Preparing for Medical School Selection: Exploring the Complexity of Disadvantage through Applicant Narratives

Background: Despite a growing drive to improve diversity in medical schools, those from state schools and less‑advantaged sociodemographic backgrounds remain underrepresented. We explore applicants’ approaches to preparing for medical school selection, considering the complexity of sociodemographic disadvantage in this highly competitive process.

Methods: Narrative interviews were undertaken with applicants to a United Kingdom medical school, exploring experiences of preparation for selection (n = 23). Participants were purposively sampled based on involvement in widening participation schemes, school background, gender, and ethnicity. Transcribed data were analyzed using Labov and Waletzky’s analytic framework. Bourdieu’s concepts of cultural capital and habitus provided a lens to constraints faced and variable experiences. This informed a consideration of the ways applicants approached and navigated their preparation, in the face of various constraints.

Results: Constraints to resources and support were often apparent for those from state nonselective (SNS) schools. These applicants and those beginning their preparation later (12–18 months before application) appeared particularly vulnerable to myths and misunderstandings about the application process and appeared less confident and less discerning in their navigation of preparation. Some of the applicants, particularly those from independent and state selective schools, appeared confident and competent in navigating the complexities of the application process, while others (often from SNS schools) were more frequently lost or stressed by the process.

Discussion: Those who lack particular preparatory tools or resources (materially, culturally, or perceptually) must “make do” as they prepare for medical school selection, In doing so, they may risk a haphazard, ill‑informed or ill‑equipped approach. Constraints to opportunities, more typically experienced by those from SNS schools, appeared to motivate the process of bricolage for a number of the applicants. Perversely, medical schools have introduced nonacademic requirements to level the playing field of disadvantage, yet applicants in this group appear to experience challenges as they prepare for selection.