Yasmin Baker is a fifth-year medical student at Imperial College London. She is also a former Co-Chair of our Alumni Leadership Board and a Co-Founder of the non-profit organisation, More Than Medics.

Following the publication of our new research on inequalities in access to the medical profession, we spoke to Yasmin to learn more about her background and experiences on her journey to pursuing her dream career.

Growing up in a low-income, single-parent household in Liverpool – one of England’s most deprived areas – Yasmin attended a local state school, on free school meals, where encouragement to attend top universities was limited. Determined, she had to do lot of research herself on how to navigate the path to medical school.

Yasmin’s belief in her ability to achieve her ambitions was transformed after she got the chance to attend one of our Summer Schools at Cardiff University in 2019. She met peers from similar backgrounds, spoke to admissions tutors, and got a small taste of the academic experience of studying medicine at university.

But this was just one small step towards her goal. She still had to work hard to succeed in her A-Levels alongside studying for both the UCAT (University Clinical Aptitude Test) and the BMAT (BioMedical Admissions Test) – two aptitude tests used to assess medical school applicants. The support she received from the Trust and the friends she met on the programme proved to be invaluable during this time. However, she did experience some setbacks throughout the application process.

One of her teachers actually told her that she should be disappointed with her UCAT result, and that her personal statement wasn’t good enough. Yasmin feels that the support she received more generally from her school was inadequate. For example, she had to fight to receive interview practice support to apply to Oxford, when many of her peers at private schools were benefiting from weekly interview support through the year. The application process was made more difficult by the disruption caused by the COVID pandemic, which happened when she was in Year 13. Although she received offers from all her interviews, she recalls a particularly disheartening medical school interview, with one interviewer asking where she was from and rolling their eyes after she answered that she was from Liverpool.  This knocked her confidence during that interview.

Reflecting on these experiences, Yasmin points out that medical school application processes require more clarity on their application processes and their widening participation (WP) criteria. The latter being particularly important, as she recalls how some of her offers were contextual WP and others not, which confused her at the time. Additionally, financial constraints severely limited her ability to attend university open days, putting her at a further disadvantage.

Despite these hurdles, Yasmin secured a place at Imperial College London, her dream university. Nevertheless, the financial pressures of studying medicine, particularly in London, remain daunting. Costs for essential living, hospital placements, conferences, and extracurricular activities create stark disparities. She has observed firsthand how financial barriers restrict students from lower-income backgrounds from fully engaging in university life, limiting opportunities crucial for developing essential interpersonal skills – opportunities and skills which can help with your career journey.

Now in her fifth year, Yasmin is keen to raise awareness of the barriers people like her can face, but she is keen to empower others to be confident in their ability, no matter their background.

“The way you present yourself and your confidence will take you most of the way there, despite your circumstances and lack of support.”

She is also passionate about redefining what a medical career is and wants to empower medics to broaden the scope of their career. Alongside a fellow medical student, Martin Diamond, she established More Than Medics, a non-profit organisation focusing on equipping medics with the resources, mentorship and guidance to explore diverse, unconventional career avenues!

Follow Yasmin on LinkedIn to stay up to date with what she’s up to.

The opinions of guest authors do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Sutton Trust.