First Choice for Pharmacy 2012

I know the deadline for this is ages away but having got all my offers (and rejection :tongue:

) which all have the same grade requirements I am really finding it difficult to narrow down which one to pick.
Just thought I would create a thread for this as the applicants thread is really long and contains all sorts of things and maybe there are a few people out there as stuck as me/with some helpful advice on the whole thing!

(edited 12 years ago)

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Reply 1

QueenVic92

I'm having some serious issues with this at the moment! I've had all my interviews and offers, and I can't decide where to go :frown:

I think Notts is my top choice, but I keep changing my mind every 24 hours and it's driving me crazy :colondollar:

Reply 2

Jessica.Jane23

saaaame! got offers from cardiff, bath, UEA and notts (portsmouth is my insurance) and im not sure where to go either! there are soooo many contributing factors and iv made a kind of chart of pros and cons for each but that still doesnt help!! im considering: reputation, the actual course, distance from home, nearby churches and CU, living costs, feel of the place like atmosphere, nightlife, accomadation and pobs more but cant think of any right now!
and i know what u mean! i kinda want to decide soon so i can get accomadation and student finance sorted so i dont hav to stress later!!! but where to gooo? :wink:

Reply 3

Akbar2k7

How bad is the Nottingham interview.

Reply 4

Jessica.Jane23

Original post by Akbar2k7

How bad is the Nottingham interview.

haha! not bad at all, im not laughing at u just the fact that i was super nervous and it was just a little chat, the interviewers are really nice but they all ask different questions.....cant remember what mine was on i think he asked me about insulin (and if u hav a article thingy do give a read etc but dont worry too much coz we hardly talked bout it) some people get asked mathsy questions.
just be nice and polite and try not to worry too much as if uv had other interviews already they ask the standard: why pharmacy, why nottingham etc!
good luck :smile:

Reply 5

aspirinpharmacist

Lucky things! I'm still waiting on 3 offers, although Cardiff and Bath finally want to interview me, yessss! If Bath give me an offer though, I'm screwed. I'll never be able to choose between UEA and Bath.

Bath. Is. AMAZING.

yeah but UEA got highest student satisfaction and are always above bath for pharmacy. however bath are the sunday times uni of the year so it is a hard decision!

Reply 8

aspirinpharmacist

Original post by James A

yeah but UEA got highest student satisfaction and are always above bath for pharmacy. however bath are the sunday times uni of the year so it is a hard decision!

Yep. Happiest students in 2010 or something like that. I've been checking these things out for years. :lol:

I'm personally probably leaning more towards UEA, I actually have an offer from them, and they didn't take 60 years to reply to me. :lol:

I'm impatient, these things matter to me.

Reply 9

AmberCD

I think I have ruled out LSoP/UCL now as I'm not a big fan of London so just have to decide between Bath and Cardiff.
WHY IS THIS SO HARD!

Reply 10

AJ2890

Original post by AmberCD

I think I have ruled out LSoP/UCL now as I'm not a big fan of London so just have to decide between Bath and Cardiff.
WHY IS THIS SO HARD!

Do you prefer city or campus based universities?

For me the choice between these was simple; I loved the campus feel of Bath and was not keen on the layout of Cardiff, with the Pharmacy building being nowhere near the other healthcare course bases, or any other courses for that matter!

Also, the Pharmacy department at Cardiff seemed very set in their ways - and research ratings at Cardiff was not as good as at Bath, meaning less cutting edge information is given to students relating to the lecturers research.

I just didn't get a great feel from Cardiff, the campus seemed a bit dead :/ whereas at Bath, there are always people around and everyone is extremely friendly :smile:

I've just finished my first semester at Bath, and I can honestly say there is nothing I don't love about it!

It really depends on what you personally look for in a university. The decision between Bath and Cardiff should be pretty easy, as I would say they are quite different.

To summarise....

Cardiff: big busy modern city, city based university (accommodation not near Pharmacy building), bigger university

Bath: smaller, old pretty city, campus based university, smaller university, better sports facilities, up to date research and teaching. University of the year!!! says it all really :smile:

Reply 11

Cemile94

My first choice would be the University of Bath . :smile:

I would like to meet with new friends who are also going to choose studying pharmacy in Bath as a first choice.

Reply 12

AmberCD

Original post by Smiile

I was rejected from notts after interview but they said my interview was good but overall im not as strong as other applicants :frown:

but I really wanna go there. If i reapplied there next year with AAB achieved would i get an offer?

No idea they may change the grade requirements and if you don't get AAB then to reapply you would in retakes need to get AAA, also Uni's may change so you no longer have to compete for pre-reg places and therefore if Nott's did that you would have to pay for a 5 year degree and there would be more competition at the end of it for jobs due to Birmingham opening up and the Durham the year after...
Back to your original point: if they liked you and you got the grades I don't see why not.
I can't help further than saying that :s-smilie:

Reply 13

AmberCD

Original post by Cemile94

My first choice would be the University of Bath . :smile:

I would like to meet with new friends who are also going to choose studying pharmacy in Bath as a first choice.

I need to make a decision sharpish but if I choose Bath I shall get back to you :smile:

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 14

AmberCD

Original post by Smiile

I thought i had it sorted, didn't think about any of that :frown:

now im lost again.
Should i just go to manchester this year????? :confused:

It's your decision I just thought I would answer didn't know if it was helpful what I said or not. Sorry! Uni is what you make of it, I know people who got into places through clearing, didn't really want to go to them but had a great time when they actually got there. There are people in other scenarios that didn't like the place so it just depends. Pharmacy is a good degree so generally reputation/everything else isn't much of an issue in terms of employment. I'm worried about choosing a place just because both Cardiff and Bath are Uni's I really want to go to but to be honest I guess I could flip a coin and would be happy with either one (though I am way to panicky to do that :tongue:

).
If you think the only place you can be happy is Nottingham then go for it but I doubt it is the be all and end all. Do what you think suits you best :smile:

Good luck with your decision!

Reply 15

mimsicle

Hey guys, I'm choosing between Kings and Lsop for my firm and I really have no idea which to pick! They're both offering the same grades so help would be appreciated :smile:

Kings

Pros: Good location, good campus, takes only 40 minutes to get there from home (on a good day), the lecturers that interviewed me were nice (so I can only hope the rest of them are like that haha :P), large variety of people to socialise with, connections with good hospitals (not saying that lsop doesn't).

Cons: On the interview day, sometimes I got the impression that they relied on their reputation to speak for them rather than explaining to us what Pharmacy was about at their uni, I didn't feel the enthusiasm as much from the students that I spoke to in comparison to lsop.

Lsop

Pros: Loved the uni as soon as I stepped in, the atmosphere was really REALLY welcoming and friendly, lecturers were all super nice and not intimidating at all, students that I spoke to were all really enthusiastic about what they did, it's part of UCL now, it's a specialist uni in terms of pharmacy which is always good, they help you get your pre-reg placement whereas (I've heard) other unis may leave you to do it yourself, they seemed to love their subject which is always a plus!

Cons: It'll take 1hr 30min to get there on a good day, so never mind rush hour! Again: there are only pharmacy students there which wasn't the biggest problem at first but considering it now I'm thinking I do like having variety within the people I socialise with, however they have merged with UCL so I'm wondering if anyone has any information on how that's going currently?

I've heard from a student at Lsop that they kind of spoon feed you information; she said that she's in her second year and she still hasn't opened a text book. I'm comparing this to Kings where I've heard the course is harder. When speaking to some students at Kings apparently quite a few people drop out as the years go on, but is this the case for most universities anyway?

Also, at Kings they teach some lectures with other heath care professionals which is understandable because in the end you will be working with other doctors, nurses, midwives etc. and you need to learn to work together. Lsop said that they only teach Pharmacy with ONLY Pharmacy students and the lecturers are ALL pharmacists. I have no idea if this is a pro or a con, any suggestions?

About the student enthusiasm: the students that showed us around at Kings were 1st and 2nd years whereas at Lsop they were 4th years so I can imagine you'd be pretty into pharmacy after four years - maybe that would explain it.

So yeaaaahh, any opinions would be greatly appreciated! :smile:

Reply 16

F1's Finest

Original post by aspirinpharmacist

helpppp

what questions did you get asked at UEA?? im preparing for the interview as im writing this !!

thankssssss

:colondollar:

Reply 17

aspirinpharmacist

Original post by James A

helpppp

what questions did you get asked at UEA?? im preparing for the interview as im writing this !!

thankssssss

:colondollar:

Hey, only just read this now. :lol:

Your interview is on the 8th, isn't it? Oh, just looked at your sig, it is. :lol:

Anyway, what they asked me was:

How are you finding your subjects this year?
Are you finding the workload this year a lot harder than last year?
Asked me about my hobbies and how I thought they related to pharmacy.
Why pharmacy?
Why UEA?
They'll ask you a scenario question, mine was a woman walking in with a box of pills that were a week out of date, which she was very angry about, how would I calm her down? (Tell her that the risks are fairly low when they're only a week out of date, prescribe her some new ones).
Then they asked me if I had any questions and that's all I can remember. If I remember any more I'll let you know. :smile:

Best of luck!! :biggrin:

Edit: Work experience. They asked me how I found my work experience. At least, I think they did, maybe it was just Bath who asked me that...whatever, prepare to be asked about work experience anyway! Oh! And they'll ask you about your personal statement. They were keen on something I'd said about patients being different.