The Student Room Group

Deciding where to go!

OK, I need some help on choosing my firm and insurance offers. I'm lucky enough to have 4 offers, but now I'm a bit stuck as I can't choose! I've just written down a load of my thoughts, sorry if it's a mess but I've had to type it out quickly, i'm going to visit sheffield today to have another look at the city etc. Basically, my 4 offers are for Birmingham, Cardiff, Nottingham and Sheffield.

At the moment I’m looking very carefully at my offer conditions, and sorting them out into easiest to hardest. I don’t want to put something down as my firm, if I know it’s going to be difficult to achieve the grades eg. for Nottingham I need an A in both bio and chem., and tbh I’m not sure of getting an A in bio, I didn’t do very well in the January exam this yr (resitting in june). However, the offers are fairly similar, Sheffield is probably my easiest one as it includes critical thinking, B’ham doesn’t but I could get AAB in chem., maths and bio so I’d be ok with a B in biology.
So if I sort the med schools by the offer conditions, it does give me a rough order, but some of the offers are really similar so it doesn’t help that much.
In terms of the actual courses, they are all quite similar in that they’re all integrated (not traditional), have early clinical contact type stuff. Also, none are PBL courses, tho B’ham has a bit of PBL (20% I think) and Sheffield has ILAs which are a bit similar, but no massive differences between the courses overall as far as I can tell. The only one that sticks out is Nottingham since you get 2 degrees in 5 years, but I’m thinking that this must be pretty tough, as the workload would be really quite high to get through all that within 5 years. I’m going to try to find out the drop-out rate, to see if it’s significantly higher than other med schools due to this extra degree. How useful is an extra degree though? I know you can do intercalated degrees at other med schools, but you normally have to be at the top of your year to be able to do it. Does having an extra degree give you much benefit when it comes to applying for F1 &2? Or even applying for specialist training posts?

Another thing that comes to mind is the layout of the uni. B’ham and Nottingham are campus based, Nottingham has a really nice campus, B’hams is not bad. Sheffield is city based, I think I prefer campus based really, but I’m not massively put off by a city-based uni. Cardiff seemed fairly campus-like.

B’ham has by far and away the nicest actual med school, since they have a brand new section. Their lecture theatre is really nice and new, especially compared to the other med schools which are quite old in comparison. I dunno, this may not be a big deal but if I think about the amount of time I’m going to spend in lectures over the first few years, I want it to be comfortable! Cardiff if I remember correctly have their lectures in the Biosciences building or something like that, which is a bit old. Sheffield’s is pretty old too.

The other thing that’s sort of nagging me is the multi-culturedness (is that a word?) B’ham has a good mix I think, whilst others like Nottingham don’t as far as I know, at least from speaking to current med students. My college atm is 95% white or something, it’s not terribly bad, but it just seems like my closest friends in my life are actually non-white, I don’tknow if I want to go somewhere that doesn’t have a nice mix. However, having said that, when I went for my B’ham interview it seemed that in the Medlounge, the Asians and white guys were sort of hanging out in groups amongst themselves. That probably sounds really crude, but that’s just how I saw it, maybe it isn’t representative of what it’s really like, I don’t know. I just feel that I’d like to be in a place where I get to be friends with a wide range of people.



OK so that was fairly long winded. any help would be great. Cheers. :smile:

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Tough life, isn't it? :p:

Go for the one you have a gut instinct about. There must be one. I get the sense you're warmest about Bham, but I may be wrong.
Reply 2
Beccas right, u do seem set on B-ham. Still, make sure you're comfortable with the city that you're going to be living in for the next 5 years.
Reply 3
Reading between the lines - you don't seem to excited about cardiff and nottingham. It looks like you like bham, and that you are considering sheffield sinds they have a easier offer to match. The fact that you're also re-visiting sheffield shows that you're a bit interested in them.

Between sheffield and bham for me.
Reply 4
I think it's between Notts and Bham! :wink: It seems you wanna go Notts but it may be a bit risky because of the grades! And yeah, some of the questions about Notts I'm a bit worried about too because I think I may be going (another reason to choose Notts!)

Are on on the NMM forum? Hmm dunno, their workload does seem intense but I'm sure it's the same for other unis too. Looking at their typical timetable I think it's pretty much the same. They get Wednesdays off usually, like any other university, and aparently Fridays off a lot too. This is just the first year though. The people I've spoken to have said it's hard but everyone has plenty of time for partying and socialising and even those that are lazy and do no work manage to get by!

Btw, I woulda thought Notts is very multicultured. Nottingham is like the best known and most popular University to international students so have many people from abroad! I should know, my bro is an international and has many friends there :biggrin: And you're gonna be dong Medicine, you can't expect there to be no ethnic diversity, especially with Notts being a big city and all :smile:

Btw, Brum may have the nicest med school but Nott's isn't so shabby either...being the largest university hospital in Europe and all!

Hmm, kinda get the feeling I'm selling Notts to you!
Reply 5
By the way....doesn't every med degree count as two degrees: Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery.
Reply 6
_GUESS_
By the way....doesn't every med degree count as two degrees: Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery.


Not sure, but I think it's only one degree. At southampton, it's only Bachelor of Medicine, and so if a MBBS was two degrees, than that would mean Southampton, and other uni's that only give BM, would be disadvantaged, and they're not, you end up with the same degree.

Also, I think what smirf was talking about Nottingham giving two degrees is the BSc that you get with Notts in the 5 years, aswel as the medicine degree, whereas at every other uni you would have to take a year out to intercalate to get a BSc. Although, another point to make is that Notts give you a BMedSci, bachelor of medical science, so not sure if thats any difference to an ordinary BSc! The people at Notts I spoke to say it's the same though lol.
Reply 7
smirf83
The other thing that’s sort of nagging me is the multi-culturedness (is that a word?) B’ham has a good mix I think, whilst others like Nottingham don’t as far as I know, at least from speaking to current med students. My college atm is 95% white or something, it’s not terribly bad, but it just seems like my closest friends in my life are actually non-white, I don’tknow if I want to go somewhere that doesn’t have a nice mix. However, having said that, when I went for my B’ham interview it seemed that in the Medlounge, the Asians and white guys were sort of hanging out in groups amongst themselves. That probably sounds really crude, but that’s just how I saw it, maybe it isn’t representative of what it’s really like, I don’t know. I just feel that I’d like to be in a place where I get to be friends with a wide range of people.
I go to BL and it's very multi-cultural but its also really segregated aswell. So I suppose if you looked in on my life, you could say i have the opportunity to speak to all sorts of different people. But I know that there are quite a few people on my course who don't want to hang out with me because I'm white.
A lot of the time, it seems like these groups have come from 95% white schools and just want to hang out with people like themselves and celebrate their culture... but it makes it really hard for a white person to come along and hang out with them. (I don't know if you're white or not though)

Anyway..... PBL is a really good way to meet new people and kind of forces you to do work, i would thoroughly recommend it. So I say go for Bham.
Reply 8
I think it's the same everywhere to be honest. You find that in high schools and at university. A lot of the asians will tend to hang around with asians, a lot of orientals will hangg out with orientals and the same goes for whites. My friend at university who is asian, says the same thing and she says she finds it intimidating and feels unwelcomed to go hang and chat amongst the white group or the oriental group, even though they are friends and will be friendly, but it's not the same. And it's probably the same vice versa.
rozzy
Also, I think what smirf was talking about Nottingham giving two degrees is the BSc that you get with Notts in the 5 years, aswel as the medicine degree, whereas at every other uni you would have to take a year out to intercalate to get a BSc. Although, another point to make is that Notts give you a BMedSci, bachelor of medical science, so not sure if thats any difference to an ordinary BSc! The people at Notts I spoke to say it's the same though lol.


Isn't a BMedSci not a bit like a MSci? Good, but not quite as good as a BSc or MSc.
Reply 10
lol no idea! but yeah, you may have a point.
becca2389
Isn't a BMedSci not a bit like a MSci? Good, but not quite as good as a BSc or MSc.

Nope. BMedSci is Bachelor of Medical Science (or similar), so basically the same as a BSci.
But a MSci is still a masters, its just not quite as good as an MSc in that it's an extension of the undergraduate degrees.

EDIT I looked on Notts site and they say they give out the BMedSci at the end of the third year so it really is the same as a BSc. It was the fact someone mentioned the BMedSci was given out after two years of study that made me think it not as good! Though it seems funny they give out BScs to their other science programmes. Obviously med students are just special :wink:
Reply 13
Lol yeah I don't understand why it's a BMedSci and not just a normal BSc!
Reply 14
rozzy
Lol yeah I don't understand why it's a BMedSci and not just a normal BSc!
A Bsc and BMedSci aren't the same so it stands to reason that they don't have the same names...

Also I doubt coming out of medical school with a BMedSci and MBBS is better than just having an MBBS... seeing as getting that BMedSci probably didn't require any or much extra work.
becca2389
EDIT I looked on Notts site and they say they give out the BMedSci at the end of the third year so it really is the same as a BSc.
nope it's not the same. That's like saying... "oh, they've been at uni for three years, lets just give them a degree for that as well as the one they're meant to be working towards anyway".
Obviously its just so they can attract future applicants, seems to work too.
But they have to do a research project for the BMedSci which is pretty much what differentiates the intercalated BSc year from the standard MBBS course, is it not?

It doesn't matter much anyway. The MBBS (or the equivalent degree!) is the most important :smile:
Reply 16
Saffie
Also I doubt coming out of medical school with a BMedSci and MBBS is better than just having an MBBS... seeing as getting that BMedSci probably didn't require any or much extra work.nope it's not the same. That's like saying... "oh, they've been at uni for three years, lets just give them a degree for that as well as the one they're meant to be working towards anyway".


Actually, it does require much extra work. They take most of the 3rd year to do research or lab work to produce their dissertation or whatever they need to get that BMedSci. The students I have spoken to from Notts have not described it as easy, with a free token degree thrown your way with no work towards it, as you have implied.
Reply 17
rozzy
Actually, it does require much extra work. They take most of the 3rd year to do research or lab work to produce their dissertation or whatever they need to get that BMedSci. The students I have spoken to from Notts have not described it as easy, with a free token degree thrown your way with no work towards it, as you have implied.
Oh right. It sounds... riveting!
Reply 18
:rolleyes:

lol
On the splitting of people into their split groups yeah I've noticed that. However I tend to either make friends with mixed groups, or fully white people. Don't really have much in common with others that's probably why! However I do try to make friends with as many people as possible!

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