Kings vs sheffield!!

[claireefairee]

Urgently need help! I've got an offer for both KCL and sheffield.....which one to choose?? i have a house in sheff so would be free accomodation, vs vv expensive in london, but i do want to try living in london - is it as expensive as everyone says?? for people at kings - what is your honest opinion of the course? and same for people at sheffield.


HELP ME PLEASE!!!

[Bailey1]

Hi Claireefairee,
I don't know how helpful I'm going to be but thought I'd give you my thoughts on it! I'm originally from Sheff and have an offer for Med there in Sept but for I've done my first degree in London. I can't give you any advice about the courses but I can about Sheff/London. I was like you originally and wanted to try living in London but after I 'got over' the whole living in london thing I've found it to be more stress than enjoyment!
As you say it is very expensive (a single bus journey now is £1.20) and living costs are high for students, especially if you want to live near uni (which I would recommend as you would end up paying the money you saved on accomo on transport if you lived further out). Also, in London once everyone has moved out of halls from first year everyone tends to be more spread out so meeting up is costly transportwise and takes time on public transport. I'm here for my fourth year now and I do tend to not do so much (gym/sports/going to library to study) purely because its such a faff to go anywhere!
In my opinion a medical degree would be hard here esp when on placement as unless you were based in a city hospital it could take hours to get there and back on trains/tubes/buses. That is one of the main reasons why I didn't apply to any London med schools as I think stresses would be high enough without adding transport to them (I know that other med schools have placements in random places but presumably then at the end of the day you could just get in your car and go!).
Yes it is good that you can be in lectures one minute then be at some tourist site in the afternoon and the shopping, entertainment etc is good but after you've 'got over it' you're left with the expense and hassle of city living.
As you can tell I'm not pro the London-route! BUT I did some medical modules at Kings in my final year and I really liked the campus and the teaching was good. If you are game for the (maybe) extra stress rotations might bring then London might work for you. It depends what kind of person you are I think, but it would make sense to think whether you could cope living in london for 4/5 year if you didn't like it? Sorry for rambling on, hope its given you some ideas anyway, any questions ask away.