The Student Room Group

Is UCL/ICL worth it?

Probably a bit too early to be thinking about this now, but I want to apply for medicine for 2016 entry and am starting to consider possible universities. I'm doing music AS level alongside sciences and maths and I know that UCL like contrasting subjects.

Anyway, UCL to me seems like a brilliant university, I'm going to go to the next open day, but my parents are strongly against me going as they say that I'll be staying in a box room with a huge commute and huge debt at the end.

Thoughts please :smile:

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Original post by Clarinet
Probably a bit too early to be thinking about this now, but I want to apply for medicine for 2016 entry and am starting to consider possible universities. I'm doing music AS level alongside sciences and maths and I know that UCL like contrasting subjects.

Anyway, UCL to me seems like a brilliant university, I'm going to go to the next open day, but my parents are strongly against me going as they say that I'll be staying in a box room with a huge commute and huge debt at the end.

Thoughts please :smile:


What makes them say that? Seems like a very random thing to predict :s-smilie:

"huge debt at the end" - uh, welcome to med school? Welcome to UK higher education under the Coalition ****ers?

I don't think you should let your parents put you off - go to the open day and see if you like it, and if you do, apply.
What do you want to apply for?
Original post by ooxbridge
What do you want to apply for?


It's in the first line of his post :erm:
Original post by Democracy
What makes them say that? Seems like a very random thing to predict :s-smilie:

"huge debt at the end" - uh, welcome to med school? Welcome to UK higher education under the Coalition ****ers?

I don't think you should let your parents put you off - go to the open day and see if you like it, and if you do, apply.


I think the expense and seemingly increased need for travel in London is definitely true isn't it? I would consider that when applying.
Original post by nexttime
I think the expense and seemingly increased need for travel in London is definitely true isn't it? I would consider that when applying.


Well I was really commenting on the "box room" bit - a terraced/semi-detached house being shared by students is the same all over the country, it's not like the houses in London are extra small or something.

The bit about the expense - yeah fair enough but we're all getting shafted anyway, might as well have some fun in London for a couple of years whilst you're at it.

As for the need for travel - well I don't go to med school in London and I'm still sent on placements far away, so again, not a London specific thing. And at least London has a decent public transport system.
Original post by Democracy
Well I was really commenting on the "box room" bit - a terraced/semi-detached house being shared by students is the same all over the country, it's not like the houses in London are extra small or something.



Size yea agreed, but price you will be paying pretty much double the £60-70per week rent you would pay in say the south west.

This I have realised during my house hunting for next year.



Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by carcinoma
Size yea agreed, but price you will be paying pretty much double the £60-70per week rent you would pay in say the south west.

This I have realised during my house hunting for next year.



Posted from TSR Mobile


I know - I lived in London before med school :tongue:

Still, nowhere better to be a student imho :moon:
You do end up paying roughly twice as much for accommodation to be in London... my friends elsewhere pay £70 a week to live in a house with 2 bathrooms, a living room and outdoor space. I pay circa £140 a week in a piddly flat where the 'living room' has become a third bedroom to cut costs. So yes you will probably live in an expensive box. By commute do you mean just getting to placements? Most are within London, but I imagine you have to travel a lot at all medical schools public transport wise.

Whether it's 'worth it' isn't something anybody can quantifiably tell you. It may be 'worth' it to one person but not to another. I'm not sure worth is the best way to go about it.
Reply 9
Thanks guys

Original post by Democracy
What makes them say that? Seems like a very random thing to predict :s-smilie:

"huge debt at the end" - uh, welcome to med school? Welcome to UK higher education under the Coalition ****ers?

I don't think you should let your parents put you off - go to the open day and see if you like it, and if you do, apply.


I meant that I'd have more debt because I'd have to spend more on accommodation, I imagine

Original post by ooxbridge
What do you want to apply for?


Medicine

Original post by nexttime
I think the expense and seemingly increased need for travel in London is definitely true isn't it? I would consider that when applying.


Yeah that's what I mean. Money isn't too much of an issue, especially if you're getting a brilliant education from it, it's just whether it's worth it.

Original post by seaholme
You do end up paying roughly twice as much for accommodation to be in London... my friends elsewhere pay £70 a week to live in a house with 2 bathrooms, a living room and outdoor space. I pay circa £140 a week in a piddly flat where the 'living room' has become a third bedroom to cut costs. So yes you will probably live in an expensive box. By commute do you mean just getting to placements? Most are within London, but I imagine you have to travel a lot at all medical schools public transport wise.

Whether it's 'worth it' isn't something anybody can quantifiably tell you. It may be 'worth' it to one person but not to another. I'm not sure worth is the best way to go about it.


By commute I meant that I'd imagine being in the outskirts of London, somewhere cheap, and having to travel into the centre every day. Thank you :smile:
Original post by Clarinet

I meant that I'd have more debt because I'd have to spend more on accommodation, I imagine


Yeah but it's a student loan - it sucks but it's not like a bank loan. Anyway, you only go to med school once, just do what makes you happy. You could always get a job to bring in some extra cash (especially during the pre-clinical phase of the course).

By commute I meant that I'd imagine being in the outskirts of London, somewhere cheap, and having to travel into the centre every day. Thank you :smile:


Not really - most UCL students end up living around North and East London sharing a house together. They don't all head off to Ruislip at the end of first year :p:
(edited 9 years ago)
Reply 11
Original post by Democracy
Yeah but it's a student loan - it sucks but it's not like a bank loan. Anyway, you only go to med school once, just do what makes you happy. You could always get a job to bring in some extra cash (especially during the pre-clinical phase of the course).



Not really - most UCL students end up living around North and East London sharing a house together. They don't all head off to Ruislip at the end of first year :p:



Thank you, you've been really helpful :smile:
Reply 12
Original post by Democracy
Well I was really commenting on the "box room" bit - a terraced/semi-detached house being shared by students is the same all over the country, it's not like the houses in London are extra small or something.
.

Student accommodation in London is quite a bit smaller than elsewhere; expect a smaller room (that costs twice as much), and its quite possible your house wont have a living room either since often all rooms get turned into bedrooms. Also you will have a much longer commute than anywhere else in the UK, and will need to pay £1k for an oyster card on top of your other expenses.

London is a horrible, horrible city for being a student - its not just the enormous cost of living, its also that the crappy housing situation means everyone ends up living all over the place so its most likely that you wont have (m)any friends living near you after you move out of halls, except your house mates.

The only point in London's favour is that Imperial/LSE/UCL are good universities, but if you can get into a similar quality university elsewhere then I definitely wouldnt recommend London.
(edited 9 years ago)
huge debt or huge commute - but never both.
You can live within walking distance for £150pw although with £170 you're more likely to get double bed.
Most people I know live like half a mile to a mile from UCL but you can pay up to £200.
Original post by Democracy
Yeah but it's a student loan - it sucks but it's not like a bank loan. Anyway, you only go to med school once, just do what makes you happy.


You have to pay off the loan and under the new system the interest will be shocking. There is an argument to be made that the loan would be so high anywhere that you wouldn't pay it off anyway, but that's for the op to calculate.
Original post by Clarinet
Probably a bit too early to be thinking about this now, but I want to apply for medicine for 2016 entry and am starting to consider possible universities. I'm doing music AS level alongside sciences and maths and I know that UCL like contrasting subjects.

Anyway, UCL to me seems like a brilliant university, I'm going to go to the next open day, but my parents are strongly against me going as they say that I'll be staying in a box room with a huge commute and huge debt at the end.

Thoughts please :smile:


All I can advise is to go to the open day to see what you and your parents think of it - opinions can entirely change.

I went there thinking that UCL was the best place in the world, knew the alumni, etc and came out hating it because I disliked everything about it!
Original post by poohat
Student accommodation in London is quite a bit smaller than elsewhere; expect a smaller room (that costs twice as much), and its quite possible your house wont have a living room either since often all rooms get turned into bedrooms. Also you will have a much longer commute than anywhere else in the UK, and will need to pay £1k for an oyster card on top of your other expenses.


Sorry but I was a student at a central London university for four years and that's not my experience at all.

Also, public transport isn't free outside of London. Much longer commute to where exactly? If the OP lives in Mornington Crescent in 2nd year, he'll have a 20 minute walk to Gower Street. And if he's feeling really lazy, he can get the bus down the Hampstead Road and get there in 10.

And if we're talking about clinical medicine, all medical schools send their students to placements in DGHs in the back of beyond. At least London has decent transport connections so he won't be having to rely on infrequent buses or lifts the whole time (or shell out for a car - and they're not cheap either).

London is a horrible, horrible city for being a student - its not just the enormous cost of living, its also that the crappy housing situation means everyone ends up living all over the place so its most likely that you wont have (m)any friends living near you after you move out of halls, except your house mates.


Again, not my experience at all.

The only point in London's favour is that Imperial/LSE/UCL are good universities, but if you can get into a similar quality university elsewhere then I definitely wouldnt recommend London.


And you're not even a medic are you, talking about "similar quality" universities...and the LSE :rofl2:
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by Democracy


And if we're talking about clinical medicine, all medical schools send their students to placements in DGHs in the back of beyond. At least London has decent transport connections so he won't be having to rely on infrequent buses or lifts the whole time (or shell out for a car - and they're not cheap either).




At Oxford you're either in the Oxford hospitals (all within 10min cycle) or they provide you with a free room on-site at the DGH. There's essentially no commuting.
Original post by AnonymousPenguin
At Oxford you're either in the Oxford hospitals (all within 10min cycle) or they provide you with a free room on-site at the DGH. There's essentially no commuting.


Fine, not all med schools then, but I still think most will send their students on far away placements - it's not just a London thing. I think what you're describing is more likely to be the exception rather than the rule.
Original post by seaholme
By commute do you mean just getting to placements? Most are within London, but I imagine you have to travel a lot at all medical schools public transport wise.


Original post by Democracy

And if we're talking about clinical medicine, all medical schools send their students to placements in DGHs in the back of beyond. At least London has decent transport connections so he won't be having to rely on infrequent buses or lifts the whole time (or shell out for a car - and they're not cheap either).


You'd get accommodation though. I think a problem with London is that the commute is actually feasible... so they make you do it. Not for all placements but for more than elsewhere. At least, that was the information relayed to me by my UCL graduate colleague.

Lets be fair though - there are lots of advantages to living in the most dynamic city in the world. None that would ever make me even consider going near the place, but they are there.

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