A guide to applying for graduate entry medicine courses
Graduate entry medicine (GEM) is a route to medicine for existing degree-holders and has been increasing in popularity over recent years. It is a medicine course for those who perhaps missed out on A-level grades for undergraduate entry medicine, or those who want a career change. Only existing graduates are able to apply to graduate entry medicine (or those in the final year of study) and the GEM courses are accelerated courses, lasting only four years. It first started over 20 years ago, offered by St. George's University of London and is now offered at 14 medical schools.
There are many reasons why you may be considering to study GEM, most notably if you want a career change. Many people work for a few years and then decide they want a career change - others may simply realise later in life that they want a career in medicine. Understandably, GEM is popular amongst recent graduates of bioscience/biomedical science degrees, who perhaps missed out on the grades required for medicine the first time or simply decided during their first degree they wanted to study medicine instead. Regardless of the reasoning behind your decision to study medicine, GEM is one of the best choices out there for applicants who already hold a degree, although not the only option. Graduates are also able to apply to many of the 5-year undergraduate medicine programmes - read here for more information on why you might choose to do this.
If you choose GEM, assuming you get in after your initial degree you will only be 25 when graduating as a doctor, only two years behind school leavers who studied medicine straightaway. In this regard, GEM can help reduce the time needed for you to become a doctor if you studied a different degree first, by essentially condensing the first two 'pre-clinical' years into one. However, this does result in a longer and more intense academic year. More funding is also available in GEM, as you get the full tuition fee loan from year 1 onwards after paying an initial £3,465 of the £9,250 - the rest of which you can then take out a tuition fee loan for from SFE. In subsequent years, NHS England pay the first £3,715, with the remainder covered by a tuition fee loan again. In year 5, NHS England pay the full amount of tuition. You also get access to a means tested maintenance loan, which makes GEM very accessible.
UCAS
You have to apply for GEM through UCAS, much like applying for standard undergraduate entry. The UCAS course code for graduate entry medicine varies from A101, A102 and A104 depending on the medical school. However because you are applying as a graduate, you will be applying as an individual rather than through your school. You can also only apply for four choices, although you can apply for both Oxford and Cambridge as a graduates. The cost of one choice when applying for 2022 entry is £22, whilst the cost of more than once choice is £26.50. This means it is almost always worth using up all your available choices. You can opt to apply for a fifth choice but there is not really much point if medicine is what you want to do.
As with applying for undergraduate entry medicine, you will need a personal statement and to fill out your qualifications, employment history, finance and other personal details. You will also need a reference - if you are currently studying a degree then you can ask an academic tutor for a reference easily enough. However if you are not studying or are applying from employment, then you may be able to ask your employer or if you've done some volunteering, a volunteer supervisor. Ideally it should be someone who knows you academically, although this is not always possible - as long as they can talk about your work ethic, character and suitability for medicine, it is generally fine. Applications have to be made by the deadline for medicine, which is usually around Mid-October.
Personal Statement
Your personal statement can form an important part of your application, as some universities such as King's College London, will use it as part of the basis for shortlisting candidates for interview. Others will not place so much weight on the personal statement, but it is still important to write a good personal statement regardless of where you apply. An example of my personal statement can be found here. As a graduate, your personal statement is likely to be very different to that of a school leaver. Even if you applied to medicine when you first left school but went to do another degree first, your statement from then will not be a complete reflection of you now. There are obviously things you can talk about on your personal statement that you wouldn't have been able to from sixth form/college - your university degree, clubs and societies and anything else you did whilst at university. If you've worked, you can obviously talk about employment as well and link it to medicine - even if the job was not directly related, the skills and qualities you have will be transferable. Crucially, applying later in life or even directly after your degree gives you more time to have done volunteering or obtained work experience, which can be extremely valuable to mention on your personal statement and at interviews.
Interviews are by and large the same for GEM as they are for standard entry. MMI interviews are used by most medical schools that offer GEM, although some do use traditional panel interviews. A GEM interview is different in that the standard of interview answer and performance is expected to be higher. It is important to prepare as best you can by covering areas such as:
For more advice on interview preparation, please see the applying for medicine interviews section.
Posted by Nathan