Why King's?

[geezer6]

- its very near Harrods (that is an advantage if you're like me and you just love going there )

- there's supposed to be a bit of an anti-medic feeling among the non-medics at imperial in general although individually its not so bad. My friend said that when she first moved into her accomodation at imperial, she spoke to some people living near her who were non-medics and they asked her what she was going to study at imperial and when she said medicine, they were a bit like "oh.......right." and they weren't all that friendly after that. I'm sure its not always like that though.
- there aren't any people there doing arts subjects which is a shame, but as Dr T said, you probably don't get to meet the arts people much at Kings anyway cos they're on a different campus.

Ok! Harrods. Do you know how much you're going to be allowed to spend?? You won't even be allowed in Harrods, let alone buy things there on a student loan, chief! Anti-medic feeling. This is a universal on multifaculty universities - more pronounced in some places than others *cough* (BAAAARTS!!). I think it is an ascendency thing. As a subject, nothing tops medicine - this isn't arrogance, it's just fact, and everyone knows it. Try not to let that go to your head, but be proud of course. So when people find out you're a medic, and they are a lazy arts student, course they're going to be jealous. And if they're not friendly after that, they're not worth knowing; it's that simple. Also, arts students are lazy as hell - I know my fair share. Is it really a shame that there aren't any around?? If I could make one recommendation, it should be this: go to each medical school, find a student (maybe do those in reverse first, it may help) and then get a feel for each of the campuses (not the medical student.....) Find out what it's truly like to be a medical student there, and don't take any crap they might try and feed you, brochure style - you would be there to find out where *your next best 6 years are going to be; not theirs! At the end of the day however, you wouldn't be at a loss if you found yourself at either. Enjoy that thought....

[chocoholic]

Ok! Harrods. Do you know how much you're going to be allowed to spend?? You won't even be allowed in Harrods, let alone buy things there on a student loan, chief!

:lol: :lol: You're right of course! But i impressed myself with my excellent self-control when i went in there after my interview at imperial...i managed not to buy a single thing...not even a chocolate :wink: :!: I definitely won't be able to afford to buy anything from there at all but most of the fun in going there is just looking around

I actually still haven't made up my mind about where i'm going to go (that's if I get my grades :? ). I just keep changing my mind :roll: One day, i'll think, right i'm definitely going to put king's down as my firm, then the next day i think, no maybe i should choose imperial. It's so difficult not to be swayed by stupid insignificant things...and its really hard to know what it is at the back of your mind that's swaying you either way!

Anyway, as you said, they are both really good medical schools and basically that's why i'm finding it so hard to make my decision...there's really not that much between them
I never in my wildest dreams thought i'd ever be in this lucky position of being able to choose between the two. I thought i was going to be rejected without interview by both...but then i was asked for an interview on the same day (30th March), at exactly the same time (2:00pm) for both :shock: :!:
Luckily, imperial said it was fine and i could come the next tuesday at the same time

One thing i have been thinking about is that, at Kings approximately a third of the students do an intercalated year and so if you did one you would move into the year below you after you'd done it, wouldn't you? Do you think that would matter (for example, if your friends did one and you didn't, you would end up being in different years...but maybe that wouldn't matter at all?)
Whereas at imperial, everyone does an intercalated year so that wouldn't happen. I don't know whether that's important or not.

Anyway, thanks a lot for your help geezer6

[platinum]

Alot of the students who dont intercalate are post grads who have a degree anyway, so its not too nasty! And the fact is, that your "friends" at uni aren't necessarily going to be the people you see every day, like your friends at school are! You might want to think about what you want to intercalate in- I know GKTs medical ethics and law intercalations (etc etc) arent done at a lot of unis(dont know about imperial tho!).

I chose KIngs simply on vibe-I'd not even considered it to begin with, but got a great vibe from the place so came here. And I know I made the right choice. Just get up to them both, and go with the one which makes you feel comfier (a good uni that makes u feel uncomfotable or bored may as well be a bad one!).

About the new course at GKT, basically the pre-clinical years now incorperate alot more PBL. Random basic science is taught in the first term, to get everyone up to speed, and then you begin phase two. Phase two divides the core syllabus into normal devisions (CV, respiratory, hepatorenal etc), then teaches each over a month or so, using clinical scenarios as a base. Every week begins with a clinical presentation, often by a clinician, then the week is spent exploring condition, treatment, and related science, in lectures, tutorials and various workshops and things (and DR sessions obviously). The week ends with a debrief, summerising the weeks work and telling us what happens to he patient! And thats pretty much the rest of the pre clinical phase!

As for district general hospitals, I'm pretty sure (but don't quote me on it) that all that kicks in in year 5, and although the hospitals are far out, most offer accomodation for the duration of the placement. Year 3 and 4 are spent in the main teaching hospitals.

If you follow current student links on the KCL site you should be able to nose around the GKT virtual campus- it may give you a better idea of what we're all up too!

[chocoholic]

Thankyou very much for your help, platinum
You're definitely right about the friends thing too, because you're likely to make friends with all sorts of people, like the people you live with etc. not just the people you see at your lectures everyday, so i'm sure it really wouldn't matter what year you were in

[dudey]

Its located in a part of london where there are a lot of fit girls :lol:

[iced_warrior]

Aargh dag namnit! How come the ratio at Kings is more girls than boys? Do the fit girls in the area have some fit guys in tow as well? This wasn't a huge pro/con when i was choosing kings but as the time grows near (bring on sept wahoo) it's becoming more significant.... ops:

The main thing about kings' was that i liked the course bieng traditional yet systems based rather than basic scinece i.e. resp, cardiovascular systems as opposed to anatomy, biochem etc like you'd get in the likes of Oxford. But i was really scared to hear from a friend in her first yr at GKT that they'd made a big thing of PBL there this yr as it's not my thing. It sounds really good tho once it was all explained cos unlike manchester where it's all small group learning and individual study, you get lectures and tutorials to supplement your PBL and it's actually more systems based learning with clinical relevance rather than PBL which i think is just brill and would really help me to take things in

I'm quite narked that Imperial are always top 5 in league tables but Kings seems to be stuck somewhere in the 16ths I know alot of older ppl and those in medical porfession who think v. highly of KIng's and it's teaching hosps, just a shame you get ppl going, well UCl and Imperial are better cos they're in top 10 of the times blah blah.

With regards to intercalation, as far as i know, the specified length of your course at imperial and UCl is 6yrs so i guess it is mandatory you do the 6yrs (dunno about exceptions) but at Kings it's optional. What really worried me was whether you have to be chosen or get certain high marks to be alllowed to intercalate but was glad to know that everyone is allowed to inercalate at kings yay! Does anyone know though, whether it's possible to go to another med school in london to intercalate if you really like their subjedt and your med school doesn't have it? Does Kings frown on that?

Hope you can make your minds up soon chocoholic and Herm. I'm sure you'll be v. happy at either uni, but in my own blatantly biased way, hope you choose kings!! :wink:

Lisa

[hector]

Hi,

I'm just finishing my 3rd year at GKT, whilst it doesn't rank as highly as imperial in *some* of the league tables (not all), we generally end up having a much better student life than they do!
Having spoken to lots of consultants etc. at different hospitals, GKT is probably thought of more highly than imperial is in terms of producing doctors rather than academics, which seems to be the impetus of what imperial does.

As far as intercalation goes, you can intercalate a BSc anywhere in the country if you want to, you just have to fill in the right forms! GKT doesn't frown on this at all as far as I know... lots of my friends went elsewhere for theirs. Personally though, I still think we have a wide enough selection of BSc's to keep me going! The ethics and law one is going to be fantastic!

If anyone is coming to the open days in July, I should be one of the student ambassadors taking people round campus... I really recommend turning up 'cos its a great chance to ask question and find out a bit more about the medical school.

Oh and btw... we did beat UCL in some of the league tables last year

[breezer]

T chocoholic and all the others with the names i couldn't bother typing,

I wanna ask you guys something that might be personal(im not sure).
I applied to Imperial med school and I wanna know if i stand a chance. However Im not taking A levels; I'm taking the IB which you might not have heard of.

Also, I just took my BMATs and I feel like crap because it was really hard; did any of you get results yet?
thanks all!

[umerhakeem]

You do know that Imperial is in the top 10 universities in the world? Kings is an absolute dump compared to Imperial and plus you can laugh at non-medics' workload during the first year. [/cockiness]

But the best thing about imperial is its nerdiness. I'm pretty sure you dont get nerdiness like you do here anywhere in the world (not even Oxbridge). Trust me, its something to treasure.

[breezer]

Dear Umerakhim,

Thanks for informing me about imperial and king's, but I kinda already knew the prestige of Imperial. I want to know if I have a chance to get in if I hav BMAT score of..lets say 17 or 18 (not 19). I have a pretty strong application (not bragging) in terms of academics and extracurricular...and id feel pretty damn good if I was asked for an interview by Imperial. Thanks again