This process will differ person to person. My sixth form was roughly 60 students large and I’m pretty sure everyone approached the university selection process differently. Some people wanted to live on the other side of the UK to their home, some people wanted to stay local. Some people wanted campus universities whereas some people wanted city universities.
I’m not going to write a great amount on this section, because you may choose another path. But think of all the factors that will affect your living and wellbeing in each university. Luckily, you’ve done Step 1 and chosen your course, which I’m hoping is still Medicine and I haven’t put you off!
Now, you need to choose your medical school. The deadline for UCAS will be in October-ish, so take advantage of the summer of Year 12 to visit open days while they’re advertising themselves to prospective medical students.
Take into consideration these factors:
- Cost of living (is it an expensive area?)
- What’s the medical course like? Spiral curriculum – the university will integrate theory teaching alongside shadowing doctors. Old style of teaching – the university will start with non-clinical years, which is just theory. Then, the university willl end with clinical years, where you will be in the hospital.
- Do you like the city the university is situated within?
- Could you see yourself living here?
- Distance from home?
- Entry requirements? Are they realistic and achievable for you?
- Other entry requirements that aren’t grades? Do they have a certain amount of volunteering hours you need?
- What are the reviews on the university? Are they high in the league table? Are they scoring highly in student pass rate and satisfaction score?
- Is it a Russell Group University?
- Do you enjoy the style of teaching? Like case based learning or problem based learning? I definitely recommend you researching the difference between the two.
- What societies are available? Eg. do they have a pottery club as you’re interested in picking up claywork that you’ve missed since Art GCSE?
There are many other variables that will determine your chosen universities.
Your FIRM choice will be your #1 choice that you really want to go to. Your INSURANCE choice will be #2 choice. The smart thing to do is be aspiration and aim for the #1 choice as long as it is achievable. If you’re predicted ABB, apply for a medical school with lower grade entry requirements as opposed to a Russell Group university demanding A*A*A. Your INSURANCE choice should back this up. I would recommend your FIRM choice being the university that demands, at maximum, your predicted grades.
If I was predicted ABB, my FIRM would be possibly ABB maximum and my INSURANCE would be BBB. But, you want to manipulate this decision by how much you love the university. If you love Southampton that much but hate the A*AA entry requirement, use it as a fuel motivation to push you to get a place, you might be guessing too harsh so aim higher! With caution though, keep realistic. It’s hard to go from ABB to A*AA if your teachers aren’t predicting it already.
EXHIBITIONS
Make sure you make use of the summer and go to as many university open days as possible. Go and explore the accomodation, ask loads of questions and take a notepad. If you’re not impressed, don’t apply! If you are really impressed, then aim high and go for it! You have a choice in line for Year 13 when you apply to university.
At UCAS Exhibit Days, I’m pretty sure it was our head of sixth form that advised, don’t get attracted by free pens. Don’t hand your email address willy nilly to get a free iPad … I’m still getting emails now from one uni to study Economics because I wanted to win the trip to New York. (I didn’t by the way!)
The main underline thing is to answer questions. Be that annoying student with their hand constantly up. You want your parents to turn around and go “Where is he?” and they spot you speaking to another tour guide student. Any question you may have, any doubt or query, ask! I took advantage of this and I felt so prepared knowing all my questions had been answered.
You should visit your university’s website to find details about open days throughout the summer of Year 12 and September-December of Year 13. You can also visit more than once! If you are limited on time and transport, only visit the universities you’re really debating on applying to. I would recommend you visit open days to at least 5 universities during your Year 12 summer.
UNIVERSITY RESIDENTIAL COURSES
Some university courses offer residential courses that can be completed by Year 12 and Year 13 students to explore a subject they may be passionate about studying at university. These are perfect for two reasons: you can find out if the course you’re interested in is really what you want to do and you can get a taste of the university you’re at.
I attended a Biomedical Sciences residential course at the university I'm currently studying at. With this, I was exploring different aspects of Biomedical Science across 9 weeks. The course days ran across 9 Wednesday evenings, which meant I had to catch a train at lunch time and come back to my hometown at 6ish. It wasn’t detrimental massively to my studies, but I defintely needed to spend my free time catching up with work I had missed. In the course, I learnt about what the uni had on offer and in each lesson was a different aspect, so I would do anatomy, then dentistry, then medicine, then cell physiology etc. This did actually help with my EPQ!
As well as this, you can sometimes get advantages for taking part in the university residential courses. Some universities offer special bursaries, possibly a reduced conditional offer or a guaranteed place or interview. For medicine, I was guaranteed an interview at my university for being part of their residential course. If I wasn’t applying for medicine, but say Biomedical Sciences, I would have a guaranteed offer.
Visit your chosen universities’ websites to see what they have on offer! Some universities offer courses in Autumn and Spring of Year 12 and Autumn of Year 13.
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