NEW LEAGUE TABLES!

Okay so as per usual it's taken me forever to post - I have a valid reason this time as I am RIGHT in the middle of my final exams - I finish in a few days and I could not be more ready for exams to be over! The reason I'm doing a quick post is because I've just seen the new Guardian university league tables are out, and considering I posted about what I thought of league tables a while ago, I just thought I'd say that I WILL be writing on the subject again soon in light of the new tables, and that you should have a quick peruse of them yourself here: http://www.theguardian.com/education/ng-interactive/2014/jun/03/university-guide-2015-league-table-for-medicine

After you've done that, have a read of my original post, then look at the data within the tables. SURELY I cannot be alone in thinking that it's ridiculous that the medical school with the top spot has a 'Satisfied with course' score of 77%, which is LOWER than EVERY other medical school in the table bar one (King's)?! The medical school ranked FIRST by the Guardian, Cambridge, only has higher scores than every other school in TWO CATEGORIES. Those categories are 'Spend per student/10' and 'Average entry tariff'. That means that the league table top spots are at the top because they spend more money on their students and they only let people with eye-wateringly high grades in. I am sure I am not alone in thinking that the course structure and the way the course is taught are far more valuable to us than these criteria as future doctors.

By all means, please scrutinise the categories yourselves and come to your own conclusions, but if I can give you any advice at all it is NOT to base your decisions on the rankings that the Guardian has drawn up - USE THE RAW DATA IN THE TABLE. When applying this year, make sure you bear in mind what YOU want to get out of a course. Also remember that applying was hard enough when I applied, and it gets harder every year. There are thousands of people in your position. Do not waste your UCAS choices. Apply intelligently and tactically, because when it comes down to it, it won't matter which university you came from at the end of your course - you are ranked against every other medical student in the country on the basis of your own merit when applying for jobs. Good luck, and I'll post again at the end of this week when I've finished celebrating the end of a tough tough term!

Tash x