The Student Room Group

Should i intercalate or not??

I'm currently in 4th year and having spend most of my University life not really bothered about intercalating, I then saw one for Emergency Medicine (which i have a great interest in). I am now very torn on what to do due to a few reasons and it's making me a bit anxious.

Does intercalating have a big impact on your future career? particularly if you want to do acute medicine? I'm still not 100% sure what exactly I want to do in the end but I did enjoy my A&E placement.
Reply 1
Intercalating will mean you are more likely to get your preference of emergency medicine jobs in the future but by no means is it a must to get a job in emergency medicine. People tend to only intercalate if they have a genuine interest in that area and life circumstances allow for it. It sounds like you would greatly enjoy a year doing emergency medicine so I say go for it, don't look back in a few years and regret missing the opportunity.
If you can afford to do it and think it would be useful I would go for it. I intercalated twice and don't regret doing it at all, but equally I chose areas which I was 100% passionate about.
Original post by spacepirate-James
If you can afford to do it and think it would be useful I would go for it. I intercalated twice and don't regret doing it at all, but equally I chose areas which I was 100% passionate about.


Random question: what did you intercalate in? :smile:

OP: if you're genuinely interested in Emergency Medicine and think you would benefit from intercalating then by all means do it, I didn't intercalate and now that I'm near the end of my course I'm starting to regret it a little bit!
Reply 4
Intercalating shouldn't be seen purely as a way to 'improve your CV' to help you get into competitive jobs. There is absolutely still a point in intercalating if you're wanting to do emergency medicine and the fact that there's low competition for jobs shouldn't mean you aim for the absolute minimum just to scrape in. There is a benefit to doing extra study that is beyond the extra post-nomials. If you're interested in the subject and want to go into that as a career, you'll be learning specific things that are useful day-to-day as well as gaining loads of extra skills that you just don't really get a chance to develop during the pure MBBS (research, presentation, leadership, literature review, process of research, etc). You're going to be a much more attractive candidate with extra qualifications, which means you can be more selective in picking your jobs. Also don't forget that your degree is for life, and will also "count" when applying for consultant jobs.

If you are wanting to do extra study at some point in your life, it makes a lot more sense to do it now. Yes, you lose a year of your life but 1) your tuition fees are paid for (whereas if you do it at any other point you're gonna have to fork it out yourself) and 2) you are still in the student mind-set, where it is not going to be difficult to study.
Original post by Medstudent2013
I'm currently in 4th year and having spend most of my University life not really bothered about intercalating, I then saw one for Emergency Medicine (which i have a great interest in). I am now very torn on what to do due to a few reasons and it's making me a bit anxious.

Does intercalating have a big impact on your future career? particularly if you want to do acute medicine? I'm still not 100% sure what exactly I want to do in the end but I did enjoy my A&E placement.


Tbh emergency medicine has such a recruitment crisis that you don't need any bonus qualifications to get a training post.

Don't rush into it because you think this is the last opportunity to get an extra degree. Postgrad loans mean you can now do a Masters later under similar terms to your existing student loan, and there are plenty of EM-relevant Masters out there.
Original post by panda1093
Random question: what did you intercalate in? :smile:


First intercalation in Literature, and now a MSc in Global Mental Health.
Reply 7
When I was thinking of intercalating, all I thought about was the long term benefits: e.g. more competitive CV, more points. I wasn't particularly passionate about any course my uni offered and I couldn't afford to move do it somewhere else.

I chose not to because I realised I would be doing it for the the wrong reasons and I'm glad I made that decision, but it sounds like you're genuinely interested in the subject which is the most important thing.

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