The Student Room Group
Uni students - Complete our survey >>
Uni students - Complete our survey >>
Uni students - Complete our survey >>

Deanery Help

Hi all,

So it's coming to that time where I need to finalise my deanery preferences on Oriel and i've got no idea what to do.

My EPM is 34 / 50, as I came bottom decile without any previous degrees and failed an exam.

I've plugged this into an FPAS calculator and can see where I would be likely / unlikely to get if I got an average SJT score.

Ultimately though - i'm aware that my score will be very low in comparison to others and I have come to accept that whichever deanery I get, it is likely I will be on the outskirts of it.

I would love to stay in the North West however as it's such a large deanery, i'm unsure as to whether I could cope being as far out as Barrow-in-Furness or the Isle of Man and i'm worried that if by some miracle, I do get into the over-subscribed region of North West, it is likely that if anyone will be placed there, it will be me. Both Barrow and the Isle of Man will require me to move away from Manchester, which is not ideal. I'm happy to commute up to around 1 hour if it means I can stay in a big city and I would say that living in a big city with a shorter commute is the most important deciding factor for me.

It's because of this, that i've been considering Yorkshire and Humber. If I was placed as far out as Grimsby, Scunthorpe etc - it's still not as far from e.g. Sheffield, than Barrow or Isle of Man is from Manchester.

I have also thought about West Midlands North, where I could potentially live in Birmingham and commute that way - the only down side being, Birmingham is my least favourite of the cities.

Any help would be hugely appreciated and if anyone has any experience in these hospitals on the outskirts, I would be most grateful for your insight.
Y&H may be a good deanery in that case. Places like Hull and Scunthorpe etc. are within an hour's train/drive away from Leeds/Sheffs/York. Not sure if York fulfils your criteria of being in a 'big city' - tbh, not sure if Sheffs/Leeds meet that definition either - especially if you're comparing to places like London/Manchester/B'ham. But they're most built settlements in that region. Just bear in mind you may also have a community placement which may take you longer to get to (GP especially, less likely if GUM or comm. psych as they'll near towns etc.)
I work in Y&H - there were a few other reasons but one reason I applied here was the smaller nature of the deanery.

Original post by purplefrog
Y&H may be a good deanery in that case. Places like Hull and Scunthorpe etc. are within an hour's train/drive away from Leeds/Sheffs/York. Not sure if York fulfils your criteria of being in a 'big city' - tbh, not sure if Sheffs/Leeds meet that definition either - especially if you're comparing to places like London/Manchester/B'ham. But they're most built settlements in that region. Just bear in mind you may also have a community placement which may take you longer to get to (GP especially, less likely if GUM or comm. psych as they'll near towns etc.)


It depends how you measure I suppose but many sources have Leeds and Sheffield as bigger than Manchester!

Manchester gets a lot of urban sprawl though. There are some (crazy) people that advocate counting Manchester-Liverpool as one city aren't there, in which case it becomes a vast urban region rivalling London.

Anyway my point is: I think Leeds and Sheffield are definitely big cities!
West Midlands North... I'm not sure exactly which hospitals are included in that school these days as they keep changing the boundaries of the FS within West Mids Deanery. But they will predominantly be Stoke, Mid Stafford, Telford, Shrewsbury, ?Burton. All of those are a long commute from Birmingham, depending on how close to Birmingham you actually want to live. Not sure whether New Cross (Wolverhampton), Walsall and Russells Hall are WM central or north, but they are a bit closer.

Most foundation medics that live in Birmingham, live south of Birmingham, as that's where the med school is and where traditionally, med students live. So you might find yourself in a bit of a minority if you live in the north of the city. And realistically, for the first set of hospitals that I mentioned, commuting daily from south Birmingham would be extremely tough, very few people do it - most move there. Stoke in particular might actually be a shorter commute from Manchester, rather than Birmingham?

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you