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 its 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 (you know who I mean)!
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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
