Warwick
Overview
Warwick Medical School is a little bit different because it is a completely graduate entry course. All of the students at WMS have a degree at 2.1 or above in any subject before coming to study medicine. We are currently the largest graduate entry medical course in the country with 193 students joining each year. Additionally, since it is an accelerated course, we study for 4 years rather than 5. Unlike some of the graduate course where student join an undergraduate course in 2nd year, WMS has tailored the course to graduates and made a unique 4 year curriculum.
University Life
Warwick University is a campus university. The campus is 710 acres on the outskirts of Coventry and is fairly self-contained. The campus feels like its own little town with a theatre, cinema, supermarket, huge state of the art sport centre, cafes, bars and a club. There is also an onsite GP surgery, pharmacy and 2 banks. One of the main attractions of the Warwick campus is also the amazing woodland and green spaces that make the campus a lovely place to explore and relax.
Social Life
Warwick is a very social university and the medical students mostly live off campus and so tend to socialise in Coventry or Leamington Spa. Saying that, if you are looking for a huge night life and loads of options for clubbing, then Warwick may not be for you.
Sports and societies are a huge part of WMS. We have tonnes of medic sports teams as well as speciality societies, charity work, and an amazing trauma and emergency society that hold an amazing annual conference which sees a mass trauma role play including actors and special effects. Warwick Medical School feels like its own little family and there is a real sense of community.
Interview
If applicant have the relevant qualifications, work experience and UCAT score then they may be invited to selection centre. Normally Warwick hold an MMI style selection centre. WMS say they look for evidence of specific skills and traits such as teamwork, communication, respect, empathy, resilience, and other fairly universal qualities you would expect in a medical school interview. They gear all the stations to exploring these traits so my tips would be to ensure that you have example of times you have displayed these qualities in your work experience or studies.
From experience of Warwick and other selection centres, it could be said that Warwick has a more gentle and friendly approach to the interviews. They are looking at what sort of a person you are rather then whether you can do complex calculations in your head or recall the dreaded Krebs cycle.
Tips
WMS takes the UCAT entry test and the score they accept for selection centre varies each year. Due to the slightly more competitive nature of graduate entry courses, the UCAT requirement is often a little higher than most schools, however it certainly attainable. Warwick also specify that your verbal reasoning score needs to be above the national mean to qualify.
As mentioned before, Warwick requires you to have a minimum of a 2:1 in any subject. This means that WMS is amongst the few medical schools that accept art graduates into medicine, something that makes them very special in my opinion. They DO NOT look at you’re A-Level or GCSE results at all.
Warwick has a large focus on community and teamwork. Older years play a crucial role in supporting younger years and our peer teaching programmes mean that we all utilise older year groups for teaching as well. If you are a graduate and want a solely graduate course, tailor made to your age group and skills then Warwick may be for you.
@thefemale_medic Rosie Cleere