applying with 5 a*

[Gizmo says -]

perhaps he means brum sucks like a black ole....drawing others in past its event orizon.... until (ooo, macca...)

[dsn]

Well I dont judge a town on whether it would make a good holiday destination. I want to live there! Anyway I guess that was a post directed at hash118118 not just to spite leicester as such

Everyone knows that Leicester is the ugly twin of the Midlands, well apart from Wolverhampton and Coventry. And some dedicated Brummies will argue that Solihull sullies everyone's name (by being dangerous separatists). I mean, if Leicester is such a great place, why does the BBC Asian Network (not that I've ever listened to it) have a studio in Birmingham as well as Leicester. Because you can't trust Leicester! I mean Simon De Montford was a great man for sure, but if Leicester was such a good place today, wouldn't his successor, the venerable Edward Coke, Earl of Leicester, hang out in Leicester, rather than Holkham Hall on the (rather excellent) North Norfolk Coast?

Ok, that's all rubbish. I'm sure Leicester is a fine place.

With regards to personal statements, the things that people write that most annoy me are:

1. "I've always wanted to be a doctor"
So what? I've always wanted to be a millionaire.

2. "I'm fascinated by the human body's structure and how it works"
Then go and do an Anatomy or Physiology BSc.

3. "I shadowed a consultant for a day"
Great! I once met a consultant too. He was in to corporate tax.

4. "I want to help people"
So do I. I hold doors open for old ladies at the corner shop.

5. "I'm a caring person"
Yes, I was distraught when little Tibbles was run over. Mrs Cat Lover was sooo upset.

6. "I went on a gap year to Columbia"
I'm glad you're safe and sound now. But exactly what did you learn about medicine there that you couldn't at your local care home/ acute hospital?

7. "I enjoy stimulating challenges"
Ri-ight. The extreme mountaineering show is at the NIA. Just carry on up the Bristol Road...

8. "I want to give something back to society"
You're not really giving something back as a doctor, though. You get paid very well; you're the one comparing quotes for the Porsche 911, after all.

9. "My father's a doctor"
My uncle served three months at Belmarsh, but whatever I do, they only give me community work sentences.

10. "I'm a team player"
Does that mean you get everyone else to do the work?

Ok, again I'm being very harsh and half of those things probably either were or nearly were in my own PS. But I just hate it when people make statements and don't expand on them to explain why they're at all relevant or meaningful.

[Magnetic]

I mean, if Leicester is such a great place, why does the BBC Asian Network (not that I've ever listened to it) have a studio in Birmingham as well as Leicester. Because you can't trust Leicester!

Thats illogical! How about they have a studio in Leicester as well as Birmingham because they dont trust Birmingham!

Anyway, very true about the PS's.

[Gizmo says -]

i wonder if a gap year in bognor regis wuld suffice?


See.....i cant afford to pay £1000 admin fees to go to Columbia for two weeks jus so i can tell sum ten year old Columbian kiddies that i just blew enuff money to educate them (and get them jobs for life on) the chance to do them no good at all but self indulgently add shit to ma PS.

i'm gonna do Bognor Regis instead....
and instead keep wurking in a hospice doing real good....
And instead sponsor fifty poor third wurldy children at one pound a month.

or summat like that ....

[dsn]

See.....i cant afford to pay £1000 admin fees to go to Columbia for two weeks jus so i can tell sum ten year old Columbian kiddies that i just blew enuff money to educate them (and get them jobs for life on) the chance to do them no good at all but self indulgently add shit to ma PS.

I think there is a serious point here. Some people call foreign gap years like that modern imperialism, because the underlying assumption is that these people are poor and a bit dim and can only get on in life if we go and teach them some GCSE science. But I don't think a Columbian cocoa grower's son really needs to know how blood glucose levels are maintained. It's not that they're unworthy of this knowledge, but it would be far more useful to send some one who can give practical competent agricultural advice - i.e. how the farmers can get the best yields and make the most profit.

What developing countries need is not a bunch of inebriated 18 year olds but expert advice on engineering, healthcare, industry and so on and very importantly investment. India and China are doing well because of all the Western corporations that invested there, not because Euan from Stevenage taught English to a class of eleven year olds.

I also find it strange how people say that it will be such a good experience, they'll see how the poor live. a) I can pretty damn imagine what it's like without going. b) there's plenty of poor people in England, not so poor as people in Eritrea perhaps, but still living in unpleasant conditions. And it's the English people you'd work with in the NHS...

And I'm not sure people will be jumping for joy at seeing you in the way the inevitably always do in promotional brochures. And somewhere in the middle of a jungle in the Congo you're on your own. The British consul is many many miles away and might not be able to help you if you get in to trouble anyway. So if you broaden your horizons get a good book and read that. And do some community work or something.

[Gizmo says -]

i wonder if a gap year in bognor regis wuld suffice?


See.....i cant afford to pay £1000 admin fees to go to Columbia for two weeks jus so i can tell sum ten year old Columbian kiddies that i just blew enuff money to educate them (and get them jobs for life on) the chance to do them no good at all but self indulgently add shit to ma PS.

i'm gonna do Bognor Regis instead....
and instead keep wurking in a hospice doing real good....
And instead sponsor fifty poor third wurldy children at one pound a month.

or summat like that ....

aye.
i wuld add that the £1000 admin fees will probably be spent by middle class muffs in swondon or sumplace so on parties and olidays, so its a dubble barrel of shite for that li'l deprived kid in Columbia.