Every medical school has their own societies, but BSMS is quite special. When you are a BSMS student, you are technically a member of three universities: BSMS, the University of Brighton and the University of Sussex. As a result, you can join in activities and societies from all three universities. That is hundreds, if not thousands you could join.
Personally, I have only done events by BSMS, but I know a lot of people love joining non-medic societies so they can meet with different groups of people. It really is impossible to not find your people here. Some of my favourite examples of societies are the Mario Kart society and Taylor Swift society at the University of Brighton, and the dog walking society at the University of Sussex. You can find a list of all their societies here. The other great thing is that if you don’t see a society that you want, you can make your own one!
I feel like extra-curriculars can be split into two main categories: academic and non-academic. You can find a list of all the BSMS societies here. I will start with academic, as it is probably what I have been a part of the most.
In Phase 1 (Years 1 and 2), I held the following society roles: Psychiatry Society Year rep, Emergency Society Communications Officer, Anatomy Society Vice President and The Surgical Society Women in Surgery Officer. I used societies to spend more of my time on my favourite subjects and work out which specialties I might be interested in. I helped organise events such as Restart a Heart Day, where we taught members of the public CPR outside Brighton train station, and I started and led the annual Anatomy Society trip to a London Museum. In addition to these, I put together and hosted revision quizzes, wrote articles on imposter syndrome and attended conferences and talks. This also helped me understand how societies at BSMS ran, and gave me the confidence to go for leadership roles in the following years.
