Notts or Leeds?

[lozzj]

Hi I got an offer from Notts for medicine 2day so now i have 2 choose between Notts n Leeds, n i am the most indecisive person ever! Lol So i was wonderin if ppl can post personal advantages/disadvantages 2 each uni if poss. Thanks for all ur help! xxxx

[dcleopard]

I've not spent much time at notts but I did a biology degree at leeds and it is AWESOME! such a good night out and living in headingley is basically the best student experience you could hope for.

As for the course, I knew quite a few medics and they have a great time, good medics rugby team as well.

[Divin_doc]

Well being a notts medic I am biased, it depends what you are looking for...I dont know much about Leeds, however nottingham is not only an amazing place to live but the course is well respected, really interesting, and the QMC is the largest teaching hospital in Europe!! Nightlife has everything you could wish for and campus is simply stunning.
The course is a mixture of lectures, workshops, seminars and GP/hospital visits. Anatomy is taught by dissection, prosection, some lectures AND textbooks!! So the best of all worlds from that point of view! The course also includes 2 degrees, the normal medical degree (BMBS) and a medical sciences degree obtained due to research done in the 3rd year...

Anything else you want to know???

[lozzj]

Wow! Thank u for takin time 2 reply! Ive put Notts as my firm neway now...I get really excited when i tink about comin 2 Notts whereas that jus doesnt happen with Leeds (I no im a geek) Lol . Divin_doc, nethin else u could tel me bout the course would b relle useful. Iv heard that the Notts course is relle intensive because of the 2 degrees in 5 yrs. Is it true? Also, wat sort of hours do u do each day? Wats the nightlife like? Is it mainly on campus or in the city centre? Sorry there nothin like a million n 1 questions is ther? Lol thanks for all ur help! xxx

[dcleopard]

boo! how can u turn down a uni with the medics rugby song: "we are the medics of leeds and we're here to spread disease"!!

[JP_62818]

boo! how can u turn down a uni with the medics rugby song: "we are the medics of leeds and we're here to spread disease"!!

Lmao! Classy!

But classy chants aside, cool that you're gonna be joining us next Sept, lozzj!

[Divin_doc]

well, nightlife....right nothing happens on campus at all, the ark (student union bar) should barely be called a bar...pretty rubbish. There is sooo much in town tho, depends what ur into. Notts uni has several student nights e.g. monday = oceana (a more classy club, loads of diff rooms e.g. ski lodge, ballroom, disco, cheese etc etc), tuesday is ocean (club where ur feet get stuck to floor), weds is isis (same thing really) or the social (indie music, surprisingly good night!), thurs is media (brilliant club), friday is ocean again....but if ur not into clubs, there are cinemas, lazerquest, pubs, bars and much more. Ive never felt unsafe in notts, its just a case of being sensible i think.

[Divin_doc]

the course....right, first semester is all about getting everyone up to standard on chem, bio and stats...its pretty intensive but broken up by a variety of teaching methods. At notts its mainly lectures but you also get seminars (smaller groups with a tutor, mainly about 11 people per group), workshops in the clinical skills to teach things like CPR and first aid, microscope practicals (dull but 'apparently' useful) and hospital/gp visits.

Timetable wise monday and tues tend to be long - about 4 or 5 hours, weds is either a free day, or gp/hospital visit, or clinical skills session. Thurs in semester one tends to be 3 or 4 hours and friday tended to be easy, either a day off or only a couple of hours.

You get 4 gp visits and 4 hospital visits (i think) over the 1st year...personally i preferred the hosp visits, but i was biased by the 6am wake up i had to do to get to my gp practise!

Exams for semester 1 are in january, u get plenty of time to revise but use it! Soooo many people, myself included (stupid holiday at xmas!) left it a bit too late, but it turned out well in the end

[Divin_doc]

2nd semester.....this is when for me the 'proper course' started, we have more free time but more work to do. Dissection, and anatomy in general, starts which i love but the theory is pretty much self taught. Dissection is a 3 hour session either thursday or friday (depending on what half of the year you are), you have one body between about 11 people, but only 5/6
dissect at one time, the other half are in the tasking rooms using the models, books and prosections (previously dissected and preserved samples). Then you swap over...then you are all assessed on ur knowledge. Its pretty daunting stuff but you just have to remember that everyone struggles at first and it really does become easier!

In semester 2 you also have cardiovascular, respiratory and haematology lectures, as well as CLS (clinical laboratory sciences). Clinical skills also teaches repiratory and cardio examinations which is fun (the demostrator bloke is sooo funny and completely mad) But you'll tend to find (unless your a flippin genius) that anatomy takes up all ur spare time.

[Divin_doc]

so i suppose the course is pretty intensive, but you do have lots of time to party! You'll probably find urself the first up every morning (stupid 9 am's) and working till the latest, but it becomes routine really. I personally dont do enough work outside lectures but still do fine, and i know some who do nothing and are fine too (not to encourage a bad work ethic...otherwise JP will be after me!!!)

Accommodation wise I would say definitely live on campus, you dont want to miss out just because you think self catered will be better. Thats probably true food wise, but for the 1st year you reall dont want to have to worry about cooking when u could be preparing for a night out! Food tends to be ok, you always get the people who moan but its honestly alright. They make an effort for the first few weeks anyway

Hmm anything i havent covered....doubt it, as you can see i can talk/type for england heehee.....seriously anything else you wanna know, just say!