Cambridge Medicine

[mmmt2012]

I was just wondering if anyone knew any information about getting into Cambridge Medical School? I'm currently a year 10 student in Australia and I wanted to know if i should do anything in particular? My subjects for next year are chinese, HL maths, biology, chemisty, english, and economics... should I partake in more extra-curricular activities? i hear that Universities like Oxford and Cambridge do not consider extra curricular activities as important as ivy league colleges.. I am much more studious rather than involved in out of school activities, would Cambridge expect more impressive things on my resumes? competitions, awards, leadership? Any information would be greatly appreciated.

[mmmt2012]

please excuse my grammatical errors.

[SSMFW]

You don't need 5 Higher Levels

They require 40-42 points overall, with 7 7 6 / 7 7 7 at HL with...HL Chemistry and 2 of HL Maths/Physics/Biology

So I'd recommend moving English, Chinese and Economics to SL because you don't need them.

Some extra curricular s, about two or three you partake with a passion they'd be interested in, but it is more focused on your academic side of medicine and having some relevant work experience and extra reading on medicinal science they are more interested in.

[Babydolleyes]

As far as I know all ''top'' schools love good EC's. What are your HL subjects? I think Cambridge requires 42 points and HL Bio and Chemistry with HL's being 777 or 776. This is incredibly tough to do, especially with Math HL. Definitely keep your options open so you don't set yourself up for disappointment, sometimes it's vital to be realistic - There are so many applicants every year, even if you get an amazing score you aren't set.

[Award Winning Boss]

As far as I know all ''top'' schools love good EC's. What are your HL subjects? I think Cambridge requires 42 points and HL Bio and Chemistry with HL's being 777 or 776. This is incredibly tough to do, especially with Math HL. Definitely keep your options open so you don't set yourself up for disappointment, sometimes it's vital to be realistic - There are so many applicants every year, even if you get an amazing score you aren't set.

Cambridge doesn't. The universities in the UK don't really. It's much more academic.

You just need to make sure that you have quality volunteering (if you can say what you've gained from it then you're good. If you can't, you're pretty much just name dropping). There was a very informative post posted here for medicine applicants. Here.

Another thing you should know, is that in the UK, it doesn't matter what medical school you go to because they're all standardised really. Otherwise, you'd have really good and doctors that shouldn't be doctors. Which is stupid. They're just taught differently. Read this too.

[Sandwich]

I would say actually that Medicine is one of the few courses where they do care quite a lot about your extra-curricular activities. You're going to be in a stressful position of high responsibility where you need to be able to work with people on teams, as leaders of teams, be committed, have good people skills and generally be an all-rounded person. Otherwise why do Medicine - you should be doing academic science!

Basically your grades being excellent should be a given (everybody will have the grades). Showing leadership, teamwork, commitment, enthusiasm, interest in other things, that you've taken responsibility for stuff, that you've worked with people... blah blah blah = relevant to a medical application. Also work experience is pretty essential.

At Cambridge and Oxford they're less interested in you as a doctor and more interested in you as a scientist (because they have a much more divided undergraduate vs postgraduate system, and initially you're applying pretty much just for the science basis), but they'll still care about your extra-curricular achievements insofar as they prove you've got the right character and personality traits to succeed in the eventual career. You should just make sure that your extra-curricular activities are all revealing these personality traits - preferably various activities showing different things.