Posts Tagged ‘UCAS’
Feeling lonely
Posted on November 2nd, 2008 by Matt
As some of you will have no doubt seen these last few days, I’ve been doing some marketing for MedicalAdmissions.co.uk in various online forums for Medicine Applicants.
This has also served another useful purpose. I’ve found other people applying to the same medical schools as me, and what kind of grades and UKCAT scores they’ve got. I’ve discovered the problems people seem to be having, and have added a few things to our task list here at MedicalAdmissions.co.uk so that we can help more people.
And I’ve been taking note of interview dates, and how many people already have interview letters. And I feel lonely. It seems as if every applicant but me has received at least one letter for interview – Liverpool seems to be where a lot of them are coming from. But I feel left out, as if I should be bracing myself for Track to suddenly show four rejections next time I log on.
And then I feel somewhat silly. My application hasn’t even been in for 3 weeks yet, so it’s probably still at the bottom of the Admissions Tutor’s pile. And UCAS hasn’t emailed me yet, so obviously nothing has changed; it probably won’t even if I keep up trying to refresh Track 100 or so times each day. When I stop and think logically, I suddenly remember that only one of the medical schools has sent me an acknowledgement letter.
I’m sure I’m not the only applicant with no interviews as yet. In fact, I remember the Dean at BSMS told us all at their open day that they do two rounds of interviewing – pre-xmas and post-xmas. I may not even hear from them until late January. So, I don’t really know what I’m so worried about!
Matt is convinced he is going to be rejected. Is it better to prepare to fail or fail to prepare?
4 Comments »I’m popular!
Posted on October 20th, 2008 by Matt
Yes, indeed. For the first time, my pigeonhole at halls is filled with lots and lots of external mail. For once, somebody loves me.
Or not. I have a UCAS ‘AS2′, which is the Welcome Letter. I also have an ‘AC20′, wich is the Change of Address form, although I never changed my address? Oh well…
There was one more as well, it was The University of Bristol thanking me for my application, and advising me not be worried if they don’t communicate very often. They claim to expect 4,000 applicants and offer around 750 interviews, and will be giving equal consideration to all those who applied by the 15 October deadline.
Matt is not loved, and won’t be expecting another pigeonhole full of post anytime soon!
No Comments »The send-off
Posted on October 13th, 2008 by Matt
Well, I’m pleased to announce that I was able to send off my UCAS application tonight. After many weeks of entering details, writing statements, chasing references, and the rest, I’ve finally done it.
?17.00 on the credit card later, and my application is being processed by UCAS before being sent to the 4 medical schools I have applied to. BSMS, Bristol, Sheffield and Southampton – let’s hope they’ll like my application!
Now, like many others, I’m eagerly watching the postbox, waiting for details about how to logon to Track. No doubt I’ll become more addicted that than I am to Facebook…
Matt is happy now, and semi stress-free.
No Comments »Bouncing to and fro
Posted on October 1st, 2008 by Matt
‘It feels like it’s never ending, but I can see that I’m almost done; just one left thing to do, and that’s put it onto UCAS. I’m talking about my personal statement, and the number of people checking it and suggesting improvements!
The number of people able to help with personal statements is amazing. I’ve had my Connexions adviser, my personal tutor, a UCAS co-ordinator, a medical doctor (yes, that’s Rob!), a manager, and a couple of friends have a look. The best advice I’ve had comes from the UCAS co-ordinator, who pointed out about 6 or 7 different grammer errors.
Which is something to look out for. You’ll find after staring at Microsoft Office Word or UCAS Apply for 30 minutes making some changes, you don’t notice the grammer errors that have creeped in, ie ‘caring for people by in an’. And spelling can be just as bad, because word doesn’t notice the difference between ‘their’, ‘there’ or ‘they’re’ really! Get as many people as possinle just to proof read it and circle anything that is grammatically wrong, or that simply doesn’t sound right at first pass. Remember, and admissions tutor is not likely to re-read something 2 or 3 times just to figure out what it means!
However, after about 5 or so full drafts, I’m done. Now the simple part, of copying and pasting from Microsoft Office Word into UCAS apply. And making sure that I’m below the 4,000 character and 47 line limits. Actually, a good time for a warning – you’re more likely to go over the 47 lines before you go over the 4,000 characters!
Matt is putting his personal statement into UCAS…
No Comments »Summer is over
Posted on September 1st, 2008 by Matt
I don’t think anybody can testify to this more than Rob & I, based on a very short conversation I’ve had with him last night.
In the last 3 weeks, neither of us have managed to do any of the work we had planned on the site, aside from a couple of blog posts each. To be frank, our newest blogger, Sarah, has probably done more than Rob & I combined! But that’s not because we’re lazy or anything, we’ve just both been doing far more than we imagined – you can follow Rob’s life as a junior doctor by reading the “Foundation Year 1″ blog, as you’ll see 8-day weeks are still expected from junior doctors.
From my perspective, I’ve had results to collect, and then enter into UCAS. I’ve had to sit down and think about whether I’m actually going to realistically achieve the grades for medicine, and I’ve decided that I should, as long as I resit 2 of my chemistry modules and get better grades. And that’s something you should all do about now, realistically check that you can meet the entry requirements for your chosen course by the end of this academic year.
I have been out as a volunteer first aider for 4 solid days, and had to take a 5th day just to recover from the cumulative 46 hours of shifts. I’ll blog about how that will help me both in writing my personal statement, and in talking about what I have gained from it in an interview type situation later.
I haven’t even started my personal statement properly. Something which, now I think about it, kinda scares me. I now have less than 6 weeks to do it. Oh shit. One reality check, please, I think. It’s a good thing MedicalAdmissions.co.uk offers a personal statement checking service to applicants, I think I’ll be making use of that before the end of this month!
Back to the website, we’ve already had to put the launch date back by a full month. I’ve had to block-out two full weekends from my diary to work on the scripting and main content areas. I know Rob is also looking into taking some of his annual leave so that he can really work on the Interview Question Bank for when you all need it. And now we’re faced with the fact that we have 26 days to get this site live, and ready-to-use, because I’ll be out and about in Newcastle University for the visit day, handing out our new flyers!
Matt is panicking about his personal statement (or lack of)!
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