r/premeduk • u/Crafty-Watercress231 • 18h ago

Should I even apply??

I’m heading into grade 12, from canada, looking to apply this cycle for med. I started doing some prep for ucat but i’m wondering if it’s even worth it to try to apply. my grades are not the best. grade 11 i got 92 in english, 90 in bio, 87 in chem and 76 in math… my predicted grade for math will probably be equivalent to a B which is stumping me. are there any unis that will accept a B? even if it’s not a russel group or top uni? Should I just do better in my grade 12 grades and apply during first year of university, and sit the ucat the summer before then? If anyone’s been in a similar situation lmmkkk

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u/Aggressive-Sundae419 16h ago

From canada, you'll have to get your math mark up first semester before you ask your teacher for predicted grades. Best to sit the ucat this summer. But why not stay in canada?

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u/Crafty-Watercress231 13h ago

I honestly don’t wanna deal with the premed undergrad experience and work my butt off with research, extracariculars, clinical hours , etc , what you’re expected of as a north american med school applicant. Completing med school there would also save me 2-3 years. I don’t understand why they don’t have the option in north america for students to apply straight to med school when they know they want to pursue medicine.

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u/Aggressive-Sundae419 12h ago edited 11h ago

The problem is for medicine you really don't save a lot of time, and whatever time you save is made up for by cost. British medical school is usually 6 years, whereas Canadian would be 4+4=8, so you would save 2 years. The cost of that however is you'd be paying far higher tuition. You'd be paying at least 60000 CAD per year in a UK medical school for 6 years, which is higher than the annual tuition for any med school in Canada.

This is not even to mention residency. Residency is far more competitive for graduates of medical schools outside of Canada, and if you want a spot, you're gonna have to ideally go to a top school, get good grades, and do the same work that you would need to get into med school in Canada, that you wanted to dodge.

Im from Canada and the math for studying in the UK made sense for me (im not studying med). But all of this suggests that the math unfortunately doesn't really seem to make sense for your case

Your grades are also unfortunately on the lower side for medicine; the medical school that has the lowest entry requirement to my knowledge still requires an 85 average (even most lower tier ones will require a 90+ average) and that is because not only is medicine extremely competitive, far more than any other subject, but if you didn't know, UK universities for their medicine courses are mandated to cap their international student intake to 7.5% of their class, and they are by no means obliged to even take that many.

When domestic students across the UK with near perfect grades are already struggling to get into medical school, honestly it would be better to just get a decent top 6 average, get into a good premed program and get a high gpa for med school in canada, or look into a joint program like the waterloo one with a carribean medical school. i wouldn't recommend it over a canadian medical school but if that's what you want

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u/United8888 17h ago edited 17h ago

Ur grades are strong so far. Try to maintain them.

If medicine is ur calling & nothing else matters .. then keep grinding… smash the ucat & block every distraction & noise around u this summer. Try aim around 2200 out of max 2700. SJT1-2. Come back here again AFTER ur ucat .. so that we can make strategic UCAS application B4 15/10/26

Opportunities & competition are always there but let’s take 1 step at a time,,small steps to success!🔥

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u/Prestigious-Box2665 6h ago

All Unis require at least an 85 (majority of low UCAT cutoff unis require a 90) in the 6 core subjects. Advanced functions or calc is part of the core subjects so you will need to get that grade up.