GEP MBBS 2008 - offers

[adi]

Congrats, OhCanada! Worth the wait after all, eh? If I were you, I'd still trundle along to Barts and see what you think, for a variety of reasons - mainly, because you might find you love it, and it's always good to give yourself options. But the big one for me is that 2008's the very first year Imperial have ever tried to run a GEP course and that will obviously come with some incipient teething problems (which I think put a lot of people off applying so some applicants obviously take that quite seriously), but I guess these initial issues are potentionally problematic as they try to figure out what from their established undergrad two years needs to be taught and how. Barts has been running one for much longer so has presumably ironed these out. Equally, the course structure is quite different - i.e. at Imperial they're going to try to cram the first two years of that undergrad course into one, and then chuck you into the normal stream for the next three years and see if you sink or swim. Whereas Barts, Kings, Oxford and the other more long-established courses etc. have courses that avoid that manic-sounding first year by yes, covering a lot of information in that first year, but then integrating some of it that into your second year as well rather than cramming it all into your first year. So that's a personal preference that you might think about as well.

Equally Barts is the oldest teaching hospital in the UK, with a consequential worldwide reputation for quality medical teaching. And two of their more relevant strong points include that it's one of the best international centres for oncology treatment and research, and is equally renowned for its emergency medicine advances. Partly because it's the current base for HEMS - the only helicopter EMS in London, and this links into their reputation as a centre for emergency medicine excellence. Depends on whether they're your interests or not.

And they're in very different parts of London (east end versus kensington), with very different feels to them, so that might play a factor. And different rents and costs of living.

And with very different student bodies - Imperial is the uber-science/engineering college in the UK, whereas Barts are now almost separate from QM so it sounds like it's predominantly other healthcare professionals is who you're training with (though their biomed research is very impressive).

Besides those few random points, they're both great, and I'd say it's worth giving Barts a chance anyway and possibly giving yourself options. You've got nothing to lose, and if you like the students you meet at the interview, the interview procedure, the professors/staff that you meet on the day, the feel of their campus, then you might end up marginally preferring it.

And just found this from a random post by f_debelder in the Barts forum as to why he chose Barts from his options:
Oldest hospital (Barts) in the UK founded in 1123
Oldest medical school (The London) in the UK
Best junior doctors as said by the GMC report in 2005 (!!! Doing something right!)
Best NHS teaching trust in the UK!
Cardiac and Cancer Centres of Excellence with big investment into The London
HEMS helicopter service (!)
On campus accomodation in your freshers year, in 2005 newly built accomodation at very reasonable (London!) prices (ensuite bathrooms for 90-100 pounds a week!)
Highest placement of FY1 doctors at their first choice location and job (95% of all).

All depends on your priorities really :-) Good luck with the decisions....

[OhCanada]

Originally Posted by adi

But the big one for me is that 2008's the very first year Imperial have ever tried to run a GEP course and that will obviously come with some incipient teething problems ....
.....
Barts, Kings, Oxford and the other more long-established courses etc. have courses that avoid that manic-sounding first year by yes, covering a lot of information in that first year, but then integrating some of it that into your second year as well rather than cramming it all into your first year. So that's a personal preference that you might think about as well.
....
All depends on your priorities really :-) Good luck with the decisions....

True that! I was a little worried as well about it being the first year and asked them about it at the interview, and they made it sound like they were pretty confident about it going well and were taking some elements from those other schools. I imagine the integration into second year is manditory anyway and seems to me a little artificial...I mean it is going to be an insane amount of information in any case and one is going to be re learning everything over the four years (and beyond) anyway, so not sure that it is a real issue. But the student body differences will make a big difference (probably compounded by the localities) and the size/enrollment of the programs is also important...I think Bart's is smaller than the 50 in ICL if I recall correctly. I have a very good contact at Barts and will probably start picking her brain about options.

Anyone know when we have to make our minds up??

As always, fantastic bit of advice adi and I hope that everything goes well for you!

[adi]

Thank you - have currently narrowed it down to deciding between Oxf and Kings offers (which were very much my top two pre-interviews so that's v exciting) and whether to go the QMUL interview or not as well, so in vaguely the same boat. As far as I know, you don't have to sign on any dotted line before you have all four outcomes which I imagine is mid March.

I think though, that the Barts course takes 45 students so not much of a difference there - maybe you were thinking of Kings (24) or Oxford (28) or one of your other choices. And looking at the Imperial GEP website, it does seem to unequivocally say that only your first year is in any way different to that of the undergrads, and that years 2-4 are the exact same as clinical years of the undergrad course, which does imply that all the catchup is done just in year one. I like the way that some other courses do hothouse you for that first year but also integrate some of the catchup knowledge in your second year as well, rather than just cramming two years into one, but again these are all personal preferences and i only mention it to indicate that there are differences in course structure at Barts so maybe that's an element you might want to consider.

But I'm sure your Barts contact will be able to fill in lots of gaps, but if in the slightest bit of doubt, I'd go along to interview anyway and make the decision afterwards.

And the universities will make multiple offers for each place anyway and will then start working down their waiting lists, so don't feel like you're keeping anyone else from a place by waiting a little longer to make your decision...

[patka]

Congratulations, OhCanada! On my UCAS its says that I have until 5 June to reply to my offers, so that's more than plenty time. Good luck with your deciding!

[jlin84]

congrats OhCanada! guess your patience finally paid off.

patka, just curious as to how you're going to decide between Kings and IC. I withdrew from the Kings interview cause I didn't want to deal with that decision.

[patka]

Originally Posted by jlin84

patka, just curious as to how you're going to decide between Kings and IC. I withdrew from the Kings interview cause I didn't want to deal with that decision.

Ha, good question! I wanted to go to at least two interviews so that I could compare b/c I never had the option of going to open days or just walk around the campuses. Imperial was my preferred one of the two before the interview, and my gut feeling during my interview visits told me the same. I'll have to do some more serious research into it just to make sure though. Imperial is ranked more highly than King's, and it has a reputation of bringing up doctors-scientists, which is very attractive to me because I am considering expanding my MD to an MD/PhD. I also want to wait and see if they offer me some money, since that might be a decisive factor for me too.

[Hatti]

Originally Posted by weeds are plants too

Hi,
Was the letter sent by snail mail? My track offer was the bog standard letter...

The letter about the scholarship was sent in the post with the crb check stuff. My track letter was just the standard one though.

[weeds are plants too]

Thanks Hatti, my letter was waiting for me when I got home yesterday. Write an essay? The hoops we must jump through go on and on....

[Emu]

I've got an offer too. Everyone needs to join this facebook group for everyone on the GEP course!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=21477823320 Can't wait to start!!!

[LP77]

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?...id=18084274512
I think it would be fun for the new GEP years across London to get together every now and again!
After all its not long at all for us to be joining foundation placements and chances are then we will all be mixed into different foundation schools, probably around the capital.
Larax