For current students: Barts, Birmingham or manchester?

**vio_mo_lin** · 18-04-2007, 10:19 PM

Heya
This is for current med students at Barts.
I'm trying to decide which Unis to put down as my 1st and 2nd choice.
I'd potentially go to any of them, but have thought of some pros and cons and wonder if you'd be able to offer your own opinions with regard to Barts.
Barts Pros: In London, good course as it's a mix of teaching and PBL (correct me if I'm wrong). Cons: dodgy area? Whitechapel is quite run down and I'm not sure if I want to study there for the next five years of my life...
BirminghamPros: Good course, not too much PBL. Nice Uni. Cons: not sure about accomodation - is it all in hotel style acc. i.e. big block with lots of individual rooms as opposed to flats shared by several students? Also is the music e.g. orchestras, concert bands and chamber groups good? And what about getting about - do most people have a car?
ManchesterPros: Good area, great city Cons: Entirely PBL - I've heard mixed views about this and how well you learn from it. And the course is everything.
I'd be grateful of your views/experiences of med school so far.
Cheers

**Renal** · 19-04-2007, 05:57 PM

Originally Posted by vio_mo_lin

Heya
This is for current med students at Barts.
I'm trying to decide which Unis to put down as my 1st and 2nd choice.
I'd potentially go to any of them, but have thought of some pros and cons and wonder if you'd be able to offer your own opinions with regard to Barts.
Barts Pros: In London, good course as it's a mix of teaching and PBL (correct me if I'm wrong). Cons: dodgy area? Whitechapel is quite run down and I'm not sure if I want to study there for the next five years of my life...
BirminghamPros: Good course, not too much PBL. Nice Uni. Cons: not sure about accomodation - is it all in hotel style acc. i.e. big block with lots of individual rooms as opposed to flats shared by several students? Also is the music e.g. orchestras, concert bands and chamber groups good? And what about getting about - do most people have a car?
ManchesterPros: Good area, great city Cons: Entirely PBL - I've heard mixed views about this and how well you learn from it. And the course is everything.
I'd be grateful of your views/experiences of med school so far.
Cheers

Why is PBL a con? Have you ever done PBL? What didn't you like about it?

Given that you have little or no idea which teaching style will suit you, I'd tend not to focus on that.

Halls, you're in them for as little as one year, hopefully in that year you'll be doing what freshers do and enjoying yourself, is it that important?

Uni, in at least one of those cases you're not in the uni, you're in a medical school, in the others you'll be subdivided into medics more often than not, is it that important?

I'd look at things like student body, environment and 'mood'. Is this someplace you want to spend five or six years and go from there?

**vio_mo_lin** · 19-04-2007, 08:54 PM

Thanks for your thoughts, Renal. Regarding PBL; I've just heard from some students at manchester that you don't end up taking a lot of information in. I gather you're at Barts? Is teaching split between the Whitechapel and St Barts site in the first year? I did sense a good 'atmosphere' on the post offer open day, I guess it's mainly the area that isn't great

**bennett** · 19-04-2007, 08:59 PM

lol! thats a really interesting point Vio. Two of the halls of residences I have been in before have been situated outside central/my uni and both of those halls had a fantastic social scene compared to the rest which were next to lots of local distractions!

**Renal** · 19-04-2007, 10:17 PM

Originally Posted by vio_mo_lin

Thanks for your thoughts, Renal. Regarding PBL; I've just heard from some students at manchester that you don't end up taking a lot of information in. I gather you're at Barts? Is teaching split between the Whitechapel and St Barts site in the first year? I did sense a good 'atmosphere' on the post offer open day, I guess it's mainly the area that isn't great

Most of the teaching is at The London site.

As for PBL, I think you learn as much as you want to learn, it's not so much about taking information in, it's finding it for yourself and learning that way. Learning to learn rather than learning by rote. It's a bit academic really, most of the learning you do after pre-clinical is 'PBL' regardless of where you go.