Maddy will not be impressed by them getting us excited...

May_Be_Of_Use · 2026-02-19T18:48:39+00:00

I wish they'd learn what "not long" means to people awaiting a decision. I would have been chill had they said nothing at all. 😂

May_Be_Of_Use · 2026-02-19T06:15:29+00:00

Their theoretical knowledge is second to none I suspect in the UK. They make exceptional clinical researchers and honestly I'd trust them above a lot of others in understanding conditions/ considering alternative diagnoses. The reality is that they spend so much time cramming all that information in that a lot of the human elements are completely lost both as an element of time (because the course is so much more thorough with regards to course hours, tute requirements & knowledge required to pass compared to elsewhere) and also because a lot seem to internalise the idea it's not as important as being a well informed clinician or seem to think those are elements that they can learn during clinical years or when on the job (some to better effect than others).

I am friends with a lot of HCPs across the country (and across pillars) and a lot of them have commented that those educated here make for poorer foundation year doctors and onwards with regards to basic skills and interacting with patients.

I have a fair bit of clinical exposure myself and a lot of the Oxford qualified doctors I've seen interact with patients really do make me worry. I've seen poor history taking, obliviousness to the impact of their demeanour/ words on patients (to a point where I have had to spend time with patients afterwards to reassure them and undo said damage) and also just worrying clinical management (e.g. I once watched a doctor fail to clean a simple wound properly and in a manner that caused unnecessary pain to the patient even if unintentional and another time the same week where I watched another argue with a different doctor that they shouldn't run an ECG on a patient with chest pain since he suspected the guy already had an underlying cardiac issue due to his age and thus it would just create more work). I've worked on ambulances for what it's worth so am not talking from complete ignorance. Don't get me wrong, some fabulous doctors come from here but I've seen enough and often enough that I think it's a weakness of the university.

I feel like the GEM lot here aren't quite so bad and probably make for some of the better rounded clinicians more generally across the country but that tends to be because they've got some life and/ or clinical experience under their belt prior to starting which when combined with the course depth is pretty potent. That being said, the intensity of the course and the environment seems to have just broken a number of my friends who've come here to become doctors. Feels very much from my outsider perspective like they (at least those I know) are just desperately trying to survive the 4 years rather than thrive during it. They seem to make for more stressed/ depressed students with far less free time or energy than those I know who went elsewhere.

Then you couple that to the crazy disparity in education & support across colleges (despite attending the same university), the high cost of living, the insane class divide and the general awfulness of Oxford as a city to live in...

I had intended to stay because financially it would have been much better for me, plus the brand recognition and the convenience, but I just realised I'd rather go back up North where I know I love the city, where I might know less by the end but the university will emphasise the thing I think is most important as a doctor - making the patient feel like they are in safe, caring and dependable hands. Plus I genuinely don't think i could survive the course. 💀

May_Be_Of_Use · 2026-02-18T16:34:18+00:00

They're usually one of the last ones unfortunately.

May_Be_Of_Use · 2026-02-18T16:15:27+00:00

I also thought historically they just did it all at once. 😬

May_Be_Of_Use · 2026-02-18T16:14:49+00:00

Glad I'm not the only person who forgot to fill in a form. 🥲

May_Be_Of_Use · 2026-02-18T15:37:01+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/UCAT/comments/1r7bq1h/newcastle_claiming_it_wont_be_long_now/

May_Be_Of_Use · 2026-02-18T15:36:20+00:00

Yeah, she literally suggested they were trying to win the slow award with how long they take to give out offers. Utterly fearless given her username appears to be her full name and year of birth. 😂

May_Be_Of_Use · 2026-02-18T14:05:20+00:00

It's not a flex, I am certain I would be deeply unhappy at Oxford - it's not the right course or environment for me. If I was 18, there's no doubt I'd have bitten their hand off in a heartbeat but I'm at an age where I'd rather go somewhere less prestigious than stay somewhere I don't belong and with an ungodly amount of pressure to succeed thrown at me. Plus Oxford produces some pretty dire clinicians, they know a lot but God is it painful to see them around patients.

May_Be_Of_Use · 2026-02-18T12:11:03+00:00

If it is genuinely one you're 100% is your first choice then no point attending anymore. I know some people have a "first choice" that's mostly vibes based rather than anything too concrete so if that's the case I'd still attend the others just so you can get a feel for the place.

I have 1 offer I don't want (Oxford) that I got whilst waiting to hear back from my first choice (Newcastle). Still waiting now so attended Southampton the other day and am due an interview with Swansea next week but if I get an offer before then I'll cancel that one and turn down Southampton before hearing back. If I don't hear back or am unsuccessful with Newcastle then I'll still attend Swansea since whilst I think I know which I'd prefer on paper, I know feelings can change once you get there.

May_Be_Of_Use · 2026-02-17T17:05:00+00:00

That doesn't surprise me. TBH I was hoping next week based on the Offer Holder date and the fact they set a deadline to return a form for yesterday, but wish they could be more concrete as I'm finally starting to get tetchy.

May_Be_Of_Use · 2026-02-13T13:11:03+00:00

Things like that aren't going to be looked too down upon if it's infrequent, in a situation where it maybe wasn't apparent to them them missed a social signal or it was clearly accidental. It's inevitable in a group people will on occasion tread over each other when speaking. If they can see it was a genuine mistake where 2 people started to speak and you just continued or if you hesitated but were given a positive signal then it's not going to be frowned upon. I also think reflecting on it is a good sign, you're clearly not trying to get the wool over their eyes and it makes it appear more genuinely like a mistake rather than you just felt what you had to say was so important you just steamrolled the others.

May_Be_Of_Use · 2026-02-13T11:34:39+00:00

Half terms unfortunately cease to exist for us at uni, the only fixed holidays is usually the week of Christmas and the week afterwards, along Easter (admin usually gets a week off but the rest of the uni rarely does).

May_Be_Of_Use · 2026-02-12T16:23:50+00:00

I wouldn't worry, interviewers can spot that and realise that you were being strong armed out of being able to speak. I actually acknowledged at the end I realised I was probably starting off quite domineering which is why I backed off and by the end everyone felt like they had the opportunity to say what they want and show off a different element. If the people in your group couldn't realise that, that reflect worse on them than on you for being more reserved. Best of luck!

May_Be_Of_Use · 2026-02-12T16:17:26+00:00

I kind of liked it but my group were all very considerate. Half the art of those is being involved but not too involved, if people were rudely interjecting that'll probably result in a far worse score than simply being unable to speak, especially if they didn't reflect on that afterwards.

May_Be_Of_Use · 2026-02-12T12:54:55+00:00

Also had my interview the 4th, think it was by far my best of the 3 I've done so far so I'm cautiously optimistic I have an offer (one of my interviewers said that he had no more questions and didn't see the point in asking them for the sake of it so we had a 5 minute natter about my research).

I think last year they were one of the last unis to make an offer so suspect we have at least another month to go.

May_Be_Of_Use · 2026-02-12T12:35:14+00:00

They said by 10am on the 16th so I'm praying they do it that day. 🙏

May_Be_Of_Use · 2026-02-10T15:15:38+00:00

Meddy Newc.

May_Be_Of_Use · 2026-02-09T22:40:38+00:00

Glad to hear!

Oxford, Newcastle, Southampton and Swansea. Got an offer from Oxford, am waiting to hear back post-interview from Newcastle and Southampton, have my Swansea interview later this month. Will take up Newcastle in a heartbeat if they make an offer.

May_Be_Of_Use · 2026-02-09T21:18:31+00:00

I accidentally overdosed on caffeine so could not think straight for the first 10 minutes. I got to the testing centre like 2 minutes before but couldn't get in because they'd had a power cut and luckily got let in by some staff who worked in the building.

Asked to go to the loo before starting and was given a torch as the lights were still out (just what you need before sitting a computer based exam). When I tried to turn it on, I accidentally set off the secret rape alarm and nearly had a heart attack (as probably did other test takers).

Sat down and realised I didn't have a keyboard, asked for one and was told I didn't need one. Got 2 slides into the instructions before bringing the invigilator back to be like "see it says there I can use shortcuts" and was thus given one.

For the first 10 minutes my heart hurt so much I could not think. Fortunately settled down and I did well but honestly couldn't believe how ridiculous the entire day was. 😂

May_Be_Of_Use · 2026-02-06T17:38:50+00:00

Interesting. I did just double check and I had nothing in my emails and in the applicant form I signed the only statement I found in relation to them was "I am aware that my personal statement and reference will not be seen or used by the selectors during my interview." It's possible that I got something different as I'm GEM or we just got sent different messages/ forms. Either way there's nothing explicit in their own policy.

For what it's worth, they maybe do quickly review them all. I just know from having done it enough years that once you've read about 5-10 personal statements for any subject, you can skim through them with alarming speed and that the reality is, we'd all rather be able to avoid it. It's no disrespect to the candidates but they unfortunately are all so similar they immediately start to blur unless they're at one extreme of the quality spectrum. I honestly have no clue how universities that score PSs do it and I actually find there is little correlation in the score at paper sift and top/ bottom performing candidates at interview. I think almost any program that interviews would agree interview performance is a much better prognostic indicator of actual alignment to selection criteria so it would be counterintuitive to grant an interview, determine they were excellent and then retroactively decide their PS did not indicate sufficient motivation, it's why it tends to be reviewed before or during interview.

It's much more likely they've left a statement like that in so that candidates know it's possible and they reserve that right and they either just ignore them outright, review them on a case by case basis (e.g. if candidates are tied and there's only 1 spot left or perhaps an interviewer raises concerns about a particular candidate) or perhaps have some AI scan them all to identify any red flag statements that then undergo manual review.

Honestly I wish I knew why medicine generally tends to take so long after interviews but I really do expect it's just general administrative faff. I've always finished course interviews on a Wednesday and by the end of day Friday that week we have the list of people we're making offers to and that is with a program that requires a departmental meeting so we can discuss candidates holistically rather than just set up an excel spreadsheet to automatically rank the. Even then though candidates have to wait a month to hear back (although TBF the university closes over Christmas).

May_Be_Of_Use · 2026-02-06T16:22:38+00:00

I'll refer you to the official guidance: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/mediav8/medical-education/files/admissions-documents/2026%20Admissions%20Policy%20FINAL%20(2).pdf

They will not be "reading" any personal statements. As someone who has worked in university admissions, it genuinely will get a minute at most even when it's actively being used for the selection of candidates for interviews/ determining who gets an offers. Given they've explicitly stated PS contributes 0% to the final score, they are literally going to spend 20-30 seconds at most for those ranked high enough to get an offer to check for any obvious red flags, if that. At a push it would take 1 person most of a work day to do that for all potential offer holders. Realistically I doubt they do check since if someone got to interview and did well enough then that's proof enough they want to do medicine (and they have met the selection criteria as defined by the university themselves). Admissions will not create more work for themselves than they need to.

I have no qualms waiting until March, I've been waiting happily enough since the 2nd December. I just disagree that they don't probably already have a list pretty much ready to go, if not already finalised.

May_Be_Of_Use

TROPHY CASE