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medicine and theatre

i'm planning on starting medicine in september (at either bristol or edinburgh), but i'm worried that, as someone who has been very involved in theatre and music at school - to the point that i was thinking of choosing it as a career - i won't be able to sustain these activities at university. is it at all possible to sustain both (at a relatively high intensity level)?

Reply 1

TSR Hippocrates

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Reply 2

GGIN

Original post by nitaflea

That is a hard one for me to answer as not a medical student so hopefully others with more experience of those particular med schools might be able to answer. (Perhaps amend your title to specifically reference them?)

More generally though, from what I saw of trawling around various open days many were very keen on students having hobbies and interests outside medicine. Several had theatre groups and put on revues and plays etc. But i suspect from what you infer in your post that it might be a bit too am-dram possibly?

I flag it though just to show that some level is clearly possible in some places. It may however be a factor of how integrated the clinical component is in the early years of those particular courses because i could see that long clinical hours and potential travel requirements on top of study needs might make a long run or high level commitment challenging to mainatain long term.

Good luck.

(edited 11 months ago)

Reply 3

madpancreas

You haven't mentioned the kind of commitment you have to theatre/ music interests other than 'high intensity'. I am not involved in these activities, so it is difficult to provide insight.

I am aware of students that spend a lot of time pursuing sports, small business ventures outside medical school and recently spoke with students who are part of the university orchestra (they mentioned this was a considerable time commitment). These are medical students from 1st to final year, which suggests that you will not have to completely abandon your other interests. Personally, I have worked throughout medical school, committing to 35 hours per week in my 4th year. As with all things, you may have to compromise. Its up to you whether you would like to be a high achiever/just pass or give up some of time you spend pursuing outside interests. You may feel especially pressed for time around exams.

Reply 4

Aohqnaoaja

Hi, I know it’s super late but one of the registrars I know (she’s doing training to become a consultant in cardiothoracics or something similar) is also heavily involved in theatre and musical productions, I’m not sure about the degree of ‘intensity’ that she does them to, but from the photos I’ve seen it all seems very professional. I’m not sure how she was able to maintain them with her schedule being ridiculously busy but she’s managed, so hopefully you can too! She’s incredibly passionate about theatre so that probably helps. I’m pretty certain that doing theatre alongside medicine actually benefits your application when applying for specialty training later on (basically you can get more points if you do an extracurricular to a very high degree of professionalism) so it’s definitely worth trying to keep at it.