How tough is it out there?

[hermanmunster]

Reading these posts - I'm sooooooo glad my son has chosen to go the BioMed Sciences route and THEN medical school!

deffo a good move doing graduate entry.... wish more would go down that route. 4 year course is hard work but the most are ready to work hard as they have got the university socialising out of the way in the first degree...

[jemima]

From what I've read and seen grad entry can be even more difficult, if you get degree it can be best to apply for undergraduate course. I'm just glad that now I've learned from this round I am more aware for next 4 children. Be really careful they research the requirements of their uni's well and also not just what their prospectus says but who they admitted and what grades the candidates had. I am so glad I'm not doing this again it seemed so easy in our day.

[hermanmunster]

I 've helped a few get into grad medical courses - interview question practice & references etc etc . They were good candidates (life and work experience / motivated) - got in without too much hassle, lot less than the school leavers seem to have

[Ed's mum]

My sister is in her 4th year of graduate entry medicine at Newcastle.
She had a lot of experience, not just a degree, and is loving every minute of it!
She highly recommends graduate entry.

[jemima]

Yes, I can see grad entry is better but from forums such as Student Room and New Media Medicine I am aware from stats that this is soooo hard. I'm not subjective in my view as DS has an offer for chem with medicinal chem and could do this but am wondering whether to advise gap year with 4A's and then reapply? His BMAT was OK but slightly weak in section 2. Very strong UKCAT.

[magwich2]

This thread seems to have turned into one about entry to medicine degree courses. What really intrigues me is why on earth the taxpayer funded employer of these would be doctors does not subscribe to the basic laws of supply and demand. Let us not kid ourselves that most would be doctors love healing people; most of them want a VERY well paid job from which it is all but impossible to be sacked and from which one can work 35 hours per week as a GP with allsorts of perks and tax advantages.
In most industries the salary would be adjusted so that the law of supply and demand took effect.
Perhaps hospital doctors or potential surgeons should be educated separately from GPs who could be paid the same as teachers. If this pay scale did not result in enough candidates then the position could be reviewedIt is absolutely crazy that the poor taxpayer is subsidising these NHS jobs when it is completely unnecesary.

[Looking for help]

Yes, I can see grad entry is better but from forums such as Student Room and New Media Medicine I am aware from stats that this is soooo hard. I'm not subjective in my view as DS has an offer for chem with medicinal chem and could do this but am wondering whether to advise gap year with 4A's and then reapply? His BMAT was OK but slightly weak in section 2. Very strong UKCAT.

I'm not an expert in medicine applications or anything, but my advice to my children has been - if you do not get the offers that you want in the first instance or in the second instance don't get in to your preferred choice through a slip up at the final hurdle, a gap year and then applying with better grades the following year is possibly the better option. I think if your son gets 4As this year and does not get into his preferred medical course and that is what he wants to do, reapplying with his results in the autumn will get him an offer.

[hermanmunster]

This thread seems to have turned into one about entry to medicine degree courses. What really intrigues me is why on earth the taxpayer funded employer of these would be doctors does not subscribe to the basic laws of supply and demand. Let us not kid ourselves that most would be doctors love healing people; most of them want a VERY well paid job from which it is all but impossible to be sacked and from which one can work 35 hours per week as a GP with allsorts of perks and tax advantages.
In most industries the salary would be adjusted so that the law of supply and demand took effect.
Perhaps hospital doctors or potential surgeons should be educated separately from GPs who could be paid the same as teachers. If this pay scale did not result in enough candidates then the position could be reviewedIt is absolutely crazy that the poor taxpayer is subsidising these NHS jobs when it is completely unnecesary.

Oh Magwich Oh Magwich ... if I could work 35 hours a week. Last time I looked it was nearer 60. Deffo not enough docs around to the job and the amount of work is increasing constantly

yes you can get sacked, yes you can get suspended and you now have to be revalidated every 5 years so job / registration is not for life.

As for training hospital doctors and GPs seperately - well they do at post grad level but many swap and change between the two ( I have) - can't always decide at 18 what you want to be doing at 70 - so teach em together I say.

[familyinthevalley]

Magwitch - teaching is my son's 'fall back' career choice. Not bad......but hey - if you're going to suggest doctors and teachers receive the same pay - how about letting my son get his medical qualifications in four years instead of the 7 he is planning on, let him do a course at uni that he can also work part time rather than a course that he will not be able to do so, and then let them work only 190 'surgery' days per year with summer holidays etc., while being able to do his planning etc., as well as maybe seeing patients during the day, and then coming home and doing their diagnosis and prescription writing in the comfort of his own home......

There are MANY differences between a job of a teacher and that of a doctor - not least the cost and amount of hours they put into their training and education to be qualified as one.

I'm NOT putting down the career of a teacher by any means - my husband is one, and he spends much time at home doing planning, marking, extra curricular activities after school, doing the voluntary catering for the rugby teams on a Saturday morning along with me.

If my son has the dedication and the work ethic to put in the extra years, the guts to take on the debt he will be in, has prepared himself with work experience and volunteer work over the past two years - why shouldn't he aim high? If the reward afterwards is hard work, hard play with an income that allows him to do so - then well done him and he'd deserve every penny he earns.

Teachers have it bad in alot of schools with abuse, non responsive students etc., can you imagine being a doctor and just spending every day hearing about everybody's woes and racking your brain trying to come up with a solution that helps them deal with their ails? Or working with a patient for years and years just to see them die because there was nothing further you could do for them?

To be a doctor for £30K per year, I don't think we'd have many with the aspirations - personally I think it's great that as a nation we have so many students that have the drive and ambition that these young people have.

If we're going to pay teachers based on supply and demand......then let's get those pay raises coming then!

[another mother]

Sadly the nearest my Dd1 is going to get to being a doctor is an obsession with Grey's Anatomy - but since we wouldn't have either my younger DD or my OH on this earth now without them I reckon they are worth pretty much every penny.