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1 Year into Medschool…

one year ago, i put my scientific career on hold to start an adventure… med school in cambridge.

i took this leap in order to work more closely with people rather than proteins, to do something more applicable that may perhaps lead me to a new direction of (potentially more fundable) research in the future. even though i loved my job, the science and academic life, i wanted to do something more tangible and be able to approach science with a much broader perspective.

so i moved from oxford to cambridge in september 2010, ultra-keen and excited about what was to come. so now, after my first year in medschool, what are the conclusions i can draw?

it has definitely been a year of adjustments… it started off with my initial expectations meeting reality (see this previous post), and then getting on with things and studying for the exams. now that i’ve passed the 1st year exams and gained some more experience, i can look back and evaluate:

 

would i choose cambridge again?

* cambridge’s special focus on science

the cambridge graduate course is one of the few in the country that does NOT compress two years of pre-clinical teaching into one year, but keeps two full years of pre-clinical science on the curriculum. these two years are accompanied by an accelerated version of the first clinical year of the standard course, taught during the term “holidays”. after these initial two years, one enters straight into the 2nd clinical year of the standard course, i.e. the penultimate year of medical school, making it a 4-year course in total.

since obtaining a broad and in-depth foundation of the science involved in medicine was one of my reasons for starting medschool in the first place, i have definitely enjoyed this aspect of the course.

working through the material my own way, i definitely got a lot out of it and am full of ideas for the future. in that way i can only recommend it to anyone interested in science.

but contrasting the amount of cambridge’s scientific teaching with the required working knowledge of a physician, one can perhaps understand why other medical schools choose to define their focus differently. given that this is a graduate course and there is also a lot of medicine to learn, the two years of intense science are perhaps a bit of an indulgence. that’s why i recommend thinking about how much science you wish to encounter before choosing any particular medical course… 😉

 

* tailoring of the course to graduate students

the course organisation i described in the previous paragraph means that the graduate students work alongside the undergrads during termtime of the first two years, and have their own separate clinical teaching during the term “holidays”. after pre-clinical finals in the 2nd year, the graduates join a more advanced cohort of undergrads for full-time clinical training for another 2 years.

so apart from the few weeks of clinical teaching in the first two years, very little course content has actually been specifically designed for graduates. the grads do almost everything the undergrads do, only in less time and with much less time off.

in my opinion, the course hardly takes into consideration or even exploits the different starting points and skill sets of graduates and professionals compared to younger undergrads. while this is a pity, it would be much less of a shortcoming if it wasn’t for the relatively ineffective timetabling and execution of the course. the time constraints of the graduate course (and without wanting to sound snobbish: perhaps also the higher degree of university and life-experience of older students??) definitely highlight any lousy teaching, inefficient planning and scheduling. while it was definitely painful to sit through practicals teaching you how to hold a pipette, no matter how many times you have done it before, it was worse to suffer through full schedules of compulsory attendance, no matter how dull and superfluous the event. this left you with very little freedom to organise your time in a way that makes learning most efficient for you, something that a mature student could definitely be entrusted with.

finally, with only very few weeks off during the year (in total ~5, of which at least 2 have to be used for studying), there just isn’t much flexibility for any unforeseen events that may occur (such as parents falling ill etc… sadly more likely to happen as you get older), or to simply coordinate your life with that of your family or partner.

i wonder if other medical schools offering accelerated courses have incorporated more obvious strategies for teaching older students. at least the titles of some other courses (e.g. “graduate/professional entry” at king’s college london) suggests some awareness in that direction.

 

considering these aspects, the course has definitely been quite disappointing. but then again, there is no guarantee that it will be better anywhere else… 😉

 

* to sum up…

given that cambridge is a beautiful and convenient place to study, i’d probably still choose cambridge again. but if i could start over, i would equip myself with thick skin and various coping mechanisms right away:

– keep your expectations low and your humor high

– keep up as much of an outside life as you can

– keep some aspect of your previous career going to give you some affirmation

– never lose sight of the big picture.

About Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg cheating in his doctoral thesis.

I wrote a letter to the German Chancellor Angela Merkel today, who used to be a scientist before her political career, and has a PhD in theoretical chemistry. The German Minister of Defense, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, has cheated in his PhD thesis, he copied large passages of other people’s scientific writing without citing it (apparently even in the introduction!). Since the beginning of this week, he now no longer carries the doctoral title. Somehow however, his actions are merely seen as a “mistake”, and he remains in office. I find this very strange, so I wrote my first ever letter to a famous person. (Actually that’s not true, when I was six years old, I once wrote a letter to the Hoff…. ;-))

 

Sehr geehrte Frau Dr. Merkel,

Ich schreibe Ihnen, weil ich sehr besorgt bin über das Signal, welches durch die Nichtentlassung des Ministers zu Guttenberg an die Öffentlichkeit gesandt wird. Ich selbst habe im Jahr 2008 meine Promotion als Biochemikerin in Oxford abgeschlossen und erlaube mir deshalb die Meinung, die Tragweite der Situation relativ gut einschätzen zu können.

Der heutige Verteidigungsminister hat bei seiner Doktorarbeit von anderen verfasste Textpassagen übernommen und nicht als Zitate gekennzeichnet. Leider sind diese Textstellen so ausgiebig und zahlreich, dass ein einfaches Vergessen der Kennzeichnung oder Übersehen der Passagen als Erklärung keinen Sinn ergibt. Es ist leider nicht nachzuvollziehen, wie eine solch weitreichende Unterlassung ohne das Bewusstsein über eine Täuschung zustande gekommen sein kann. Meiner Meinung nach gibt es dafür nur zwei Erklärungen: entweder war sich Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg beim Verfassen der Arbeit der versuchten Täuschung bewusst, oder die Arbeit wurde von einer anderen Person verfasst, deren wissenschaftliche Standards leider nicht den Maßstäben entsprechen, die aus guten Gründen an jegliche wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichung angelegt werden. Ich bin sehr enttäuscht, dass dieses Vorgehen des Ministers für ihn selbst, sowie auch für viele Partei- und Regierungsmitglieder ein entschuldbarer menschlicher Fehler zu sein scheint, denn dies ist leider nicht der Fall. Plagiat ist kein Kavaliersdelikt; vor allem, wenn man auch als Vorbild in der Öffentlichkeit steht. Der Doktortitel ist einer der höchsten akademischen Auszeichnungen; wenn es ohne Konsequenzen bleiben soll, diesen durch Betrug zu erlangen, was gilt dann für alle anderen schulischen und universitären Leistungen, die ein Bürger in seinem Leben zu erbringen hat?

Ich kann es leider nur sehr schwer nachvollziehen, wie Sie als promovierte Wissenschaftlerin die Schwere und die Auswirkungen der Fehlhandlungen Ihres Ministers nicht zu erkennen scheinen. Gerade als frühere Wissenschaftlerin müssen Sie die Konsequenzen ziehen, ansonsten ist auch Ihre Glaubwürdigkeit gefährdet. Ich kann sehr gut verstehen, dass es aus machtpolitischen Erwägungen heraus nicht einfach erscheint, einen bislang so beliebten Politiker aus dem Amt zu entlassen. Sie müssen jedoch handeln, ansonsten senden Sie ein Signal, das langfristig sehr negative Folgen für unser Land und das Ansehen der Politik mit sich bringen wird.

Ich hoffe, dass Sie nach gründlicher Überlegung zur selben Schlussfolgerung kommen werden.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen,

Dr. Christiane Riedinger.

 

… maybe I will get a reply! (PS. …. never did!)

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