Applying to Medical School
Hey! My name is Molly and I’m a third-year medic at the University of Sheffield.
I thought I would write this for those of you hoping to apply to study medicine, but don’t know where to start. When applying to medicine, I found it to be a very daunting process. On top of studying I had to try to navigate this application process whilst not knowing where to begin. I was the first in my family to apply for university, let alone medicine. The application process for medicine is complex and contains a lot of different steps but please don’t let it overwhelm you!
It can become very stressful and time-consuming writing personal statements and revising for the UCAT, etc (I’ll explain a bit later if you have no clue what this is!), but you need to remember why you are doing all of this. Picture the end goal and it becomes a lot more enjoyable.
The first step when thinking about university is GCSEs. Make sure you work hard and achieve good grades; medical schools will have certain criteria for GCSEs and all entry requirements can be found on their websites.
Next up is choosing your A-levels. Keep in mind that most medical schools require Chemistry as an A-level subject (a few don’t), so look into the entry requirements for universities that you are interested in when choosing your A-levels. I studied chemistry, biology and maths.
Then you will begin A-levels (ew), and they will be hard and will drain you, and you will question why you ever decided to do A-levels in the first place. I promise the feeling will pass and you’ll realise that it was worth the blood, sweat and tears (hopefully not too many tears).
Whilst smashing out your first year of A-levels, you’ll need to start to think about applying. This is the time to try to get work experience. I didn’t have the opportunity to do much work experience, as there are no healthcare workers in my family and I didn’t have many contacts to ask. I managed to get some experience in a hospital and a GP surgery. The best way to get work experience is to just ask. Ask your friends if they know any doctors, ask your teachers if they have contacts, email GP surgeries in your area (not your own GP surgery though), research work experience programmes in hospitals. Try to secure these for the summer after year 12. It’s not the end of the world if you can’t get work experience; medical schools understand that not everyone will have access to these opportunities. If you are able, it is a great experience and something to be able to reflect on in your personal statement/interviews.
A summary of the process of applying to medical school!
In May/June you will need to book the UCAT, which is an assessment you have to do to apply to med school. You will sit this in August/September. Some medical schools have cut off scores so be mindful of this when applying.
From around September time I started to write my personal statement. You can do this sooner if you would like, however I felt I had enough time to draft it a few times and have it read over by teachers/family. If you would like more information on what to include in your personal statement please drop me a message.
So, deadline time. The deadline for applications is mid-October. You need to apply to 4 medical schools and also a reserve course as your 5th choice. Lots of people choose bio-medical science as there is then a potential route into medicine.
Once you have applied, it is a waiting game! You will hopefully very slowly start to receive offers, a long time after your friends who haven’t applied for medicine. It is a tedious time but eventually they do come through. You’ll be invited to interview, which will usually take place between November and March of year 13. You will then be told whether you have been successful and you will receive your offer. Once you have received all of your offers, you will need to confirm your choices through UCAS. It is then a matter of working extremely hard to achieve the grades you need and waiting patiently until results day!