Barts and The London Applicants 2012

Electric car?

You still have the significant problems of insurance, road tax, congestion charge, electricity and buying it (they're REALLY not cheap) on a student's budget.

Are you trolling?

Wrt the shabby hospitals not all of them are that bad, there are a fair share which are shabby and run down but there's also a decent amount of nicer ones. I reckon you'd struggle to find a deanery with all nice up to date hospitals though tbh.

OK lol if I'm still here in three years I shall ask you how you feel after experiencing the delights of tube to upminster, walk, bus, walk to work everyday to Newham! And the sublime pleasure of waiting for your bus outside a school that has two security guards wearing stab vests and is regularly supplemented by police officers.

Or...walking to get your bus-overgroundx2 change-tube journey back from the Hom where the armed response police cars have standby locations based around that hospital. But it's OK, you'll get to slope off early because it's hard to miss a student when there are supposed to be thirty floating around one ward.

Or...enjoying a nice hour long train into london followed by waiting for a bus to the hospital that runs every half an hour (scheduled, actual is very variable) on a sunday back to the hospital that has no phone signal or internet and the nearest supermarket/free cash point is a bus ride away. Oh forgot to mention that there were 3 other third years who I lived with for 9 weeks. 3. All girls. (Broomfield)

Or Southend, the accommodation is something out of the 70s, 1.3 miles walk home (in the winter, temperature was about 1-3C = not fun) from hospital daily combined with a nice twenty minute walk to the station followed by an hour into liverpool street (return = 20 pounds, not including tube fares either side-and that's before you even go to tables) Local area (Westcliff-on-Sea, where the accommodation was, sketchy place if I ever saw one. Saw a gang of kids mugging a guy at like 7PM and he did a runner right down the middle of the main road)

Colchester: Best out of the bunch-An hour on the train followed by a twenty minute walk home (best to stop at the Asda along the way, because unless you like canteen food for breakfast, lunch and dinner that's the closest shop)

Harlow: Actually not too bad, only half an hour from London and a 15-20 minute walk from station!

As you can see, the big deal for me is the commute! These times all assume that you live in Whitechapel really and do not add getting to/from the station (Liverpool Street/Stratford) nor weekend rail replacement works (bad memories: Bow-Mile End-Stratford-Newbury Park-Rail replacement bus to some provincial station-train-replacement bus-walk home for 3rd year Colchester) Going home to my parents in SW London now takes a good 3 hours for me. I did a GP placement out of London and the local medics were appalled at being placed somewhere that was a thirty minute commute away: out in the sticks!

As I come to my final days on firms....I can only chortle and leave my legacy to you Rollerball

Everywheres a bit of a commute though. I've been to Newham and it's a PITA to get to I'll admit but would you be better off anywhere else? To take my home deanery (Cardiff) I've had medical students in my GP practice which is ~an hour away from the university. If anything I would assume London would be the best in terms of commuting just because of the concentration of hospitals and GP practices compared to other places. The only difference is the car vs public transport but for any student a car is difficult due to costs/parking difficulty even if you remove the traffic problems of London.

I'm not saying it's not a nightmare, but I don't see how it would be better elsewhere. I'm also quite tempted to put my preference for firms down to Colchester next year if only to be nearer the misses. Bit sick of a rushed weekend every two now.

I always assumed accomodation was on site though (so roll out of bed into the hospital) or it was a 30 minute commute from your student house (for me all saints DLR).

I hope your still around in three years time, running out of sound members as people are graduating/leaving after getting in. Plus I'll still need to pester you about FY1 applications then. As a related side note, any pointers for firmers for CR/MetA/MetB third year firms? Options are BL, queens/georges, broomfield, colchester, homerton, newham, princess alexandra/harlow, southend and whips. I've visited, BL, colchester, homerton and whips. Hated whips so probably not going to apply to there.

whats wrong with whipps?

Are you trolling?

Everywheres a bit of a commute though. I've been to Newham and it's a PITA to get to I'll admit but would you be better off anywhere else? To take my home deanery (Cardiff) I've had medical students in my GP practice which is ~an hour away from the university. If anything I would assume London would be the best in terms of commuting just because of the concentration of hospitals and GP practices compared to other places. The only difference is the car vs public transport but for any student a car is difficult due to costs/parking difficulty even if you remove the traffic problems of London.

I'm not saying it's not a nightmare, but I don't see how it would be better elsewhere. I'm also quite tempted to put my preference for firms down to Colchester next year if only to be nearer the misses. Bit sick of a rushed weekend every two now.

I always assumed accomodation was on site though (so roll out of bed into the hospital) or it was a 30 minute commute from your student house (for me all saints DLR).

Somehow got unsubscribed from this thread

Really want to hear back next week from BL (or Manchester). I've got an interview at Durham on the 6th March which I really don't fancy going to. A 7 hour drive each way, 40 minute interview and last choice, really don't want to have to do that trip if there's a chance I've got an offer elsewhere.

A few people from your year have asked me advice and I've said to all of them it is probably outdated information by now, the modules have changed...best to ask someone in 3rd or 4th year now. Still, avoid the Homerton. Also, bear in mind that it would be highly unlikely for you to get all Colchester next year, you will have at least one infirm.

I get your point about other places, but I think an hour in Cardiff with be the exception, rather than the rule. Distances in London when commuting are deceptive, I feel. What looks like 'only a few stops on the central line' actually has a fair amount of nonsense either side of it and that is just a straight journey, not including any line changes/buses.

In general, the outfirms (barring Southend) do have accommodation extremely close so you can just roll out of bed into them, but this comes at a price. It usually means you are pretty isolated and going to the supermarket is an outing. Outfirms also destroy your social life (see reasons above: the train fare + tubes make coming back for a day/night something to give consideration to) and mean that if you keep a house in London, you are potentially paying rent to keep a room just for the weekends, for up to two firms/year. That is a long time to justify paying a lot of rent.

I have done all outfirms this year purely because I hated the London in-firms so much and I feel overall it has been better. Definitely not without its downsides (living out of a suitcase for 6 months, total isolation-absolutely no contact with Barts-the last event I went to was Mummies and Daddies, sleeping on your parents couch for lectures, constantly trying to juggle admin and Student Office stuff over email) but I think overall a better experience for me for final year and saved me heaps of rent. At least I wasn't battling to do the cannulas with 30 other 3rd years at the Hom.

interview tomorrow

any last minute interview tips??

Good luck!

If you're really nervous just chat to the current students - they're awesome at calming people down

thank you very much! do you know if they give us a clear copy of the article as well?

Alright, I have a question for current students, whats the ethnic make up of the year, (i don't want to sound racist but it seemed like nearly everyone was asian, not that i have a problem with asians or anything).