Choosing Unis

Just a quick post because it's quite late and I reeeeeeally need to sleep.

Picking the university that you want to go to is so important, especially for Medicine because everywhere wants different things and they're all so picky! So here's a list of things to look at and questions to ask yourself when you're trying to pick which universities to look at or apply to.

1. What grades do they want? There's no point applying to somewhere like Birmingham if you don't have exceptional GCSEs (a good number of A*s, especially in all sciences, Maths and English) however, universities like Newcastle don't even consider your GCSE grades. It'a good idea to look at what they want in case you don't have it, because if you don't have the right GCSEs it's straight to the "no" pile. Play to your strengths when looking at universities.

2. What A level subjects do they want? Some universities require specific AS grades, whereas some don't mind. Some Chemistry and Biology to A2, whereas some only want Chemistry. Some want Maths AS, some don't. Check which subjects they want to make sure you don't end up stuck taking the wrong subjects.

3. What kind of course do they offer? There are different types of Medicine course: PBL, Integrated, Traditional, systems-based... You need to decide what best suits you to make sure that you'll learn well when you go there, so definitely look into these options.

4. How much work experience do they want? If they want loads of experience but you only have a few days then don't apply, however if they say that they want just some experience in a healthcare setting then if you have that, go for it! Universities definitely understand that not everybody can get work experience in a hospital so anything is good! Hospices, old peoples homes, etc.

5. UKCAT/BMAT? Check to see if they want these things. You'll need to start practicing and book early to make sure that you're ready for it, because sometimes these exams can be the deciding factor. So check this first, and if you think you'll be bad at it, try to look at other universities that don't want it (Birmingham, Bristol...)

6. What's the city like? When you visit the university definitely go and visit the city because you may love the university but hate the city, and don't forget you have to go and live in that city after your first year.

7. Application process? Once you've chosen where you want to apply, it's worth checking their application processes just to make sure that you know what you're letting yourself in for, and which things they focus on more in their application. Southampton, for example, doesn't interview so you'd have to make your personal statement fantastic in order to apply there. Just get an idea of how they do things, and a good way to do this is to either email the university or find out at their open day.

These are just a few of the things you should look at. Of course there are others, but these are the questions that I've been asking myself recently about the universities that I've seen.

I hope that this helps!