How to deal with Rejection from Medical School

You worked hard in your application, interviews and maintained focus while applying to medical schools, but things didn’t quite work out the way you had hoped. You haven’t received any offers from medical school, and you’re feeling unsure of how to proceed. Here is some advice. My key message is Rejection = redirection.

With around 8,000 seats per year available at UK medical schools, and 4 times as many applicants as seats available. Medical school in the UK is highly competitive. Don’t be hard on yourself and acknowledge your hard work. A career in medicine does not define you, there is so much more to you than the fact you want to apply to medicine. You may be feeing upset or disheartened, but do not beat yourself up for it.

1. Take time to process your emotions, they are valid.

You may feel as though applying to medicine has consumed a lot of your time and energy. So not receiving any offers can almost feel like a waste of your time, which I can assure you is not the case. You may be feeling a little disappointed and hurt, so allow yourself a break. Acknowledge your feelings are valid and real. Take some time to do something you enjoy and practice some self-care, this could be taking time of social media, starting a new series, or taking a relaxing bath.

2. It is not the end of the road.

After taking some time to process and think if you are still confident you want to proceed in studying medicine at university, this is only a minor setback in a long journey. You still have many options. As hard as it sounds, trust in the process and don’t give up yet, this is merely the beginning of the journey.

3. Explore your options.

This may be an alternative path or a degree before applying to medicine, waiting for results day to figure out your next step or taking a gap year to reapply the next academic year. You may choose an alternative career path all together, which is totally fine.

4. Evaluate your journey so far and review your application.

This can help you to be more strategic if you decide to reapply. You could learn from any mistakes you may have made. Use your knowledge and experience from this application to better your next one. It may be a good idea to gain some more experience or further reading and later practice techniques to use in the bmat or ucat exam to give a stronger application.

5. Redirect your focus slightly away from the medicine degree to A levels.

Focus on achieving your best in the teacher assessments because you can use these grades to reapply or to go through clearing.

6. Don’t give up. Rejection= Redirection

Take action! Although it is not necessary to have a clear-cut idea of what’s going to happen next. Try to plan for the year ahead, redirect your focus on what you want to achieve and the steps you will use to get there.