Medic Tutor, a GEMS UniConnect partner, offers assistance to students applying for medical school around the world. We speak to Fady Anis, the online platform’s founder and a Jumeirah College graduate, to find out what it’s all about.
Managed by junior doctors and medical students in the UK, Medic Tutor is an online platform that aims to assist aspiring medical students with their applications to medical school. The pain point was experienced by Medic Tutor founder and Jumeirah College graduate Fady Anis when, as an international applicant, he became aware of the discrepancy in services available to prospective students living in the UK compared to international students.
“Applications become more competitive and there are a limited number of places for both local and international students. I saw a need for an affordable and accessible service to educate and support students through the application process,” says Fady.
Having been through the full process from initial application to acceptance at the University of Nottingham, Fady was eager to share the knowledge he had gained from the experience by supporting other aspiring students, ensuring they are given the best opportunity to achieve a place to study medicine in their chosen university.
Fady has worked alongside university admissions teams to organise, and volunteer in, university mock interviews, while also mentoring for the Widening Access to Medicine School scheme in the UK. He has also given talks at GEMS Education schools. Of the students he has supported, Fady boasts a 100 per cent acceptance rate to medical schools, which prompted him to formally set up Medic Tutor earlier this year to make application assistance for aspiring medical students more accessible.
SERVICES
One of the key services Medic Tutor offers is a consultation with applicants and their parents, which is targeted at any student considering a career in medicine from Year 9 onwards. In this hour-long session, some of the main discussion points include identifying the applicant’s ambition to study medicine and their understanding of what it entails; reviewing the application process in detail, covering predicted grades, additional entrance exams, personal statements, and interviews; exploring the potential medical schools the applicant can apply to around the world; flagging any weaknesses in the application and working to rectify them; highlighting core subject and grade requirements for different medical schools; discussing common challenges faced by applicants and families, such as tuition fees, travelling abroad, and making the most of university; understanding differences in the medical courses offered by different universities; and providing applicants and families the opportunity to ask questions.
Fady adds that Medic Tutor also offers a personal statement consultation, in which applicants can submit their personal statement to be professionally reviewed and proofread to ensure they present themselves effectively. The personal statement is often the university’s first impression of the applicant and it is therefore crucial to ensure that it is perfect.
Medical school interviews come in different formats and applicants have one shot at ‘wowing’ the admissions team. Practise is therefore very important. The Medic Tutor teams will work with applicants in a full 50-minute mock interview, which focuses on the most important concepts and questions asked. “We then review and dissect each answer, providing students with model answers and highlighting issues,” says Fady. “The experience alone will familiarise students with the process, enabling them to perform to their fullest potential on the big day.” Medic Tutor also offers freely accessible top tips pages, sample personal statements, a blog, and several other resources.
LOOKING AHEAD
Fady says he is excited about the collaboration between Medic Tutor and the GEMS UniConnect initiative, which works to offer GEMS Education students exclusive access to post-secondary scholarships and other opportunities. Fady feels the partnership with UniConnect is a testament to the hard work and quality of the services provided by Medic Tutor, and he hopes to support and encourage all GEMS students considering a career in medicine.
“Our main priority and focus is always to support the students accessing our services to give them the best chance of being accepted. Having said this, we are proactively implementing changes based on the feedback we receive and consequently some of the new projects in the pipeline include entrance exam courses, counsellor services, training seminars, and UK work experience programmes,” adds Fady.
Top tips for prospective medical students
Once students are confident that they want to study medicine — and for the right reasons — they should:
- Start looking at universities, different course structures, and entrance requirements, in addition to speaking to others that have gone through the application process and have been accepted into medicine.
- Slowly work towards ticking every box on the university’s requirement list to make sure they stand out as exemplary applicants.
- Study hard to achieve the required grades. Without meeting that threshold, it won’t matter how good their application is.
- Get as much support as possible with their application from people who know what they are doing.