March 25, 2014, by studentcontributor

Which med school: A local experience

Why stay? Being near home is good, means free food, free washing and cheap travel.

I’m Adam (the guy in the middle in the photo), a fourth-year medical student in Nottingham, originally from Derby (cue jokes about how terrible it is, how I have a funny accent, and how I like sheep blah blah).

I originally wanted to move miles away, Newcastle/Bristol etc, but looking back, I don’t think I’ve ever made a better decision moving to Nottingham. On a day to day basis I feel a million miles away from home, when in reality I’m only 20 minutes away so it’s great.

Choosing which medical school you apply to can be so difficult, however, from personal experience don’t stick all your eggs in one basket, as you never know what might change. I’ll run through some advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages

1. Cheap travel back home, meaning more time can be spent keeping in touch with friends and family.
2. Free food!
3. Free dry cleaning service (still use this now…).
4. You don’t have to drive miles and miles when packing up rooms and filling cars at the end of each term.

Disadvantages

1. Getting sucked into the “there’s no point you living at uni because you’re so close” spiel from the family. Just because you’re close doesn’t mean you shouldn’t experience the uni lifestyle even if it is a few extra thousand pounds a year.
2. Sometimes change can be good, and I do sometimes feel like I haven’t properly moved away from home, particularly if I’m in Derby for clinical placement.

Despite the disadvantages, for me the advantages far outweigh the bad points, meaning staying close was the best decision I’ve made.

When it comes to deciding, try to ignore any external influences, make the choice that is right for you, be it staying close or moving all the way to Scotland.

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