Intercalating degree?

Intercalated Degrees
An intercalated degree gives you the opportunity to incorporate a further degree (BSc or BA) into your medical course. It takes different formats at different universities, It usually takes one year which could be after your second or third year. At some medical schools it is compulsory year making the course 6 years in total, some offer it as an option to all students and at some places it is only offered to the most academically able students.

There is usually a range of degree's available to choose from, traditional science subjects such as: Bichemistry, Anatomy, Physiology, Pharmacology, or topics such as Medical Law, Ethics or History of Medicine.

Why intercalate?
Intercalating gives you the chance to study a particular subject in depth, enabling you to expand your knowledge on a specific topic.
Intercalating often gives you the chance to be involved in research or Lab work, something which you may not get to experience during the rest of your medicine degree.

Intercalating may give you an advantage over other candidates when applying for competitive specialties, for example intercalating in Anatomy would be useful if you wish to pursue a career in surgery.

Why not intercalate?
The main downside to intercalating is the extra year it takes which will obviously be an expense which you had previously not considered.
A year studying a specific topic may make you forget some of the things you've learnt in the other years of your medical degree.

Intercalating is something which you should think about as early as possible, you may even wish to consider it before applying to medical school. You may not be interested in intercalating, in which case a 6 year course may not be for you. Alternatively you may really want to intercalate so it may be a risk to apply to universities which only let certain people intercalate.

Whilst there are good points and bad points to intercalating, its something you should consider carefully to make sure it is right for you.

cheers for that.. i saw that on the GMC website.. but i was wandering how badly i would be disadvantaged if i wanted to be a surgeon?

Apparently when it comes to intercalating it's all about finding the easiest degree such as pharmaholiday.

Apparently when it comes to intercalating it's all about finding the easiest degree such as pharmaholiday.

lol, i wondered why everyone does that

A what now?

Heh, I thought you might say that. But then maybe I don't know what it really entails. You'd have a much better idea actually being there!

An intercalated BA is only given out by Oxford and probably Cambs as well.

Bristol give out an intercalated BA for medical humanities, don't know about anywhere else tho....