Medicine

[ahsegs]

DS received medicine offer at St Andrews and Birmingham. Which is better pls?

Where would he prefer to live? They’re very different places.

My DS is at Birmingham doing medicine. He loves it there. Big cohort, very active medsoc, first 2 years all theory except for 1 day a fortnight in a GP surgery. Next year starts hospital placements.
Cheap city accomodation wise

Central in England geographically.
DS fell in love with the uni on an open day, again at interview and again at offer holder day.
Can he not go to offer holder days?

DS, don't mind any.went to Birmingham open day, st Andrew was online.
Will consider going again to both Thanks

Have they invited him to any offer holder open days?

Very different places! St Andrews is a very small town in Fife which is dominated by the university and without a train station (Leuchars is a short bus ride away). Birmingham is a big city.

Which course did he apply for in St Andrews? 3+3, ScotCom? As a small town (population around 20,000) it doesn’t have a hospital, let alone a teaching hospital. The nearest large hospital is Ninewells but that is home to Dundee medical school. In Fife the biggest hospital is in Kirkcaldy but that is used by Edinburgh Medical School. So the only hospital available to St Andrews is the small hospital in Dunfermline, which only has a minor injuries unit not A&E (you go to Kirkcaldy if you need A&E). Hence their full medical degree course is the new community based ScotCom course that started last year. I think I would be a bit sceptical of that course until I see how people who had graduated got on with it. If he got an offer for the 3+3 course then I would advise a visit to St Andrews to see how you would feel about spending three years there.

I can’t comment on the new ScotCom course, but I am a doctor in Glasgow and St As med students transfer here or to Edinburgh or I think Manchester for their clinical years. As a result the St As med students don’t get exposure to patients early on in their training as much as other universities but they do get a very good basic science training. It can be difficult to uproot and move somewhere new after 3 years and need to find accommodation, make friends etc so factor that in. Unless it’s the ScotCom course, not sure how that works.
StAs is not very well served by public transport, there’s no train station and it’s a 2 hour drive from Glasgow, a bit less from Edinburgh. But it’s a lovely little town.

Just to say Birmingham students also get v limited patient exposure until year 3. Years 1 and 2 are pre clinical and very lecture/ small group based with huge amounts of theory content with a bit of pro section. Although there is 1 day per fortnight in a GP practice when DS has seen patients. Hospital placements start year 3. So not dissimilar to what is described above...

Iirc they don’t complete the whole course at St Andrews and have to go further afield for placements.

Thanks for the feedback, St Ads is 3+3, while Birm is not. Offer holder open day not yet, as offer can only be response to from 14 of May.

Sounds like he needs to look into the 3+3 a bit more. And be aware that it’s new…

3+3 isn’t new. St As have been doing it for ages (BSc Medicine, then move to linked university). It is the ScotCom course that is new.