Are intercalated degrees better?
Editor - I read with interest Nirav Patel's description of the conflicting messages about intercalation.1 Having just completed an MPhil in an intercalated year after the fourth year, and hence being in the final year as the majority of the cohort with whom I started are practising as doctors, both the costs and advantages of the extra year are obvious to me. Expense, both of the course itself and in terms of deferring paid employment, is clearly a major issue. But that aside, I have found the year both rewarding and thoroughly worth while. It also presumably helped in securing me my preferred house job.
Common sense suggests the essence of the decision should lie in whether or not you actually want to do an intercalated year. If you are not particularly enthusiastic about the proposed study you are less likely to excel in it; you are less likely to be able to talk interestedly about it at interview (hence negating any CV boosting effect); and the risk of regretting the decision in financial, social, or other terms would seem greater. In short, either decision, to do or not to do, can be the right one. If you decide on an intercalated year it is important to make the most of it. Equally, if you decide not to take the time, it may be even more important to make the most of opportunities to generate other distinguishing features to sparkle on a CV, whatever these might be.
Emma M M Burkitt Wright, final year medical student, University of Liverpool
Email: emmw1@liverpool.ac.uk
studentBMJ 2001;09:443-486 December ISSN 0966-6494
- Patel N. Are intercalated degrees better? studentBMJ 2001;9:393. (October.)
