Your views on Glasgow

[doctors-do-it-better]

Hey Guys

Okay as a graduate applicant for 2010 entry I am at the stage where I need to seriously narrow down my choices of potential Uni's to apply to. Glasgow is one of those potential Uni's.

To all those current students out there could you please provide me with your perspective of the course? What did you like best about Glasgow? Anything you didn't like about the course? Do you like the style of the course? What is first year actually like - anyone have a typical example of a day at Glasgow??

If you could offer one sound part of advice for applying to Glasgow what would it be?

Any advice would be appreciated....cheers

- Darren

[jaykay]

I've just finished first year and would say that overall i enjoyed it. The thing i liked best was the flexibility and freedom, i.e.there is a lot of free time, and it generally feelsquie relaxed.

While overall i enjoyed pbl i did find it hard at the start to know how much to do, and come revision time realised i had done twice as much as i needed too, but hopefully it will come in handy in 2nd year.
The labs and lectures you get are a bit hit or miss. I found lectures by actual university teachers are good, but ones from outside are normaly rather poor.
VS was alright - not the most taxing, at worst its just a bit dull, but trips to hospitals, projects and volunteer patients were good.

A typical day obviously varies from person to person, one of the good things about the course. I assume it will also be different depending on whether you stay in halls etc. What you have each day changes apart from pbl and vs so its's hard to give a definitie timetable, here is alsolrge variations between blocks

But a typical example may be:

MON
9 - 11 : pbl, feedback last pbl and brainstorm new one
11- 12/1 : have lunch and just generally relax
1 - 5/6 : Do the pbl before heading home

TUE
9 - 11/12 : VS - could just be dscussion or volunteer patient
12 - 2 : break for lunch, or if you want continue with pbl
2 - 5: LAB
Then go home or carry on with pbl etc.

WED

11 - 12: lecture
12 onwards: free to get lunch, finish of the pbl, and then go to GU to waste the rest of your day

THU

9 : PBl

All starts over again, and again, and again

[sukh21]

So then, what do you do on a friday? Sorry if this seems like an obvious question.

[jaykay]

we generally got lectures as a year group on friday, 1 or maybe 2. then some people might have a lab or that might be it for the day.

Everyone doesn't have labs or 'FRS' at the same time so if there is an FRS some might have it on thursday and others on Friday so again it varies alot

[flyingkilt]

Hey,

I have just finished a degree in Neuroscience at Dundee. It had always been my intention to pursue medicine no matter what it takes ... blah blah blah.. you've heard it all before.

What I will say is that I felt I had an extremely strong application for medicine, with a good mix of academic achievement, extra-curricular activities, work experience both in health care and research settings. My UKCAT scores wern't outstanding (got around 650 on average).

I was always intending to apply to Dundee, Aberdeen and GEM at Newcastle. I didn't apply to Edinburgh because as a graduate applicant, theres more chance of you eating your own head than getting in there. I was on the verge of whacking Oxford down as my 4th as a wildcard choice, but I opted to choose Glasgow instead. As fate would have it I recieved straight rejections from all my original 3 universities, but got an interview and subsequently a conditional offer from Glasgow pending a 2:1. In hindsight, I don't think things could have worked out better, Glasgow is not only a great medical school, but it couldn't be in a more unhealthy city if it tried, you have every ailment you could wish for!

I believe that you should put Glasgow down as an option- I read recently that it won an award from the BMJ for its innovative teaching of undergrad medicine. I cannot wait to start in September, and I am buzzing at the thought right now. From what I hear they are shaking up the application process next year, but they were the only Univeristy to give me a chance, so i have to thank them for that!

[darkido]

hmm so any current students here willing tell us more about their personal feelings of the 'good's and the 'bad's of GMS?? I know pretty much most of the facts but well, experience always makes everything much clearer..