UK Medical Schools: Southampton

[SDN-Jim]

http://www.soton.ac.uk/
Please post any experiences you have with this school.

This is part of the big guide at http://www.studentdoctor.net

[This message has been edited by SDN-Jim (edited 04-03-2000).]

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[Brit Girl]

I am a first year medic at Southampton, and it's great ! The school acheived a maximum score of 24/24 in the Quality Assurance Assessment, for teaching, resources and research. The teaching style is progressive, with Computer Aided Learning a significant part of the course. We have good resources, clinical training being done at Southampton General Hospital, which has featured in its own TV series, City Hospital.
On the down side, Southampton students are renowned for their crapness at anatomy, and there is a fourth year project, the equivalent of a dissertation, that takes up a lot of clinical time and is going to be difficult for me as I'm crap at research !
However, I love it here and can't wait to get to clinical training!

 

[Matt the Medic]

S'ham rocks baby. Me and Brit Girl are great pals and I love it here to. It's a great medical school and a great city.

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Good bye and good drinking!

 

[Dave_soton]

Hallo to all Soton students out there (Plus any other Med students who happen to be looking at this site)

 

[judd_b_2000]

brit girl,

what does it take comparably to get into a UK school? MCAT, experience, money? what about US loans? can you do clinicals in the US? by the way the gross anatomy that i took was a blast. what do you mean computer assisted? how long is schooling in the UK and what about graduating and getting a job in europe, are the salaries good.

 

[Brit Girl]

It takes the same as it does the world over: dedication, good grades and something to make you stand out from the crowd.
Tuition fees are means tested, so that if your parents are less well off, you pay less. The maximum tuition fees for a British national in any one year are ?1025.
I assume the British degree is internationally recognised: I know we can do electives in the US and Europe.
Training is five or six years, depending on whether or not an intercalated degree is taken as well.
Computer aided is where classes are taken on the Southampton intranet, i.e. quizzes and case studies. It's really cool, and you actually get more feedback sometimes than you do from an actual prof!
Salaries:
(not sure in US$)
Junior doctor: ~?22 000
General practitioner: ~?55 000#
Consultant surgeon: >?80 000
So yeah, they're pretty good !

 

[judd_b_2000]

Brit Girl,

thanks a bunch! good luck to you and your classmates.

judd

 

[AC]

Brit Girl:
What are the salaries like in UK for other
health care practitioners (pharmacists, optometrists, dentists). Thanks in advance
for replying.
God save the Queen!

 

[CAT]

While money certainly isn't everything, I had no idea that British physicians earned so much less than their US counterparts.

When I was in the UK a few weeks ago the exchange rate was something like 1.7 US dollars per pound sterling. SO...an English GP who earns 55,000 pounds per year would make only around $90k -- which might not be too much less than some family practitioners(FP)in the US, but most US doctors aren't FP's and earn a lot more than that. How many US surgeons (or future surgeons) would be satisfied with making only around $130,000 per year (or 80,000 pounds sterling)??? -- not many I think.

I'd be curious to hear opinions on this issue from both sides of the Atlantic!

 

[Fiona]

The salaries quoted are what you get from the NHS (national health service) which is government funded. If you are in a speciality where you can do private work as well (especially things like plastic surgery...) then the salaries can go up. I know of a couple of cardiothoracic surgeons who earn just over ?200,000 which isn't so dusty! I think most surgeons would average out at about ?130,000 pa. Also, depending on speciality, there is less on call work at wierd hours of the day as you move up the ladder, so you end up working shorter hours (albeit not much shorter...)

As for Southampton, I used to live there, and it's a great city to live in, and convenient for London too. Go for it! (the only reason I didn't apply there for med was because of someone I know there...)

MCAT scores - so long as they're not dismal, you have a chance as far as I can see. At degree level, you're expected to get at least a 2:1. Remember, most med students in the UK go straight from school, so they won't have done degree level work at all, so you're kind of at an advantage there.

It will cost more than a UK student pays. I know in the clinical years (yrs 3, 4 and 5) you have to pay something like ?16500 pa. It's quite a bit less for yrs 1 and 2, although with more integration that might change.

I'm writing too much! Bye

Fiona

 

[Brit Girl]

Dear AC,
Sorry for not replying sooner (Easter holiday precludes internet access). I am not exactly sure about other health care professions, except that dentists can earn as much as GPs in some circumstances. Nurses are graded on scales of A to G with grade G nurses earning ?21 000 approximately. If you want more info, I can find out when I get back to uni!