Cambridge or Imperial?

[LightElf7]

Hi people, I've heard of people arguing here whether they should go to Imperial or KCL, and I have a similar problem just I need to decide between Cambridge and Imperial. These are the two top places I really want to go, but cant decide.

For me both seem to have very prestigious medical schools, but I am not sure where to go should I receive both offers.

Cambridge seems to have a better reputation than Imperial, but I find London a better place to live. But then again, its quite expensive there.

Can some people help me contrast these two institutions? That'd be a great help.

[Nasher and Basher]

Have you thought about going to Cambridge and then after 3 years transfering to Imperial for clinical, and you get to have both ??

Ones intergrated and ones traditional, it depends on about the human body and diseases- thats the key question ?

Check out the course outlines of both courses, and see which one fascinates you more. You will learn the same thing, but which teaching techniques appeals to you more ?

For both you do a intercalated degree, but I think at Cam you have more flexibilty about what you want to sudy, I have been told that you study English etc for the BA.

How important is early pateint contact to you ?

These are the questions you need to ask yourself.

[alex MD]

Ignore the reputation of medical schools it means nothing!! If you want 3 years of hardcore science with no patient contact go for Cambridge; Cambridge will also be good if you want a research career! If you want an integrated course with good patient contact from the off, choose Imperial.

Personally, I'd choose Imperial everytime. But for me, personally, Cambridge offers me nothing except the chance to sound off that I'm a cambridge medic.

[MD2b]

choose cambridge; imperials reputation is short term (relatively) and Cambridge always was, is, and will be.

[LightElf7]

Have you thought about going to Cambridge and then after 3 years transfering to Imperial for clinical, and you get to have both ??

Cool, thats interesting, I didnt know that. but is it also possible to start at Imperial and then go to Cambridge for the clinical?

Also, how big a role does reputation of medical schools play later in life? Is Imperial's reputation really that short lived?

[MD2b]

na man im just saying that because i wanna go to IC and havent got an offer yet. I went to IC before and it was awesome.

But - and this IS the truth - u can't transfer from IC to Cam, only other way around. and that DOES sound v. appealing. I'd do that if I had the chance.

[Nasher and Basher]

Cool, thats interesting, I didnt know that. but is it also possible to start at Imperial and then go to Cambridge for the clinical?

Also, how big a role does reputation of medical schools play later in life? Is Imperial's reputation really that short lived?

Supposedly it is possible to transfer from Imperial to Cambridge, according to someone on the TSR website. The Student Room.

Again supposedly there are no differences between medical schools after you have finished your degree, the reputaion of the uni should play no part in your career.

However if you are looking in to go into research or the academic side, then cam would be the place- they offer better opportunites. Plus there are a more research medical course, as you could at Cam spend a year at an american uni doing research.

Plus it matters whether you want to work in the UK or abroad, medical unis are more well known than others- I think.

[Gizmo says -]

na man im just saying that because i wanna go to IC and havent got an offer yet. I went to IC before and it was awesome.

But - and this IS the truth - u can't transfer from IC to Cam, only other way around. and that DOES sound v. appealing. I'd do that if I had the chance.

you can.

man you dont know about your own uni even.

dont ask, you dont learn.

[Pammy]

You can transfer from Imperial to Cambridge (as well as the other way round):

"By the time of admission students must have:
completed three years of pre-clinical study in medically-related subjects;
obtained an honours degree/intercalated BSc;
passed, or gained exemption from the following Pre-clinical (Second MB) subjects http://www.bio.cam.ac.uk/sbs/facbiol/mvst/courses.html"

"Recognised University Pre-clinical (Second MB) Qualifications
Cambridge: Second MB Examinations listed above
Oxford: Oxford First BM Examinations; Oxford Qualifying Examination in Medical Sociology
London: London pre-clinical course examinations
Others: Examinations equivalent to Cambridge Second MB (please write to the Clinical Dean if you have doubts about your eligibility)"

I do believe that you have to have done pretty well if you want to transfer to Cambridge from anywhere else...
I'd always do it the other way round though! Benefit from Cambridge's amazing pre-clinical course, and then make use of the opportunities London has to offer for clinical (many more hospitals, larger variety of patients, etc)!
Pammy

[MA86]

Without wanting to be biased, as someone in his third year of med at Imperial I can only speak accurately about my views on Imperial.

I think for medicine you should choose Imperial over Cambridge for a variety of reasons.

1) Patient Contact. Imperial throws you into patient contact from day 1 at med school. You visit many GPs over your time in the first year so that you can get to know the dynamics of patient-doctor relationship. This will help to gradualy increase your confidence and ability to speak properly to patients by your 4 week attachment in year 2.

2) Year 3 will rotate you again over 3 * 10 week attachments in different hospitals so that you get to experience different types of hospitals and how they are run.

3) Imperials dominance over major teaching/research hospitals in london includes St Marys, CharingX, Chelsea & Westminister as well as 7 other DGHs scattered around North West London. By in large as a medical school it unarguably has the best clinical & teaching facilities that is led by some of the best NHS practitionars. So much so that Imperial leads the UK's first Acedamic Health Science Centre (AHSC) which is modelled on a similar ground to the prestigious John Hopkins institute in the US. This is very important in an era where we increasingly advance medicine by implementing research in a clinical basis.

4) By the time Oxbridge students join Imperial they would have done 3 years of basic sciences (they qualify with a BA before they join) that the difference in how oxbridge vs imperial students interact with patients in a clinical context is quite marked.

Whilst some may say that will resolve over time, speaking to final years the edge in experience stays with the imperial students upto qualification & beyond.

In summary with my rather short promotion of Imperial, I would say it definitely is an excellent faculty with no complaints. The support structure and Student Union at Imperial are great and organise good events with something for everyone.

The lecturers in year 1 + 2 are 1/3 clinical lecturers 2/3 leading acedamic researchers so you get the best of both worlds!

Definitely choose Imperial!