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“I need to go into medicine at 18” - Mythbuster

Writer's picture: CamWAMS TeamCamWAMS Team

Updated: Oct 1, 2021

‘If I don’t get into medicine at 18 I won’t ever be a doctor or I’ll be at a significant disadvantage.’


Getting into medicine is tough and not everyone will be offered a place the first time round. This can be devastating when you’ve been working towards it for a long time and have put as much effort in as you can. However, there are ways to get into medicine other than applying to the standard 5/6 year ourse straight out of secondary school. These include foundation year courses, reapplying after a gap year and doing graduate medicine (typically 4 years) after an undergraduate degree.


Nisha, our CamWAMS Grad Representative, is a 2nd year student on the graduate medicine course. Here she discusses her journey to give you some insight into other routes into medicine:


‘A bit about my background - I did an undergraduate degree in Medical Physiology at King’s College London and following this worked at the Care Quality Commission in Public Engagement for three years. I was always interested in medicine but had never previously applied; I couldn’t apply with my A Levels (and to be honest it was never something I thought I could do).

In my penultimate year of working I had realised something wasn’t quite right. I loved what I was doing and felt like I was making a difference but there wasn’t enough of my favourite part - working with people - and progression down this route would reduce this further. I also missed science. I decided to apply for medicine and I ended up receiving offers from Cambridge and Barts and The London (both on their graduate courses).


Here are my pros and cons of going down this route:

Pros

- Having a break from education allowed me to learn what I enjoyed and what drives me in a working environment, helping me to make a better informed decision to pursue medicine

- Working allowed me to develop a variety of skills that were extremely valuable for my application (I appreciated that I wasn’t just competing on the basis of grades)

- I was privileged to be able to save some money, which has helped mitigate loss of earnings upon returning to education

- Being on a graduate course has allowed a lot of patient contact early on which helps me to keep the end goal in mind


Cons

- However that break from education has meant getting back into an academic mindset has been a challenge, particularly the different way of teaching at Cambridge (supervisions, breadth of the curriculum)

- I’ll be starting my foundation training at age 28, which isn’t necessarily a problem but I do worry about how to fit everything in (think house buying, children etc) - but you’re going to get to that age anyway; you might as well be trying to do something you’ll enjoy

- Balancing work, volunteering, revising for entrance exams and interviews was difficult, doable; but required a lot of self-discipline. I also didn’t have people around me in a similar position unlike if you were to apply straight out of school.


Positives and negatives considered, I don’t regret how I’ve made my way into medicine! I hope by sharing my more unconventional route you are reassured that if you end up having to delay your entry to medicine for whatever reason, you can still get there if it remains something you want to pursue. There are many routes into medicine and there can even be some positives in pursuing it a bit later on (though it may not seem like it at the time). If you think you still want to go down this route, I would recommend dedicating some of your time away from the process to further informing your decision to pursue medicine (be that in your degree, job, volunteering, attending talks, reading etc).

However, I understand this is a privileged place to be speaking from. For some people, finances or home situations (as a couple of examples) can mean the reality of delayed entry can cause real difficulties. When applying, look to see what access arrangements universities have, and if they have schemes that can apply to you - widening access is becoming increasingly common and you can contact universities about specific concerns you have.


Good luck with your applications and remember that whether a university accepts you or not does not determine your worth!’

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