Medicine 2018 part 3

[SomersetS]

Hope you all find this - didn't realise I took 999! Whoops.

[sluj]

2B1GMum
DS is in year 2 already and has been living with friends . Seems reasonable in cost. He is moving into a different house next year. There appears to be plenty of property available.
DS claims not to be interested in intercalating at the moment as he thinks 5 years is enough. We will see what he thinks in a year or two.
He recommends Colman House and other ensuite campus rooms rather than the village. I have to say he seems to be able live quite cheaply there.
He only got just under 2 weeks off for Easter and is a homebody but was still quite keen to get back for a party tonight. It's great to know he is so settled.
It took us less than 2 hours to get there today and I am so glad he chose a uni that was relatively easy for us, especially as the holidays get shorter as it progresses.
It's great that your DD has choices. They have all done so well to get this far. Good luck for the revision stress now 😁

[proudwhatever]

My DS got headphones from UEA too, he is convinced they are pre-used!
Now application for accommodation completed (fingers crossed for the cheap £119 p w room) have taken first proper look at Student Finance website. I’m confused about the arrangements post year 4, so up until year 5 SLC loans for full cost of tuition fees and a means tested maintenance. However it would appear the NHS bursary is meanstested too, is this just for living costs and the NHS pay the tuition fees? Having a major panic as looks like NHS bursary will be £1,000 only, DS would like to intercalate for a year which he would have to do from home to keep costs down. Also confused about the reduced maintenance allowance this appears very small too! Can anyone help clarify?

[goodbyestranger]

There are no fees for the clinical years Y5 and Y6. The NHS bursary for living costs is very limited for those years though, even for those on the lowest income ie less than the FSM cut off.

[booface]

Thanks goodbyestranger, I didn't quite realise there were no fees for yrs 5 and 6. That's something at least!

[specialted]

I didn't realise year 5 tuition fees were paid for by NHS either. Makes student load a tiny bit less daunting!

[specialted]

Proudwhatever, not totally sure but from just reading website, think nhs bursary pay for year five tuition fees which is non means tested and also you can apply for a means tested maintenance bursary but is lower than slc one. Think they can also apply for a non means tested bursary for £1000 and also apply for travel expenses to and from placements . I found this on bma website finance info section.

[goodbyestranger]

specialted my point was no fees for the student to worry about! However it is true that there's less money available to borrow or in grant form for living costs in Y5 and Y6. You move onto having to fill in two forms, one for SF the other for the NHS and the two are processed together.

[adrinkofwater]

This morning DD and I met up with a friend of a friend and her son who is a first year medic at Bristol, so that DD could ask him about the course and being at Bristol. It was such a relief to be able to talk about it and the fact that DD has to make a decision soon, as so far she hasn't wanted to talk about it at home. He did a much better job of selling it than they did at the offer holders day and answered all her questions. We are going to Leicester offer holders day on Saturday and then she needs to make a decision. But at least now the conversation isn't out of bounds any more!

[Movingmountains]

Hope it goes well on Saturday drinkofwater. Is it just Leicester and Bristol in the running? DS has sorted his accommodation now and is letting himself look forward to it a little (though very stressed about thd results!). His favourite band is the Arctic Monkeys and they have just announced they are playing in Sheffield in freshers week. We are going to try and get him a ticket (sure we will be able to sell it if it goes wrong 😱) - hope I’m not tempting fate!

[specialted]

Movingmountains, I am attempting to get Arctic monkeys tickets for Sheffield too! Is DD's favourite band too and she thinks she'll still be at home in Hull when they play in Sheffield. Have to say Sheffield had the best accommodation we saw. DD has been allocated her accommodation at Nottingham, she's happy, is one of the biggest halls which will suit her sociable nature, just hope it's not too noisy when she's trying to study!

[SomersetS]

We submitted Firm & Insure, Leicester & Liverpool respectively & chosen accommodation now so think that's mostly it - apart from getting the grades. Physical Chemistry is apparently our stumbling block.

Not going to Liverpool offer day as went to Open Day & Interview so DD feels she's seen enough.

Just to brave student finance now.

[Operamedicinemum]

Hi Somerset what halls did you put down for Leicester we are going to look on Saturday to choose?

[Movingmountains]

Specialted good luck with the tickets! DS is in a flat of 10 in Sheffield- hope it’s not too noisy! I liked the Nottingham accommodation (apart from the weird shared study rooms!)

[Esussexmum]

Hi I’m new to this. My daughter is year 13 and has recently firmed Leicester. We are going to the offers day on Saturday

[Mindgone]

Hello all, so happy to see the popularity of Leicester here. DS is a third year medic there, and has really enjoyed it so far. Best of luck to all your DC with the exams.

[swingofthings]

So weird the mention of concert tickets! DD only words yesterday was telling me she was facing a terrible dilemma as she really wanted to go to a concert in September, but didn't know whether to book to see them in London or Manchester. I wasn't interested so didn't ask who it was, but now wondering if it is the Monkeys too :) :)

Good luck to those heading for Leicester open day.

Still procrastinating looking at those student finance forms...

[peteneras]

If it's of any consolation, Years 5 and 6 would work out much, much cheaper than the earlier years in medicine. As mentioned upthread, the NHS pays for tuition fees, together with the possibility of loans/grants etc. The true savings come in the form of free accommodation provided for by the various (district) hospitals where students are posted for their placements. I've lost count how many of these far flung hospitals throughout the South-East/South of England that DS was posted to in his final two years; each placement lasting for weeks! The only expense incurred is to the poor parent(s) who has to act as a free taxi driver during each move. But it's all worth it in the end.

[adrinkofwater]

Feeling a bit jealous of those who have firmed/insured and chosen accommodation! DD is choosing between Cardiff, Bristol and Leicester - a privileged position to be in, but not easy as she likes them all, but they each have different best bits in her thinking. I think Cardiff is the most likely at the moment, but who knows! Decision next week after Leicester on Saturday!

Is anyone else's DC not decided yet?

[goodbyestranger]

But that's not universally true peteneras I don't think, and I'm not sure how it would work unless placements were back to back right through the two years. DS at Oxford has had to have full year rentals on houses along with his med school friends and while they have gone to some placements, where accommodation is provided free, there's nevertheless been an absolute requirement to continue paying the rent fifty odd weeks a year. I simply don't see any savings at all from the accommodation at placements. The cost of Y5 and Y6 have been far, far heavier in terms of reduced loans, indeed DS worked at a cafe to boost his income. It must very much depend on your medical school. Perhaps your DS was merely able to benefit from living at home in London while he was doing his uni based stuff? Definitely not our experience that placement accommodation helped anyhow, so just a caveat.

[peteneras]

I am of course, speaking for myself, goodbyestranger. And every word that I wrote above is true. We are of course talking about different med schools here i.e. London vs Oxford and perhaps vs the rest of the UK. I appreciate this may not apply to all med schools and indeed all other courses as students sign up contracts with their accommodation providers which usually insist on full rental payment for the whole academic year, live-in or not.

DS lived at home in his final two years. The first four years he spent living with friends outside sharing a house. The first year (when he first returned to London from boarding school) was particularly bad paying weekly rent of more than £230 which was more than my mortgage though he could easily have lived at home but I wasn't going to argue with him seeing that he deserved everything that he asked for. For a start, this was the last year when uni fee was still £3000 before it shot up to a ridiculous £9000! He spent most of his time coming home anyway. Rent still got to be paid for the whole year!

But the final two years like I said above, involved placements in hospitals great and small outside London. Remember this is a med school which is very heavily 'PBL' - coming back to London uni occasionally for a day or two in between times for heavens know what and off again before you can say "Hallo". Now doing F1 in yet a different hospital is like a walk in the park for him.

[goodbyestranger]

I can see that if a DC is living at home and having paid-for placements away then that's quite a unique position, but a good one in terms of finance! Hence my caveat - most DC will have to pay rent in whichever uni city or town that they're in. So I suspect the general experience will be that Y5 and Y6 are much tighter in terms of living costs finance. I should think only a minority are studying in the same place as the parental home and actually want to live there when they've flown the nest three or four years before. London may well be a microclimate in that respect (and the DC still has to get on well enough with his parent/s!).

[peteneras]

"I should think only a minority are studying in the same place as the parental home. . ."

Which is precisely it - the majority of London medics then would have come from outside London and have parental homes outside the capital. By the fact that they don't have to come to London for long periods of time due to placements elsewhere in the final two years, there is therefore, no reason to hold on to a London accommodation any longer. Free accommodation at placement hospitals outside London would mean huge savings on London rents. On the rare occasions that they have to come back to London e.g. for special lectures or exams, it would be far cheaper to go to a b&b hotel or something similar.

And why wouldn't a DC "get on well enough with his parents" after he's flown the nest?

[goodbyestranger]

Well I can think of a lot of reasons why 22 year olds might prefer to have their own place peteneras, even if they do get on fine with their parents! But obviously not all DC have a harmonious relationship with their parent or parents in the first place.

I quite see that the KCL way of doing things can save money if a DC is fine with going back home as a base and the home is commutable to the uni. But is the KCL way the norm? As in, very limited amounts of time at the uni in the last two years? Perhaps it is. But DS's experience is that rent needs to be paid despite the odd placement here and there and the placements were the minority of the time, the majority was spent at the JR. I think the idea that the last two years are cheap depends on a peculiar co-incidence of circumstances (or a happy felicity perhaps!).

[Needmoresleep]

Goodbye, a bit off-topic, and it will depend on where you are. However if you are out on placement the majority of the time, AirBnB has massively increased the availability of short term rentals in some areas, and so could do away with the need to maintain a permanent flat as well.

[goodbyestranger]

Yes good point Needmoresleep.

That kind of arrangement in the last two years must wreak havoc with any social life. It sounds grim. Maybe large groups from the same medical school go to the district hospitals together? That wouldn't be quite so bad, especially if you can choose placement partners/ groups. Interested to know how it works.