Students at Shrewsbury International School Bangkok are celebrating another healthy haul of university offers to some of the top medical programmes in Thailand and abroad.
Equalling this year’s tally of offers to Oxford and Cambridge universities, and continuing the school’s strong track record in the medical disciplines, eight of Shrewsbury’s Class of 2018 have now secured their places on highly competitive medical courses.
Thitaree (Tie) Chongkolrattanaporn got the ball rolling earlier in the academic year, when she accepted an offer to study at on the Chulabhorn international medical course at Thailand’s second oldest university, Thammasat. Some six months later we are now pleased to report that seven of her fellow classmates will also start their medical training having completed their A-level examinations this June.
Kochakorn (Mint) Buasri and Chavanil (Pound) Chanpakorn are both accepted into the highly regarded course at Mahidol Ramthibodi; two of just 25 places awarded annually on this programme.
Meanwhile, Natapong (Toon) Thaneerat and Panchanit (Pan) Torwattanakitkul both join a growing line of Shrewsbury students to be accepted into the Srinakharinwirot University/University of Nottingham (UK) joint medical programme.
Pornsinee (May) Laisathit has been offered an unconditional place at Chulalongkorn University, where there are only 18 places available per intake, whilst slightly further afield both Primil (Mil) Horsin and Natasha (Mimi) Ariyaviriyanant weigh up fresh offers from Chiang Mai University, alongside their earlier offers from Rangsit University and Khon Kaen respectively.
Medicine is traditionally a very popular career choice for Shrewsbury graduates, and an area in which current students are able to benefit from the considerable insight and experience of the school’s Higher Education team, parents, alumni and other connections in the medical field.
“Before I decided to pursue medicine, the school provided lots of opportunities to really understand what training and a career in medicine entails”, said Pornisee (May) Laisathit. “It was really valuable being able to meet lots of professors and alumni and to find out first hand what it is actually like to study medicine and to work as a doctor.”
In addition to extensive “mock” interview preparations, students also benefit from series of seminars with medical professionals, similar to the recent session for prospective Y12 medics on the subject of Medical Ethics by Dr. Julie Chomchai; Associate Professor at Mahidol University, and one of Shrewsbury’s very supportive parent community.
Most students will not encounter issues such as medical ethics within their academic curriculum studies, and are therefore extremely grateful for the additional opportunities that the school facilitates to extend their understanding and knowledge in these areas.
As Kochakorn (Mint) Buasri notes, “Our University counsellors and experts like Dr Julie know exactly what medical schools are looking for so their advice is really valuable”.
As a further convenient bonus for prospective medics, Shrewsbury is also a registered centre for both IELTS and BMAT (Biomedical Admissions Test) which, like the UK, is now a standard entry requirement for all Thai medical courses.
Another important focus for the Higher Education team has been to increase dialogue with universities in Thailand. The addition of a fourth counsellor to the Higher Education team who specialises in applications to Thai Universities, has in particular helped to develop a better understanding of the opportunities that are available for many students whose ambitions remain here in Thailand, and to strengthen the school’s support in their applications. In developing these connections, Shrewsbury is also able to articulate the particular standards and merits of the British curriculum’s GCSE, AS and predicted A-level grades upon which most applications are made; qualifications that serve to underline the sheer calibre Shrewsbury students to admissions teams at leading universities around the world.