Anglia Ruskin University
Overview
Chelmsford is a quiet city and the university is not very big however London is only 30 mins on the train if you crave a bit more hustle and bustle. The ARU campus is only a 15-minute walk from the centre of Chelmsford where there are lots of bars, restaurants and shops. Most students live on campus in first year which is useful as the accommodation is a 2-minute walk from the Med building (which makes those 9am lectures a little bit easier).
On campus there are lots of sports and societies to get involved in. I have been part of the cheer team for 2 years as well as the Surgical society and Med soc. Other societies include friends of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without borders), LGBTQ+, Mixed martial arts and more.
University Life
Chelmsford is a quiet city and the university is not very big however London is only 30 mins on the train if you crave a bit more hustle and bustle. The ARU campus is only a 15-minute walk from the centre of Chelmsford where there are lots of bars, restaurants and shops. Most students live on campus in first year which is useful as the accommodation is a 2-minute walk from the Med building (which makes those 9am lectures a little bit easier).
On campus there are lots of sports and societies to get involved in. I have been part of the cheer team for 2 years as well as the Surgical society and Med soc. Other societies include friends of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without borders), LGBTQ+, Mixed martial arts and more.
As there are only 100 per year, the med school has a friendly, community atmosphere, which makes ARU unique.
Social Life
Despite being a small university, the Med society on campus is renowned for putting on the best socials. Some events that are part of the Med soc social calendar include the med ball, the medics Halloween party and the end of year bar crawl. The med soc also puts on non-drinking socials like quiz nights as well as educational events like ‘Black contribution to Medicine’ which was held in honour of Black history month last year.
As there are only 100 per year, the med school has a friendly, community atmosphere, which makes ARU unique.
Interview
The interview is conducted in an MMI style where there are 8 stations each lasting 7 minutes. At each station you may be asked to complete a task, act out a role play, discuss a topic or be asked a ‘traditional’ style interview question. These stations will be assessing qualities like your communication skills, ethical reasoning, problem solving and more. Make sure that you go over your personal statement before your interview as it’s likely that at one of the stations the interviewer will go through your personal statement with you.
Interviews are run from December to January.
Tips
All applicants are screened to ensure they meet the minimum academic criteria and then candidates are shortlisted for interview by ranking applicants based on their UCAT scores. ARU are looking for a prediction of AAA’s unless you meet the Widening Access criteria then you offer may be lowered to ABB. They don’t use the personal statement until the interview stage so our advice to anyone applying to ARU it would be to achieve a competitive UCAT score in order to maximise the chances of getting an interview.
Faye Bate @fayebate