I was quite nervous in the weeks leading up to Edinburgh’s offer holder day. My experience with Edinburgh, both as a city and as a university through open days and interviews, has always been quite positive, but the same can be said about other universities. I like the city, its proximity to good food and transport, and its busyness, but my friends would be elsewhere. I wanted to get away from home, but home is also security. Weighing up the different universities was difficult, especially with the stereotypes associated with the people, the university, and the city.
I was late to the offer holder day, barely making it in time after awkwardly asking three strangers how to get to the lecture theatre when it was right in front of me, all while slowly being soaked by the rain. I think it was a fairly accurate picture of my life here for the first couple of weeks—the traffic, the weather, and having to find my way through a new, giant place. Regardless, the day itself went smoothly.
We were split into two groups and given a tour around campus, even visiting the museum/study space that requires an ID and pin to get in, and attended a taster session on medical imaging.
I had the opportunity to talk to the ambassadors and scout out my future classmates. This meant there were a lot of familiar faces when term officially started; I could point them out and be like, “I remember you, you’re from the offer holder day.” It was a great opportunity to meet people—which I should’ve taken more advantage of but didn’t, since I was too concerned about the brownies they were giving out. They were amazing and on par with the ones my friend makes. (No guarantee that they’ll continue giving them out in future years.)
Figuring out accommodation, finances, and good food spots were my main priorities, in addition to making sure that I was vibing with the city and the university. I talked to the ambassadors, and asked questions looking for information beyond the usual course content, teaching styles, and assessments (all important, but that was more of my focus back in the application stage).
The taster session was very hands-on and a bit of a blur, to be honest. It wasn’t my biggest concern to figure out how I was going to be taught. I was quite confident that it was going to be fine since the university is probably more concerned with good teaching, given that we are all going to be future doctors and incompetence would be tragic.
As an offer holder I was not longer concerned about getting into Edinburgh Medical School, and so the offer holder day was like seeing the place in a different light. I could entertain the multitude of mundane first-year uni questions without feeling like I’m jumping too far ahead. I was able to imagine my future in a more tangible way, and since I could see myself here, I am now here.
