Putting Together an Application

The competition for places for Medicine is very fierce and applications are assessed using Academic and Non-Academic criteria.

The following are suggestions on how you might address the Non-Academic Requirements for Medicine and thus develop a good and full application.

You should note that if you plan to work or to volunteer in a healthcare environment, you must obtain the appropriate police checks.

Consider a career in Medicine:

  • Research to confirm your ideas.
  • Discuss your options with school Career Advisors.

Get a feel for life as a doctor:

  • Undertake as much work experience/shadowing as possible (see Leaflet - Selection of Applicants).
  • Talk with doctors about their careers.

Gain an appreciation of the concerns of patients, the disabled, the elderly etc:

  • Undertake (paid/unpaid) work of a caring nature.
  • Work with people in any capacity.
  • Be involved in caring/charity groups at school.

Develop your sense of social awareness and demonstrate you can shoulder responsibilities:

  • Continue to be involved with school life: clubs, mentoring, buddy and anti-bullying campaigns etc.
  • Undertake paid part-time work with the public.

Show you are an all-rounder: doctors lives are busy and challenging, and time management is very important:

  • Work hard at school.
  • Enjoy your free time to the full.

Demonstrate you are able to work in teams, and are able to assume different roles within the team:

  • Undertake leisure, sporting, creative activities

Select your chosen Medical Schools:

  • Choose your schools for positive reasons, having found out as much about different schools' curricula, facilities, patient availability, location etc as possible. You may be asked to justify your choice at interview. Your research should include use of university websites, prospectuses and leaflets; discussions with medical students and doctors
  • Contact Medical Admissions departments, as criteria for admission may vary between schools, as might individual admissions processes (see Admissions).
  • Visit the medical school to ensure you are making a suitable choice (see Visiting the Medical School). The appeal of chosen institutions may well be confirmed or dismissed by the student who has spent some time exploring the Medical School site and facilities, and questioning staff and undergraduate students
  • Attend Medical School Open Days, which may tell you a lot about the ethos of that particular school (see Medicine Open Day)

Prepare a draft of your Personal Statement before completing the UCAS form:

  • Tell us all about yourself, why you want to study medicine; your hopes for your career and a summary of the points discussed above (see Selection of Applicants)
  • Rather than just list all the work experience that has been undertaken, it is more revealing if you can inform us of what you have now learned about a medical career and its implications.
  • If you have had difficulty in undertaking research e.g. there are no medical placements available for you locally, then you should inform us of these difficulties and concentrate on researching your careers in other ways (see Rural Applicants)

Undertake the UK CAT:

  • During the summer prior to application.
  • Check the UK CAT website for details of dates for registration and testing deadlines (see www.ukcat.ac.uk).
  • If you are making a repeat application, you will need to retake the UK CAT each time you apply

Complete the online UCAS application:

  • In Good Time! The deadline for applications to reach UCAS is 15 October of the year prior to entry (see also Application through UCAS).
  • Accurately, referring to the online UCAS information
  • Extra information can be sent to individual Medical Schools by letter to support an application 
  •  If you are in a position to choose your referee, select someone who knows about you as a person as well as perhaps your academic achievements. Your referee should also indicate the predicted grades for your forth-coming examinations. These will be needed to score your application before it can be processed further. Ensure your referee knows about the 15 October deadline.
  • When writing your Personal Statement, remember that UCAS use software to detect any evidence of plagiarism.

Prepare yourself for interview:

  • Be aware of your appearance. It says a lot about a candidate's commitment if they feel able to take the trouble to look smart.
  • Be yourself. We are quite good at discovering the person you really are, underneath the person you hope to show us!
  • Each interview slot in Aberdeen is for a total of 40 minutes. From 2013, the Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) system requires candidates to rotate around five 'stations' each lasting seven minutes, when a Selector will explore one pre-determined questioning area.  Consider your answers, remembering we want to find out many things about you as we can in this length of time
  • We do understand that students are often very nervous and do try to put you at your ease. Understand that you are a stranger to us and our aim is to discover your finest points!
  • An outline of the MMI process will be given when candidates are initially welcomed and students' questions can be answered at the end of the MMI session. 

Remember: It is well recognised that the standard of achievement of medical applicants is very high. The Aberdeen Selectors very much enjoy meeting candidates and hearing about their lives and achievements. Whether the interview is ultimately successful or not, it will have been a useful experience for you, one from which you can learn a great deal.

For help regarding different aspects of the interview process, see Interview Advice

Good Luck!