UK Medical School Application Procedure!
I figured, while I'm at it, I might as well outline the medicine application procedure in the UK, or at least my version of it.
Well, it all starts off the summer before school starts again, we are told to write a personal statement. For those of you unaware what this is, its a short summary of why you want to medicine and why they should choose you. You have to cram in as much information as possible into a space not quite large enough for what you want to write. It was be catch and different, include what you've been doing/done on your path to medical school, what sort of volunteer work you have done, and just to show you are not a complete nerd, other interests...oh, also fitting in the kitchen sink would be a nice addition.
Anyway, the deadline for sending your online appliction off by UCAS (the UK admissions coordinator) for medical school is October the 15th. An important point to note, is that it must be first sent through the system to your schools coordiator, who checks it, adds a reference and your predicted grades. Two days before the weekend, which is the 12th, I send it off to my coordinator, fully expecting her to do it and send it off tht day, just in case I tell her I've sent it to her the next day (13th) as the 14th and 15th are a weekend, I wanted to make sure she sent it before, just in case she doesn't send it off during the weekend. I happily return home for a pleasant weekend, safe in the comfort that my application has been sent off. Of course, being me, I have to check to make sure, and, no it hasn't been sent! Again on the 15th I try and check, still not sent, today is the deadline! Am I going to loose my place at medical school just because my application wasn't sent! I call the school, of course weekend, nobody there. I am well and truely ruined. On the 16th, I frantically get to school, looking for the coordinator, maybe I can salvage the whole situation, if she puts a note saying she forgot to send it, since the application still goes to the Universities after the 15th, they just aren't obliged to take any notice of it.
Shock, horror! I am informed by my head of year, that the coordinator has gone overseas, and won't be back ill tommorrow! I resign myself to fate of doing biomedical sciences or some such course, or taking a gap year, as well as plotting plans of revenge and homicide against the coordinator.
Its the 17th, and the coordinator walks into school in the morning, oblivious of my tortured state, and manic look in my eyes. I walk up to her, and ask her why she hadn't sent my application off. She looked at my dead pan and started to shout at me, saying that you should have sent it to me last week, and I told everyone that I was going to be away (when you crazy person!). This was really getting me mad, and I replied that I had in fact sent it to her the week before, and even told her about it. A look of doubt flashed into her, and she rushed off to her office. Later that lunch break she sent the application off appologising profusely, but the damage as done, two days late I thought would be my doom.
Later that day, she called me into her office and showed me an email from a UCAS friend, assuring her not to worry, and that the deadline had been extended to the 17th, due to the weekend, and that the application would go through fine. The feeling of relief washed over me, but thougts of murder for my coordinator were not washed away, she put me through one of the worst ordeals of my life. This was just the beggining of the application process, there were still many more months of trials after this. More to come.
Well, it all starts off the summer before school starts again, we are told to write a personal statement. For those of you unaware what this is, its a short summary of why you want to medicine and why they should choose you. You have to cram in as much information as possible into a space not quite large enough for what you want to write. It was be catch and different, include what you've been doing/done on your path to medical school, what sort of volunteer work you have done, and just to show you are not a complete nerd, other interests...oh, also fitting in the kitchen sink would be a nice addition.
Anyway, the deadline for sending your online appliction off by UCAS (the UK admissions coordinator) for medical school is October the 15th. An important point to note, is that it must be first sent through the system to your schools coordiator, who checks it, adds a reference and your predicted grades. Two days before the weekend, which is the 12th, I send it off to my coordinator, fully expecting her to do it and send it off tht day, just in case I tell her I've sent it to her the next day (13th) as the 14th and 15th are a weekend, I wanted to make sure she sent it before, just in case she doesn't send it off during the weekend. I happily return home for a pleasant weekend, safe in the comfort that my application has been sent off. Of course, being me, I have to check to make sure, and, no it hasn't been sent! Again on the 15th I try and check, still not sent, today is the deadline! Am I going to loose my place at medical school just because my application wasn't sent! I call the school, of course weekend, nobody there. I am well and truely ruined. On the 16th, I frantically get to school, looking for the coordinator, maybe I can salvage the whole situation, if she puts a note saying she forgot to send it, since the application still goes to the Universities after the 15th, they just aren't obliged to take any notice of it.
Shock, horror! I am informed by my head of year, that the coordinator has gone overseas, and won't be back ill tommorrow! I resign myself to fate of doing biomedical sciences or some such course, or taking a gap year, as well as plotting plans of revenge and homicide against the coordinator.
Its the 17th, and the coordinator walks into school in the morning, oblivious of my tortured state, and manic look in my eyes. I walk up to her, and ask her why she hadn't sent my application off. She looked at my dead pan and started to shout at me, saying that you should have sent it to me last week, and I told everyone that I was going to be away (when you crazy person!). This was really getting me mad, and I replied that I had in fact sent it to her the week before, and even told her about it. A look of doubt flashed into her, and she rushed off to her office. Later that lunch break she sent the application off appologising profusely, but the damage as done, two days late I thought would be my doom.
Later that day, she called me into her office and showed me an email from a UCAS friend, assuring her not to worry, and that the deadline had been extended to the 17th, due to the weekend, and that the application would go through fine. The feeling of relief washed over me, but thougts of murder for my coordinator were not washed away, she put me through one of the worst ordeals of my life. This was just the beggining of the application process, there were still many more months of trials after this. More to come.
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