Medicine 2018 part 2

[LoniceraJaponica]

New thread here

We are still flying high this morning. I do wish Bristol did a post offer day as many of them do. If DS gets another offer from Sheffield or Liverpool he won't put Bristol down but I wonder how much of this is to with the fact that our open day was rushed and we didn't get to see much of it. I might see if DS wants to visit at Easter and see if they will give us a tour of the medical school.

Movingmountains, surprised they don't do offer holders day. I am sure your DS will get another offer, which of course complicates things but is a very good position to be in. IF my DD ends up with another offer, I would suggest she revisit course structure first and foremost and make sure she picks the course that suits her learning style best. My DD is keen on early clinical and PBL, which informed her choices in the first place, hence HYMS being a great choice for her even though she visited York not Hull. She is going to offer holder day soon to see the Hull campus, new medical building and accommodation. A friend who doesn't quite understand is saying 'who would want to live in Hull?' but that is not really the point! Bristol as a city does have a good student vibe. Other things to consider are linked hospitals and how accommodation and transport works when training in them.

Of course, there is always that gut feeling, heart ruling head, and for those lucky enough to get more than one offer, having a favourite certainly helps.

Thank you for assisting me in my stalking, adrinkofwater! Cardiff and Edinburgh... so rather a big couple of days for us, one way or another. Tissues to hand for either scenario.

Oh no, how stressful movednorth! You need to hibernate for a week until its all decided, or get some strong sedatives . Really hoping you get good news soon, and manage to successfully distract yourself in the meantime.

Baytreemum - thinking of you. Nottingham's procedures are so annoyingly drawn out. My DS got pre interview rejection in January. Good luck for Cardiff.
2B1GMum I think gut feeling is ruling. He says he wants to look at Bristol again but wants to wait to see if he gets offers from Liverpool and Sheffield. I am not going to influence him as I think my reasons are more selfish - Bristol much closer (empty nest syndrome 😫). I have every confidence in him making the decision that is right for him. This is all supposing he is in the very privileged position of being able to have a choice of course!

I'm so sorry, Baytreemum. Birthday + bad news = very bad news. This Cardiff waiting game is wearing me down now. I thought Edinburgh were going to get in first - they have been drip feeding emails for what seems like weeks. Here too, mum is taking it less well than DD.

@Baytreemum - tell your DD to forget Nottingham! They have been really bad this year...on her stats my DD should have had an interview but got a pre interview rejection too. Her friend had 13 A*s and an amazing 3450 UKCAT score and got a pre interview rejection from Nottingham 😱 She now has an offer from Edinburgh. Really not sure how Nottingham did things this year but it has been a wasted choice for many.

Baytree you never know with Cardiff - my DD was on the waiting list last year and got in on A Levels day. No other offers as we weren’t strategic about where we applied to. They don’t care about ukcat so that won’t work against your DC. They do like good exam results though. Good luck!

Sorry about the Nottingham rejection baytreemum. Hope you managed to celebrate the birthday anyway.

baytreemum your DD sounds like a star, I am sure she will get there with her attitude. Glad to hear she has her a musical talent, great way to relieve stress and forget about things. I am just back from choir - it is totally absorbing, no time to think about anything but learning some tricky French words and harmonies! And I hope DD2 got a big birthday cake - chocolate? Chocolate helps too....

I assume offer days are hard to organise as interviews go on so late. DD qualified for SEN ones which were all at the end of the cycle, with results not out until, essentially, a few days before she needed to decide.

She had a good post-interview tour at Bristol, led by medical students. Birmingham had offered this, but it seemed like DD was the only taker, so the offer was withdrawn. (She may have been too shy to assert herself.) A pity as it was a factor in her preferring Bristol to Birmingham. None was offered at KCL, which given their Open Day was booked out ages in advance, seemed unfair.

When comparing medical schools it is worth looking at intercalation options should your DC later decide they want to steer toward more academic medicine. Bristol not only has some interesting choices, but allows you to spend a year somewhere else.

Best wishes for those who are still waiting. I would repeat though that a gap year is not a bad thing. They are growing up so quickly and the first term of University can be tough. DD particularly wanted somewhere where medics were part of the general student population, only to discover that 9.00 lectures are difficult if your flatmates are pretty nocturnal. In retrospect she should have opted for the hall favoured by "boring" scientists. There was a lot of personal admin, especially DSA, whilst others have found elements of the course challenging, have been ill, or had to cope with grandparents dying, all without the support network they are used to. As a result a small number have already dropped out, and the same will be true in other medical schools. DD is a summer child and thinks the experience she gained during her gap year has helped. (Seeing a ski season through to the end taught her a lot of useful stuff about working and living with others, plus how to cook Christmas dinner for 20 in a small kitchen.) Those that have to reapply may well look back, especially when they see peers struggling, and decide they are glad they have that extra maturity and resilience.

needsmoresleep, good point about intercalation, DD initially ruled out any thought of it but has started to become more interested - they can also do it at other universities, but quite how easy that is to do I don't know. She had a talk at school from a medical student who did a year of a lab based degree, she said she couldn't wait to get back to medicine after, she missed the patient contact and huge variety of things to learn and challenges to meet. Some will of course decide to go into research. So a worthwhile experience for many.

Also useful point about accommodation and one I have been wondering about - DD has deferred entry so she has plenty of time to look into it, but her main worry is being Coeliac and sharing a large kitchen is a concern regards contamination. Thank you for your tips and advice.

It's odd - as we looked around, some Uni's segregate their medics accomodation & some definitely discourage that. Many seemed to put "a couple" of medics in and then a mix - I guess so that you are not the odd one out when going to bed & getting up. Exeter stuck out since the Medical Sciences are in a separate campus (old boys school), Hull - they quoted that some accomodation wasn't suitable (the Lawns 2B1Gmum) because the period of rental wasn't long enough for Medics. S'oton, Sheffield Liverpool mixed. Also most indicated that catered was unsuitable for medics too - they would never get back for their meals so a waste of money!

DD is adamant she wants to mix it up with others, self-catering so will see what we can do - she is used to a very peaceful lifestyle so far so that may be a bit of a shock!

Thanks Somerset, we are all going to Hull offer holder day, DH driving, so we will have a proper look. I can see merits of a mixed group too. My eldest at Nottingham (Engineering) had one medic in his corridor who shared a house with him too, he only went to an all medic house in the final years.

My good friend who is a senior research nurse is from Exeter, she has just bought a house there as she can't afford one in London and is about to rent it to some Exeter medical students! She says she knows what to expect....

Somerset, DD felt the same. She was probably unlucky in that the person in the room next to her does not attend much, has plenty of money, so can keep very different hours/lifestyle. Getting up at 6.30 to set off for a remote placement using a rural bus service, when others were coming in at 4.00am in a party mood has been tough. From what I can gather flats go either way: quiet or party. She does not dislike the people in her flat, but decided after a difficult week when she was coping with illness, that it was time to be selfish, and ask for a transfer. It seems that it is not unusual for medics to have problems (she is not the only one who has moved) and the accommodation office responded really fast. A quiet clean flat, taking the place of a party person who had asked to move to somewhere more lively.

Its sort of what I meant by that extra year's maturity. There seems to be a lot of pressure to hang out with people in your flat. But something has to give if you have 30 hours teaching and 4x 9.00am starts. Dipping in and out of flat social life can be taken as disloyalty or being antisocial. It is quite possible that not everyone in DDs old flat will graduate. By prioritising her own needs, she should. (Which is why I said in retrospect she should have opted for the hall favoured by scientists, however dull it is painted. Ironically a number of her friends live there.)

2BIGmum, there was a Coeliac is DDs flat. I think your daughter may have to be very clear and upfront to others about what this means, and insist on defined space to store her stuff. Not everyone is particularly house-trained, and there is a lot of "borrowing" other people's cooking equipment, crockery and food. (DD used to prepare a snack to eat on the bus on placement days, often to find that it had been swiped by hungry clubbers in the early hours.) A bore but she might find it is easier to store stuff in her room. And if she is unlucky and finds people take clearly marked food, demand that she is allowed her own mini fridge.

On the other hand, DD is really enjoying the course, loves the city, is making some good friends, has a great and reasonably inexpensive flat close to the University lined up for next year, likes the opportunities to intercalate, and is pleased that placements are mainly in attractive places. Getting the place is only the start of what will be a long, and sometimes difficult, journey.

So would catered halls be unsuitable for even a first year medic? DS can apparently start putting preferences for Nottingham accommodation quite soon. (His only offer so far)

Katisha, my DS is currently in catered halls and it’s working very well for him. The halls are mixed, which he says he prefers and he has just signed a contract for the tenancy on a four bedroom house for next year. He will be sharing with another medic, an IR student, and another friend who is studying English. He says the two non-medics totally understand that they have a much bigger workload than they do, and as such, they don’t get pressured socially.
Also, if he has a long day at the med school (& can’t get back for lunch) the kitchen staff in his halls will prepare a pack-up for him, which is great...if he remembers to ask the day before that is...!

Katisha, it is worth researching, perhaps even asking on Student Room.

I walked round Birmingham accommodation when DD was in her interview. Some was very close to the medical school and so popular with medics, but the student village had a great arrangement with meal vouchers and several different outlets offering meals at different times, or you could use the same vouchers on campus.

Elsewhere it may be set mealtimes.

DD changed her mind during her gap year and wanted self-catering as she learnt to cook and enjoyed it. Its worked out well as she also plays sport so is not able to eat at set times. DS (studying mathematical economics) found he liked studying in the library where he would meet friends and work on problems together. He missed a lot of meals and subsisted, I think, on pot noodles. Self catering can be cheaper and healthier, but not if you can't cook/budget and get tempted to join others in ordering a take away.

Katisha my DS1 did engineering at Nottingham, as mentioned he had a medic in his corridor, and also a nurse - I am pretty sure they asked about hobbies and lifestyle etc.before placing them. It was a catered block and he got pretty bored with the food, but they got a good amount and generous packed lunches available. The medic and my son both played guitar - but not loudly or at antisocial hours, being an engineer works well with medics because they have 9-5 hours most days, even working in the labs to midnight! He had a medic friend in self catered just outside the main campus and she had lots of medic friends in her block, he was impressed with that set up and in retrospect would have preferred it, it seemed more sociable than his corridor and tiny cupboard with a kettle in!

DS2 at Durham has a house full of elite Uni rugby players, mostly social science students but one engineer. The fact that they all get up to go to some 7 am training sessions and cannot party on Fridays before a match means sharing makes total sense - they also eat huge amounts and at all sorts of hours . The medics give up high level BUCS sport because they don't have time for the training commitment, but can carry on at a social level.

needsmoresleep DD is learning to make a bit of a fuss - amongst her friends they have a joke about it. Not a great way to start a share, sounding precious about food and cleanliness, but if she does share with a medic or two they will learn lots of useful info. for the future! Got to get there first though... I don't understand her way of revising, her brain works so differently to mine, when I can't see charts and post it notes I panic!

Thanks very much! None of this had actually occurred to me!

Wow useful info there! We too looking at Nottingham accommodation, find it a bit crazy we have to submit it from March 1. Think DD wants to be on main campus but actually I get that a lot of the medics are in self catering block just off campus as they all get offers later (like DD will as still waiting to hear back from three), so most of university park accommodation will be taken by the time we get round to booking it! I may suggest the off campus block as she is keen to self cater.

Quite a lot of universities have a cut off point for accommodation applications around July and nothing is allocated before then. That way it's fairer to every one.