Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

Birmingham or Cardiff medical school?

I really can't decide which university to go to! Both of them have very good sports facilities, offered me AAA and quite large year sizes.

I know birmingham is slightly higher in the rankings but I live around 40 mins from there and it makes me not want to go there as its so close to home :s-smilie:

Any advice as to whether I should choose cardiff or birmingham? :smile:

Reply 1

Elwyn

Cardiff!!!!!!! :dance:

But seriously, what sort of things will help you make your decision?

Details of the course? What the uni is like? What the city is like?

Reply 2

digger123

That's exactly the kind of stuff I would like to know! :biggrin:

what the medsoc like? and how good is the course and the night life?
I feel more drawn to Cardiff i think, but then the student satisfaction statistics worry me as they are much lower than other medical schools :unsure:

Reply 3

Elwyn

Original post by digger123

What is the medsoc like?
It is really good, they organise regular socials aswell as working really hard to make sure us medics get lots of discounts at places in town.
How good is the course
This will depend on what you enjoy and how you learn. My experiences so far have been brilliant. The timetable isn't too hectic, teaching is done through lectures, tutorials and lots of dissection, which gives a good mix of teaching styles so we get the best out of it. Also worth noting there aren't any exams in january at Cardiff, unlike Bham. This means we get more time to adjust before things get serious. We get 7 clinical attachments in year 1 in 7 different specialities to give us a taste of modern medicine. They are currently in the middle of revamping the course so it may be worth googling 'Cardiff C21 project' to find out more. One of the changes are the finals have moved to the end of year 4 to make year 5 purely clinical.
The night life?
The union is better than many others I've been too, and it's cheap. But town has a good mix of bars, each with their own night and you'll always have something to do. Cardiff is one of the nicest cities in the country to live in; low crime, cheap, plenty to do.
I feel more drawn to Cardiff i think, but then the student satisfaction statistics worry me as they are much lower than other medical schools
This worries everyone before they come here, I'm unsure as to why they are so low, but trust me, don't pay any attention to it, everyone I know loves it here. :unsure: