Having a mentor to help you get into medical school can be immeasurably helpful. With only 1 in 3 students getting accepted, and for the most popular universities, the success rate for applicants is only 1 in 10. It is even more challenging for international students to get an offer, with only 1 in 16 applications from international students being offered a place.
It’s never been more important to have a mentor on your side to coach you through the process and increase your chances of getting an offer from your chosen university. In this post, we tell you all about our mentoring programme at The Future Medic, tips on how to find the right mentor for you and details of the application process for medical school.
The Future Medic
Who are we? We provide specialist tutors and mentors so you receive the best advice and support going into your medical studies. Each tutor is hand-selected / hand-picked after going through a rigorous training process to meet our standards so that we can guarantee the quality we provide our students.
Our founder, Dr Valeed Ghafoor (MBChB, MRCGP, DRCOG, PGCert CPME), currently practices as a GP Partner with specialist interests in Medical Education and Medical Training; he is responsible for tutoring and mentoring doctors from their 1st year of medical school through to their last year of GP training. He also partakes in the University of Manchester’s Interview Process.
His passion for research and delivering high standards of patient-centred care has led to multiple achievements. Dr Ghafoor holds two research publications, twelve national poster presentations, three international oral presentations and an internationally delivered audit project.
He has over 14 years of experience in mentoring, public speaking and the medical school admissions process, so you can rest assured that you’re in good hands with a mentor from The Future Medic. He has helped thousands of aspiring medical students to successfully enter the medical school of their choice. Dr Ghafoor is well regarded by both his colleagues and his students as an excellent educator and loves tutoring students to help them achieve their full potential.
Our Medicine Mentoring Programme
The aim of our Medicine Mentoring Programme is simple; our expert tutors will guide you through every aspect of the application process to aid in securing a place at one of your chosen medical schools. The programme has been specifically designed from the ground up by our Lead Tutor, Dr Valeed Ghafoor. It is a two-year programme from the start of year 12 to the end of the interview cycle in year 13.
The Medicine Mentor Programme experience
Wondering what it would be like on our mentor programme? In this section, we’ll tell you about the support you’ll receive, the level of communication, the live sessions and how we deliver feedback.
Communication and support
You will have unlimited access to our expert tutors through your own dedicated WhatsApp group. This allows for a channel of open communication and dialogue. Your tutor is constantly available to you via this group, which means that their support is not just limited to the live sessions.
This channel is for you to ask, discuss and clarify any and all aspects of the UCAS application process, Work Experience, UCAT, Personal Statement, and Interviews. This does not need to be limited to only the UCAS process, as discussions also include life at medical school, working as a doctor in the NHS and much more!
On top of this, the experience our tutors hold helps them in best guiding your application depending on factors such as your A-level subjects, UCAT performance and predicted grades – there is certainly an art to this, and we help you maximise your chances. Consistent feedback each year highlights this feature as one of the most popular of this service – students enjoy and find comfort in being able to ask questions whenever they think of them.
Live sessions
This mentoring programme consists of monthly live sessions where study timetables and action plans are made according to what is most relevant at the time. For example, at the start of Year-13, the sessions are heavily focused on applying the finishing touches to your medicine personal statement and medicine interview tutoring. However, in Year-12 summer, we help you get your balance right by starting your personal statement, coaching you for the UCAT, as well as helping you reflect on your work experience.
The very first session is based on exploring your aspirations for medicine, your personality, any apprehensions you may have and your strengths and weaknesses. Ultimately, this is so that we can create a profile based on all of these factors so that we can generate a two-year plan specific to your needs which accounts for all aspects of the UCAS process.
Feedback
We always stress the importance of live sessions, as the interaction helps to develop the richness of feedback and allows you to obtain a higher degree of critique from non-verbal communication.
Each live session is audio-recorded, which helps in numerous ways. You can use the recordings to review your performance and the feedback given and use this as a tool for continued improvement outside of the sessions. The recordings also help us to measure your progress. It is a confidence booster to see how far you have progressed!
As this is our most popular, most in-depth and detailed service, we ensure each student receives the quality guaranteed. As such, spaces are extremely limited and are appointed on a first-come, first-served basis, so contact us if you have any questions.
Finding the right student mentor for you
It’s important that you find the mentor that is right for you and can meet your expectations. After all, they are helping you to achieve your future ambitions in the medical world. Here are some tips to ensure you choose a great mentor.
Find an expert in medicine and a good role model. You need a mentor that has extensive experience in the medical field as someone who understands not just the process of getting into medical school but what the universities are looking for amongst the applicants that make them seem suited to a career in medicine. Our tutors and mentors at The Future Medic are very experienced and have undergone extensive training to provide you with what you need.
Ask questions. Find out what your mentor can do for you to help you get into medical school, from UCAT coaching and reflecting on your skills and experiences that make you suitable for a career in medicine to personal statement mentoring and interview coaching. Ask everything you need to so you fully understand how the mentor can best support you through your journey to medical school.
Be open-minded. Different mentors can offer different things, depending on their own experience and if they act independently as a mentor or for an organisation. Some may be good at helping you network and find new opportunities within different medical schools and work experience placements once you’re successful, while others have extensive experience and expertise in the application process and understand what makes a strong candidate.
As a hopeful student of medicine wanting to get into your chosen school, find a mentor that has the coaching skills and track record to help get you into medical school.
Do your research? What does their track record consist of? Do they have a good reputation, and what do precious clients say about them? Do your research? It’s always best to choose a mentor from a successful organisation like ours.
Build relationships. Once you have found your mentor or mentoring programme, build relationships with your mentor and other medical school applicants. Networking is one of the best things you can do for yourself to be successful because you can learn from others.
We want you to achieve your goal of getting into a good medical school of your choice and to improve your chances of being successful; finding a student mentor for the medical application process is of great importance and dramatically helps to improve your chances. At The Future Medic, our tutors are ready to work with you and provide the support and expertise you need to be the best you can be and fully prepared for the journey.
