Imperial Vs. UCL medicine

Hi,

I’ve recently received an offer from both UCL and Imperial. Whilst I am very thankful to be in this position, it does of course leave me with a really tough decision.

I was just hoping for peoples input regarding this topic, either from their own personal experience from the unis for medicine or even just through their own research. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Reply 1

becausethenight

19

Imperial all the way baby :tongue:

I was in the same situation and it was a no brainer to firm Imperial as I much preferred their couse. I know people at UCL who are enjoying it but I think I made the right decision as it seems much more interactive here and we have placements in first and second year.

Edit: I am horribly biased yes :rofl:

Declaration of interests: Imperial medic, contractually obliged to disparage UCL, as part of ICSM Boat once discussed trying to sink UCL sculls as part of our race plan

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 2

becausethenight

19

Hey I've acknowledged it now :tongue:

We have a major trauma centre (Mary's) and Charing Cross does neurosurgery!

Reply 3

omar2189

OP

2

Original post by becausethenight

Imperial all the way baby :tongue:

I was in the same situation and it was a no brainer to firm Imperial as I much preferred their couse. I know people at UCL who are enjoying it but I think I made the right decision as it seems much more interactive here and we have placements in first and second year.

Edit: I am horribly biased yes :rofl:

Declaration of interests: Imperial medic, contractually obliged to disparage UCL, as part of ICSM Boat once discussed trying to sink UCL sculls as part of our race plan

Thanks so much for the reply!

I completely understand your bias, I’d probably be too.

If you don’t mind answering, what year are you currently in and how have you found the PBL side of the course to be? Also what kind of disruptions have you seen to placements as of late due to the pandemic?

Reply 4

Pyruvic Acid

17

I’m not sure whether to firm Imperial or UCL. Any advice is much appreciated :smile:

Reply 5

Medic_20

10

Original post by Pyruvic Acid

I’m not sure whether to firm Imperial or UCL. Any advice is much appreciated :smile:

Happy to answer any questions about UCL as I’m alumni

Reply 6

becausethenight

19

Original post by omar2189

Thanks so much for the reply!

I completely understand your bias, I’d probably be too.

If you don’t mind answering, what year are you currently in and how have you found the PBL side of the course to be? Also what kind of disruptions have you seen to placements as of late due to the pandemic?

No worries :smile:

I'm currently a first year (@AnnaBananana is a second year and @AortaStudyMore is a final year if you've any questions for older students)
I've found the Clinical Skills Integration stuff to be good fun - I like the idea of it and it really helps you make links with the more 'normal' science teaching as it links up (we did a case on COPD around the same time as our cardioresp module for example). The teaching can be a bit patchy in the tutorials but I like the pre- and post-reading as it makes you feel like a proper doctor looking up NICE guidelines and surfing the BNF, plus those research skills are really useful. The exams are fine, assessed group work over zoom is a bit of a drag but we move.

Our placements have all still gone ahead this year which is amazing when many other med schools have cancelled apparently. Our GP placements in 1st year went from a half day in the surgery and then a group meeting in the surgery, to around 1hr in the surgery and a teams meeting, but it was still good fun. I'm salty about the four word total feedback I got after a whole seminar on how we had to really reflect on our feedback, but that's just our GP :tongue:

We have 2 weeks of hospital placement after our exams in May and I'm super excited.

Haha thanks

But this is a major one!! UCL is the only London uni that just has a boring non-major trauma centre! :lol:

We have Western Eye Hospital...famous alumni include Bashar Al-Assad :biggrin:

More Random Imperial Hospital Facts now I'm on Wikipedia: Mary's has all the royal births, Hammersmith "played a significant role in founding endocrine surgery", and Charing Cross has the largest UK GIC, if anyone cares? (I do and am really hoping for an endo hospital placement there)

Reply 9

becausethenight

19

"centres of excellence" all :lol:

and then they will spend all their placements at the Hillingdon :tongue:

Reply 10

becausethenight

19

I mean it is literally currently unsafe to work in, they just can't decide where to put the new hospital! https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/oct/22/boris-johnson-drawn-into-row-over-unsafe-hillingdon-hospital
But we all hate it because it's the furthest you can get placed from SK :lol:

But yes we need a UCL medic!! Tbf UCL seems much better organised than Imperial, although that's not hard

Reply 11

becausethenight

19

Yes the thread would become 1000 pages long with people piling on to complain about admin :rofl:

Spoiler

Reply 12

omar2189

OP

2

Original post by Medic_20

Happy to answer any questions about UCL as I’m alumni

Thanks!

I was wondering if UCL has any group assessed work on the course currently, and if so, what is the weighting of it overall/ what are your thoughts on it?

I’d also like to extend this to @becausethenight. What is the weighting of your group assessed exams overall?

Reply 13

becausethenight

19

Original post by omar2189

Thanks!

I was wondering if UCL has any group assessed work on the course currently, and if so, what is the weighting of it overall/ what are your thoughts on it?

I’d also like to extend this to @becausethenight. What is the weighting of your group assessed exams overall?

Two of our modules are assessed with group work in first year - Clinical Skills Integration and Lifestyle Medicine and Population Health - they both count for 20% of the final credits I think but it’s pass fail, so you either pass and get all the credits or fail and get none. If you fail you’d have to resit.

LMAP is assessed via a group podcast and CSI with roughly monthly exams on each case where you answer 10 questions on your own, the same 10 in your team, and then do a group task for 75mins. Both are designed to be practically impossible to fail and historically no one has.

Can’t speak for the other years of the degree though - clinical will be different for sure.

Reply 14

j1245

Hi. Im in the same position as you ahah. I was wondering how district placements work in the last 2 years. Are the hospitals far away from Kensington/ Bloomsbury? Also how long are you at them and is there free accommodation if they're far away?

Reply 15

Rainbowrain1

8

Is anyone on here deciding whether to firm ucl or imperial? If so which did u pick and why lol I’m very confused because they are so similar

Reply 16

lkmedic

6

Original post by Rainbowrain1

Is anyone on here deciding whether to firm ucl or imperial? If so which did u pick and why lol I’m very confused because they are so similar

Imperial has a better course imo I was considering both but ucl’s course is kind of dead ngl. Also the accom at UCL has a really bad rep for being the worst out of all london unis

Reply 17

alevelstudent136

6

Original post by Rainbowrain1

Is anyone on here deciding whether to firm ucl or imperial? If so which did u pick and why lol I’m very confused because they are so similar

Personally, if I was given an offer from both then I would firm UCL and put Imperial as Insurance. But, you should research into both of them yourself and see where you would enjoy your time more, because after all, both of these unis are at the top. You will receive very high quality tuition from either, so in the end it comes down to where you can see yourself being more comfortable, which means looking at non academic factors and speaking to some current students. I would've chosen UCL only because of the the feedback I received from some current students from both medical schools. Check out this thread on TSR: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4694378 , it might help. I wish you all the best.

Reply 18

Jinglesss

7

Original post by Rainbowrain1

Is anyone on here deciding whether to firm ucl or imperial? If so which did u pick and why lol I’m very confused because they are so similar

I didn’t get into either but they both have their advantages. Although I would have probably picked imperial because of where it is and it’s just always been my dream and the hospitals they are associated with I know quite well, my reason for choosing UCL was purely that they offered the choice of doing a year abroad for medicine which seemed incredible at the time and something you could definitely take advantage of and explore things out of your comfort zone and better yourself as a person.
Also if you want to meet a more wider variety of students who aren’t science then go UCL because imperial is literally specialised in stem which may be an pro to you. It depends entirely on what you want and what you like and who you think you would want to be friends with later.

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 19

AnnaBananana

Universities Forum Helper

19

Original post by alevelstudent136

.....Check out this thread on TSR: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4694378 , it might help. I wish you all the best.

Thread is from 3 years ago so any info on the course is out of date - I’m a second year at imperial and we are the first year group on the new curriculum

Imperial Vs. UCL medicine

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