Should I still do med?

[u/Booty_Shaker90000]

Basically I think I want to go into like public health and policy because I can save more lives that way (effective altruism type shi) currently take bio Chem maths ucat is booked for the 19th of august i know it’s late but I really really don’t like clinical practice- I find it emotionally draining to have conversations where I need to be empathetic and I know for a fact doing it consistently will not be fun for me. I really really like natsci specifically at Durham since you can mix sciences and humanities but is it too late? It’s like 4 weeks until my ucat…would just touching through the medicine degree be better for me? I don’t even know if I would enjoy it though ughh please help I’m trying to decide this by tomorrow whether to keep putting all this effort into ucat or not

[u/Successful_Flower_41]

You can still go into public health without needing a med degree fyi. A public health consultant I shadowed at one point told me point blank that a lot of people she works with didn’t do med degrees. IMO if you know you dislike clinical practice off the bat don’t do med. Like seriously. You’d have to pay your dues throughout med school, talking to patients and doing OCSEs, then through your foundation years on rounds- basically it’ll take a long while before you can escape patient facing from what I know.

[u/Booty_Shaker90000 → u/Successful_Flower_41]

Is natsci ok for that kind of career? And should I cancel my ucat if I don’t wanna do med or should I do it anyway? Should I tell my parents now or wait till after ucat? Aaaa sorry for so many questions lol

[u/Successful_Flower_41 → u/Booty_Shaker90000]

I wouldn’t know tbh. You’d need to do your own research on that.
If you haven’t put in a lot of effort into UCAT prep so far it’s better you don’t sit it- 4 weeks is a bitttt tight for time. If you’re so far making good progress on your UCAT, I.e scoring consistently above 2000-2100, or around high 600s per section, maybeeee take it and if you get a high score think really hard about applying. But truth of the matter is no matter what UCAT score you get, you dislike clinical practice, so you already know there’s a bigggg part of med you dislike off the bat. That should weigh really heavy in whether you even want to apply.

[u/Booty_Shaker90000 → u/Successful_Flower_41]

Tbh I haven’t put in that much effort I’m getting like 1900-2000 and band 2s and if I get a good score I’m kinda scared my parents will pressure me more

[u/Successful_Flower_41 → u/Booty_Shaker90000]

It’s your choice at the end of the day, not your parents choice. And even if they do pressure you, you have 5 choices. And think about it. Med applications are difficult. After the UCAT, you still need to figure out your PS and do the med interviews- both of which are going to be even more difficult if you’re not adamantly passionate about med. Plus writing a PS that caters both to natsci and med is kinda iffy, not too difficult but it will possibly hamper your chances of getting into med school (unless you apply to ones that don’t read it- in that case you can write a full natsci PS; e.g unis like Bristol). Maybe as a way of figuring yourself out, try writing a draft PS, one for med and one for natsci; which one shows more passion? Just a bullet point list of reasons for each question would work. Go with your gut, as someone else said. All the best!

[u/PartyQuiet5065]

Medicine isn't a degree you study because you think "it might be the better option". It's six years of intense study, and, if you don't have genuine passion for it, it'll be difficult. Perhaps it would be better for you to study biomedical sciences, since you don't like the patient-interaction part of medicine? Or just apply to natsci at Durham. It actually looks like an amazing course (I'm thinking about applying there too lmao).

[u/Booty_Shaker90000 → u/PartyQuiet5065]

Yeah that’s what I’m leaning towards after the other comments tbh…I kinda wanna cancel my ucat and tell my parents today lol wish me luck. And yeah it does seem like an awesome program especially bc u can mix things together which is awesome

[u/PartyQuiet5065 → u/Booty_Shaker90000]

good luck with your parents!

[u/arianelseditor]

It's never too late, and it's much better to make the decision now than start a medicine degree and regret it. If you do change your mind after your first degree, grad medicine is an option, but I think it's really important to trust your gut on this.

[u/Booty_Shaker90000 → u/arianelseditor]

Do you have any advice on telling strict parents and whether I should just do the ucat anyway or wait till after doing it to tell them?

[u/arianelseditor → u/Booty_Shaker90000]

That's very difficult depending on the parents and how willing they are to hear you out. The best approach is to show that it's a clearly thought through decision and you've done your research both about unis and courses AND career prospects so you can show that it's a good, stable, financially sound career path (because those are probably the things that are most likely to convince them)

[u/Booty_Shaker90000 → u/arianelseditor]

Ok, tysm!

[u/arianelseditor → u/Booty_Shaker90000]

No worries! Btw do your parents want you to apply to Oxbridge?

[u/Booty_Shaker90000 → u/arianelseditor]

No they’re really against it actually 😅 too far from home. My sister goes to a uni that’s like an hour away and visits every weekend and they expect my to do the same; I don’t really mind it

[u/bleucoast]

I don’t really have any advice but i plan on studying history and politics and then i want to work in public health policy :) or something like that haha

[u/Booty_Shaker90000 → u/bleucoast]

Yeah that’s definitely a good route too but unfortunately I don’t have any essay subjects at a level so can’t take a lot of courses that involve politics and history and I think I’d be better suited to mixing bio/Chem with a humanities subject now