Which London uni??

Initially I had no intention of applying to a uni in London due to the expense and how busy it is there. However, I've changed my mind but now I'm stuck with the dilemma of which!
UCL is ruled out so far as my AS chemistry isn't strong but I'm unsure about the others. The deadline for BMAT standard entry is 30th Sept so I really need to make my mind up about Imperial soon. But with only a month of BMAT prep, would Imperial be a bit risky seeing as they use it robotically to decide interviews?

Any help at all would be great thanks :smile:

GCSEs: 4A*7A1C
AS: AAAB (B in chemistry which I'm retaking to bump it up to an A)
A2 predicted: A*AA
UKCAT: 682.5 average

Reply 1

Computerised

Original post by sa.chan

Initially I had no intention of applying to a uni in London due to the expense and how busy it is there. However, I've changed my mind but now I'm stuck with the dilemma of which!
UCL is ruled out so far as my AS chemistry isn't strong but I'm unsure about the others. The deadline for BMAT standard entry is 30th Sept so I really need to make my mind up about Imperial soon. But with only a month of BMAT prep, would Imperial be a bit risky seeing as they use it robotically to decide interviews?

Any help at all would be great thanks :smile:

GCSEs: 4A*7A1C
AS: AAAB (B in chemistry which I'm retaking to bump it up to an A)
A2 predicted: A*AA
UKCAT: 682.5 average

London colleges are all good for medicine so it doesn't matter which one you choose really. Just go to whichever ones you like the look of. Imperial, Kings, Queen Mary and St Georges (but I don't know much about that place). Obvs don't go anywhere outside of UoL.

Reply 2

Renn

OP

1

Hmm okay. Thanks for that. I realise it doesn't really matter which one I choose, unfortunately I have no opinion on the universities themselves. I suppose if none are risky to apply to, I'll just pick one out of a hat...

Reply 3

CpnCornetto

11

Original post by Computerised

London colleges are all good for medicine so it doesn't matter which one you choose really. Just go to whichever ones you like the look of. Imperial, Kings, Queen Mary and St Georges (but I don't know much about that place). Obvs don't go anywhere outside of UoL.

What's Queen Mary's?

I heard Barts and the London's pretty good though.

Reply 4

Renn

OP

1

Barts is part of Queen Mary :tongue:

Reply 5

rY4uGD1fMzBj4xe2

14

Original post by Computerised

London colleges are all good for medicine so it doesn't matter which one you choose really. Just go to whichever ones you like the look of. Imperial, Kings, Queen Mary and St Georges (but I don't know much about that place). Obvs don't go anywhere outside of UoL.

Imperial isn't part of the university of London.

Reply 6

Democracy

20

Original post by sa.chan

Barts is part of Queen Mary :tongue:

Queen Mary is the parent institute of Barts and THE LONDON, but the campuses, student's union, classes, etc are normally very separate.

Having said that, you'd stand a fair chance at BL if you applied.

Reply 7

Renn

OP

1

Original post by Democracy

Queen Mary is the parent institute of Barts and THE LONDON, but the campuses, student's union, classes, etc are normally very separate.

Having said that, you'd stand a fair chance at BL if you applied.

Ah right. Thanks for that :smile:

Reply 8

Democracy

20

Original post by sa.chan

Ah right. Thanks for that :smile:

You're welcome. It's just that QMUL and BL history (whilst at times intertwined), is really quite distinct and it's quite frowned upon to refer to the SMD as "Queen Mary's".

Reply 9

hoonosewot

11

Original post by sa.chan

Barts is part of Queen Mary :tongue:

Careful, Barts students tend to get a bit upset when people mention that...

Reply 10

Organ

13

Original post by Democracy

You're welcome. It's just that QMUL and BL history (whilst at times intertwined), is really quite distinct and it's quite frowned upon to refer to the SMD as "Queen Mary's".

why Barts? Imperial students don't demand to be called Charing Cross etc..

/awaits quotes from BL students/

Reply 11

Democracy

20

Original post by Organ

why Barts? Imperial students don't demand to be called Charing Cross etc..

/awaits quotes from BL students/

Well you say that but ICSM still retains its own SU as far as I know, so they're pretty independent-minded too :tongue:

The fact that Barts (the hospital) has been going for 900 years, and The London Hospital Medical College being the oldest med school in England means there's a lot of tradition and history. It probably also doesn't hurt that a lot of BL's staff (the researchers, etc) trained at Barts or The LHMC so they'll remember the pre-QMUL days very well.

I've been a postgrad here for a few weeks now, all I can say is that I love the community and sense of identity here and I really hope it doesn't fade away.

Reply 12

Helenia

20

Original post by Democracy

Well you say that but ICSM still retains its own SU as far as I know, so they're pretty independent-minded too :tongue:

The fact that Barts (the hospital) has been going for 900 years, and The London Hospital Medical College being the oldest med school in England means there's a lot of tradition and history. It probably also doesn't hurt that a lot of BL's staff (the researchers, etc) trained at Barts or The LHMC so they'll remember the pre-QMUL days very well.

I've been a postgrad here for a few weeks now, all I can say is that I love the community and sense of identity here and I really hope it doesn't fade away.

The other thing, of course, is that Imperial is rather more prestigious than QMUL, for all we don't care about prestige. :p:

Reply 13

Democracy

20

Original post by Helenia

The other thing, of course, is that Imperial is rather more prestigious than QMUL, for all we don't care about prestige. :p:

There's that small matter too, but I'll be damned if I hear a word said against my alma mater :biggrin:

Reply 14

GrahamRodney

9

Original post by Helenia

The other thing, of course, is that Imperial is rather more prestigious than QMUL, for all we don't care about prestige. :p:

nly just caught up with this from you Helenia - in what way? As a newcomer, it seems that league tables re not popular on this forum, but in Medicine Barts (QMUL) beat Imperial in the Research Assessment Exercise and on the Complete University Guide Imperial is 4th and Barts (QMUL) 5th. For outsiders like me, with only this to go on, this does not indicate greater prestige.

Reply 15

Helenia

20

Original post by GrahamRodney

nly just caught up with this from you Helenia - in what way? As a newcomer, it seems that league tables re not popular on this forum, but in Medicine Barts (QMUL) beat Imperial in the Research Assessment Exercise and on the Complete University Guide Imperial is 4th and Barts (QMUL) 5th. For outsiders like me, with only this to go on, this does not indicate greater prestige.

I'm talking about overall "prestige" with the general public, rather than within the medicine community. Anyone who's done a tiny bit of research about medical schools knows that Barts and the London has an excellent reputation and history, which is probably equal to that of Imperial or any of the other London medical schools.

But ask a non-medic which university is better, Imperial or QMUL, and I can bet which answer they'd pick 9 times out of 10. This is, I think, one of the reasons why BL doesn't like its association with QMUL so much.

Reply 16

Democracy

20

Even then I would argue that it depends what subject areas you're comparing. If you want to do biotechnology then Imperial's more prestigious, but if you're looking to do law or English, I'd say QMUL's just as good as KCL or the LSE (I think the league tables back me up on this one, if you care about that kind of thing). I don't think an association with QM (as an institution) is seen as a drawback, I think a certain amount of resentment stems from those times where QM has attempted, for corporate reasons, to ride on BL's coat tails, or conversely hasn't paid enough respect to BL's history...rather than QM's position in the league tables.

Reply 17

tes100

Other factors to consider are the following, now that the deadline has passed lol. So just some things to consider if you have the privilige of chosing between London unis!

UCL & Imperial have compulsory iBScs

SGUL and Barts are PBL learning, whereas the others are more traditional.

KCL and UCL have very central locations.

KCL is taught by scenarios.