Lumos, I didn't realise that you do MBBS in MONASH! Can you tell me the Monash advantages please. For an Interstater like me, it will be a good 'Intro' - to work towards for next year!
Haha I'd be happy to, mate.
Basically there are heaps of advantages to Monash in my opinion. I love the course and the university; it's a pretty great place to study. I've written some of my favourite things about it, and ask any question you want.
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Socially, I have found Monash to be fantastic. I love it. Monash Clayton is a huge campus, with tens of thousands of students there every day, so there are always things going on. I didn't really know anyone coming in and now I have a great and extremely close group of friends. Most of us met at the first med O-Week party and now we hang out every lunchtime and go out every weekend. Med has heaps of events, and we are all really close within the preclin crew.
- The facilities are pretty extensive. While we don't have the old limestone buildings like Melbourne, Monash generally has great rooms and equipment, with a huuuuge research capacity. A lot of this won't be relevant to a new med student, since you'll mostly just use the tute rooms, lecture theatres and anatomy labs, but even those are pretty nice, newly renovated and fairly modern.
- The location in Clayton is kind of the butt of everyone's jokes (if you're not from Victoria, Clayton is about 20-25 minutes away from the city, but feels like it's kind of in the middle of nowhere, and Monash takes up almost the whole suburb), but I really like it. Not only is our campus pretty spread out since we're not lacking in space being away from the city, but the fact that there's not much else around us forces everyone to actually eat lunch on campus! Together! Not going to other cafes around the place! Plus it's in Melbourne, the greatest city in the world as far as I'm concerned.
- It's only five years as opposed to six at most places, which I really like. It means that we condense the preclinical years into less time and get into the hospitals for placements pretty early. And we get to be doctors sooner.....
- For the most part, the course is written really well and is a well-rounded, informative syllabus. Apart from the fact that we waste what feels like a million years studying wellbeing and mindfulness for multiple hours a week, I like the course. A lot of it is self-directed, especially anatomy, and we do rush through things pretty fast, but the course is generally really great.
- Our med society, MUMUS, is really well-organised and active. It's a very professional organisation that works all the time to organise good stuff for the meddles. We have a fantastic med revue, an inter-year sports festival, great parties (especially med ball and booze cruises), a choir, an orchestra, all organised through MUMUS. All sorts of things. They're really great. Plus the students on the committee are really nice and fun, and very approachable.
- Study help within med is great. Our student society organises revision lectures, study groups, case nights, clinical skills nights, first aid courses and notes/textbook exchanges. We also have great study groups (especially first and second year ones), which are extremely helpful. However, there are some minor problems.
- Free barbecues.
- Free pancakes.
- Cheap Boost juices.
- Cheap drinks at the campus bar.
- Good coffee if you know where to find it.