What is Clearing?
Medicine and Dentistry Clearing Guide
Clearing is a pathway where universities with spaces on their courses can place students. To be eligible for clearing, you cannot hold any other offers.
Medicine and dentistry are among the most competitive degrees to gain admission for. They require several hurdles to be successful, including passing an entrance exam, obtaining the required A-levels and passing an interview. Additionally, some universities require a personal statement and set grades for GCSEs.
Inevitably, some students will not be able to overcome each hurdle and lose their offer. There will also be students who do not gain an offer to start with. When having no offers, students can try to gain a place through clearing, which is extremely challenging for medicine and dentistry… but possible.
How Clearing Works
Which Universities go through clearing?
How to find universities that offer Clearing?
To search for which places are available for clearing, go to the UCAS search tool and type in medicine or dentistry under vacancies. You may wish to use the course code, such as A100, for undergraduate medicine. You can also call the universities directly, even if they are not on the UCAS clearing website.
We have had a student in the past who called all the universities and was able to get an interview for a medical school that was not on the clearing. They had an interview the next day and a mock interview with the MSE team. They were ultimately able to gain a place at a Scottish Medical school.
You can contact as many universities as you wish and keep refreshing the UCAS page.
Top Tips for Clearing
The phone number for admissions is not always the same as the phone number for clearing. In addition, some universities require you to fill out a form beforehand to show interest, so it is worth going on their website as well as social media and doing your research. Gaining all the required numbers and documents beforehand, being organised and efficient, will save precious time on results day.
It is worth being strategic on clearing day, so call those universities which are traditionally in clearing, such as Sunderland, rather than contact places which hardly ever appear in clearing like UCL or Imperial.
Prior to clearing, make a spreadsheet of all the medical schools and their clearing phone numbers. You can ask family and friends to help call around on the day, but ultimately, they may need to speak to you directly.
What do I need for clearing?
Have the following ready
- A-level grades and subjects
- GCSE grades and subjects
- Personal Statement
- UCAS ID
- Clearing ID
- UCAT score
Be prepared to be interviewed
What to do once a place has been offered through clearing
You can only add one choice in Clearing.
Add your clearing choice onto UCAS only after the university has told you they will make you an offer (not an interview offer!). After you submit this, the universities will do their part and confirm with UCAS.
Predictions for 2025
Go for the newer medical schools, which may not have had huge applicants either through lack of awareness from students that they exist, or anxiety about attending medical schools which are not well established. These will include Brunel and Bangor.
Med schools with a foundation year programme are also more likely to appear but look at their entry requirements carefully.
Medical schools that use waiting lists are unlikely to be in clearing.
