Manchester or Barts?

Original post by divineboy92

Why is Manchester medical school a joke? From what I've checked, it's rankings is far above barts from all the tables that I've seen. But Manchester has 61% of it's med students satisfied with the course while Barts ha 81%. is this cos of pbl? But they're both pbl schools!

You have to remember that those rates are from students who started 5 yrs ago and in the recent years Manchester have gone under massive changes to increase their student satisfaction rates ... which will benefit 2010 entry year onwards.

Also The Times give Barts the same student satisfaction rate as Manchester. I'm more inclined to go with the times as they are usually much better and more respected.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 6

divineboy92

OP

I see! (: I didnt know that when I was looking at the data. I feel more enlightened now! Thanks so much! Are you going to firm Manchester? I see youre pretty active in the Manchester applicants thread!

Reply 7

Original post by divineboy92

I see! (: I didnt know that when I was looking at the data. I feel more enlightened now! Thanks so much! Are you going to firm Manchester? I see youre pretty active in the Manchester applicants thread!

I'm not sure yet. I'm going to go to both open days and then decide.
Have you made a decision yet?

Reply 8

I don't think I've ever met a happy Manchester medic.

Reply 9

Original post by ryan118244

Yet Manchester does better in exam results :wink:

Also Barts is in a kinda crappy area.

Yet Barts was second on MTAS points, beaten only by Gimperial, and fourth last year. Where abouts were Manchester? Hint, lower half of the table.

Regardless, the OP should pick where he/she would feel most comfortable. How fussed are you on PBL, at Barts it's minor but present, at Manchester it weighs in much more.

The cities are very different too. You'd be better off visiting them.

Reply 10

petalo170

Original post by RollerBall

Yet Barts was second on MTAS points, beaten only by Gimperial, and fourth last year. Where abouts were Manchester? Hint, lower half of the table.

Regardless, the OP should pick where he/she would feel most comfortable. How fussed are you on PBL, at Barts it's minor but present, at Manchester it weighs in much more.

The cities are very different too. You'd be better off visiting them.

Where can I find the MTAS point rankings for universities? I'm trying to decide between King's and Barts and this seems quite important.

Barts

Original post by ryan118244

How do you know the ranking of Manc for MTAS, I would be quite curious to see where the 2 I'm looking at rank. I'm thinking that you just guessed where Manc ranks.

PBL is just as present as Manc as at Barts. Anyways Manc have actually changed the course last yr and this year implementing it officially.

Also Manc clearly does produce happy grads, everyone I know at Manc actually loves it, though they did start within the last couple of yrs.

Barts can't produce that many more happy grads because they also have just as low student satisfaction rates.

But none of us can say with confidence what these changes are. It's just hearsay. The only thing I have been told by some students I know, is that there is more support so people don't get 'lost'.

From the research I have done, Manchester haven't really specified what these changes are. Presumably they will be for the better, but unless you know what they are you can't say whether they are good or not. It will take 1 or 2 years to see whether they are actually good or not.

Reply 13

Nation

Original post by ryan118244

How do you know the ranking of Manc for MTAS, I would be quite curious to see where the 2 I'm looking at rank. I'm thinking that you just guessed where Manc ranks.

PBL is just as present as Manc as at Barts. Anyways Manc have actually changed the course last yr and this year implementing it officially.

Also Manc clearly does produce happy grads, everyone I know at Manc actually loves it, though they did start within the last couple of yrs.

Barts can't produce that many more happy grads because they also have just as low student satisfaction rates.

First of all, all medical schools are continuously changing their courses. Whether is significantly huge or less, they all do. Barts could of changed it a lot too, but didn't need to advertise it considering how right now, no one has problem with their 'course' but in Manchester, there course is labelled 'bad' and hence they need to tell everyone were changing it. So you don't have enough knowledge be claiming this.

I agree with RollerBall, every Manchester medic complains and generally hate it, baring it mind these are just a couple of my mates who are approaching their final years.

OP, personally I would choose Barts, their closely matched but I think Barts is the safer option as Manchester is still finding their feet for the decent 'course'.

Reply 14

Original post by petalo170

Where can I find the MTAS point rankings for universities? I'm trying to decide between King's and Barts and this seems quite important.

This hows last years. This years hasn't been released in documentation to students yet, we were e-mailed by our dean to tell us we'd moved up to second though, and Imperial have also had a release to say they were first.

Original post by ryan118244

How do you know the ranking of Manc for MTAS, I would be quite curious to see where the 2 I'm looking at rank. I'm thinking that you just guessed where Manc ranks.

PBL is just as present as Manc as at Barts. Anyway Manc have actually changed the course last yr and this year implementing it officially.

Also Manc clearly does produce happy grads, everyone I know at Manc actually loves it, though they did start within the last couple of yrs.

Barts can't produce that many more happy grads because they also have just as low student satisfaction rates.

I didn't guess. You can look for yourself, what have I got to gain from making it up? The only documentation I can find is in a .pdf in the first half of my post. The table cuts off due to poor formatting and only shows the top 16 with Manchester nowhere to be found. Last year 90% of Barts medics got their no.1 choice for their foundation posts.

PBL is less present at Barts, you misread my post. I never said anything about Manchester. Manchester is known for being incredibly PBL based and students complaining about little direction/teaching.

The "new curriculum" is all based on rumours. There's been no documentation available, nobody knows if it's going to be good or bad. I can't see Manchester taking a radical leep from their old curriculum which was massively PBL based. The reason I never applied to Manchester was I couldn't be sure I'd love PBL that much. Granted, I don't mind it now but I'm happy with it being ~20% of the course, not 80%+. Barts student satisfaction is actually considerably higher than Manchester's (Based on poster above, feel free to correct me. I am 99% certain it is higher though). Although, anybody who takes interest in medical league tables needs to sort out their mindset.

Regardless, this is all arbitrary. Mode of entry into foundation programs may have changed massively by the time we've graduated. You're much better off going on where you feel most comfortable. Do you want a big or small university? Do you want a lot of PBL or not so much? Do you want to live in Manchester or London? These are all choices only the OP can make for themselves.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 15

Original post by InItToWinItGetIt?

But none of us can say with confidence what these changes are. It's just hearsay. The only thing I have been told by some students I know, is that there is more support so people don't get 'lost'.

From the research I have done, Manchester haven't really specified what these changes are. Presumably they will be for the better, but unless you know what they are you can't say whether they are good or not. It will take 1 or 2 years to see whether they are actually good or not.

They actually say what changes they are making on the website.
Also they are going to talk about the new course on the post offer open day.
They have also already implemented a lot of the changes on last years entry.
I also came across someone on the forum who is on the board for changing the manc curriculum and he has access to all the documents setting out the changes that Manchester are making, they are accessible on the manc website ... just very hard to find. So the changes are deffinitely being made, and it's fairly clear what changes these will be.
I've also spoken to a couple of doctors that teach at manc who have confirmed all of this.

Very true that you can't sepculate whether these changes will be good or not, but it's a right step to make. But tbh the main problem manc faced was lack of support which they have addressed last yr, so you can see the positive effect of that change already.
Also they are getting help from the dentistry school which generally faces the same problems as the medical school (being too large etc etc) and the dentistry has the highest SSR. So I think the changes will be good if they mimmic the dentistry school.

But tbh I don't really think there was a problem with the old course apart from support issues, these have already been addressed last yr.

Reply 16

moesy

9

Barts is the better one. I'm partial because,
I know Manchester and it does not care about its students. You will be far more satisfied if you live in london and got to barts.

However the only reason you may want to go to manchester becuase living will be cheaper, and its still a good student city with a good life.

Reply 17

Original post by moesy

Barts is the better one. I'm partial because,
I know Manchester and it does not care about its students. You will be far more satisfied if you live in london and got to barts.

However the only reason you may want to go to manchester becuase living will be cheaper, and its still a good student city with a good life.

This is true. You'll probably get better accommodation outside of first year in Manchester, I can't say for certain having never lived there though. First year accommodation is awesome in Barts though.

Price wise, it will probably be similar, possibly a notch higher in London. You're likely to be living in the east end if you go to Barts. Think Shoreditch, Whitechapel, Bow, Stepney, Mile end etc. There are nice enough places but you have to spend a bit of time looking.

Reply 18