There are two stages at which the applicant may not succeed in getting into medical school:

• They may not obtain an offer
• They may hold an offer but not gain the grades required to fulfil that offer

Not obtaining an offer

It is important to note that not getting a place at medical school can often simply be a reflection of medical schools in the UK being vastly oversubscribed, with competition for the limited number of spaces being very tough indeed.

Consider – Does the applicant still want to study medicine?

Medical schools try to select the people that they think will make the best doctors and who have the correct ability and motivations for studying medicine, but even some students choose to leave mid-course and some will fail exams. The selection panel has a responsibility to make the right decision for the medical school, and the applicant has a responsibility to make sure that they are making the right choice. The applicant should examine their reasons for wanting to study medicine carefully. If in doubt, or if the applicant feels they have been pushed in the direction of medicine, it may be better for them to look at alternative courses or careers.

Think – Why was the applicant not successful?

The applicant may wish to approach the medical school that they applied to and ask for some constructive feedback. They may also consider reviewing their personal statement.

If the applicant is convinced that medicine is the correct career for them and they want to persist in their applications, they have several options:

• Look into overseas medical schools that may still accept applications for the forthcoming year. These often accept candidates with slightly lower grades
• Take a “year out” and re-apply the following year. This gives the applicant time to polish their application: gain more work experience, re-write their personal statement, practise their interview technique, etc. The extra time should be used constructively to boost their next application as they will need to convince a medical school that they are a better candidate than they were in their first application. If the applicant is using the time to re-take some A-level modules, they will need to check which medical schools will accept this.

Note that if the applicant reapplies in later years, they must retake the UKCAT as this is only valid for university entry in the year that applicants take the test.

Not obtaining the right grades

The medical applicant is likely to be a high achiever academically, so their A-level results are likely to be good even if they are insufficient to gain a place at medical school. If the applicant has received an offer and their grades are only a few percentage points off those required and they are otherwise a strong candidate (extra-curricular, work experience, a good interview), it is worth discussing the issue with the admission tutor at the Medical School in question.

Clearing is another option, although it is rare for medical places to appear in clearing and the applicant will almost certainly need to have applied before to the medical schools they contact.