What med school should I pick? Southampton, Sheffield and Newcastle?

I’m very lucky to have had offers from all 3 universities and I’m still unsure which one to pick. If any current med students at one of those 3 universities have any advice that would be massively appreciated. I’d like to know the stuff that they don’t really tell you at the open day like what’s the quality of the teaching actually like? what does your timetable roughly look like in years 1 and 2? is there a decent work like balance? would u recommend the med school etc. thanks in advance.

Hi,
Congratulations on your offers! That is amazing that you have a choice!
Honestly, when it comes to medical schools I would say that they are pretty similar in terms of structure and content as it is all centrally regulated.
The teaching at Sheffield is good quality as it is all done by leaders in that field of medicine. for example the professors and consultants in Cardiology do the cardiovascular lectures. However this can mean that between the topics it can be disjointed, as they do not know what other lecturers have taught.
There is a good work-life balance, especially during the first 3 years. You usually get Wednesday afternoons off for sports and societies, and you can be quite flexible with how you learn. However, the holiday periods are much shorter in the later years. This can be quite different across medical schools, so I would ask the other places about their holidays too.
For the first two years, you typically have lectures every day from 9-12ish. And then in the afternoons you will have small group sessions, for example anatomy teaching, GP placements (from first year), clinical skills, histology/microbiology labs, stats teaching, problem based learning. You usually get Wednesday or Thursday afternoons off in the first two years.
Hopefully that helps,
Feel free to ask any more questions and I can go into more detail if you want me to.
Evie (4th year medic at UoS)

Hi, thank you for giving me such a detailed response, it’s massively appreciated and had really helped in making me decision.
I also wondered about the details of the elective as I know there is one but the details are quite vague on the website (or I just wasn’t looking hard enough😂). Are you allowed to carry out the elective abroad, are there specific requirements for it and how long is it for?
Thanks

Hi, thank you for giving me such a detailed response, it’s massively appreciated and had really helped in making me decision.
I also wondered about the details of the elective as I know there is one but the details are quite vague on the website (or I just wasn’t looking hard enough😂). Are you allowed to carry out the elective abroad, are there specific requirements for it and how long is it for?
Thanks