Big vs Small Medical Schools

Hey everyone

Like most 2014 applicants, I'm trying to decide on which medical schools I want to apply to! And I can't decide whether I would prefer smaller Medical schools which have smaller year group sizes, or bigger ones?

Is it true that the smaller Med schools give you a more close knit community feel and you get more personal help during the course?
Do larger med schools have better facilities for teaching? Are they more preferable because there would be more students & so more diversity?

So to current medical students and prospective applicants, what are your experiences of this? Which do you prefer?

Good luck to everyone applying!

Reply 1

Helenia

Having been to Cambridge, I kind of feel like I've experienced both to some extent. The first three years have ~280 people in a year, plus you share a lot of lectures with the vet students, who add another 70 or so. Lecture theatres are (mostly) full and there always seems to be loads of people around in practicals and so on. At the same time, though, because a lot of supervision (small group) teaching is arranged within your college and in groups of 3/4, you don't feel overwhelmed and you get to know those small groups much better.

In clinical years, there are only ~130 students in a year, which feels noticeably smaller. You do get to know people better and on some placements you may be the only student on a firm, which although daunting at first is great for getting experience. Because most of your non-medic friends have graduated by this point, you do get closer to the other medics.

I don't think that having a bigger year group necessarily means better teaching facilities. Where I've been working in recent years I've come across lots of students from one of the largest medical schools, and I actually think that it's too big for them and they don't always get the individual attention they might need. They always travel in pairs, if not larger groups, and there are so many around that people just get annoyed by always having students about and ignore them.

Reply 2

Ice Man

Original post by Helenia

Thanks for the info! So judging from your reply, could I assume you prefer smaller year groups? Did you experience any disadvantages to the smaller year groups compared to the larger ones in your first two years?