Alternative View of Medicine at Downing...
When I finally put pen to paper and chose Downing College,
it wasn’t the long calculated procedure it probably
should have been, but rather based on the ‘pretty’
pictures in the prospectus of the quad and Downing’s
reputation as an awesome medical college. Now that I am at
Downing I realise where this reputation comes from and why
it really is the best college.
It is helped by the fact that you will be only 2 minutes
from your lectures in your first year and not much further
in subsequent years. Cambridge might not be the biggest place,
but being 15 minutes closer than your contemporaries from
Girton is a godsend – you can never underestimate the
value of that extra sleep after a large night out. The morning
lie-in isn’t the only advantage of being close to lectures,
it also means that you can pop back to the in-college Butterfield
Café between lectures and at lunch.
Downing has one of the largest intakes for medicine, which
can only be a good thing. It means that within the ‘medic
clique’ there are people you are bound to make friends
with, and trust me you want to make friends with medics! This
not only happens within your year, but thanks to the thriving
Whitby Medical Society you socialise with your wise and knowledgeable
elders, and also your fresh faced and eager-to-please juniors.
You haven’t lived until you’ve lived the Whitby
experience.
Now moving onto the lesser matter of academic life of Downing.
The supervisors are vastly knowledgeable and seasoned veterans
in their fields, and they do their best to pass this on to
you. In general this works very well, as shown but Downing’s
good showing in end of year exams, but obviously not everyone
is going to click with each supervisors individual style of
teaching. However if you are having problems come exam time,
they are usually more than happy to schedule extra supervisions
to help you.
One thing which might put people off from applying to Downing
for medicine is it sheer popularity. However this should not
deter you, the important thing is applying to a place which
you think will suit you, and somewhere you will enjoy yourself.
If that’s Downing, then choose Downing - don’t
try and play statistics and school connections.
Ps. It helps that the Whitby hierarchy are damn hot (with
the exceptions of Saleem & Shanika)!
|
A student's
view on medicine at Cambridge to help you get a feel for what
it's really like here. Obviously, the best way to know is to
come and visit - email any of the reps and they'll answer any
of your queries
