We(my friend, Shahirah and I) joined the Projek Inspirasi directed by Syaza Nazura to help SPM leavers answer some of their questions regarding some courses. We joined Google Hangout Session 3 : SPM Leavers 2014 and Shahirah has already covered most of the questions asked during the GH in her blog right here. One question that I am more interested to answer is this one(picture above).
I know I am not an example of a student studying dentistry in UK but I do have some experiences applying to some of the universities (Manchester University, KCL and Queen Mary University of London). So I'm gonna share them now.
I'm gonna list them as steps with some short notes so you can see the processes clearly:
Note: The dates are for 2015 intake
- Apply through UCAS (UK's version of UPU)
- 15 October 2014, 18:00 (UK time) – any course at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, or for most courses in medicine, veterinary medicine/science and dentistry
- Maximum a student can apply for dentistry is to 4 universities, and another one from other fields than dentistry or medicine.
2. Write your personal statement
- Refer to the requirement for each university and satisfy write in everything. Try and get others opinion on your personal statement. Refer to UCAS for the guidelines.
3. Sit for UKCAT
- Marks preferably 700++ on average. On average, I got around 690(mediocre)
- As seen in table below, mean is 2642.77, around 660.7 when divided by 4.
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| Taken from here and is for 2013 candidates |
4. Search for some shadowing opportunity or part time work at a dental practice nearby
- When I asked KCL about my rejected application, they told me that I didn't have minimum 2 weeks working experience. I only shadowed one dental clinic on every Friday for a month and it is not considered enough.
5. Ace your A level or IB or whatever that you take
- Most of the universities would want great results(at least 3As) and because we apply during our Alevel, AS results are very important for the impression to get the conditional offer.
- Note: Getting 4A* wouldn't guarantee you a place,
6. Interview
- Well, I didn't get the chance for an interview so whoever read this post will need to ask whoever that has the privileges to attend one to answer questions.
7. IELTS
- Register for a test early so you can prepare and choose a date that you're most comfortable with. Different universities have different requirement but mostly would want 7.5 or above.
8. Tawakkal
- Now that you've done your best, all that is left is to pray and tawakkal. If you got an offer; CONGRATULATIONS! and if you don't, don't lose hope and try to search for an alternatives pathway to continue you love in this field
If my memory serves me right, those are the steps that I took when applied in the 2014 cycle. My biggest regret would be my UKCAT score and the working experience.
So, based on these steps I'd say it's not impossible to study dentistry in UK(many have done so) but you'll have to try your best and prepare yourself so that those people at least look at you and call you for an interview. Of course the steps that I've listed and the requirements that I mentioned are based only on the universities that I applied and they are the top universities for dentistry in UK, so the requirements are, (very slightly) higher than others. All I can say is, all the best!
Note:
1. UK universities have 10% international students quota, so if there are 50 students in the dental faculty, only 5 will be taken from international applicants.
2. For every test, there is fee to be paid.
3. For UCAS application, applicants can have minimum one and maximum 5 applications to universities.
4. Everything described here is only on my opinion, so some other people with difference experience might have different opinion.
5. Information need to be checked periodically because there could be some new changes that I didn't know.
6. Please disregard any grammar errors. :p
Till then, Assalamualaikum.
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