Outcome of your application If you receive an offer to one or more of the medical schools you applied to, congratulatiosn! Remember to stay focused on achieveing your grades in order to meet your offer, and good luck for the future! However, if you find yourself without any offers, but you are still keen to pursue a career in medicine, do not give up! Medicine is a highly competitive course to get into and it is not uncommon for students to not receive any offers. There are still options available to you at this point. If you do get a rejection, try to find out why. Feedback is useful in helping you strengthen your application for the following year. Some universities look more favourably upon your application if you reapply after rejection, because this shows commitment to medicine. Not all univerisities feel this way though, so it is always worth checking on their webiste or asking the admissions staff. Take a gap year and use this time to strenghten your application as much as possible, rather than sitting back and doing nothing. Examples of what you could do are: o Get a job. o Do voluntary work at a care home/shop/charity. o Get more work experience in GPs and hospitals: it is often easier to get once you are 18. o Work as a Health Care Assistant (HCA). o Continue to explore the science of medicine as well as its social impact by reading more books and journals, and by watching videos and listening to radio shows. When reapplying, create a new personal statement and prepare for interviews by incorpoating all the new experiences you have had.
Š Catherine Graham, Cambridge MedSoc Access Officer 2018-19, March 2019