That Time of the Year...Again.

So Freshers Week is literally right around the corner. You're sitting in front of your computer/packing/feeling excited and nervous/etc. A million questions race through your mind: What's medical school going to be like? Am I going to make any friends? What is Freshers like? Will I be able to cope? Will I get homesick?

I am probably considered an "oldie" at university now since I am now in 4th year. Most people who started university with me in the UK have all graduated now...most are working as well...and I'm still in school. I've been through 3 fresher weeks now - I think I can safely say that I'm fairly confident about what goes on in Freshers and what students are usually concerned about. Let's crack a few FAQs. 

What is medical school going to be like?

Medical school is going to be challenging, physically and mentally tough, tiring, and most importantly - FUN. At the end of the day - we are medics. We work hard and party hard, BUT it is essential to maintain a good balance between the two. Don't want to work too hard to the point you burn out within first year, but at the same time not party so hard you end up flunking the year. In the first few weeks of school, it will mainly be a lot of introductory lectures. Unfortunately, your first few weeks will probably be a bit of a shock. First 2 weeks - you'll still be either hungover or on cloud 9 as you are still coming to terms that you are in medical school. Then week 3 comes around and so on...you're in lectures from 9am-5pm. You want to be seeing patients and learning clinical things, etc. Here's the truth - everyone has to take baby steps first so you'll probably spend quite a bit of time learning the basics. The science of medicine more than anything. 

How do I make friends?

I cannot stress the importance of getting out there. Don't just stay in your accommodation. Go out and socialize! I do understand drinking/alcohol culture is not everyone's "cup of tea", but not all socials need to be at a pub/bar/club. In your first week (Freshers Week) there will be a lot of fairs. There will be a medical freshers fair, union freshers fair, sports fair, etc. Go to the fairs and join some societies! Remember all the freshers that attend these fairs will also be looking for friends. Thinking back, in the first few weeks of university was quite overwhelming. Every one seems a bit too friendly. You get so many numbers and emails from people you only say "Hi" to. Great place to start is at your first medical lecture. Go meet your classmates! You'll be stuck with them for the next 5-6ish years...so it's not a bad idea to start getting to know them. If you are a shy person, just think about it - everyone is looking to make friends. To be entirely honest - I used to be quite shy and the week before starting medical school - I was pretty nervous. I didn't know if I will be able to make friends. I'm not exactly the best person to initiate conversations. I can actually be quite quiet and can happily stand in the corner and watch the world pass by. Seeing how I'm in a new country, new school, etc - I knew I have to step out of my bubble and really try hard to make the first move and meet as many people as I can. Not sure what to say? Here's a start: "Hi! My name is _______. So where are you from? Liking *the university/city* so far? How are you finding it?" 

Do I have to party every single day to make friends?

No. I did not go party every night. I think I went out twice (?) during Freshers week. BUT a great way to get to know your flatmates is probably to hang out with them, but know your limits. Sometimes you feel really pressured to go out, but if you aren't comfortable going out - then don't go! Just tell your friends you're going to take it easy for the night and need to finish unpacking. It isn't a crime to take it easy and most people should understand. However, I do HIGHLY recommend going to the Medic Freshers Party. I've been to the union party and the medics party 3 years in a row during Freshers week. The Medics' Party is a lot better. Plus it gives you another chance to meet more of your classmates and probably upper years such as people like me who don't want to give up on Fresher parties! I still fondly remember my first year medics freshers party. The people who I met at the party are still my great friends 3 years later. All I can say about these parties is just to enjoy yourself. Let loose. You're a fresher only once - just go for it! You're away from home. You're officially a medical student! I think these are good enough reasons to celebrate!

I got the welcome pack and everything seems really confusing and overwhelming! What to do?!

Just relax. I have always found the welcome packs overwhelming and exciting. Things start to feel real when you read through the welcome pack. I still remember reading mine and going: "wow...I am going to university. I'm going to be a medical student in a few days. There is a lot of stuff to know...crap." Essentially what schools tend to do is try to cram as much info in a welcome pack as they possibly can. It isn't a bad idea to give it a read before you start university, but you don't have to know everything in it. Introductory lectures/induction will probably cover most of it. How I've always seen things is to just "go with the flow". Just remember if you are feeling scared/nervous - there will probably be quite a lot of other people feeling the same thing. You're not the only one on the boat. 

All in all - in a way Freshers week is overhyped. Keep your expectations low, and you won't be disappointed. How much you will enjoy Freshers Week is solely down to you. You control your life so you go out as much as you need to. But like I've said earlier: you're only a Fresher once so enjoy your time. Celebrate your week. You deserve it. You got into medical school - which was certainly not an easy task. Just think how far you have come to get here. It's also a fantastic time to get to know lots of people. Go join societies and get to know people from other courses. You are at university for 5-6 years so it is important to make the first good step. Relax and just go with the flow! Be excited. It will be a very fun 5+ years of university. It will go by quickly so enjoy it. 

Good luck and enjoy your Freshers week. Also congratulations for getting into medical school.  

Which Medical School?

Well it's a new cycle for 2012 medical applicants. I have a received a few messages about which medical schools to apply to. I can't remember if I have done a post on how to pick your unis so I'll just do another one just in case.

1. Get your priorities straight.

What do I mean by priorities? Each person has a different priority. If you're an international student like me: usually location is a huge point. So ask yourself: "what do I care about?" Location? Course structure? Teaching standards? Size of the university? Union? Night life? And so on...

2. Research. Research. Research.

Do as much research as you can to learn about the course structure for each university. Research about the city. Research cost of living. Some cities will cost more to live in than others. London for example is a very expensive place to live in. Finance is a huge thing especially for international students. This is something you should discuss with parents if they are going to be your main sponsors. If you will be on loan, again you need to make sure you spend your money wisely and try to be economic. You don't want to end up in money trouble after your first few years of uni. Also research the location of the university. Is it a campus university (e.g. Nottingham) or is it a uni within the city (e.g. Manchester)?

3. Course Structure.

For medicine, some universities have a PBL system, Traditional, or Integrated (Lectures with PBL). So how do you learn best? Do you like to have small tutoring sessions and learn best from those? Do you like to sit in a large lecture hall with hundreds of other students? Do you want to sit in a lecture hall and then apply your knowledge in a small group? Again, every person is different. By figuring out your learning style - you can already narrow down your universities.

3.1. Course Structure - Dissection.

Also some universities still have full body cadaver dissections and some have gone to prosection where you only get a section of the cadaver to dissect. What would you prefer? Some people don't care and some do. It's all down to personal choice. If you definitely want full body dissection that will literally shoot you down to a handful of universities. If you don't mind well you still got loads of unis to pick from.

3.2. Clinical Exposure.

Now some people see early clinical exposure as a very important aspect to their learning. Some people may not want such early clinical exposure. Some unis throw you out into the medical world in first year and integrate a lot of clinical experience into the course. Some universities keep it traditional and mainly keep you to the learning aspects and keep you away from patients until after 2nd/3rd year. This is something where you will have to do a lot of research on if this is important to you. Some prospectus/websites for the uni will not mention this so speaking to students from the uni of interest will be helpful.

4. Location.

Do you want to study in a big city like London? Or do you prefer to study in a smaller city such as St Andrews? Personally I chose against studying in London or big cities in general because of the distractions. Big cities = more distractions. I get distracted easily and will find excuses to not do my work. At the same time I don't want to be in an isolated area with nothing to do as I would lose my mind. I wanted to find a place with just enough distractions to keep me sane but not too many distractions that I won't get my work done. Best for you to go visit the universities to get a first hand experience of the city and university. I was quite fortunate to be able to travel the UK to visit all the unis I was interested in. Before I went I already had a rough idea which 4 schools I was going to apply to, but after visiting - my list was COMPLETELY different. You will know when you find the right school for you. You get a weird feeling and sense belonging. You gotta be able to picture yourself in that city for 5+ years. 5 years is a LONG time so you must make sure you will enjoy yourself there.

5. Entrance Requirement.

Some universities require higher grades than others. Your grades is something you can't really change or influence. You will probably have a ballpark idea on what grades you will achieve by the end of the year so look for reasonable unis that you know you will be a competitive applicant. It's nice to dream to go to certain universities but if you don't have the grades for it, you could end up wasting 1 of your 4 choices. Marks isn't everything to get into medicine. Everyone applying will be smart. They use marks as a cut-off and if you don't make the cut-off...well they won't even look at your extra curricular activities that make you seem unique. Also now with the UKCAT, more and more unis are putting more importance on it and using it to cut out applicants as medicine is such a popular course. Admissions need a way to cut down the number so they will use the UKCAT. So look up what are the cut-off marks for each university. Again like your grades, no point in applying to a uni where your UKCAT score is well below what is stated as they will cut you out without looking at your application. If UKCAT didn't go so well, there are still unis that do not look at UKCAT. I believe Birmingham and Liverpool don't use the UKCAT. Some schools need the BMAT so they will not look at UKCAT. Please do your research and look at the entrance requirements.

So this is a pretty rough list of what you should definitely keep in mind when choosing your universities. It takes a lot of research and priority setting. Location and Course Structure will probably be your best two filters to narrow down your list. If you're an international applicant, make sure you check if the university is international friendly. Some universities may not accept your high school diploma/standards. Remember choosing which uni to go to should be YOUR choice and YOUR decision. Yes of course if your parents are helping you out with money, they have a bit of say, but again you have to make sure you will be happy at the university and will enjoy the teaching. So select your unis carefully and take your time with it. Think it through and try and get some opinions as well. By the way I quite enjoyed this website: UnionView. It's a website which has a review of almost all the unis in the UK. So take a look at it if you don't get the chance to visit the uni.

Good luck with your application and I truly hope this has helped.

International vs. Local Debate.

So the other day I had quite an interesting debate with my fellow medical friends. Mind you this debate involved a mix of international and local medical students. With immigration laws changing and making an international student's life even harder, it leads to the question of how are international students studying at a UK medical school affected? Let me give you a quick overview as to what is the proposed change that COULD affect international medics. The government is planning to scrap the Post Study Work Scheme (Tier 1 visas). This apparently does not affect Foundation Year jobs, but apparently does affect international medics wanting to pursue a specialty in the NHS.

Not sure how true is this but someone please do correct me if this is not correct: all posts for specialties will be first filled by local students. Any postings with room left behind will be then filled with international students. In my eyes that sounds a bit unfair but my local friends have made a valid point that us "internationals" are stealing jobs away from the locals. However, what I do not understand is that it is such a shame that an international student who got an equal education to the local students at a UK university still has to be classified as an international. Obviously a bit biased here, but I would think it would be a lot more fair that when ALL medical students graduate (including internationals), everyone should be placed on an equal playing field. Received the same education, hence, should receive equal opportunity for specialty placements? Either way, quite a few internationals do end up leaving UK and return back home to work, but I feel that those who are left behind should be regarded equally and just as suitable for specialty postings. Again I'm not sure how true this is about locals getting more priority than internationals when competing for specialty posts, but I do get both sides of the story.

Next point which could be a bit controversial. Some locals I have spoken to are quite against universities accepting international students in general! Obviously baffled by this comment I do admit I did take it a bit personal even though I know I should not as it is just a fun debate. Anyways again I see why locals find internationals a bit of a nuisance. However, I feel that international students bring a lot of diversity to the UK. I know recently David Cameron said that "Multiculturism [in the UK] has failed", and with these changing immigration laws, studying in the UK doesn't seem as welcoming for international students as it is quite the challenge to get a job after your studies. I think without international students UK would lose its diversity and possibly higher education being less renowned. A major factor for me to come to the UK was for its renowned education system and that its top notch. Who knows down the line immigration is cut down so much that internationals just don't want to go to the UK as there are no job prospects, I think it could put a bit of a dent in the UK higher education's reputation. As well there was this whole other point about international fees vs. local fees which turned out quite heated but not really worth mentioning on the blog. I guess I may have poked a few too many buttons when I said that I like the system in the US where both local and international students pay the SAME fees. I think again it puts people on a more leveled playing field. Then another debate of being able to afford higher education, etc etc.

Where I stand is in the middle. International students bring a lot to the universities and certainly to the medical schools, however, it does threaten local students as we can take up posts that should be for local students. But I don't think it is fair to make it so difficult for a competent graduate (especially a medical student) to stay in the UK. As well, if international students are placed on a leveled playing field with local students when fighting for posts, I think it would create really good competition. Medical school shouldn't be a cruise along the river. It should be like back in school where you compete and do your absolute best to get into the universities you want to go to and study medicine! I feel that now there is hardly any competition and I think we need just a bit more. Competition can create more competent/excellent doctors as everyone will feel the need to work hard, take on extracurricular activities, etc.

What do you guys think about the changing immigration laws which could possibly put off possibly amazing future medical students? How do you think it will affect the UK/NHS? What is your view on the whole International vs. Local Student? Should there be more competition at medical school? Please post your comments below. :)