Hi, I just wanted to hear where anyone going to UCC this September is from? Anybody from BC? Thanks!
Hi, I just wanted to hear where anyone going to UCC this September is from? Anybody from BC? Thanks!
Does UCC have a six year program along with the five for North Americans? According to the ABP site, it mentions only of the 5 but on the UCC site it states that there is a 6 year course?
The only people who do the old 6 year course are some of the IMG students from Malaysia and the middle east who have government sponsored spots. Some of them don't have a higher qualification UCC wants so the do a sort of premedical year that used to be required of all the direct entry high school students. Now only a few IMG's do that year. The Irish high school leavers and most of the Malaysian and Middle Eastern students do the 5 year program, the graduate entry students and the North Americans do the 4 year program.
Cheers,
M
There is a 5 year and a 4 year program.
Thank you! I was wondering what you would recommend for accomodation for first year GEP? Do most people rent their own place? Also, just generally how your time there was? Thank you so much again for all your help!
You're going to UCC? Congrats on getting accepted, but just as a warning.... This year, a few North Americans from UCC couldn't get matched back into Canada (Family Medicine, I guess they were being realistic!) and its only getting more competitive each year for IMGs. In the good old days Canadians could at least get the easiest residency spots, now thats not the case! The school board is not very forthcoming with this information so just be cautious.
The quality of education at UCC or in the Irish schools in general is no where close to being on par with the Canadian curriculum. I think a lot of this has to do with the fact the student bodies are university graduates and not just recent highschool grads so a lot of the material is simplified and not as depth as Canadian schools (even for the graduate entry programmes). The content is also vastly different from both Canadian and North American schools. Most of the teachers aren't fully qualified professors with years of experience and tenure but simply inexperienced lecturers...UCC is extremely short on staff so they work with what they can get. The admissions board are not forthcoming and they will tell you the quality of education is superb and equal to North America...no it is not. FAR from it.
If you still decide to go with UCC, the best advice I can give you in terms of housing is to go on daft.ie. Lots of places pop up but they also are taken pretty fast if they're that good. There are LOTS of places that are available throughout the city but you just need to find a place that suits you best. I'd be cautious of signing a lease without ever seeing the place first. Photographs can be pretty deceptive and Irish buildings are not built quite like sturdy soundproof Canadian buildings (you can't tell this by the pictures). You can PM or message me if you have any questions, you probably have time just think things through before rushing into anything.
You're going to UCC? Congrats on getting accepted, but just as a warning.... This year, a few North Americans from UCC couldn't get matched back into Canada (Family Medicine, I guess they were being realistic!) and its only getting more competitive each year for IMGs. In the good old days Canadians could at least get the easiest residency spots, now thats not the case! The school board is not very forthcoming with this information so just be cautious.
The quality of education at UCC or in the Irish schools in general is no where close to being on par with the Canadian curriculum. I think a lot of this has to do with the fact the student bodies are university graduates and not just recent highschool grads so a lot of the material is simplified and not as depth as Canadian schools (even for the graduate entry programmes). The content is also vastly different from both Canadian and North American schools. Most of the teachers aren't fully qualified professors with years of experience and tenure but simply inexperienced lecturers...UCC is extremely short on staff so they work with what they can get. The admissions board are not forthcoming and they will tell you the quality of education is superb and equal to North America...no it is not. FAR from it.
That's worrying because I was accepted there and looked forward to probably attending. If you don't mind me asking how many people from UCC went unmatched this year... out of the total? And was this worse or similar to the other irish schools? I read on another thread that UCC had only one unmatched person last year for North America.
It depends on what your preferences are. The majority of my North American classmates lived in the same post-graduate housing complex called Sheares Gate. They're pretty nice but they're not cheap, and you will have to live with 3 other people, usually other members of your class but you may live with upper years or Dentistry students as well. Also, they're not close to the city centre whatsoever and it's about a 40 minute walk to get there. They are pretty close to campus, and you can get to Brookfield (which is the Health Sciences building where you'll spend most of your time) in 5-10 minutes walking. Most of my classmates who lived there this year are bailing and finding houses for next year, as you're paying a lot for what you get (ie: no control over roommate selection, forced to live with 3 other people, far from town/restaurants/pubs/clubs/anything good).
Another option is Dennehy's Cross, which is also a post-graduate apartment complex. Personally, I think it's nicer than Sheares Gate, you will live with either 1 or 2 other roommates and it's about the same distance or shorter to Brookfield. Another handy thing is that it's located above a Tesco Express (Tesco is the major grocery store), so you can get a whole bunch of your groceries without going 10 feet from your apartment, and if there's anything the Tesco Express doesn't have, it's not a far walk to the big Tesco store or Cork University Hospital (where you will also be spending a significant amount of time). Cost to live at Dennehy's Cross works out to be about 500 euro a month on a 12 month lease, while Sheares is about 550 a month.
Option C is to find a house/apartment. This can get tricky since you likely won't know anyone to live with, leaving you to find a place on your own. I'm currently living on my own in the city centre, and it's definitely not cheap. A 2 bedroom apartment in the centre will run around 700-900 euro a month, excluding electricity (water is free...for now). However, it's really handy having everything around you, grocery stores are close, the market is a 5 minute walk, pubs are everywhere, you don't have to take a taxi home after a night out. The walk to campus is the only thing that's a pain, it's about 25 minutes walking fast, uphill, to Brookfield from my apartment, nearly an hour to the Cork University Hospital.
Personally if you know people coming with you, or someone who's already here, find a place in between campus and the city centre. It'll be cheaper and you'll know who you're living with. Option B is a toss-up between Dennehy's Cross and Sheares Gate. None of my North American classmates lived in Dennehy's Cross this year, just a few Irish but I will be moving there for next year, and there will be a couple more North Americans there as well. So if you want to live with people who have the same accent as you, go to Sheares Gate, if you don't have a preference, go to Dennehy's Cross.
Thanks for this post, really helpful actually. As you said, these two places are generally for post-grads. Would they consider a student with an undergrad degree who is entering the GEP med program as eligible for residence here? I'd prefer to stay in residence, but would rather be grouped with a higher concentration of people from my program than a wide mix of undergrad kids in general.
Also, question for anyone, esp those starting at UCC this september. Have the dates for the following been set?
-registration (is it online, or in person, and when?)
-orientation (is this a general info session, a "frosh"-like event, or something else?)
-commencement of classes
Gotta plan my travel details soon, and any/all of this info is crucial. Emailed the UCC student coordinator buy she hasn't gotten back to me yet.
Cheers!
The quality of education at UCC or in the Irish schools in general is no where close to being on par with the Canadian curriculum. ... The admissions board are not forthcoming and they will tell you the quality of education is superb and equal to North America...no it is not. FAR from it.
Thanks again, asd979 for your help! Just wanted to clarify.... I think you meant September 18-19th (as opposed to August), i hope? Most of the start dates that I saw for courses at UCC were September, which I hope it is as I want my summer to stretch as long as possible!Yes you are eligible to live there if you are entering the GEP, and many North Americans do live there. Generally the people living in Sheares Gate or Dennehy's Cross are doing the GEP Medicine, Dentistry, or doing other post-graduate programs so you won't have to worry about the absolute messiness associated with undergrads...which you will see very quickly when you get here.
Registration (for myself this past year anyway) occurred on a Thursday before classes started on the following Monday. I'll assume that the starting date will be similar to what mine was so plan on having Registration/Orientation on the 18th and 19th of August. The Thursday involved only the North Americans, so we registered and just met everyone. The Friday we merged with the Irish and had a tour while they did their registration. After lunch we had a presentation by the faculty and some members of the 2nd year GEP. Then we had a wine and cheese thing with the faculty, then that night we all went out drinking for the first time...if your class is anything like ours is, prepare for a lot of parties!
Thanks again, asd979 for your help! Just wanted to clarify.... I think you meant September 18-19th (as opposed to August), i hope? Most of the start dates that I saw for courses at UCC were September, which I hope it is as I want my summer to stretch as long as possible!
Also, another question for anyone who might have some insight on this.... A lot of people are talking about difficulty in matching, either back through canada or the US. Does anybody know whether Irish, and specifically UCC, medical grads are generally (1) scoring lower on the MCCEE or USMLE's? In which case they feel that the Irish curriculum is not as oriented towards these exams as North American schools... Or is it rather that they are (2) finding trouble when matching for residency spots that a degree/background from an Irish school is the stumbling point vs. a North American MD program, even when they have comparable exam scores to a North American graduate.
I'm seeing a lot of mindless banter on some of the other boards, but I think the issue just whittles down to these 2 things. I'm not even sure if anyone would have any insights or experience with this question, but if you do, please share!
Cheers
Hi there, I'm from Virginia and will be starting at UCC in September! I'm very excited about it! I have been looking in to single apartments as wellas Sheare's Gate and other similar ones, and it seems to me that the single apartments really aren't that much more expensive.
I'd definitely recommend getting an apartment if that's what you want. The only issue is that it's difficult securing a place without actually seeing it in person, and things often don't look as good once you actually get to see it in person. My advice is to arrive a week or more in advance so you can get over the jet lag and not be under tons of pressure to find a place. I made the mistake of arriving only 2 days before orientation and finding a place in that time while trying to deal with jet lag was a nightmare.
Thanks for all the helpful posts guys. I was also wondering if the people that attend UCC are mostly white or are there minorities as well? For example would an asian/brown/black etc person fit in or would it be difficult. I can't imagine the students would be negative but what about the attitude around the city?
Don't get me wrong, most people in Cork are just fine but there is a bit of the racism still there. But minorities shouldn't have any problem, provided they don't have any "knacker" run-ins. Come to think of it, it doesn't matter what ethnicity you are when you run into the knackers.
Knackers are the Irish equivalent of the English chavs. They all wear full tracksuits everyday, have stupid buzzed haircuts (sometimes with mullets), fake diamond studs in their ears, fake chains, and generally just cause trouble. Drinking in the street in the middle of the day, being rowdy, stuff like that.
No, thats skanger. Knacker is an Irish traveller. Big difference. You're obviously using the terms the wrong way, raciest as they are.
Oh they're definitely racist. Unless terms are different here in Cork or I've been misinformed by my Irish friends. I've never heard of skanger being used in Cork though.
Hello. I've finally been able to look into the details a bit more and was just wondering if you could tell me a bit about what the professors/lecturers are like, the labs, tutorials, etc. My parents went to medical school in Ireland and told me that the lecturers can be pretty harsh at times. Do they like to put you on the spot? Also, what was your first year timetable like? Was it generally 9 to 5 or were some days shorter? Sorry for the huge list of questions but any advice you can give me I truly appreciate it! Thanks!
Luckily we don't start until the 29th this time around, so we get two full months off. No worries, I think if I didn't take breaks to post here I would have gone insane. Word of warning, this week of exams I just finished was by far the worst experience of my life. It doesn't matter how far in advance you start studying, since when you get bombarded with an exam day after day after day, you start to forget stuff you've studied. Also since there's no gap between exams, you just can't get through all the material in time, which would be fine if they didn't ask extremely specific questions on an end of year exam. But it's over now, I'm chilling out, waiting to go home in 3 days and enjoying a summer in actual sun and heat.
That's an really long school year August to end of June . The UCD schedule I got was beg September to third week of May. I hope it's not going to be more stressful than UCC since we have the same material (I assume) in less amount of time...
....I believe your class size has been increased to 70, with none of the 20 being Irish students. Massive cash grab by UCC there, and it's only to the detriment of the students. Anatomy Lab for you guys is going to be an absolute mess, since there are the same number of instructors for 20 more students. It was barely functional with the 50 in my class.
How do you two know the class won't be split in two sections? Or having another prof?