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med choosing college- aston?aberdeen?buckingham?UCLan

hi:smile: i have recvd offers from all four aston-aberdeen-buckingham and UCLan. And obv aberdeen is the best choice(ranking) here but i want to consider location and weather so aston and buckingham also viable choices. Can someone help? What according to you should I confirm? Do rankings really matter while pursuing mbbs? I am a little concerned about the conditions of aberdeen as well I dont think they would allow a percent or two slip up right? Also if you are a current student in anyone of them or know someone there do you think they are good unis?
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Original post by ms184
hi:smile: i have recvd offers from all four aston-aberdeen-buckingham and UCLan. And obv aberdeen is the best choice(ranking) here but i want to consider location and weather so aston and buckingham also viable choices. Can someone help? What according to you should I confirm? Do rankings really matter while pursuing mbbs? I am a little concerned about the conditions of aberdeen as well I dont think they would allow a percent or two slip up right? Also if you are a current student in anyone of them or know someone there do you think they are good unis?
Hi, this is the University of Aberdeen rep account! I want to start by saying I think it's definitely a good decision to have a look beyond the rankings. Every uni aims to have good rankings but picking where you want to study is a very personal choice so definitely worth considering more.

I would recommend having a look around this site for students of each of the unis you have offers from to see what the general consensus is.
It's also worth thinking about the cities and what appeals to you. Do you want to be close to or far away from home, do you want to be in a big or small city, are there things/places in that city that you're interested in or will be good for any hobbies you have; those sorts of factors should definitely be on your mind as well as the actual courses of each of the universities since they're in quite different parts of the country.
Then it would be worth having a look on each of our websites to see what appeals to you about the courses eg. course content, projects you will get to do through your degree, prospects upon graduation, that sort of thing. I think it's really important to take all of these into consideration and make the decision that's right for you.

If it's of any interest we do have a platform here for chatting to current students which may be useful for you getting a better idea of studying with us: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/study/student-life/student-chat
If you're concerned about your conditions in any way at all please get in contact with [email protected] and our medical admissions team would be happy to clarify anything for you.

I hope this information has been useful and all the best with coming to a decision!

- Matthew, Enquiry Team
Hello,

My name is Haya and I am a final year medic at UCLAN. I would definitely say rankings aren't everything. Medicine is a heavily regulated course and all the medics have to do the same exam (UKMLA) before they graduate.

The way I picked my university was by looking at the structure of the course itself.

The most interesting thing about medical school for me was the clinical aspect so I love that my university offered placements from year 1.

I also liked the fact that it was a spiral curriculum meaning my knowledge pool gradually increased.UCLan also had a lot of cool facilities like the anatomage table which was helpful. As an international student, it was important for me that there were other international medics as well.

The area is important, Preston for me is perfect but it is also close to bigger cities like Manchester and Liverpool, which means I can experience the city life whenever I wanted to.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Haya MBBS V
Original post by ms184
hi:smile: i have recvd offers from all four aston-aberdeen-buckingham and UCLan. And obv aberdeen is the best choice(ranking) here but i want to consider location and weather so aston and buckingham also viable choices. Can someone help? What according to you should I confirm? Do rankings really matter while pursuing mbbs? I am a little concerned about the conditions of aberdeen as well I dont think they would allow a percent or two slip up right? Also if you are a current student in anyone of them or know someone there do you think they are good unis?


Ranking is a non-factor, as in the UK where you went to medical school will not affect your career as a doctor by design. All medical schools are accredited to stringent standards by the GMC and considered equal by the GMC accordingly. The NHS, which is the only provider of graduate medical training posts, takes this stance also and goes so far as to blind recruiters from your medical school to ensure there is no bias.

For UK students at least I believe Buckingham has much higher tuition fees and is either only part-funded by SFE or not funded by them at all, so would generally not be recommended. If you're an international student though I'd just suggest choosing the one which is cheapest and has the lowest living costs.

Not sure what you mean by "percent or two slip up".

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