Applying For Medicine at University? UCAS Options

Medicine is undoubtedly one of the most challenging fields to get into. You are currrently only permitted to put 4 UCAS options if you want to do Medicine, so what are you able to put in the 5th option?

From past experience, most medics tend to put biomedical science in the 5th option because it is the closest option that they can think of.

Here are a few options that you may want to consider. The main focus here is bioprocessing, but I have also included few options that may be appealing.

You may wonder what exactly is ‘bioprocessing’. In short, bioprocessing is the study of the process of manufacturing bio-related products. In other words, production of things that is dependent on other living things like bacteria (e.g. drugs, wine and cheese). I will emphasise the healthcare side of the subject as I know you all are potential medics.

I studied Bioprocessing of New Medicine (Science and Engineering) at UCL, and I have been taught how to manufacture medicines like insulin. You can categorise therapies into different groups by its nature. Drugs like aspirin are called small molecule drugs. Their synthesis often only involves complex chemical reactions.

On the other hand, biotherapeutics are macromolecules, often require the use of DNA-recombinant technologies to produce them. For instance, insulin is a biotherapeutic protein that is used to treat diabetes. Before 1920, people didn’t know how to treat diabetes as the concept of biotherapeutics was not popularised. Later, insulin was discovered and used to control the disease, where insulin from pigs was first injected into patients.

Nevertheless, perhaps due to religious or other health reasons (e.g. allergies), in the 1980s, recombinant insulin was mass-produced for use. These hormones are manufactured by non-human cells. By incorporating the genes that codes for insulin into the bacterial or yeast genome, the cell produces the protein in a pure form that avoids any problems with allergies. Likewise, many biotherapeutics like vaccines are produced this way. Biotherapeutics are said to be more precise and generally more potent than small molecule drugs, and bioprocessing is the study of how to manufacture these products.

Moving onto a more (or less) interesting topic, you may have heard about gene therapies and/or tissue engineering. These new therapies are gaining more and more attention because they open new doors. For instance, conventional treatment for liver failure is a liver transplant but we do not have enough donors.  One potential solution is to ‘grow’ a liver in the laboratory,  the other is to culture hepatocyte (liver cells) in labs so patients can get a cell-transplant therapy. Either way, there is a need for bioprocessing expertise in both approaches. If you’re interested in novel therapies like the ones mentioned above, bioprocessing may be a good option for you.

To conclude, there are simply too many applications that the subject is involved in, and it is impossible to describe it all in this passage, so I urge you to research on the course if you’re interested. Bioprocessing is interlinked with biochemical engineering, so if the university does not provide courses regarding bioprocessing, you may also want to consider biochemical engineering. However, be prepared that the requirement in mathematics may be high in engineering-based subjects.

MPharm is, of course, an attractive option, as you get to learn about diseases and different drug treatments as well as law and ethics surrounding the subject. If you’re interested in healthcare and biochemistry, this would be a suitable alternative. However, bear in mind that the course is 4 years and you need to complete a series of training (e.g. pre-reg) before you’re qualified. Yet, it is possible to opt out in year 3, earning a BSc, then you can apply for Medicine.  Still, in some, if not all, universities it has a passing score of 50% instead of 40% because it is a Master’s degree, so think twice before you apply.

Most courses in the life-science department are 3-year based therefore it might be more suited for some of you. If you already know what you want to specialise in your medical career, it would be wise to fill your 5th option with something related. For example, if I know I want to go into psychiatry, I may opt for Neuroscience so A) I can write a personal statement with ease B) Even if my application to medical school was unsuccessful, I would be doing something that contributes to my medical career.