MPhil in Medical Science (CRUK CI)

University of Cambridge

Despite coronavirus, this year has been a lovely learning experience to develop myself and understand my career goals. There have been some challenges but the lecturers, supervisors and friends I’ve made along the way have helped to ground me and made the short experience of university a sweet one.

I’ve enjoyed it but it’s not for everyone. It’s hard work and it’s not always easy or well organised but it is a global hub of research and a gorgeous city so in my opinion that’s made it a nice city to be in for 5 years

Somebody once described Cambridge as the best and worst time of your life with very little middle ground. You're either spending 9 hours a day in the library during exam term, going all out in May Week or the sport you've decided to get into. Everything here can be pretty intense. At the end of the day, you come to university for two things: an education and an enjoyable experience. The education you get here is top class. I can only speak for medicine but we cover anatomy to a similar level of detail as the RCS exams (for entry into the Royal College of Surgeons), with only Oxford matching a similar level of detail in the UK. However standards are extremely high as to be expected: for anatomy, an average score is around 90% in the 2nd MB (MCQs and steeplechase but not essays) exam. What you get here is a true understanding of the underlying concepts in very very good detail, sometimes to a fault. Evidencing this is that Oxbridge grads are leagues ahead in the standardized MRCP exams taken in the UK. Now, about the actual experience and whether it's enjoyable: my first year was a bit disastrous due to personal circumstances and I didn't really have that good of a time. Night life is pretty poor, and personally I feel the sex life front is a bit lacking (although as a medic who knows mostly other medics, this is not entirely applicable to everyone) although people here are very attractive as a general rule. It is not the typical university experience - instead you get punting, formals and drinks with your supervisors etc. Some people do go out a lot, and if you want that kind of lifestyle it is not any worse than what you would expect from a small city.

I really like it here. It's a beautiful city, everyone is really friendly and I really like my course. Yes, it doesn't have the best night life in the world but you can still have fun. I've had lots of new experiences, it's really different to anywhere I've been before. I've found the oppotunities to take up new sports particularly good.