Studying medicine as an international student

[Guest Sunshine123]

Hi! I would like to study medicine overseas in the UK as an international student (I don't have a British passport) - I should definitely be able to meet the minimal requirements for the courses and I have great work experience too, but then I also know that it is extremely competitive for international students since each school only offers minimal places.

Do you guys know what is the typical offers/entry grades for international students hoping to get into UK medical schools?

[Sandwich]

Should be the same as for the UK/EU students

It's actually not so bad as an international applicant - you'll pay a lot more ££££ to the medical school than any of the european or home students so secretly they love you guys It's very competitive for all places.

I think the main things are your work experience (which you say you have), a good personal statement (which you should hopefully be able to produce!) and also things like the extra exams - BMAT, UKCAT. High scores in those will actually guarantee you an interview in certain places. As for the grades, just aim as high as possible, rather than for the minimum. I think average offers for entry into Medicine with the IB are around 36-38 with 6, 6, 5 at HL both 6s in Biology and Chemistry (but they'll also say stuff like you need 18 points overall in your HLs so you'd have to get at least 7, 6, 5), but everybody I know who's got in achieved up in the 40s. It makes sense when you think about it! Get your predicted grades as high as you can and then after that, provided you get over 38 or whatever, it's fine. You just want to impress academically enough to get that interview and get that offer. Really the hardest bit is getting the interview. You CAN always screw up interviews, of course, but the people who get no interviews at all because they didn't gear their personal statement/grades/exams properly probably have the most depressing time of it.

Also one other thing I'd say about international students is that you need to make sure your spoken english is tip-top and if you can squeeze something into your personal statement which makes it 100% that you are good at speaking english, it may help. A lot of international students have clearly passed exams in written english but their speaking isn't as good - at the end of the day Medicine is a very very communication heavy course and at least half of your finals will be based, essentially, on communication (google: OSCE) and people can sometimes struggle a little bit. You may be a native english speaker, I have no idea, but if you are then just mentioning it in your PS may be useful. At the end of the day, you are represented by a piece of paper and they have no idea what you're like, so you've got to slip in all sorts of things. Even a native english applicant has to show that they're good at communicating with other people (e.g. I play in X team, I teach X to small kids)!