UK Med School: Pushing it?

International Students
1

<p>I would love to go to a med school in the UK, but there are many questions that I have, not only regarding my chances but about the system in general</p>

<ul>
<li>Is it feasible for an American to get into Oxbridge med programmes whatsoever? Or are they far to selective for me to bother attempting to get in?</li>
<li>What med schools in the UK are particularly known for having good turnouts of international students?</li>
</ul>

<p>Also, is studying medicine in the UK done in four year increments (undergrad, then med school?) Is it possible for me to do an undergrad in the US and then complete it off in the UK? </p>

<p>Any help/advice in general is much appreciated</p>

2

<ul>
<li>It is possible to get in. But you would need to pay full freight… No financial aid.</li>
<li>You must already possess Oxbridge statistics (AP 5/5/5) and ABOVE THAT. You must stand out among the flood of applicants.</li>
<li>UK… Hm, my friend got accepted to Liverpool. I don’t know about in general.

</li>
<li>Two options: 5-year course straight out of High School or 4-year course out of university

</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.britishcouncil.org/global-common-etg-resource-sheet-medicine.pdf[/url]”>http://www.britishcouncil.org/global-common-etg-resource-sheet-medicine.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

3

<p>You’ll need incredible stats (I’d say 2250+ SAT and a few 5s in APs as a guess??) and a lot of focused ECs and voluntary work relating to medicine. But there’s no reason why you shouldn’t do it. Good luck :)</p>

4

<p>Oh, and you’ll have to take the BMAT exam for Oxbridge and the UKCAT ([UKCAT</a> home](<a href=“http://www.ukcat.ac.uk/]UKCAT”>http://www.ukcat.ac.uk/)) for all other universities to study medicine. I don’t know much about them, but I’ve heard that a lot of weight is put on them, especially for you as an international.</p>

5

<p>Is it necessary to take the BMAT if I were to attempt to get into the 5 year, straight out of HS option? Or is this only for those with bachelors continuing with the GEP option?</p>

6

<p>No, the BMAT is taken in your senior year of HS for regular medicine courses as far as I’m aware.</p>

7

<p>

</p>

<p>BMAT is for HS seniors attempting to get into the medicine course in university, so you’ll have to take it. My friends who’ve taken it are like o__o.</p>

8

<p>I looked at both the BMAT and UKCAT but I was a bit confused when I looked at the application process. For ‘international students’ - which having studied in America I would fall under - they only list reqs for SAT/ACT/AP tests. </p>

<p>Does this mean that a BMAT score is used in place of these other tests? As in, I could submit SAT/ACT scores? Or is this a separate requirement in an of itself?</p>

9

<p>I’ll share my experience with you. I’m a high school student, in a US-based system–we take AP tests as part of our curriculum. </p>

<p>To apply to NORMAL courses, like Natural Sciences, you go through UCAS and put in your AP scores, interview, etc.</p>

<p>For medicine, you MUST submit the BMAT. Then you also have to do the ‘normal’ applicationy stuff, like submit AP scores, etc.</p>

<p>In essence, you have to do both the core bare minimum of AP and submit the additional requirement of BMAT.</p>

10

<p>To the OP, Oxford and Cambridge has excellent med schools but this is one area that they don’t have a monopoly in prestige and program quality. Unis such as Imperial, UCL, Edinburgh, Newcastle and Nottingham are quite strong for medicine as well. And Warwick has a brand hospital and it’s regarded as one of the most high-tech and best teaching hospitals in the UK. Warwick also accepts a number of Americans in their medical school as they follow (or just happen to follow) the American system wherein everyone that will apply must have a premed. Of course, your American undergrad will serve as a premed for Warwick. Warwick is a top 5 uni in the UK, much better regarded than unis like St Andrews, Edinburgh, Bristol, Durham and Nottingham.</p>

11

<p>No-one has mentioned is that there is a quota for UK/EU medical students. The vacancies in the UK national health service have to be filled before any overseas students are accepted. This means that most UK schools accept fewer than 10 overseas medical students per year. Oxford usually accept 6-7, and the 4 year graduate course, mentioned by other posters, in Oxford is reserved for UK/EU students only (I don’t know about other places).</p>

<p>The second issue is that if you qualify as an MD in the UK, you canot just turn up in the US and practice medicine. You will have to take some tests again. I am not sure exactly what these are, but the issue has come up on this board before and it was concluded that this could be very time consuming and expensive (Eu and Commonwealth countries will accept a UK qualification though). I would not advise you to set out on this route (bearing in mind you will have to pay the full cost, at something like £20,000 per year, with no financial aid) before you find out exactly what you would need to do to practice medicine in the US. I have never met an American medical student here, and this is probably why.</p>

12

<p>Hey so I was wondering if the schools listed before were good for Dermatology and if that field holds the same requirements as any others.</p>

13

<p>All medical and dental schools in the UK are only allowed to have an international population of 10% (or was it 5%?). That means you’ll only have a couple of places in each university, so competition is HIGHHHHH. Find a school that has a large medical school (I think it might be Imperial), so that there’s a better chance of getting an international student place.</p>

14

<p>Is it true, though, that if I finish my undergrad there under the immigration policies currently upheld, there is no opportunity for me to pursue a postgrad within the UK?</p>

15

<p>I’ve actually heard similar things, so I’m curious to hear the answer…</p>