Medicine - Oxford or cambridge

You put them on your UCAS form, you should really have found that out by now if you've wanted to go to oxford since you were 11 =/

Reply 62

Scientific Calculator

Do you not have to provide evidence?

Reply 63

Scipio90

Scientific Calculator

Do you not have to provide evidence?

I was asked to send off my certificates during summer, after results day, I think.

Reply 64

Scientific Calculator

I know a lot of people who are taking Btec and OCR Nationals - personally I am not. But I was curious whether they considered those as 'GCSEs' and accepted them?

Reply 65

*AngelFish*

OP

A BTEC isn't a GCSE, so it's not going to be counted as one. There's a separate part on the UCAS form for extra qualifications

Reply 66

Scientific Calculator

And the same goes for OCR Nationals?

That shall be disappointing for those who think they can be written as gcses because they are 'GCSE equivalents'.

Reply 67

*AngelFish*

OP

Yea exactly, they're equivalents, not actual GCSE's, the Universities will still consider them and take them into account, but they wont be counted as a GCSE

Reply 68

that_diesel

Oxford is ~~better~~ harder to get into for preclinical medicine.

the applicant :redface:

ffer ratio is much, much harder at Oxford
but, thats why I got in to Cambridge...

applying against better odds isn't a bad thing when you consider that to all the lay men and probably all the employers, the two are indistinguishable.

PS. The couses at undergrad are actually the same, Infact, when you look at the options for third year and how it and the whole course are linked up to the second-to-none science course (NatSci) in the country....I would say we're slightly better for undergrad. (We also get to do dissection for anatomy and our Pharmacology/Physiology courses are more in-depth because they're seperate...not merged like at Oxford) for clinical school Oxford is better.

Reply 69

Helenia

No, not really. In fact, if you ask in the medic forum, [1] not at all. Oxford and Cambridge have very good rigorous academic courses. Whether this produces the best doctors at the end is entirely debateable. Lots of the London schools have a lot of prestige as well, and have been teaching medicine much longer than us.[2]

[1] - thats due to there being way more medics more other unis and medics being rather ugh...competitive.
[2] - that doesnt matter once you pass a certain number of years

Reply 70

Helenia

20

Vazzyb

PS. The couses at undergrad are actually the same, Infact, when you look at the options for third year and how it and the whole course are linked up to the second-to-none science course (NatSci) in the country....I would say we're slightly better for undergrad. (We also get to do dissection for anatomy and our Pharmacology/Physiology courses are more in-depth because they're seperate...not merged like at Oxford) for clinical school Oxford is better.

Based on...?

Reply 71

Hearsay! - and the "first time pass rates on MRCP" and the fact that a larger proportion of their clinical training is in the more major hospital

Reply 72

Helenia

20

Vazzyb

Hearsay! - and the "first time pass rates on MRCP" and the fact that a larger proportion of their clinical training is in the more major hospital

Right. Well, looking at the MRCP bit, Cambridge was second to Oxford and not by a huge margin. Also, the Cambridge clinical course has now changed from when that paper was written, so you can't really use it as a valid comparison.

As for major hospitals, most of us at Cambridge will agree that being in Addenbrooke's isn't actually that much of a good thing. You get far more individual attention and time with patients away at the smaller DGHs. You don't see the weird and wonderful stuff that crops up in Addies - so some time there is obviously essential - but for most of your clinical training you do NOT need to be in a huge hospital.

I have no problem with people wanting to change to Oxford or anywhere else, but it seems the rumours about our clinical course still persist (I take it you haven't been on any of the open days yet?)

Reply 73

Yeah i haven't - my education on the matter is still pretty limited actually, mostly based, as you said, on rumours!

Reply 74

Huw Davies

11

There's quite a lot of voting with feet to go Cambridge=>Oxford but practically none in the other direction (though I realise the obvious cause for that is Cambridge's preclin\clinical places ratio for students already there).

Reply 75

Helenia

20

Huw Davies

There's quite a lot of voting with feet to go Cambridge=>Oxford but practically none in the other direction (though I realise the obvious cause for that is Cambridge's preclin\clinical places ratio for students already there).

We do have this inherent disadvantage that everyone goes "half your year leave, so Cambridge must be rubbish," when in reality it's a little more complex than that. I should point out that in my year at Vazzyb's college, which is generally rather well-regarded for Medicine, all but one of their students chose to stay in Cambridge. Addenbrooke's has been oversubscribed for the last few years. Yes, fewer people come to us from Oxford, but fewer have to even think about going elsewhere - as far as I've seen it's as much about wanting to try somewhere else as about the quality of the Cambridge clinical course. In fact you could say this flexibility was an advantage of the Cambridge course!

Reply 76