What does ‘strategically’ even mean? It means knowing your strengths and weaknesses and applying to medical schools that maximise your chances of getting in. From here I narrowed down my long-list to the 4 medical schools that I had the greatest chance of getting in to.
Before you read any further, check out this fantastic table by Scrubbed Up that describes pretty much every factor for every UK university that you should take into account when deciding. It’s all you could ever wish for in a resource about choosing a medical school.
Grades & Results
First of all, let’s start with the most objective aspects of your application. You can find lots of useful information online such as UCAT percentile scores for your cohort that will help you to honestly assess whether this is a strength or weakness of your application. That being said, this is still an imperfect measure and will rely on some intuition on your part- for example, if you sit the November BMAT and don’t know your score you can use your scores from mocks.
- Grades (GCSEs, AS levels)
- Top tip: look for data on the GCSE grades of successful applicants to your chosen schools. Check out this table on The Medic Portal.
- Admission tests (UCAT, BMAT)
- Competition ratios
- Some medical schools are more competitive than others. Follow this link to find the competition ratios.
Personal statements
Now let’s think about the more subjective aspects- your personal statement. What medical schools look for can vary a lot- the same personal statement could be scored highly at one and result in rejection from another. The key is to do as much research as you can into what your top choices are looking for and then tailor your application to that. For example, I applied to Leeds who value non-academic experience highly so I balanced this with the need to include sufficient academic and scientific content to appeal to Cambridge. In the end, this may require some degree of trade-off. Here is post that outlines how each university uses your personal statement by The Medic Portal.
My method of dealing with the uncertainty was to apply to medical schools that valued personal statements less, as this was the area of my application I felt least confident about. For example, Birmingham university doesn’t score the personal statement but heavily weights GCSEs and UCAT performance.
Finally, consider the style of interview used. Most medical schools use MMIs (multiple mini interviews), but others use panel interviews or traditional Oxbridge interviews. It’s difficult to predict how you might perform but it’s a good time to start looking into the different styles and think about which might best suit you!
What do I do now?
Remember that there’s no specific formula that will guarantee you a place- this is just the strategy that worked for me! You can also change your choices until you submit your UCAS application so it’s a good idea to continually update your shortlist as you move through the application process and gain a better idea of your strengths and how to maximise them.
Ideally you would visit the universities on open days and ask the admissions staff and students questions, however due to the current pandemic this is not possible. Instead, check out this list of virtual medical school open days by The Medic Portal, and this incredible ‘virtual open day’ series by Life Of A Medic where a medical student at each uni has written a blog post about their experiences including an overview of teaching, a typical timetable, pros, cons, top tips for applying, and a Q&A.
Good luck! It can be a daunting process but it’s exciting to be taking your first steps towards a fantastic career.
Resources:
- This University comparison tool by Medic Mind
- This ranking of UK medical schools
- Our Instagram where we keep you up to date with the many livestream Q&As run by other medical students about their universities, so you can get a taster of what it’s like to study there
The Medic Collective 