Mothers, fathers and some grandparents stood in line next to the enrolment door and peeked inside to make sure everything was okay with their offspring.
Some mothers tried to hide the tears of cutting the umbilical cord, and although they did not know how to deal with the situation, they knew they had to let their children go. The latter, more fearless, and wanting to impose some independence, took their first steps into the beginning of a dream they so wanted to achieve. After all, getting into Medicine is still only for some and the last admission had a high GPA of 17.75 out of 20.
We went to meet some of the faces with a glow in their eyes, ready to swallow what is in front of them, and met with the parents to find out if the empty nest syndrome sets in when a child leaves home.
We met all of them, students of Medicine, both in the special regime and those in bachelor's program, and even took a look at those who entered the newly-opened Nutrition Sciences course.
Ana Catarina is one of the students that got into Medicine. She's from Vila Real and will stay in Setúbal with relatives, and commute to Lisbon every day. She already knows Lisbon well and has not problems using any means of transportation. Visiting her parents means a 5-hour bus ride, so she knows she won't be able to visit them every week. She brings lots of expectations and loves Biology and Chemistry, and has always wanted to be in touch with people and feel that she could help them somehow, "healthcare is one of the ways doctors can improve or change someone's entire life". She sees herself going into Oncology, a speciality that she believes to be surrounded by some utopia. We then understood that the reason she picked medicine was because it brings up close, unspoken memories. Her mother's name is Ana Isabel, and she is not embarrassed to hold her daughter's hand. In between tears, she says "it's hard to let her go, we live alone, just the two of us, although her father is very present. Our children aren't really ours and they have to fly and she fought hard to for this, she deserves to be congratulated."
Ana Filipa is from the south, Algarve, the youngest of two sisters. She says, laughing, that she is in for "a lot of studying and work, but she's going to enjoy it because work pays off." Choosing the Faculty of Medicine wasn't something random, "this Faculty is within a Hospital and Nova was only a second option because it's geographically far". She's not quite sure what to expect of her professional future and hopes only to decide after being introduced to all the medical specialities. Her voice begins to shake as she says that, after 18 years of living with her parents, she must now leave them "but if it has to be, it has to be and it's probably a good thing." Her mother, Anabela Carrasqueira, is divided between pride and the difficulty of the separation, and although the throat closes up every on other word, her heart makes her speak more clearly "this is hard for a mother, but it's what she wants and managed to get here, so she has our full support. It's going to be hard, but it's her future that is at stake" Hélder Carrasqueiro is familiar with the academic world and, with a little less anxiety, he looks at this change as a logical part of a cycle. But letting his little girl take her own steps is hard. "There's a time where he have to go our own way and that moment is now. We did our part, now it's up to them."
Relaxed and alone, in a line of future students and family members, Eddy Martins already knew a few students of the Faculty, who will be his future classmates. Having gotten into Medicine under the bachelor's regime, Eddy was a nurse for 7 years in Aveiro and it was thanks to his professional practice that he realized there was a difference between a doctor's and a nurse's reality and he felt he needed to know and progress more. FMUL was the right choice and the one that made more sense for his reality, "this Faculty promotes humanism, people's ability to interrelate and that was preponderant in my choice." He thinks professional practice is what gives real answers to what they studied in theoretical classes, but that theoretical foundation is necessary to know how to justify the reason behind making one medical decision over another.
He regrets "the exorbitant rents charged in the capital" and considering he is on his own, he will have to masterfully manage his savings from his time as a nurse – "I will have to take on a student-worker status." Starting "from the bottom" as he says, he nevertheless accepts this challenge, as he believes it is the right step to getting where he wants to be.
Nádia Fernandes is as communicative as her father. She got into Medicine under a special regime that exists for Portuguese-speaking countries. They came from Mozambique a few days ago. Her mother stayed there and her father Jorge Fernandes came to help with her first big move. With an businessman as her father and a clinical analyst mother, it is easy to understand the combination of her worldly thirst and willingness to treat others. She choose to leave her country because she believes education in Portugal is more demanding, but leaving her parents and her country causes her a tightness in her throat, which only allows her to say "it's difficult". With an aunt already in Portugal, she will have a fixed address in Cascais, but her father's "lap" in the first few days avoided "the obvious panic she was going to feel." Her father, Jorge says it is important to foster detachment but " letting your bird go is doing the same as an eagle that pushes the nestlings out of the nest when they are ready to fly." One day, Nádia will go back to Mozambique with the dream of being a Cardiologist, because she comes from "a country with few speciality doctors and a lot of people with heart disease". For now, her father asks that she knows how to defend herself, by following the "principles of respect, honesty and self-esteem".
There is a day scheduled for the 30 students who will fill all openings in the Nutrition Sciences course. We took a look at the room where they were gathered to distribute all the paperwork. There are only 3 boys, and the remaining 27 are all girls. For most of them, this was their choice, objectively focused on a specialization in Nutrition and with the purpose of studying in a public institution. Beatriz Pimpão, on the other hand, explained that she still has hope of being able to transfer into Medicine.
"Medicine was always my dream but I wasn't able to get in because of my exams scores. But still, and because there aren't many openings, getting into Nutrition is great, only the best ones have gotten in and it is good to be part of this group. But I cannot deny that having classes with medical students and being close to them gives me some hope that I can still try again next year. " Despite leaving her mother in Alenquer, where she was born, Beatriz will always have her mother's wing around her. because she works in Lisbon and promises to be always attentive to her every move. Beatriz does not look sadly at this life challenge and thinks that this may be a challenge that will teach her to overcome setbacks.
Bernardo Duque is one of the few boys we meet here. With a confident smile, he says he is very happy because he got into exactly what he wanted. "When I imagined mixing pleasure with studying, I realized this is really where I had to be". His ambition and his dream go hand in hand. If, on the one hand he wants to develop clinical techniques and help people, on the other, he is already planning on setting up his own business and has the goal of creating a pioneering product that can revolutionize people's lives, as well as his own, of course! He has always lived in Portugal and now arrives in Lisbon and says that, during the first days, there is a feeling of "landing without a parachute", yet he has his girlfriend and friends here and a close relationship with whom he will share an apartment.
It was easy to notice her while everyone waited to hear their name in the enrolment room. The name, Victoria Stosberg, matched her freckles and red hair. With German roots, she thought until a few months ago that she wanted to be a doctor, like a big part of her maternal family. However, a neonatology internship in a hospital in Germany changed her certainties, "I discovered that doctors' life is routine and when I learned of this course I thought it was sent from the heavens, as it has everything to do with me. I love sports, nutrition and everything related to food." She even considered going into biochemistry, but it was after a nutrition consultation, which she took due to health reasons, that she decided to go into healthcare. She realized that, through food, she could heal and give people a quality life. "I didn't expect my health to improve as it did, and I started giving a lot of attention to nutritionists, so I started looking at what they did and where they worked, and that's how I got here! " She also admitted to having chosen this course because she's in a hurry for her future to unfold, and becoming a doctor would take too long. In the short term, she wants to have her own company and always be able to move at her own pace.
Although most students are from Lisbon, many come from far away, and have to do their best, with no time for weaknesses.
And although the statistics presented by the Directorate-General for Higher Education (DGES), clearly show that in 2018 there were fewer candidates than in the previous year (44,148 candidates applying for 50.852 openings), the fact is that none of the 7 Medical Institutions in the country had any openings left for the second phase, as all were filled in the first phase.. There will be a total of 1,441 students, across the different universities.
The Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon is currently the institution that offers more opportunities, as it has the most openings – 295, in comparison to the University of Minho, with only 120.
It is worth mentioning that in the national ranking, again, based on data provided by the Directorate-General for Higher Education (DGES), the University of Lisbon continues to be the most chosen, admitting a total of 7214 students in all courses.
To all, but especially to our new students, we wish you an extraordinary academic year!
[su_slider source="media: 26143,26144,26145,26146,26148,26152,26151,26150,26149,26147,26146,26144" limit="25" link="image" target="blank" width="400" height="320" responsive="no" title="no" pages="no" autoplay="0" speed="5000"][su_slider source="media: 19344,19346,19396,19359,19351,19348,19356,19372,19343,19371,19373,19382,19385,19386,19388,19393,19377,19394,19401,19342,19318,19316,19315,19313,19310,19308,19306,19303,19299" limit="13" link="lightbox" width="920" height="580" responsive="no" title="no" mousewheel="no" autoplay="5300" speed="2100"][/su_slider]
Joana Sousa
Editorial Team
Some mothers tried to hide the tears of cutting the umbilical cord, and although they did not know how to deal with the situation, they knew they had to let their children go. The latter, more fearless, and wanting to impose some independence, took their first steps into the beginning of a dream they so wanted to achieve. After all, getting into Medicine is still only for some and the last admission had a high GPA of 17.75 out of 20.
We went to meet some of the faces with a glow in their eyes, ready to swallow what is in front of them, and met with the parents to find out if the empty nest syndrome sets in when a child leaves home.
We met all of them, students of Medicine, both in the special regime and those in bachelor's program, and even took a look at those who entered the newly-opened Nutrition Sciences course.
Ana Catarina is one of the students that got into Medicine. She's from Vila Real and will stay in Setúbal with relatives, and commute to Lisbon every day. She already knows Lisbon well and has not problems using any means of transportation. Visiting her parents means a 5-hour bus ride, so she knows she won't be able to visit them every week. She brings lots of expectations and loves Biology and Chemistry, and has always wanted to be in touch with people and feel that she could help them somehow, "healthcare is one of the ways doctors can improve or change someone's entire life". She sees herself going into Oncology, a speciality that she believes to be surrounded by some utopia. We then understood that the reason she picked medicine was because it brings up close, unspoken memories. Her mother's name is Ana Isabel, and she is not embarrassed to hold her daughter's hand. In between tears, she says "it's hard to let her go, we live alone, just the two of us, although her father is very present. Our children aren't really ours and they have to fly and she fought hard to for this, she deserves to be congratulated."
Ana Filipa is from the south, Algarve, the youngest of two sisters. She says, laughing, that she is in for "a lot of studying and work, but she's going to enjoy it because work pays off." Choosing the Faculty of Medicine wasn't something random, "this Faculty is within a Hospital and Nova was only a second option because it's geographically far". She's not quite sure what to expect of her professional future and hopes only to decide after being introduced to all the medical specialities. Her voice begins to shake as she says that, after 18 years of living with her parents, she must now leave them "but if it has to be, it has to be and it's probably a good thing." Her mother, Anabela Carrasqueira, is divided between pride and the difficulty of the separation, and although the throat closes up every on other word, her heart makes her speak more clearly "this is hard for a mother, but it's what she wants and managed to get here, so she has our full support. It's going to be hard, but it's her future that is at stake" Hélder Carrasqueiro is familiar with the academic world and, with a little less anxiety, he looks at this change as a logical part of a cycle. But letting his little girl take her own steps is hard. "There's a time where he have to go our own way and that moment is now. We did our part, now it's up to them."
Relaxed and alone, in a line of future students and family members, Eddy Martins already knew a few students of the Faculty, who will be his future classmates. Having gotten into Medicine under the bachelor's regime, Eddy was a nurse for 7 years in Aveiro and it was thanks to his professional practice that he realized there was a difference between a doctor's and a nurse's reality and he felt he needed to know and progress more. FMUL was the right choice and the one that made more sense for his reality, "this Faculty promotes humanism, people's ability to interrelate and that was preponderant in my choice." He thinks professional practice is what gives real answers to what they studied in theoretical classes, but that theoretical foundation is necessary to know how to justify the reason behind making one medical decision over another.
He regrets "the exorbitant rents charged in the capital" and considering he is on his own, he will have to masterfully manage his savings from his time as a nurse – "I will have to take on a student-worker status." Starting "from the bottom" as he says, he nevertheless accepts this challenge, as he believes it is the right step to getting where he wants to be.
Nádia Fernandes is as communicative as her father. She got into Medicine under a special regime that exists for Portuguese-speaking countries. They came from Mozambique a few days ago. Her mother stayed there and her father Jorge Fernandes came to help with her first big move. With an businessman as her father and a clinical analyst mother, it is easy to understand the combination of her worldly thirst and willingness to treat others. She choose to leave her country because she believes education in Portugal is more demanding, but leaving her parents and her country causes her a tightness in her throat, which only allows her to say "it's difficult". With an aunt already in Portugal, she will have a fixed address in Cascais, but her father's "lap" in the first few days avoided "the obvious panic she was going to feel." Her father, Jorge says it is important to foster detachment but " letting your bird go is doing the same as an eagle that pushes the nestlings out of the nest when they are ready to fly." One day, Nádia will go back to Mozambique with the dream of being a Cardiologist, because she comes from "a country with few speciality doctors and a lot of people with heart disease". For now, her father asks that she knows how to defend herself, by following the "principles of respect, honesty and self-esteem".
There is a day scheduled for the 30 students who will fill all openings in the Nutrition Sciences course. We took a look at the room where they were gathered to distribute all the paperwork. There are only 3 boys, and the remaining 27 are all girls. For most of them, this was their choice, objectively focused on a specialization in Nutrition and with the purpose of studying in a public institution. Beatriz Pimpão, on the other hand, explained that she still has hope of being able to transfer into Medicine.
"Medicine was always my dream but I wasn't able to get in because of my exams scores. But still, and because there aren't many openings, getting into Nutrition is great, only the best ones have gotten in and it is good to be part of this group. But I cannot deny that having classes with medical students and being close to them gives me some hope that I can still try again next year. " Despite leaving her mother in Alenquer, where she was born, Beatriz will always have her mother's wing around her. because she works in Lisbon and promises to be always attentive to her every move. Beatriz does not look sadly at this life challenge and thinks that this may be a challenge that will teach her to overcome setbacks.
Bernardo Duque is one of the few boys we meet here. With a confident smile, he says he is very happy because he got into exactly what he wanted. "When I imagined mixing pleasure with studying, I realized this is really where I had to be". His ambition and his dream go hand in hand. If, on the one hand he wants to develop clinical techniques and help people, on the other, he is already planning on setting up his own business and has the goal of creating a pioneering product that can revolutionize people's lives, as well as his own, of course! He has always lived in Portugal and now arrives in Lisbon and says that, during the first days, there is a feeling of "landing without a parachute", yet he has his girlfriend and friends here and a close relationship with whom he will share an apartment.
It was easy to notice her while everyone waited to hear their name in the enrolment room. The name, Victoria Stosberg, matched her freckles and red hair. With German roots, she thought until a few months ago that she wanted to be a doctor, like a big part of her maternal family. However, a neonatology internship in a hospital in Germany changed her certainties, "I discovered that doctors' life is routine and when I learned of this course I thought it was sent from the heavens, as it has everything to do with me. I love sports, nutrition and everything related to food." She even considered going into biochemistry, but it was after a nutrition consultation, which she took due to health reasons, that she decided to go into healthcare. She realized that, through food, she could heal and give people a quality life. "I didn't expect my health to improve as it did, and I started giving a lot of attention to nutritionists, so I started looking at what they did and where they worked, and that's how I got here! " She also admitted to having chosen this course because she's in a hurry for her future to unfold, and becoming a doctor would take too long. In the short term, she wants to have her own company and always be able to move at her own pace.
Although most students are from Lisbon, many come from far away, and have to do their best, with no time for weaknesses.
And although the statistics presented by the Directorate-General for Higher Education (DGES), clearly show that in 2018 there were fewer candidates than in the previous year (44,148 candidates applying for 50.852 openings), the fact is that none of the 7 Medical Institutions in the country had any openings left for the second phase, as all were filled in the first phase.. There will be a total of 1,441 students, across the different universities.
The Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon is currently the institution that offers more opportunities, as it has the most openings – 295, in comparison to the University of Minho, with only 120.
It is worth mentioning that in the national ranking, again, based on data provided by the Directorate-General for Higher Education (DGES), the University of Lisbon continues to be the most chosen, admitting a total of 7214 students in all courses.
To all, but especially to our new students, we wish you an extraordinary academic year!
[su_slider source="media: 26143,26144,26145,26146,26148,26152,26151,26150,26149,26147,26146,26144" limit="25" link="image" target="blank" width="400" height="320" responsive="no" title="no" pages="no" autoplay="0" speed="5000"][su_slider source="media: 19344,19346,19396,19359,19351,19348,19356,19372,19343,19371,19373,19382,19385,19386,19388,19393,19377,19394,19401,19342,19318,19316,19315,19313,19310,19308,19306,19303,19299" limit="13" link="lightbox" width="920" height="580" responsive="no" title="no" mousewheel="no" autoplay="5300" speed="2100"][/su_slider]
Joana Sousa
Editorial Team
