Hi all,

My name is steve and I'm a 4th year at Sheffield med school. I am in the process of sorting out a six week mini elective that I am spending at the royal hampstead with the GI team, hopefully with some research time there too.

I am running into problems sorting out a place to stay. UCH won't let me stay there and I don't really want a shared hostel dorm. I have contacted other unis and hope to get some student halls during the quieter summer period (I am coming down next august time). If anyone has some suggestions or contacts in this respect I would appreciate the advice.

Also, do people reckon that if you aspire to gastro, and want to do an Academic program eventually in gastro, that going to a leading research area like the UCH gastro centre is worth the money. All in this venture will cost me over a thousand pound and while its nice to have the experience it will only be for six weeks. Do people think it will make that much of a difference. I do want to work in London one day maybe. Should i spend the money on a flight to india and do something totally different if being in London's not going to be so great for the CV. I have a first class BA(hons) degree and a 2.1 BMedSci(Hons) in gastro and are hoping to be published in american GI journals. Just popping this in to put the experience into the context of the CV.

Any tips?

xxx steve