She asked not be identified so as not to be branded a trouble-maker

Last year at the age of 29 - well into a career as a research scientist - I finally decided to go to medical school.

I've thought long and hard about being a doctor before, but when I first applied for university at 17, I wasn't sure I had a true vocation for medicine. Instead I studied chemistry in Edinburgh, and now I'm a post-doctoral research fellow in the United States.

Although I find my work stimulating and love the intellectual challenge of pure research, there's a crucial part missing from my working life. So I do voluntary work at an inner-city hospital. I look forward to this every week - even at the end of a long working day.

Doctors are in demand

Now I'm sure I want to be a doctor. While I admire many things about the US, the health care system isn't one of them. So when I decided to apply for medical school last October, I decided to come home to the UK, sure I'd be considered for a place on one of the new 'fast-track' degrees for post-grads.

My first choice was the three-and-a-half year degree at Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry at Barts and the London. I was among the applicants invited to sit a personal qualities assessment test which would be used to pick the best candidates for the final interviews.

Parts of this test were like something out of Cosmo - almost on a par with asking your favourite colour in order to determine your personality type. It struck me as an odd way to pick medical students, but I assumed qualifications and UCAS forms would also be taken into account.

One in five chance

Wrong. I received the results last week. Although I passed the test - and passed it well - no interview. This is because the school randomly picked 120 interviewees from the 650 people who passed.

FAST-TRACK TO MEDICAL SCHOOL Post-graduate medical degrees started in 2000 These shave several years off the time it takes to be a doctor Demand far outstrips places available - 1,000+ applied for the 40 places at Barts Barts says its selection process is fair and ensures students are from a range of backgrounds Other medical schools use a similar method to pick students Medical school in admissions row

I cannot believe a respected school - and Barts is not the only one - uses such an arbitrary method to select future health care practitioners, especially given the shortage of these in the NHS. This surely rules out strong candidates. With my scientific knowledge, hospital experience and commitment to a medical career, I include myself in that group.

I'm one of many disgruntled applicants up in arms about this, and the British Medical Council has also criticised the process. For we only get to apply for four courses, and I've wasted one on a random selection process.

Not only did Barts not tell me when I asked how students would be selected that names would effectively be pulled from a hat, they charged us �25 each to sit the personality test. Some of us have written to the school and to our MPs to complain and to ask for a refund.

The whole experience has been a sobering one. Although I've since been offered a place on a five-year course, I'd rather study with other graduates of a similar age and background.

It's a tough decision to give up a promising career and go back to being a student, and I'd rather not have gambled with my future - let alone discover that a gamble is being taken with picking our future doctors.

Send us your comments on this story:

I run the graduate entry programme at Barts. Our admissions process was not a gamble. We set ourselves high standards for applicants, and 650 applicants had them. Secondly, the PQA is not 'like something out of Cosmo' - it has been developed by very experienced researchers in medical education, specifically for admissions to medical schools and it has been thoroughly tested. Thirdly, no-one has yet been able to tell me how I distinguish the best future doctor between someone who has a doctorate in microbiology, a degree in anatomy, an engineer who works voluntarily in a nursing home and a nurse working in the NHS for a number of years. There are about 3,000 disappointed people in the UK who applied to graduate entry schools and did not get in. I have no doubt that the majority could and will make very good doctors, but we only have space for 40 of them.
Dr Jon Fuller, UK

Along with 1,900 other students, I took the GAMSAT test this year, at a cost of �150 plus endless travel expenses. It was a multiple-guess test, and quite how it hoped to extract potentially excellent doctors is beyond me. Having passed it, I was interviewed and declined, which I accept. The problem is simple - too few doctors, too few study places and too many similarly able people willing to make the commitment.
James Fletcher, London, UK

My brother too has just been also turned down by Barts - he has a Doctorate in Microbiology, a biology first degree, AND a qualified nurse (expired SRN) who is currently working in post-doc research in virology. Yet he was rejected because of a random selection process. Luckily for the future of medicine he received an unconditional offer from Liverpool.
Chris Ackroyd, UK

I was offered an interview at Barts. What these comments prove is that the 650 people who were put into the so-called "hat" were all equally qualified. Many of the students (I included) had very good research degrees from very reputable universities. When faced with such a large number of equally talented students and only a small number of places, the only option available is to randomly select. Many excellent students are turned down each year from medical schools on very whimsical grounds and the normal process is as much a lottery as the Barts process.
Ryan Hobson, UK

As a current medical student, co-author of the Insiders Guide to Medical School 2003-4 and BMA Medical Schools Committee Representative, my advice is that the best way to avoid disappointment is to research the medical schools' policy on admissions thoroughly. This can be done in many ways but nothing is better than contacting the medical school directly. Ask them point blank if randomisation plays a part in selection and if so at what point in the process. On another point - the huge cost of the GAMSAT is partly because it is sent to Australia to be marked as we don't have an effective UK equivalent yet.
Alex Almoudaris, UK

I am a GP, and can tell you that the most important qualifications for medicine are 1. thick skin (the people you help most complain the most) 2. sense of humour (you got that rash doing what?!) and 3. stamina (I saw 60 patients yesterday at 8 minute intervals). Medical schools should design their entrance exams based on these requirements. See Catch 22.
Dr Tim Hughes, UK

Same position but I have applied to become a veterinarian. I applied to 4 universities in the UK, and despite having a PhD, an excellent research background and many years of voluntary work with animals, was turned down outright by one university. But I was offered places on other courses and am looking forward to starting at my northern university. I understand the time constraints on students such as myself and Halle - we will both be almost in our mid-30s when we graduate and yes, I wish I could complete my course faster. I say, accept the 5-year course and enjoy.
Sarah, UK/US

I'm a research scientist, with a D.Phil (Oxon) in cancer research and a BSc (UWS) in genetics. I have numerous medical work shadowing experiences, and am a regular volunteer at a local hospice. I do all this largely because I enjoy it. I was "randomised" by Barts. I'm upset about this, not because I was rejected, but because it's my favourite course and the realisation that it's not worth reapplying next year because the odds aren't good enough. With this selection policy, Barts et al will end up attracting weaker candidates because they have nothing to lose.
Jo, Oxford, UK

Fast-track courses are not the only route into clinical medicine. Some years ago I was a research scientist in much the same position as Halle, but fast-track was not an option then. After my PhD I did a conventional medical degree at Leicester, which has a tradition of accepting post-grads and other mature students. If you want it badly enough, you don't stop at the first refusal.
John Hutchison PhD FRCP, UK

I recently applied through NMAS to study midwifery as a mature student (27). Despite fitting all the requirements, I wasn't offered a place as the course was full. It turns out the administrators didn't even open my forms. How can the best candidates be chosen when as soon as the course is full, they stop opening applications? There's a crisis in midwifery, and other sections of the NHS - how is this going to be solved when good applicants cannot even get on a course?
Natalie, UK

As a med student myself, I can't understand why you would want to limit yourself to learning in a group of people from a similar background to you. I have always enjoyed making friends and studying with other students of all ages and backgrounds - it's what makes university fun. I have known a few mature students and they have been an inspiration as they have a dedication and fervour about learning medicine that us younger students occasionally lack.
Gemma Ryder, UK

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