You have Offers for your Medical School, which one should you choose?
Congratulations! You’ve gone through the gruelling process of application, admission tests, and interviews and now have your medical school offers! However there’s still one big decision to make, how to narrow down your options, hopefully this guide will help.
What is the teaching style?
You will have probably looked into this when you were applying, and if you have offers from schools which offer different styles of teaching it is critical to consider which style is best for you. As a current medical student at the University of Manchester (PBL), I can give you my advice for PBL (problem-based learning) universities. I was very sure PBL was for me, before I applied to medical school, and now, retrospectively I still feel the same way, although there were many challenges I experienced along the way which I had not foreseen. PBL is a very independent way of learning, you truly are left on your own for a big part of the course. That is there is very little the medical school itself will offer, although that is the nature of PBL. While we still have a few hours of lectures, and teaching sessions, which took some getting used to, it was a significant drop from A-levels. In the end it was a matter of getting used to the new process, and I believe the skills I’ve developed through my course so far will be invaluable for life as doctor, as again you are left to your own initiative to acquire all the information you need. Carefully thinking and analysing which style of teaching will suit you is important to consider. It is also really useful if you can get in touch with current students at the universities you’ve applied to, or ones which have a similar teaching style to the one you’ve applied to, as they can give you first-hand information about their experience.
Location of the University.
You’ll be spending 5, potentially 6 years (if you decide to intercalate) in this city. So it’s important to consider if you think you will actually enjoy the lifestyle of that city, and that university. Some universities are campus universities while others are city universities, and so considering which one you will enjoy more is also important. I was lucky in this regard as, while Manchester University is a campus uni, it is very close to the city centre, so I was able to enjoy the close-knitted community the campus vibe has to offer, while also be close enough to the city to enjoy all of Manchester’s finest attractions. This consideration is more based on preference, and each and every university/city has its own pros and cons. Again it can be really useful to get in touch with students who are currently at that university, and ask them about their experience.
Good luck, and I hope you enjoy your medical student experience!
