Rico,
I'm graduating this year from RCSI and have applied for a residency in the US starting in July. I spent one year at medical school in the Caribbean and decided to start over here. It's been a much better educational experience here in Ireland and the cultural experience is better in Europe. My opportunities are better for residency having attended an Irish medical school rather than a Caribbean one. The bottom line is that your opportunities really depend on you, but there is much more of a negative stigma to overcome coming from a Caribbean medical school. Besides, a lot of Caribbean schools send students here and to England for clinical rotations because of a lack of rotations in the US for their students.
As for which school in Ireland, as long as you're in Dulbin (RCSI, Trinity, UCD), you'll be okay. Not that Cork or Galway are worse, just that you'll probably be more comfortable in Dublin because you'll have more to do on your free time and you can fly from the airport in Dublin. Don't listen to these posts that say RCSI is better than Trinity or UCD or vice versa, not true. No matter what, the curriculum is the same and you're still an Irish graduate when you leave here with the same education from any of the Irish schools; your residency opportunities will depend on how hard you work while you're here and how you perform on your electives in the US. As for finances, keep in mind that RCSI is about 8,000 Euros more per year than Trinity and UCD. We're probably more multicultural, that's the big difference. Don't let anyone tell you that we're better than the other schools because it's not true and should not influence your decision; probably your finances should play a bigger role.
Just think hard before you commit to a Caribbean school, things are not all that they seem when they sell their schools to you. It's a lot harder to make opportunity from there. There are things you don't know right now about preparing yourself for applying to residency and that you won't know for another 2 or 3 more years, but there very important and relevant to your decision of which foreign medical school to attend.
Send me a message, if you have any questions about your decision.
