Oxbridge Medicine 2016

4gs3gs

Hi All,

I'm hoping to study Medicine in either Oxford or Cambridge beginning in 2016. My Junior Cert grades (All Higher Level) are as follows:

Maths-A
English-A
Science-A
Business Studies-A
Religious Education-A
History-A
French-B
CSPE-B
Geography-B
Technical Graphics-C
Irish-C

Do my Junior Cert grades matter for this and are they sufficient? I'm doing all Physics, Biology, Chemistry, French, History, Business and the three compulsories for the Leaving Cert. Any advice is much appreciated!

paulo6891

Your junior cert grades will never matter. You will never use them, and if you did you would probably be laughed out of the interview room. Good results though, keep up the good work!

pow wow

paulo6891 wrote: »

Your junior cert grades will never matter. You will never use them, and if you did you would probably be laughed out of the interview room. Good results though, keep up the good work!

Not entirely true. They do matter, but not very much. A strong Personal Statement and good LC results will do more for you than your JC results ever will OP.

TheEdgeofGlory

pow wow wrote: »

Not entirely true. They do matter, but not very much. A strong Personal Statement and good LC results will do more for you than your JC results ever will OP.

Just wondering if they would compare Irish student's JC results when weeding people out?. I got fairly good results considering I had a lot of upheaval and personal stuff going on for two years! ( mainly As and Bs but a few Cs), and don't believe it displays my true academic potential!. I'm not sure about applying to UCAS as I don't know if my results would be considered good enough as I know British students who would be applying with 10 A *s or more at GCSE level.

Cro123

Your junior cert results might matter but you'll easily fulfil the requirements.

Although Oxford require no specific Junior cert results, a similar degree (Medicine @ Edinburgh) requires B's in junior cert science, maths and english.

It's really the LC results + a great PS that they're looking for.

paulo6891

Do you have a link to that Edinburgh requirement?

Cro123

It says I'm a new user and I can't post URL's but search Medicine in Edinburgh on the UCAS website > Entry requirements > Overseas qualifications and bob's your uncle.

expiiplus1

I really, really hate to break this to you, but Cambridge (and I understand Oxford too) places a lot of emphasis on GCSE results. They see the Junior Cert as the Irish equivalent.
Even if you do brilliantly in your interview (THE major decision factor) you probably still won't get in. For most subjects they will give you an offer after a particularly good performance, albeit a particularly harsh one. This probably won't be true of medicine because it's so heavily subscribed. I know somebody who attained 9 A's in his JC. He had an excellent interview. He ended up rejected due to that solitary "B." (in the most useless subject on the entire course)
Still, despite the last paragraph, apply. It's a fun experience, and it is hard, for me or anybody, to know what Cambridge Admissions are looking for. You could be lucky.