Medicine 2024 part 3

[mumsneedwine]

Saw we needed a new thread. Hope revision going well.

Been discussing that exact course on the 2025 thread 😊

@Mumr my DD is off to BSMS in two weeks. It was her top choice. Small classes, intercalation opportunities, great location, real campus feel, beach. What's not to like.

I think studying in London can be tricky especially for undergrads. You really don't get that sort of campus experience. My mom studied in a large city and described it as like having a few appointments downtown and feeling more like having a job than being a student. It's also so £££.

Your DC will have a great time in Brighton. Good luck!

@Mumr - my DS chose BSMS over a Russell Group for all the reasons stated above. It's young medical school with so much more to offer.

Can I ask, are you doing it for the name?

I have to agree with @mumsneedwine I am also London based, and my boys have grown up here. It is not the best place to be a student tbh! Not only because of the cost, but because it is a very impersonal place for students and harder to make friends.

I am a Sussex grad myself as is my DH, and honestly the campus vibe is the best. it is a really lovely place to be a student.

Hope all going well with preparations for uni moves!
Quick question - DD has been told she has to join either the MDU (medical defence union) or MPS (medical protection society). Are they much of a much? She was planning to go for the one that offered the best freebies but thought I would check here first for any wise insights!

Just checking in to see how everyone is doing? Dropped dd off in Bristol this weekend (just gone) so all feels very real now. 😳 She meets her fellow students tomorrow morning at the Medical School welcome meeting!

Best of luck to those yet to start at uni (I know that Bristol and Scottish unis are very early but not sure how many others have gone yet)! Hopefully we will receive some more info soon regarding what they need etc but very thankful for all the support still gained from this thread. What a year it has been! 🎢 😊

Hope it all goes well for them! It's quite a thing to finally get there after all the build up, for med students it feels like a much bigger run up than usual. I didn't realise anywhere apart from Scotland started this early. @Habbibu has your dd started at Dundee? Ds has friends who have moved into halls there recently.

DS goes to Aberdeen on Wednesday this week and everything kicks off next Monday. I thought I'd be quite blasé about him going (he's dc3) but actually feeling a bit wobbly. He of course is on top of the world!

Hi, yes, she moved in on Friday. There's another med student in the flat across the hall from her, which is good. She had introductory lectures at the med school today I think. Other than that I've pretty much not heard from her, which I assume is a good sign! Hope it goes well for your DS

Hope it's all going well. I've just had a " oh my God this is so hard. How do you study in university?" text from DD. She'll be fine- she's like this at the beginning of every academic year, but it is daunting for them.

It must come as quite a shock after Freshers Week…!! 😂
My dd has her first ‘full’ day of medical school today, including dissection! I’m guessing she will be pretty tired by this afternoon but don’t suppose even that will stop her from going out later! 🤦🏻‍♀️😂

Hope everyone’s dcs are enjoying their first couple of weeks at uni? 😊🤞

@Groundhogday2021 bet she'll be hungry. Apparently they often go to McD after dissection as all starving. 😂

DD had dissection yesterday. Rang to tell me all about it! She said they were all v respectful which is good.

😂 @mumsneedwine! is that because they can’t do it on a full stomach! 🤢

I haven’t heard how it went… too busy going to the gym and getting ready for yet another night out! I wonder when the flu will
kick in… 🤔🤦🏻‍♀️

@Groundhogday2021 think it's the smell of formaldehyde

Missed all the chatter here...!

Dropped DS at BSMS on Saturday. All good so far. Nothing academic this week. He's still in Fresher's week.

Dropped DS at BSMS on Saturday. All good so far. Nothing academic this week. He's still in Fresher's week.

Has he had to walk up all those steps to the University of Brighton yet? I see Brighton & Hove Albion were playing at home to Wolves yesterday evening. Did he witness the crowds at Falmer station?

Mine is well into her second week of freshers. 1st was med students, this week all the other students arrived and it’s general freshers. 2 weeks of parties really. 😵

Wow. DD is full on into 2 hour cell biology lectures!

Wow. DD is full on into 2 hour cell biology lectures!

I'm glad to know our course isn't the only one that starts like that.

Advise her to go over it as soon as possible after the lecture because subsequent sessions will make an awful lot more sense if she's got a reasonable grasp of it. It's difficult to understand much in medicine without a sound understanding of cellular metabolism, gene transcription/mRNA translation/protein synthesis, DNA replication/cell division and cell-cycle regulation. You gotta know your ribosomes from your mitochondria, your cyclins from your caspases...

Dundee is (or certainly was, when I was active in research) one of the world's leading universities for biochemistry and cell & molecular biology. I guess their staff regard it as pretty important, which it is of course.

Thanks! I think she's been in the library most afternoons, so I suspect that's what she's doing. She's got more self-discipline about this kind of thing than I ever did . Yeah, Dundee still very big on life sciences.

So good to hear about how everyone is getting on!

Yes, my dd also seems to be spending an unusual amount of time at the library…. I’m beginning to wonder if it has a bar! 😜

I don't oppose anyone knows about applying to Irish universities for medicine/dentistry? Friend of ours has just retaken her ucat and trying to work out if applying to TCD or Cork is an option. The points system is really confusing

No idea tbh. I've just left him to it! He seems to have met some nice people. Lots of pizza eating and signing up to things in the first week.

This is his first 'proper' week of learning. I haven't heard from him at all other than an occasional 'ok' to my various queries and requests!

I am sure I will get some info this weekend!

How’s everyone doing? Can’t believe this time last year we were biting our nails and waiting for good news! Really feel for the mums and DCs going through it on the 2025 thread as this is the hardest part… the wait. 😫

Anyway, all good with DD at Bristol. She is absolutely loving it and has secured a lovely flat for 4 people in the centre of town for yr 2. She seems to have grown up so much since September and am really proud of her.

Hope all doing well and enjoying their course. 😊

So glad it's going well for your DD @Groundhogday2021! Ds has passed everything fine and seems to have made a lot of friends ( lots of nights out etc...!) but has decided that he doesn't like the city, isn't that bothered about the course, and hasn't met his people really.

So we are heading off to pick him up. Proud of him for making the decision, and for the work he's putting into working out what's next. He should still have his pick of courses and unis so excited for the next chapter. Although we were just getting used to being empty nesters and that's now on hold for another year.

You must be so proud of your DS @OwlMother , it takes such courage to make a decision like that, good for him. Life is too short to continue down a path that you know isn’t right for you and to have that clarity of mind at his age will stand him in great stead for the future. Wonderful that he has you to support him too as he navigates next steps - huge good luck to him.

Great to hear that your DD is doing so well at Bristol @Groundhogday2021 - you must be delighted! My next one is looking at unis at the moment and likes the look of Bristol so may visit it in June (not for medicine though, thank god, not ready for that application process again!) DD very happy too - really enjoying the course and uni life in general. I can’t believe that they’re already over half way through their first year though, it’s gone by so quickly. There was much excitement about the fifth years getting their FY allocations apparently- she said that everyone she knew or heard of got their first choice, which is great, although the med school is in a deanery that wasn’t that competitive, and lots will have applied locally.