Southampton or Edinburgh???

Hi!

I really need some help deciding which university i should apply to for my fourth choice, Edinburgh or Southampton.

My choice keeps changing, and i really want to send my application off asap so i need to come to a final decision.

Please can someone help me make a choice. Pros and cons of each or anything?

I hate PBL, but i don't think either of their courses really contain much PBL, do they?

Thank you!!

Edinburgh is extremely competitive, so if you are looking for a back-up, choose Southampton.

hahaha

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HAHAHAHA

seriously, if I didn't have such good bladder control I'd be pissing myself right now

Every socially incompetent med applicant in the country applies to them hoping that the lack of interview will make their inadaquacies less obvious. They both have consistantly high app: pl ratios.

Being an arse is what I do.

I'd go with Edinburgh, just because it is a really nice place to spend 6 years of your life.

As far as teaching rep goes, research, clinical labs and expenditure, I think Edinburgh edges ahead... also it's an old traditional course.

Off topic, how do you know you hate PBL? I went on a few summer med things at Cam, and they told me traditional was the way to go and pbl was the devil, and so for a long time before I did my own research I thought I hated PBL... just a thought.

i have just started medicine at edinburgh, if i had a better idea of your grades i could give you more help (i know what you pretty much need to have minimum to get a look in at edinburgh). The course is about 25% of years 1 and 2 as PBL (but they have explained it to us and shown us it and it looks to be ok, although 25% is enough and i wouldnt want any more). When I was applying i tried toshy away from PBL as much as possible because i didnt know much about it so it scared me a bit but now that the uni have shown us how it works, it is ok.

I didnt look at southampton but i know edinburgh pretty well
Pros: its a great uni, great rep for medicine, so much history (1st year is taught in the oldest working lecture theatre in the world) but it also has a brand new (5 year old) hospital and the other half of the medical school (so mainly 2nd year and the whole of 3rd) is taught at the hospital site which is also where the clinical skills centre is. Edinburgh is a fantastic city, have lived here my entire life and i wouldnt want to live anywhere else as it has a great nightlife, so much culture and is really pretty too. all of 4tha nd 5th year is spent on the wards. edinburgh has the only medical society in the whole of the UK to have the word "royal" in its name. The RMS (royal medical society) is fantastic, they give tutorials, have extra books in their own wee library, do extra clinical skills and organise nights out as well (also really cheap drink here)
Cons: it can be slightly cold/wet/windy but then again it is britain so you have to expect that anywhere, cant think of any others!

Don't worry so much about sending your application off straight away. You have until october 15th and medical schools have to consider all applicants who apply up until then. Schools in particular have this obsession that medicine is first come first served and so force applicants to apply much sooner than they should thinking they are helping them.

But don't let yourself be rushed, take your time and make informed choices since ultimately that is more likely to get you a place than an early application. As long as you send off the application before the deadline you'll be fine.

I sent mine off on the 13th October last year and had 4 interviews. I'm sure the reason I was so fortunate was because I took the time to make my choices carefully. In the end I would have been thrilled to study at any one of my choices and was passionate about all of them.

Thank you for the pros and cons I have never actually visited the university but i want to apply to universitiess that are more city-based as opposed to campus based, which is what is putting me off southampton slightly. But then edinburgh is just so far away from home.... argh decisions!

I didn't realise it had 25% PBL, i was told that the course was about 5% PBL, if that Does the PBL at Edinburgh mean you have to rely on others to do the work for you much? Im worried about being put with people that don't do the work so well and therefore cause my learning to suffer.

Is that so they can write references on time charlotte?

I'm a graduate but I applied to BSMS, Keele, UCL and Warwick.

Thank you for the pros and cons I have never actually visited the university but i want to apply to universitiess that are more city-based as opposed to campus based, which is what is putting me off southampton slightly. But then edinburgh is just so far away from home.... argh decisions!

I didn't realise it had 25% PBL, i was told that the course was about 5% PBL, if that Does the PBL at Edinburgh mean you have to rely on others to do the work for you much? Im worried about being put with people that don't do the work so well and therefore cause my learning to suffer.

I'm not really sure why! Its just a deadline they have every year. It may be so they can deal with all the medicine/Oxbridge applicants before they start on the rest, but i don't know.

also what are your grades? edinburgh want 8A*s at GCSE minimum and you are more likely to get in with AAAa predictions at A-level as opposed to AAAb

well it is 25% of two years out of five (and years 4 and 5 are much longer) so it probably does work out at about 5%. you dont have to rely on others to do the work at all, you are each assessed by the facilitator and your peers in the PBL group and if you do not pull your weight you are prompted ot speak in the PBL session and you will be downgraded as well if you do not work so the emphasis is on everyone working hard at it as it all goes towards your final grade at the end of the year (and you portfolio for the whole course i think).

the facilitator is there to make sure the session is going along the right lines and that the appropriate information is sought and found between the sessions. they are trained in making sure the session goes as planned.

i hated the sound of PBL initially but now i have my first session tomorrow, i am really looking forward to it as it is just a clinical scenario to get you into the way of thinking that you will need as a doctor