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Questions about studying Medicine in the UK?


Sandwich

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  • 2 months later...

The age requirements on some of the university websites caught my attention eg. Imperial, King's will only accept 18+ on first day of course in October, which limits younger people's chances of applying to the very best universities, who are just a few months younger and possible more mature than half of the students who are above the minimum required age.

Do you know any background behind this?

Any stretching the requirement?

Or any other unis with this strict rule

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lol, because after britain's youngst doctor graduated at the age of 22, all universities set up a minimum age rquirement.

They did before as well but not all. She studied medicine when she was 16 at st georges uni in london, check it out:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1034371/Britains-youngest-doctor-start-job-aged-22-studying-medicine-years.html

:D

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Then how come the number one university for medicine ( Oxford) doesn't care about your age as long as you show MATURITY as it clearly said on the website!!

Sorry Mr I know everything about medical schools. You clearly aren't showing any if you can't be bothered to email the university and find out straight from them are you?

Plus nearly every medical school is great they just teach in different ways. When it comes to medicine please get rid of the 'oxbridge is the best ever!!' because the competition for medical schools is extremely high.

Furthermore, what's the point of getting angry at someone who's trying to help you?

Edited by Award Winning Boss
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I am not personally aware of the exact details re: what the exact legal obstacles are, but bearing in mind that you will be working with children and vulnerable adults (Safeguarding Children - bearing in mind that up to the age of 18 you yourself are considered a 'vulnerable adult/child') and handling human tissues (Human Tissues Act). Both of these are strictly regulated, and I suspect that it is one (or both) of these two, or indeed a similar type of issue which prevents them accepting under-18s. Alongside the simple fact that you do have to display emotional and intellectual maturity to enter the course. Some under-18s will be mature enough but many will not - indeed some 18 year olds are told to take gap years to get a bit more life experience under their belts before being allowed to undertake the course. This isn't just for Medicine either - if you're immature, you're not going to be able to handle it and conduct yourself properly! However maturity (whilst essential) is not the reason for the age barrier.

Before the age of 18 you are considered a child and the University has to be extra-responsible for you as they have to act as your 'carer' to replace your parents in many ways up until your birthday when you are legally considered an adult. Anybody applying to University before they're 18 has to jump through extra hoops - Medicine is one of the few courses where you legally cannot complete aspects of the course before you're an adult.

If Oxford really will allow under-aged students to enter the course, then they must have altered their course to have no clinical or anatomical (in the sense of dissection) elements for at least the first year, or allow you to somehow exempt yourself from certain aspects and complete them later.

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

The medical school of Edinburgh University accepts deferred entry applications from UK students who would like to take a gap year, provided that it is for some educational activity. This does not apply to overseas applicants, though.

But then in Scotland up till 1929 a girl could legally marry at age 12, and a boy at 14. Today the minimum age is 16, but (unlike England) parental consent is not required at that age.

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The medical school of Edinburgh University accepts deferred entry applications from UK students who would like to take a gap year, provided that it is for some educational activity. This does not apply to overseas applicants, though.

But then in Scotland up till 1929 a girl could legally marry at age 12, and a boy at 14. Today the minimum age is 16, but (unlike England) parental consent is not required at that age.

Almost all medical schools that I know of (in England at least) accept deferred entry. However, they are going to interview you. Often they request that individuals defer even if they're old enough on the basis that they do not seem sufficiently mature in their interview. It would therefore be significantly more advantageous to wait a year instead of deferring. This will have the same effect in terms of when you go to University but you will be:

A) more mature in the interview

B) able to talk about and make a big deal out of what you did in your gap year

C) best of all already have your grades to apply with, which is infinitely preferred as they're not having to take a risk on you for potentially not meeting your predictions.

So overall I would advise anybody to take a gap year and then apply rather than apply a year early and have to defer, given the advantages the extra year will bring - and that the outcome will be the same! Alternatively you could use it to apply twice - once before and see if you can get in on deferred entry and once the next year in case you don't get in the first year.

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  • 1 year later...

I'm applying for medicine in the UK, and I take HL chem and SL bio. Although all the universities I'm applying to do not require HL bio and are okay with SL bio, do you think that they would favour HL bio over SL bio?

Personally I think it would be beneficial to you if you've done HL rather than SL Biology. However, if the Universities haven't specified that they want HL and not SL Biology then I doubt it'll matter too much to them if you're doing SL. I mean, I do know people who got in having not done Biology at all, although admittedly this was for A Level :P As said in the above thread, Biology is a subject which is required to different degrees as a relatively recent thing and it remains largely optional.

Having said that, big parts of the HL Biology syllabus may be useful when you get to Medical school. Respiration, the reproduction topics, further human physiology etc. are interesting and handy because you'll need to know all of that stuff. Having a basic idea of how it all works will help, and most of your peers will have taken Biology. So you just save yourself work later. Then again if your exams are in May 2014 it's too late to switch to HL really or you'll sink yourself with work now, so I'd chill out and just stick with what you've got. You can catch up on all that stuff later. The thing is, at school they'll coach you through respiration and dedicate hours of explanation to it, whereas at medical school it'll form a brief glimpse of a diagram on a slide for about 5 minutes and you'll be expected to understand it yourself, so that's why it's worth making the most of stuff you get to do very thoroughly and slowly at school. In my opinion!

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  • 2 months later...

Hi. I have a question about work experience and medical voluntary service. Does anyone know any websites/organisations/whatever where I can apply and get work experience? Because I do not live permanently in England (I'm in a boarding school) and there is no way that they will let me work in a hospital or medical related institution in Poland... that's why I am searching for any way I could work and get place to live at the same time? Please, if you know something, let me know. I'm turning 18 next year, so age is not a problem.

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  • 2 years later...

Hi!

I am considering to apply for medicine in the UK, and I found this post very helpful! However, I have one question about the "problem based learning". Does anyone know any universities with LOW PBL?? (except Oxford, Cambridge, UCL and Imperial i.e. those mentioned by Sandwich)  I am the person who likes to know the facts before getting into "deep water", therefore I want to apply to universities with low PBL. Thank you! 

Cheers, Balázs

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  • 1 year later...

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