Front Quad of Lincoln College, the walls covered in bright green ivy

Rosie Allwood

Rosie Allwood

  • Fourth-year undergraduate, Medicine

Profile

Hi I’m Rosie, a fourth-year medical student at Lincoln. I grew up going to state school in Cambridge and did Chemistry, Biology, Maths, and History at A level. I applied to Medicine at Oxford because I liked the idea of having a strong scientific basis and understanding of the working of the body before diving into the practical treating of patients. This is a particular feature of the Oxford course, as our first three years are entirely pre-clinical (studying the many -ologies of physiology, pathology, neurology, pharmacology…), followed by a second set of three which are clinical and teaching is based much more at the John Radcliffe Hospital. I also liked the idea of being taught in small groups (normally of two or three) by a specialist in the field, where you can really delve into things you weren’t sure about, or ask more about the details which you found interesting.

Lincoln is such a good place for study and live; it’s so pretty, central, and small enough that you get to know everyone in your own year, and can always smile at friendly faces as you walk around the quads and streets surrounding. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about such a small community having gone to a very big sixth form, but it has been so welcoming, feels very homely, and I love having lots of friends doing completely different subjects. I’ve also got to know people in different years through non-academic activities: singing in the Chapel Choir, taking part and then running the Lincoln musical, dipping into various friendly College sports, and being involved in the Lincoln charity, VacProj. Extra-curricular things are also a great way to meet people outside of College, and I have some lovely friends from being in shows or singing together elsewhere.

If you are thinking of applying for Medicine at Oxford, and especially at Lincoln, I would really recommend having a look at the department website which has lots of details about the course, and if possible coming to visit to get a feel for how you would fit in with the life and study involved. Thinking about interviews or writing a personal statement both for Oxford and other medical schools, my main advice is to look further into what you’re interested in. If something comes up in school which catches your interest, or maybe when you do some work experience and you see something intriguing, have a look, find a book or a chapter of a book about it and read further: see where it takes you. And don’t feel you need to know everything, it’s the process of learning and finding out whether that scientific investigating is interests you which is important to see if the Oxford course would be the right one for you.