Medical schools full of middle class

...

Is this true? I mean I thought about it and then said, well hey, I'm working class and sitting on an offer, but then again I might not get the grades. So maybe there's no discrimination in the application process but to get the grades of the offer is more difficult for those of us in an AVERAGE state comprehensive.

Also my GP LOOKS working class lol don't ask how but when I go to hospitals or see specialists like opthamologists (sp?) they're almost always blatantly middle class, with their certificates from oxbridge and their posh accents. But obviously you can't generalise and the statement in the article is completely absurd to say the least, but I'm wondering if 51%+ of med school students are from middle class backgrounds..

"They're almost always blatantly middle class, with their certificates from oxbridge and their posh accents."
Uhm, I would have thought that would sort of mean they're upper class?

What's wrong with middle class people anyway? :/
I would have said that being a GP was a good example of a middle class job, along with things like teaching or managerial work. Working class jobs are technically supposed to be factory work or minimum wage jobs. Are you sure you aren't middle class and putting yourself in the wrong bracket? Although having said that, class divisions are so vague now that, I wouldn't bother trying to put yourself in a class at all.
Perhaps it is to do with the grades...but my school is a selective voluntary aided school, and we do get people from all kinds of backgrounds, so regardless of money, you get a high standard of education, and there are many, many people who go on to do degrees in Medicine.
I'm guessing that 'working class' people GENERALLY don't aspire to be doctors...chances are that their relatives aren't doctors, their neighbours aren't doctors and likewise, they don't have degrees, so being a doctor would appear to be an unobtainable goal, particularly if you go to a 'working class' school that achieves low grades. This is, of course, a massive generalization.

Middle-class doctors should not have any problems whatsoever working in lower class areas, and that is a very selfish form of snobbery in a caring profession.

Read this article from the thread "Poorer student to get two grade head-start" and found a certain paragraph particularly interesting:

He (Les Ebdon) added: "We have a real problem in this country. Our medical schools are full of very earnest young people from middle class backgrounds and then we find it very difficult to find , for example, GPs to go and work in working class areas.

"Therefore we have got to do something to widen the social mix and traditionally medical schools have been seen as the preserve of middle classes rather than appealing across the whole spectrum of people."

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Is this true? I mean I thought about it and then said, well hey, I'm working class and sitting on an offer, but then again I might not get the grades. So maybe there's no discrimination in the application process but to get the grades of the offer is more difficult for those of us in an AVERAGE state comprehensive.

Also my GP LOOKS working class lol don't ask how but when I go to hospitals or see specialists like opthamologists (sp?) they're almost always blatantly middle class, with their certificates from oxbridge and their posh accents. But obviously you can't generalise and the statement in the article is completely absurd to say the least, but I'm wondering if 51%+ of med school students are from middle class backgrounds..

Why does it even matter? Anyone can get the funding to attend medical school regardless of background, and I'm pretty sure the university won't discriminate against anyone

However, what they haven't factored in to the equation is that it's just not as appealing to work in the working class areas, which are often more deprived. That's why they're having to pay teachers to work in deprived areas (the 'golden handcuffs')! Given the choice between better working conditions and worse working conditions, which would you choose?

whilst that may be true, tyrell corps, there is the other side of the coin which we dont see much of becos we are so middle class - that a middle class doctor might not share the interests of a largely working class town, so wouldnt work there.... a working class doctor might thrive in a working class town, yet entirely loath working in a posh area like chelsea in london.

I also think you've misunderstood the point. It's not a form of snobbery; regardless of your background you're going to want to treat the sort of people you've grown up socialising with. A middle class person would probably be more comfortable treating a middle classer and the same for working class.

This grade idea is nothing short of a disaster.

The issue of "medicine is middle class" has nothing to do with who can get the grades or not- I went to a state school and plenty of us got straight As and went on to highly competitive courses/unis. The issue is that medicine as a degree is inherently expensive to study- 5 years, textbooks, equipment, travelling between placements, the need for smarter clothing for wards etc. Lower the cost of studying medicine and boom, the vast majority of the problem will have evaporated.

a good class related post on TSR! lol
this place is going up in the world, Chiko hehe


quite right. i really struggle to be here at med school. whilst i'm working 30-40 hours a week even during semester at times, no one else in this med school gets near as far as i'm aware.
yet if i couldnt work i would ave dropped out by now, simple as that.

lol i fink i'm the only one in my year who still cant afford a stethoscope!

not that i want anyone feeling sorry for me (though you can lend me a tenner instead opf swanning off on oliday, you poshies, lol jus kidding i know you'd never do that) at all, becos i'm just the same as most peeple frmo my town needing to work - its our way of life heehee so back to the coal pits, Gizzy Robson!

faced wif a five year degree, and relatively poor funding compared to other degrees, and the general difficulty of earning moneyu during medicine degrees which increases as you progress from year 2 to year 5, its really no wonder that a working class person is going to be less likely to go and study medicine.

the alternative, studying a shorter course with more opportunities for funding, and sooner rather than later job prospects, or SIMPLY GOING TO GET A JOB are more realistic bets.

its not that they wouldnt if they could, you know. of course they would, its just that a lot of them.

You know how a middle class person (like most of you guys) miraculously reasons out that university is the path they MUST choose at 18, becos it makes the most sense?
Well, in a similar, way, working class peeple will tend to reason out that a course like medicine ISNT the way to go in favour of other options.
It not becos they dont want to do medicine initially. If thjey had the same opportunities they would. but as they begin to perceive the extra number of obstacles in their way that others dont face arent worth the extra effort, they select another path and tend to see medicine as something they dont want to do more and more, so that by the time they are 18, they dont want to do medicine.
Given the same opportunities as us they would do it, and they'd keep 'old of the same ambitions that we have at 14 or 15 wiffout that distortion of perpective that obstacles bring about.


OBVIOUSLY these are general trends, not applying to everyone (you need to make disclaimers like that on a forum like this lol),

How are you needing to work a 30-40 hour week on top of the loans, grants and bursaries?

Exactly, it is harder to survive from a middle class background, becuase such grants and bursaries are not available.