The final primary question in choosing a course is will this particular course (note this does not mean college!) suit me and my learning and career needs? You should consider the following when making your choice.

• Class size – some colleges have very large classes – some students prefer this as they can hide at the back, are not challenged and they will not be missed if they find the lecturer dull. (This will not help to build a firm foundation on which to base a career, particularly in the first year when it is important to get a grasp of the basics). Small classes are much friendlier, give time to ask questions, get to know other students and tutors well, but are also more challenging as it is less easy to hide or avoid issues. Remember you will learn as much from other students as you will from lectures and tutors over the duration of a training and so it is vital to join a course that recognises this and supports interaction between students.
• Integrated teaching programme – Explore this in depth as many courses claim they provide an integrated programme but in reality just run a timetable of different subjects based on tutor availability – ask final year students how integrated the course is - not the tutors!
• High quality written handouts – look for decent written support material - avoid those courses that rely on you to record or take notes during lectures as this is a poor form of learning (about 3 -7% of information is retained and often some of this is wrong). Also look for colleges that make use of electronic transfer of material as this means you end up with a comprehensive set of notes that you can fit to your learning needs and that will be a source of reference and comfort for the rest of your career.
• Tutors – All colleges use sessional tutors –This is a more difficult area to assess as you will also not get too much of an opportunity to test them before joining a course so it is a question you should be asking existing students. Remember we all have very different ideas and prejudices around Tutors – the standard of tutoring varies drastically – a good tutor should make you think, not tell you what to think! Try and get an overview of the teaching rather than just comments on one or two tutors as these can be very subjective.
• Clinical training – homeopathy is best learnt ‘hands on’ – some colleges do not allow students near patients until third or fourth year – others have a much more open attitude and aim to get students seeing patient/taking cases and prescribing as early on as part of the course.
• Practitioner Development Module – At the end of the day you can be extremely knowledgeable about homeopathy but not be able to run a practice, or you can be an average homeopath and be very successful. This is because in order to be successful you need to have a range of personal skills, drive, personality, understanding of you own boundaries etc, as well as business skills above and beyond homeopathy – planning, marketing and financial management skills.
• Drop out rates – look at how many started a course and how many actually graduated – do not take verbal assurances for this but ask for evidence – always talk to graduate year students

By this point you should be shortlisting colleges in the same category .i.e degree course with other degree courses. (Warning - if you find you are comparing CPH with a degree course then you are probably making your decision on secondary factors and not primary ones!)

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