The Student Room Group

Worth applying to Oxford?

Hi all,
I was doing some research about different medical schools, and I found out that some make you do an intercalated degree.
So I was thinking for a university like Oxford which does it.. Is it worth applying to Oxford for medicine ? Medicine isnt a degree like Law where the university you study from could be the deciding factor for getting a job. And 1 extra year means, you start working 1 whole year later and you have + £ 9000 of loan ? Whats your opinion about this ? Thanks :smile:
Original post by Shahid786
Hi all,
I was doing some research about different medical schools, and I found out that some make you do an intercalated degree.
So I was thinking for a university like Oxford which does it.. Is it worth applying to Oxford for medicine ? Medicine isnt a degree like Law where the university you study from could be the deciding factor for getting a job. And 1 extra year means, you start working 1 whole year later and you have + £ 9000 of loan ? Whats your opinion about this ? Thanks :smile:


You can do an intercalated degree at all universities (although some only let a certain amount intercalate), its just that some include it in their syllabus and make it compulsory. So its not worth applying to Oxford just for this.

You're best applying for places you actually stand a chance of getting in at. With Oxford you'll need a high percentage of A*s at GCSE to stand a chance.
If you intercalate, even if it's a fixed part of the course, you get NHS bursary and paid tuition fees for the last two years of your degree instead of just the last one, as is the case with a five-year degree with no intercalation. So (and someone please correct me if this is wrong), you won't have an extra £9k in tuition fee loan to pay back if you go to Oxford.

You're right that the university you go to is largely irrelevant when it comes to getting your first job, and Medicine at Oxford and Cambridge is a different animal to Medicine anywhere else: the first three years are strictly pre-clinical, and I don't think there's another medical course in the country quite like that. What matters most is whether you think that different structure and different style of learning would suit you. The extra year will seem completely irrelevant ten years down the line - so many people choose to intercalate anyway (since you can intercalate anywhere, and it's optional in most places), and many others have taken a gap year before they even started. Some, like me, start med school well into their twenties or even their thirties, so one little year really isn't going to make a difference.
Reply 3
Original post by ForestCat
You can do an intercalated degree at all universities (although some only let a certain amount intercalate), its just that some include it in their syllabus and make it compulsory. So its not worth applying to Oxford just for this.

You're best applying for places you actually stand a chance of getting in at. With Oxford you'll need a high percentage of A*s at GCSE to stand a chance.


Thanks for the input but I don't think you understood my question, or maybe I didn't articulate it correctly.
Reply 4
Original post by *pitseleh*
If you intercalate, even if it's a fixed part of the course, you get NHS bursary and paid tuition fees for the last two years of your degree instead of just the last one, as is the case with a five-year degree with no intercalation. So (and someone please correct me if this is wrong), you won't have an extra £9k in tuition fee loan to pay back if you go to Oxford.

You're right that the university you go to is largely irrelevant when it comes to getting your first job, and Medicine at Oxford and Cambridge is a different animal to Medicine anywhere else: the first three years are strictly pre-clinical, and I don't think there's another medical course in the country quite like that. What matters most is whether you think that different structure and different style of learning would suit you. The extra year will seem completely irrelevant ten years down the line - so many people choose to intercalate anyway (since you can intercalate anywhere, and it's optional in most places), and many others have taken a gap year before they even started. Some, like me, start med school well into their twenties or even their thirties, so one little year really isn't going to make a difference.

Thanks very helpful !!! :smile:
Original post by Shahid786
Hi all,
I was doing some research about different medical schools, and I found out that some make you do an intercalated degree.
So I was thinking for a university like Oxford which does it.. Is it worth applying to Oxford for medicine ? Medicine isnt a degree like Law where the university you study from could be the deciding factor for getting a job. And 1 extra year means, you start working 1 whole year later and you have + £ 9000 of loan ? Whats your opinion about this ? Thanks :smile:


It also means you get to stay at university for a whole extra year rather than being forced into work...

As stated, you don't have to pay an extra £9k. You do have a year's worth of living costs though.
Original post by *pitseleh*
If you intercalate, even if it's a fixed part of the course, you get NHS bursary and paid tuition fees for the last two years of your degree instead of just the last one, as is the case with a five-year degree with no intercalation. So (and someone please correct me if this is wrong), you won't have an extra £9k in tuition fee loan to pay back if you go to Oxford.

You're right that the university you go to is largely irrelevant when it comes to getting your first job, and Medicine at Oxford and Cambridge is a different animal to Medicine anywhere else: the first three years are strictly pre-clinical, and I don't think there's another medical course in the country quite like that. What matters most is whether you think that different structure and different style of learning would suit you. The extra year will seem completely irrelevant ten years down the line - so many people choose to intercalate anyway (since you can intercalate anywhere, and it's optional in most places), and many others have taken a gap year before they even started. Some, like me, start med school well into their twenties or even their thirties, so one little year really isn't going to make a difference.


St Andrews has a pre-clinical course as well. It does still include some clinical experience but it is quite limited compared to most other unis.
Original post by Okorange
St Andrews has a pre-clinical course as well. It does still include some clinical experience but it is quite limited compared to most other unis.


Thanks - had a feeling there might be another one I'd forgotten about! :smile:
Original post by *pitseleh*
Thanks - had a feeling there might be another one I'd forgotten about! :smile:


I have to say I think the overall difference is largely exaggerated. Obviously I have only experienced medicine at one university, but from what I gather (and correct me if I'm wrong) even those that profess early clinical contact... its only like a half day per week or so. So I assume those that do not claim early clinical contact are even less, and Oxford does have a half day every 8 weeks (the minimum the GMC will let them get away with).

I guess the compulsory before-clinical intercalation does add an extra year compared to what many experience though.

Original post by Okorange
St Andrews has a pre-clinical course as well. It does still include some clinical experience but it is quite limited compared to most other unis.


How limited? And what is your impression other courses get?
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by nexttime
I have to say I think the overall difference is largely exaggerated. Obviously I have only experienced medicine at one university, but from what I gather (and correct me if I'm wrong) even those that profess early clinical contact... its only like a half day per week or so. So I assume those that do not claim early clinical contact are even less, and Oxford does have a half day every 8 weeks (the minimum the GMC will let them get away with).

I guess the compulsory before-clinical intercalation does add an extra year compared to what many experience though.


Ah, really? Most of my Oxford medic friends were GEM students because my college didn't offer undergrad Medicine, so obviously their experience was a bit different again. But I also know a few Wadham medics (well, they're doctors now!) and always had the impression that they found their pre-clinical years to be very non-clinical. As you say though, maybe that partly comes from having it thrust upon you that Oxford is strictly divided into pre-clinical and clinical. I can't quite remember how it works though - do you have three years pre-clinical, then intercalation, then two years clinical? Because for us it was two years pre-clinical followed by three years clinical.

I can't speak for any other medical school, but during the pre-clinical years at Sheffield we had history-taking sessions (two students to one patient) a few times a term, a two-week hospital placement in first year, a community attachment spread over six weeks in first year (where you would go and visit the patient at home in pairs), and a case presentation/mass history-taking session once a week (patient would come into the lecture theatre, and 240 of us would ask questions and try to get a coherent history :lol:). They've also now added half an hour at a GP practice every week for pre-clinical students, but that wasn't a thing when I was in first and second year. Beyond that it was mostly lectures, dissection sessions and practical skills like cannulation and injections and whatnot in second year.
Original post by *pitseleh*
But I also know a few Wadham medics (well, they're doctors now!) and always had the impression that they found their pre-clinical years to be very non-clinical. As you say though, maybe that partly comes from having it thrust upon you that Oxford is strictly divided into pre-clinical and clinical.


Maybe that's it. It definitely is very non clinical - I've just seen a few discussions on here that 'early clinical contact' is often a bit of a gimmick with not much actual time spent doing those activities, so in fact everywhere is a bit non-clinical. But like I say I don't claim to have experience of this.

I can't quite remember how it works though - do you have three years pre-clinical, then intercalation, then two years clinical? Because for us it was two years pre-clinical followed by three years clinical.


First 3 years are 9 terms. 5 terms pre-clinical, 4 terms intercalation, then 3 years of 48 weeks/year for clinical.

I can't speak for any other medical school, but during the pre-clinical years at Sheffield we had history-taking sessions (two students to one patient) a few times a term, a two-week hospital placement in first year, a community attachment spread over six weeks in first year (where you would go and visit the patient at home in pairs), and a case presentation/mass history-taking session once a week (patient would come into the lecture theatre, and 240 of us would ask questions and try to get a coherent history :lol:). They've also now added half an hour at a GP practice every week for pre-clinical students, but that wasn't a thing when I was in first and second year. Beyond that it was mostly lectures, dissection sessions and practical skills like cannulation and injections and whatnot in second year.


That's more than I expected, but its still not all that much right? Most of your work is still academic stuff just like elsewhere... I'm under the impression that some applicants think that these courses are 'learning on the job' kind of things, which they clearly are not. Maybe that's just my impression though.

I'm just going to pick up on one thing though - half hour GP placements? Doesn't it take longer than that just to get there? What's the point in that!?
Original post by nexttime
Maybe that's it. It definitely is very non clinical - I've just seen a few discussions on here that 'early clinical contact' is often a bit of a gimmick with not much actual time spent doing those activities, so in fact everywhere is a bit non-clinical. But like I say I don't claim to have experience of this.

First 3 years are 9 terms. 5 terms pre-clinical, 4 terms intercalation, then 3 years of 48 weeks/year for clinical.

That's more than I expected, but its still not all that much right? Most of your work is still academic stuff just like elsewhere... I'm under the impression that some applicants think that these courses are 'learning on the job' kind of things, which they clearly are not. Maybe that's just my impression though.

I'm just going to pick up on one thing though - half hour GP placements? Doesn't it take longer than that just to get there? What's the point in that!?


Ah, thanks for clarifying.

And yes, I totally agree about the course being mostly academic; I definitely felt like the two-week hospital placement we had during first year was a gimmick, because nobody knew anything like enough to really get much out of it at that stage. It's definitely not learning on the job, as you say.

Whoops - I meant to say 'half day GP placements'. I've got exam brain at the moment I think, haha.
Original post by nexttime
I have to say I think the overall difference is largely exaggerated. Obviously I have only experienced medicine at one university, but from what I gather (and correct me if I'm wrong) even those that profess early clinical contact... its only like a half day per week or so. So I assume those that do not claim early clinical contact are even less, and Oxford does have a half day every 8 weeks (the minimum the GMC will let them get away with).

I guess the compulsory before-clinical intercalation does add an extra year compared to what many experience though.



How limited? And what is your impression other courses get?


We learned clinical skills throughout the 3 years, we get full day GP placements once every 2 weeks i believe in second year for at least half the year (I remember going a total of about 5 times so about 5 days in total), we get an optional 1 week placement at the end of 2nd year in a specialty of our choice and we get 5 days of hospital placement in 3rd year.

Overall, 2-3 weeks of clinical placements depending on if you took the optional week, I wouldn't say its that much, but it wasn't nothing. I honestly felt like it was appropriate could have been a bit more but it wasn't that useful. Early clinical exposure isn't terribly useful if you don't know what you are doing. Partner schools do still say St Andrews has great clinical skills teaching and that is mainly because we are examined quite vigorously on them.
(edited 8 years ago)

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