Future Medical Student needs advice on Premed Courses

loulou2702

I am 17 and just started my A'levels and would like to enter Medicine.
I have been told about courses designed to give possible medical students more insight into the career and help decide if its right for them.

There is a 4 day residential course held by Medilink at Nottingham Uni which costs £239
There is a 3 day residential course held by Medicourse at Kent Uni which costs £200
or there is a one day course at Imperial College London for 1 day cost £89.00

Are any of these worth taking and any advice on which one to take or any others.
I live in London so the 3 day Kent and 1 day Imperial College are nearest to me
Thanks in advance

Swirlywurly

Hi there,

In my opinion if you know what medicine is what you want to do I would say you don't need to do these courses. I wouldn't necessarily say they're a waste of money but you will have no advantage over other students if you do them and whilst you will meet like minded people its not much more than a very expensive social exercise. There will be people from medical schools around the country there who you can talk to and ask them questions, but you can do the same thing on an open day.

If you were going to go for any of them Medlink is the most well established but also many people come away from it saying that it wasn't really worth the money. There are some great forums for people applying for medicine. Not sure if it counts as advertising but if you don't know about them you can PM me and I will give you the addresses for them. In my opinion they are more useful and they are free.

Good luck

perfect10

My daughter went on Medisix a few years ago and found it really useful, it gave her a real insight into different career areas in medicine and confirmed this as a career choice for her, you can also spend a day having practice interviews for University. There is no guarantee that you will get a place in a University as it is so competitive and you need to have a back up plan - this programme gives ideas on what that back up plan can be.

loulou2702

Thanks very much for replies.
I have PM Swirlywurly for more info.
I just think it might be a good idea to go on one to confirm it is right choice for me at this stage

melancholly

if she can get work experience related to medicine, then that would be more useful. however, that's hard to get and one of these courses can be very useul to write about in a personal statement or to talk about at an interview.

No_Future

loulou2702 wrote: »

I am 17 and just started my A'levels and would like to enter Medicine.
I have been told about courses designed to give possible medical students more insight into the career and help decide if its right for them.

There is a 4 day residential course held by Medilink at Nottingham Uni which costs £239
There is a 3 day residential course held by Medicourse at Kent Uni which costs £200
or there is a one day course at Imperial College London for 1 day cost £89.00

Are any of these worth taking and any advice on which one to take or any others.
I live in London so the 3 day Kent and 1 day Imperial College are nearest to me
Thanks in advance

If you can afford to waste that much money, go for it. You don't need these courses!

You can get into med school without going on any of those.

SIMSI and potmed are focussed on interviews and are much cheaper, run by med students and both v useful. (London based) Google them

No_Future

melancholly wrote: »

one of these courses can be very useul to write about in a personal statement or to talk about at an interview.

Admissions tutors are not necessarily impressed by someone spending a couple of hundred pounds on a course like this. It shows you can afford it, not that you are committed to/understand the demands of a medical career

loulou2702

Thanks again for more replies.
I wasn't thinking about admissions and statements and how good it will look. I just want to see if its for me and to give me some inspiration!
I am in the process of sorting out work experience for next year within a hospital and last year I did voluntary work at a local home for disabled people.

Its good to know there are other courses less expensive.
Potmed seems to have been last year - and cant find SIMSI but will keep looking and trying to find a link. I am open to any ideas or courses.

Swirlywurly

melancholly wrote: »

if she can get work experience related to medicine, then that would be more useful. however, that's hard to get and one of these courses can be very useul to write about in a personal statement or to talk about at an interview.

I would find something else to write about in a personal statement unless you are really stuck. All these courses show is that you can afford to go on one of these courses. They do not show dedication to medicine in any way and they are not a novelty as many people go on them.

Work experience is a must if you want to apply for medicine and along with other extra curricular activities, should be part of what makes up your PS.

Basically what No Future said.

No_Future

loulou2702 wrote: »

Thanks again for more replies.
I wasn't thinking about admissions and statements and how good it will look. I just want to see if its for me and to give me some inspiration!
I am in the process of sorting out work experience for next year within a hospital and last year I did voluntary work at a local home for disabled people.

Its good to know there are other courses less expensive.
Potmed seems to have been last year - and cant find SIMSI but will keep looking and trying to find a link. I am open to any ideas or courses.

These require few qualifications:

Charity shop
Volunteer/work in care home e.g. elderly - there are loads!
Any non medial job where you deal with ppl e.g. in a shop
Work as an HCA - see NHS jobs website


You don't need a ''medical'' placement in a hospital. You'll probably learn more interacting with patients/people than following a consulant and being told about some obscure disease/operation.

Best of luck.

BeckyM_2

I went to medlink at nottingham a few years ago, i think probably in the same school year as you.

I would say, if you're deciding whether medicine is right for you, it's very worthwhile. You have quite a full timetable of lectures and other bits, and it does give you a reasonable picture of what medical school is like; and what university things (you stay in halls, eat in the dining hall etc) are like in general. It's also good fun.

However they are overpriced and are basically a tool to sell their medical school to you. I don't think that I mentioned, either in my personal statement or in my interviews, that I had been.

So for helping you to decide if it's the right career path to take it's a useful few days, however for application forms it's pretty useless. But i've never spoken to anyone who went and had a bad time, even if they then decided not to persue a medical career.

All the best!