Sheffield College (The)

It was excellent. I had a lot of inteoductory lectures to ease me into the course but I did not feel as though they were all compulsory and i had plenty of time to do other things and bond with my flatmates and coursemates.

I love my accommodation. Although it is relatively far from the town centre there are very good travel links to town for cheap. I like living among 4000 other students in one space and its always lively and a fun space to live in. I was also very lucky to have such a good flat who I get on very well with which has made the experience more enjoyable.

The lecture theatre is very soacious and comfortable and has a microphone so it is very easy to hear the lecturers and the large screen at the front also helps me to follow lectures. There are three university libraries and although two of them are quite far from the medical school, they are great as one is open 24 hours and bothhave a wide variety of books and study spaces. The medical school also has its own library which makes finding medical related texts very easy as they are all in one space. The Goodwin gym is great and it offers facilitaties for all of the sports I could want to play. I also play football up to three times a week on its astro turf courts and I think they are of very high quality.

The lectures are in the medical school which is very close to my accomodation. The lecture theatre is large and spacious and offers a great place to learn due to its state of the art faciliaties. Although it is sometimes hard to decide what information is important to take away from some of the lectures, the Phase 1 Drive offered by older pupils really helps to clarify what information is important. The course is great because it is really hands on with things like full body dissection, and I feel as though we have sufficient lectures to learn the course and also have enough time for our own work.

The city life is great. There is always something on in the town rangin from vintage shop sales to cute markets. The nightlife is great and there are a wide variety of clubs and bars to suit every night out. The town is also very pretty and it is sometimes nice to just walk around the town as it has cool graffiti and admiriable architecture. I also like how the town always seems to be quite busy but never so busy that it is difficult to walk through.

Primarily, I would say that you have to be prepared for the workload as it is a step up from A-levels. I think it is hard to find a balance between work and social life and the extra pressure from doing a course such a medicine means you really have to want to do it if you are going to succeed. I would also say be prepared to socialise a lot with medics and if you want to find other friends it will take a lot more effort. If you do sport with medics and you have lectures with medics and the socials are medic socials I think it can be difficult to find non medic friends. Finally, I would stress the importance of doing extracurricular activities to break up your workload and to meet new people. When you leave home it is very easy to sit about and do nothing with all of your free time but I would advise on trying lots of new things and seeing what you like.