The Student Room Group

3 days left to decide - still haven't chosen my firm/insurance!

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Reply 20
I feel with london youll be exposed to a diverse group of people, so youll be exposed to different types of health problems as a med student preparing you to be a good doctor. and I love london! im dying to get an offer from a london uni :frown: i love how busy it is, yes its overpriced. I dont know much about the universities so I cant tell you if one is better than the other but I think its up to you in the end, youll be a doctor regardless!
Good luck!
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 21
luckily i have until 8th of June to apply to my universities due to my last university getting to me late, hopefully ill have made a decision by then.
Original post by ranz
I feel with london youll be exposed to a diverse group of people, so youll be exposed to different types of health problems as a med student preparing you to be a good doctor. and I love london! im dying to get an offer from a london uni :frown: i love how busy it is, yes its overpriced. I dont know much about the universities so I cant tell you if one is better than the other but I think its up to you in the end, youll be a doctor regardless!
Good luck!


The same will be true of Birmingham really.

Everyone seems to think seeing all the rare diseases/conditions is important as a medical student. Whilst its interesting, its not always that beneficial. You need to know how to manage the bog standard, day to day conditions that you will see as an FY1/2. And you will see that wherever you train. The management of rare things come once you become much more senior.
I'm deciding between the same two unis, I can PM you my pros and cons list, if you'd like? :h:

The main thing that worried me about London was how ridiculously expensive everything is! However, if you can afford it (I personally can't) then it's definitely a great place to be :biggrin: Good luck deciding!!!
You mentioned cost and jobs and obviously im only assuming but i imagine a job on top of a degree in medicine would be adding so much unnecessary stress to your time at university
Birminghams still got a great student experience from what I know, its just like any other major city bar London :smile:
Let us know what you decide OP
Just to add a couple of pros for Birmingham (that would be my choice out of the two if it was me!)

Birmingham uni campus and the QE hospital are right next to each other and on the train station of University. A lot of students get houses in the cheaper suburbs and travel in (accommodation is cheaper in the suburbs and the train cost, while expensive, still makes the suburbs cheaper and is still considerably less than it would be to do the comparative accommodation and tube distance in London).

While there's a lot to do in London, there is in Birmingham too! It's still a massive city with excellent train connections and an airport (and also easier to drive in if you're bringing a car at all - no congestion charge and less outrageous parking prices - the QE has a large multistory car park and the uni has car parks for students commuting etc)

I think it's also worth remembering that while London has loads to do, as a medical student, how much time will you really have to be doing all of these things? Certainly first year I expect you'll struggle to keep up (not just you, everyone does - it's a massive change from college!) and also whether you'll have the money to do everything that's on offer. Of course there'll be the odd day when you've got free time, but basing the decision on all the extra things to do may not be the best solution either aha!

My sister went to Birmingham and people are always impressed with her degree (don't know anyone that went to Kings so can't compare on that front). In the end, a red brick university is still excellent and as a doctor, it's more how you'll present yourself at interview and enthusiasm / experience when it comes to interviewing for a job!

Good luck OP (and hope that wasn't too much of a waffle) :u:
I firmed King's about 10 minutes ago, but a bit unsure about my decision - I was leaning towards it, but not completely. (To be honest, I'd also be unsure about Birmingham if I'd picked it :lol: )
I know I've now got a 7 day period in which I can change my mind, so I'll speak to a few teachers in school during that time, but I think I'm happy with my decision.

Thanks for all the advice everybody, it was a massive help! :biggrin:

Spoiler

Original post by happydays101
I firmed King's about 10 minutes ago, but a bit unsure about my decision - I was leaning towards it, but not completely. (To be honest, I'd also be unsure about Birmingham if I'd picked it :lol: )
I know I've now got a 7 day period in which I can change my mind, so I'll speak to a few teachers in school during that time, but I think I'm happy with my decision.

Thanks for all the advice everybody, it was a massive help! :biggrin:

Spoiler



The big question is can you actually afford to live in London. Yes, you get more loan, but this isn't very helpful in the vast majority of cases and people HAVE to rely so much on the bank of mum and dad. If you're parents can't or refuse to help you financially, you will struggle. This is why you get so many people staying at home to go to London unis which is ridiculous as uni's a time for you to gain independence from your parents. You really need to think properly about the practicalities of moving to anywhere, instead of looking at everything naively and through rose tinted glasses. Yes it's London, but will it really be possible for you to live there on a practical level. Being a med student you will have absolutely no time for a part time job alongside your studies which is something to think about
Original post by super_kawaii
The big question is can you actually afford to live in London. Yes, you get more loan, but this isn't very helpful in the vast majority of cases and people HAVE to rely so much on the bank of mum and dad. If you're parents can't or refuse to help you financially, you will struggle. This is why you get so many people staying at home to go to London unis which is ridiculous as uni's a time for you to gain independence from your parents. You really need to think properly about the practicalities of moving to anywhere, instead of looking at everything naively and through rose tinted glasses. Yes it's London, but will it really be possible for you to live there on a practical level. Being a med student you will have absolutely no time for a part time job alongside your studies which is something to think about


Yeah, I have considered all of this - I've spoken to both of my parents who've agreed to support me financially whilst I'm at uni. Obviously I'm not going to be as independent from them as I could be, but I definitely won't be living at home.
The only thing that's making my question my decision slightly isn't cost, but it's how much I'll fit in to the university/whether I'll make friends/the student atmosphere in general. I'm from east Africa, (though born and raised in the UK), so I'm a bit worried about the fact that the King's medical school seems to be predominately south Asian. I have absolutely no problem with south asians but I heard from somebody who used to go there that the south asians at GKT tend to stick together in groups and so I'm just worried I might be excluded. Obviously, that's something I'm only going to experience when I get there so there's no real way to tell now
Reply 30
Original post by happydays101
Yeah, I have considered all of this - I've spoken to both of my parents who've agreed to support me financially whilst I'm at uni. Obviously I'm not going to be as independent from them as I could be, but I definitely won't be living at home.
The only thing that's making my question my decision slightly isn't cost, but it's how much I'll fit in to the university/whether I'll make friends/the student atmosphere in general. I'm from east Africa, (though born and raised in the UK), so I'm a bit worried about the fact that the King's medical school seems to be predominately south Asian. I have absolutely no problem with south asians but I heard from somebody who used to go there that the south asians at GKT tend to stick together in groups and so I'm just worried I might be excluded. Obviously, that's something I'm only going to experience when I get there so there's no real way to tell now
I'm south Asian, I made plenty of black friends and acquaintances through my south Asian friends at GKT, if you do feel you would prefer people of similar backgrounds to you (as is natural). However, I wouldn't even look at it that way to be honest. I have south Asian friends who aren't in any of the south Asian cliques at KCL, some who are friends with pub and football type white lads, some with some pretty eclectic international flat mates who weren't medics. Honestly there's nothing to be worried about on that front.

The atmosphere at Kings as a whole, and within GKT itself, is honestly fantastic, I don't know a single person not happy with it (and that's as an outside observer, which could be both a good or a bad viewpoint to be looking from). If you're understanding of the extra cost and you've got that covered then you've made a great decision, although either uni would be fantastic.
Original post by happydays101
I made a thread a few weeks ago about choosing between King's med school and Birmingham's med school and got several helpful replies.. Unfortunately, I'm still undecided. My pros and cons list of each is several pages long and isn't really helping me get any closer to a decision.

I think my problem is that I like each of them pretty much equally - so choosing one of the two means I miss out on the other one. I've only got 3 days (!!!) left to make a decision on UCAS and I'm quite panicked now.
What would you guys recommend I do to decide between them?

Thanks!


if you truly love them both you'll be happy wherever you end up, so just pick one and go with it. Or get someone to flip a coin and if you're slightly sad at the outcome go with the opposite. If worst comes to worst, on results day if you get accepted to both you could maybe call up and reject your firm and accept your insurance if thats what you feel is best and you change your mind between now and then. I've heard London is great but also comes with a lot of hassle and expenses and isn't a typical uni experience. Go to meowitslucy on youtube as she has a few videos about being a student in London.
Can you not make a poll on this forum? It would give you something to tell people... that you let the internet decide your choice of medical school. A doctor I worked with had four medical school offers including UCL and Oxford but flipped a series of coins and ended up at Cardiff.

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