridge
  • ★★ Samah says a graduate applying to an undergraduate medicine course is almost certain to get in but gets no funding, as it counts as a second degree; with the money and a fifth year to spare, go for it. — 00:17:03
  • ★★ Ali puts the fees of a graduate taking an undergraduate medicine course at about nine thousand pounds a year. (hedged) — 00:17:44
  • ★★ Samah says most people cannot fork out the 50,000 pounds of an undergraduate medicine degree, and on a graduate course they can be paid to study medicine, in fewer years. — 00:17:44
  • ★★★ Samah says on a four-year graduate medicine course student finance funds the first year and the NHS bursary the second to fourth years, a big financial benefit of graduate entry. — 00:18:13 · NHS
  • ★★ Samah says Cambridge graduate medics also get the Cambridge bursary, which is huge, and other universities have bursaries too, especially for students over 25. (hedged) — 00:18:43 · University of Cambridge
  • ★★ Samah says that when she applied, Imperial lengthened its graduate course from four to five years, and the NHS and student finance then treated it as a second degree without graduate funding. (hedged) — 00:19:04 · Imperial College London, NHS
  • ★★ Ali advises graduate medicine applicants to keep funding in mind so as not to end up with a bill of around 15,000 pounds without realising. — 00:19:04
  • ★★ Samah: Because of the funding of Imperial's five-year graduate course, Samah did not apply there, though it was originally one of her first choices. — 00:19:04 · Imperial College London
  • ★★ Samah reminds graduates with arts, humanities or other non-bioscience degrees to check that a university accepts their degree. — 00:19:48

00:20:15 — Instagram Q&A: intensity, social life, non-science degrees, Cambridge, competition, interviews, standing out

  • ★★ Samah says science graduates may face more competition where universities keep a quota of graduate places for arts or other non-science degrees. (hedged) — 00:20:15
  • ★★ Samah says graduate medics at Cambridge cover first, second and fourth year (as heard) in two years, which is very intense. — 00:20:15 · University of Cambridge
  • ★★ Samah says Cambridge graduate medics get no long holidays: while undergraduates are away, they do three- or four-week placements with about a week off. — 00:21:05 · University of Cambridge
  • ★★ Samah does not think graduate medics suffer socially from being older than their classmates: it depends on personality and how sociable you are. — 00:21:36
  • ★★★ Samah's advice for graduates without a life-sciences degree, such as chemical engineering: check which schools accept the degree, then use it to stand out among thousands of biomedical science applicants. — 00:22:23
  • ★★ Samah says graduates from other fields should capitalise on transferable skills, including summer internships unrelated to medicine, which still teach life skills. — 00:22:52
  • ★★ Samah applied to Cambridge with an open application and no research, to fill the space left after dropping Imperial, under pressure from her tutor. — 00:23:44 · University of Cambridge, Imperial College London
  • ★★ Samah: For the Cambridge graduate-entry work experience form, Samah advises treating it like a CV: besides GP and hospital placements she listed teaching, tutoring and jobs, filling the space. — 00:24:14 · University of Cambridge, Work experience
  • ★★★ Samah advises graduates not to justify their A-level choices in the personal statement, a waste of space: academics speak for themselves, and UCAS already shows their grades. — 00:25:12 · Personal statement
  • ★★ Samah says Cambridge tells new graduate medics that, historically, students from non-science backgrounds do better in medicine. — 00:25:45 · University of Cambridge
  • ★★ Samah says graduate medicine is more competitive than entry from school because there are far fewer places in the country and many more applicants. — 00:26:11
  • ★★ Samah says graduate applicants with master's degrees and PhDs have a bit of a cut above those applying straight from their first degree. — 00:26:32
  • ★★ Samah says places such as Warwick give graduate applicants an extra point for a PhD. (hedged) — 00:26:32
  • ★★ Samah does not remember being asked about GCSEs as a graduate applicant, only about her degree and A-level chemistry. (hedged) — 00:26:32
  • ★★★ Samah: To prepare for graduate-entry interviews, Samah absorbed the GMC's Tomorrow's Doctors and Good Medical Practice, whose concepts are what interviewers look for. — 00:27:22
  • ★★ Samah advises working the concepts of Good Medical Practice into interview answers on work experience, volunteering and extracurriculars, and especially into ethical scenarios. — 00:28:00 · Medical ethics, Work experience
  • ★★ Samah: Cambridge, which interviews early (around November), gave Samah her first interview; unprepared and intimidated, she practised questions with her mum on the two-hour drive from London. — 00:28:30 · University of Cambridge, London
  • ★★★ Samah passes on her mum's advice for interviews: treat it as a game, something fun; if you genuinely want medicine, that genuineness and enthusiasm come across. — 00:28:59
  • ★★★ Samah advises going into interviews feeling you have already got this: it shows in how you speak and act, as if you were meant to be there, and the mindset has helped her in most interviews. — 00:29:36
  • ★★ Ali calls Samah's "I've already got this" interview mindset really profound advice that holds for life in general, not only for interviews. — 00:29:36
  • ★★ Samah says graduate applicants' backgrounds are often already unique: the 23 or so graduate medics in her Cambridge year are all very different. (hedged) — 00:30:21 · University of Cambridge

00:31:25 — Final advice: imposter syndrome and enjoying being a student again

  • ★★ Samah says graduates with only a BSc can easily feel intimidated by applicants with master's degrees and PhDs and get imposter syndrome, especially at Cambridge. — 00:32:00 · University of Cambridge
  • ★★★ Samah tells graduate applicants not to feel imposter syndrome beside better-qualified rivals: they got where they are for a reason, and at interview everyone is on an even keel. — 00:32:30
  • ★★ Samah advises graduate medics to relish being students again and to enjoy the time, a rare opportunity while peers have responsibilities and bills. — 00:32:30
  • ★ Ali says he is a bit jealous and would like to do a third degree just for fun. — 00:32:54

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Samah · University of Cambridge

Also: Projects: Medical Mondays

Works: BMAT · GAMSAT · Good Medical Practice · Tomorrow's Doctors · UKCAT

Organizations: 6med · General Medical Council · Imperial College London · Instagram · King's College London · NHS · UCAS · University College London · University of Oxford · University of Warwick

Concepts: Medical ethics · Multiple mini interview · Personal statement · Work experience

Places: London

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