Stuck between two universities!

I'd go for Birmingham but thats because I live in London and need to get out ASAP

I applied to Birmingham as well but I chose Warwick over it

Haha, I'm stuck on EXACTLY the same thing. Can't decide between King's and Birmingham either I didn't know king's was 70% female though, where did you hear that from?

What's London like? Would you say it is a good student city, or not?



It was on unistats and which? - 68%, to be precise

What's London like? Would you say it is a good student city, or not?



It was on unistats and which? - 68%, to be precise

I currently hold offers from King's College London and Birmingham. I love both pretty much equally, so I'm having a tough time deciding between them and would love other people's opinions/experiences of either one
Since both have so many pros, I'll write down my concerns about both:

KCL
- London is expensive
- No 'campus feel', harder to make friends
- 70% of the university is female, I don't get on with girls as well as I do with guys
- New curriculum could be dodgy

Birmingham:
- Not as many opportunities, in terms of research opportunities for my intercalated Bsc
- Less SSCs available
- Less prestigious

What do people think? I've created a poll too

All medical courses are majority female, I don't think you'll find a noticeable difference between Bham and King's

Prestige is both irrelevant and a completely abstract concept. It won't make you happier. You won't 'feel' the prestige while you're there, nor will it make any difference to your career. The only difference prestige will make is to the reaction of your auntie Mabel when you tell her what university you're going to. Forget about it

Birmingham has a lot of Bscs available, but you can also apply to intercalate at any university you like. I actually know 2 people intercalating at King's next year. I would also be SLIGHTLY hesitant about making decisions related to something you may or may not do. I was completely convinced I wanted to intercalate before I started med school, but by 2nd year I realised it wasn't for me

Regarding SSCs, I think this may be a matter of labelling. Birmingham has a number of projects every year that you choose what to do them on. Several group and individual poster projects, seminar-based sessions in 2nd and 3rd year, audit and teaching projects in 4th year. I don't actually know if there is more choice at King's, but there's certainly plenty of variety at Birmingham

KCL>Birmingham anyday.

Sure London is expensive but there are ways around it I.e budgeting, which is a life skill to have and you still would be having to do some to an extent at Birmingham anyway. KCL offers hardship funds to those struggling and London is easily worth the £ spent for the experience over Birmingham as there is a lot more to do. Since your doing Medicine I'm assuming you'll be at Guy's campus, which is amazing. Making friends isn't a straight forward thing as most people would have to have similar interests etc which you would still experience the same problem at Birmingham.

I don't think 70% of the university is "female" based. Even then do you know the number of the 30% of males remaining It may be a new curriculum but its the same standard across every single university for medicine.

What's London like? Would you say it is a good student city, or not?

Thanks, this helped me to get a bit of perspective on things - you're right, prestige won't make me feel happier, I'm not sure why it's even a factor I'm considering.
Are you a Birmingham medical student?

I live in London and have to say, it is amazing for students if you're into city life! Yes, it does have the problems that large cities all have, but on the plus side there's always something to explore every day and throughout the year. Shopping options are second to none in the UK, if not the world. From open days, I gather that student socials are often arranged by your own university, as well as by the University of London. Hence you get to meet people from a smaller circle, to a wider community.

And lastly but importantly... the night tube should be running very soon! Very useful to get around the city, no matter what time of the day (or night )

Can't comment on Birmingham, but I hope this helps.

Yes I am at Birmingham

Also to address your question about hardship funds. ALL major Universities have hardship funds. They are for if you are in real dire straits. It's more like... if you get burgled and lose all of your worldy possessions and you come from a low-income family which is unable to support you, the university will give you money to ensure that you don't end up literally starving or homeless. It's not something that you should be planning in advance to make use of

Ooh, the night tube!! Whilst London is an amazing city, I'm just not sure whether I'd actually be able to handle living there everyday - whilst I do like city life, I'm also quite a big on the countryside and rural(ish) areas. Are there many green spaces in London? Parks etc.?

Fantastic! Do you enjoy it, and do you enjoy the course? What's it like? Sorry, full of questions :P

Why don't you use google maps and see



I have enjoyed Birmingham overall, and I have no problems with the course. My only criticisms are that I personally don't like Birmingham as a city because it's much too big for me (I would never DREAM of going to London for that reason), and that the year is very big. There's nearly 400 students in my year, so you can get lost in the crowd.

Though I don't like the city, Birmingham does have the advantage that it has fantastic transport links and nowhere is too far away. London, Bristol, Wales are all an hour and a half away, so weekend trips are really easy thankfully

Wow, 400 students? Doesn't the medical school get crowded since there are so many people there?

King's has similarly-sized yeargroups.

Don't pick a university you don't like so much just on the basis of some imagined "prestige" which is not going to matter for years, if at all.

My problem is that I don't know much about how medical programmes abroad (i.e. In the USA) recruit international doctors - I've tried googling it but I don't know where to start looking and so far Google hasn't been very helpful. So the only thing I have to go on is the reputation of each uni abroad, as I don't really know any better. If I had an equal chance of being accepted into a medicine residency programme in America from Birmingham and King's, then I'd obviously choose Birmingham.

I think US residency matching is more to do with USMLE scores than the "prestige" of your university - and there is nothing wrong with Birmingham's reputation! I'm not an expert though (you couldn't pay me enough to work in the US) so maybe ask in the thread that's currently going in the Current Med Students' forum.