Congratulations on your decision to apply to medical school! The upcoming year may be difficult and frightening at times, but it will all be worthwhile in the end. The continual assault of the medical school application deadlines UK is one of the things that makes medical school applications stressful. Hence, I will go through every significant date you should be aware of for 2024 medical school application timeline (for a place in 2025/2026 cohort) in this post.
UCAS
The UK’s official online application system for higher education is called UCAS. The very first step in putting together and sending out your application to multiple institutions is to register on UCAS. Unfortunately, the UK med school application deadline for 2024/2025 academic year has already closed. UCAS has yet to announce the deadline for medicine applications 2024 for entrance in 2025. For you to have a general idea of your medical school application timeline in 2024, the significant dates from the prior year (2023) are listed below.
- 17 May 2023 – UCAS opens: Registration opens. You can start your application but you would not be able to submit it until a few months later
- 15 October 2023 – Early entry deadline: Entry deadline for the universities of Oxford and Cambridge and most dentistry, medicine or veterinary science applications.
- 25 January 2024 – Entry deadline: The entry deadline for all other undergraduate courses. Try to keep within the internal deadline set by your child’s school or college. This will provide enough time for the application to be checked and references to be provided.
- 23 February 2024 – UCAS Extra opens: UCAS Extra opens for students who have not gained an offer from any of their five chosen universities. This allows the students to add an extra choice one at a time until an offer has been made.
The most important medical school application deadline UK that you should take note of here is the closing deadline for Medicine applications. Hence, by October, you should have already gathered all required paperwork, written your personal statement, and selected your 4 medical schools as well as 1 safety non-medicine school.
UCAT 2024
Previously there were two undergraduate medical admission exams, the UCAT and the BMAT. With the cancellation of the BMAT as an exam, the UCAT remains the only formal admissions test for medical schools in the UK.
You will take the examination in a licensed UCAT testing facility by registering and scheduling a time. The following dates are approximate as the 2024 dates are not available yet. However, they are some of the most crucial ones for you to mark on your calendars as you get ready to take the UCAT in 2024. Do note that you should submit your application to medical school the year before your year of enrollment. For example, if you are applying for entry into medicine in 2025, you should have taken your entrance examinations (UCAT) and have completed and submitted your application by the October 2024 deadline.
- Early June 2024: UCAT Registration, UCAT bursary and access arrangement applications open
- Late June 2024: UCAT Bookings open
- Late July to Late September 2024: UCAT Testing period
- Late September 2024: UCAT Registration and access arrangement applications close
- Mid October 2024: UCAS application deadline
- November 2024: UCAT Results delivered to universities
Please take note that 2024 dates are expected around March 2024 on the official UCAT website. For the most recent instructions, please see the UCAT website.
When choosing to start your intense UCAT preparation, it is important to keep in mind that the UCAT testing window extends from July to September 2024. Choosing which month you want to take your UCAT examination is important. It can definitely affect your UCAT score depending on your personal circumstance. If you want more advice on when you should take your UCAT examination, you can look at our article here. Our expert UCAT tutors are also on hand to support you in your preparation.
BMAT 2024
CAAT have announced that they will no longer be running the BMAT for medical school admissions in 2024. Some universities, such as Cambridge, have already issued a statement that they will be using the UCAT as part of their admissions process.
MEDICINE INTERVIEW 2024
As mentioned previously, the stressful medical school application timeline finishes by mid-October. Unfortunately, this is usually where the never-ending waiting starts. It is critical to stress how crucial it is to not make comparisons that would be damaging to you. Do take note that most universities do not send out interview or acceptance offers at the same time. Hence, just because your friend or someone you know has heard back from your preferred university in a few weeks, does not make it any less likely that you would not receive an offer because you have not heard back yet. Each university has its own schedule for distributing invites and doing interviews, and it is difficult to predict when you would hear back from them. Additionally, foreign students typically receive responses later than domestic students.
Invitations to medical school interviews often circulate in late November or early December. They could also be sent out over the next year. Once you have received your interview invite, you will be given a few dates, which are typically in December 2024 or the first few months of 2025, to choose from for your interview. Depending on how the epidemic develops over the course of the rest of the year, this procedure could be postponed and could be conducted either in person or online.
TIPS FOR PREPARING
As you have undoubtedly already surmised, medical school application timeline is long and a time- and labour-intensive process. The secret to a stress-free year is proactive planning. As you would be applying for medical school whilst juggling other school and external responsibilities, you should be mindful of how you manage your time. The process of applying to medical school might be viewed as the first of many tests in time-management!
Start early with UCAT
We strongly advise starting your UCAT preparation as soon as possible. Keep in mind that if you plan to take both examinations, you will need additional time to prepare. You can start slow with practice questions, tutorials, and other study tools, and slowly increase your studying intensity closer to the examination date itself. Specifically, this means that you can focus on spending more time, potentially every day, on preparation between 8 and 12 weeks before your test.
Keep track of UCAS key dates and medical school timeline
In addition to all the advice above, you should prepare a folder containing all of your application-related documentation. Furthermore, you should also not overlook the tedious fundamentals such as immigration or banking documentation. Reading online blog postings and interacting with medical students on Twitter and Instagram are good places to start your research on medical schools. Many people are eager to provide their suggestions! You might also find our tool for comparing universities handy for doing so.
That being said, you should also wait before making any decisions regarding medical schools until you have received your UCAT scores. Your entrance examination scores are likely to be the biggest deciding factor when choosing which universities to apply to. This is because there are certain universities that have specific cut-off scores when deciding which applicants to invite for interviews, so you might not want to waste one of your application choices if you scored lower than a certain cut-off.
Use your summer to complete your Personal Statement and UCAT
You should begin writing your personal statement by the summer. Starting is often the hardest part. Hence, you should start this process in summer, where you can begin by first merely writing down your thoughts. You can polish them and write complete paragraphs and eventually your complete essay afterwards. Ideally, before October rolls around, you should feel secure with your personal statement.
Once more, being organised, prepared, and proactive is essential. Take your time and create many checklists to ensure you do not miss anything as you go.
Enjoy your final year of school!
Finally, keep in mind to appreciate your school year. Soon you will be leaving for university, potentially far from your friends and family. Even though the application process is crucial, keep in mind to take pauses and spend time with the people you care about. Make sure to put your health and well-being above all else– medical school is waiting for you!
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