Atlantic Bridge Confusion

[brontehardyeliot]

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Yes, I am confused and I might even be happy about it. I have a B.A. in English and was planning on completing a post-bacc program, taking the MCAT, and applying to the Irish medical schools in hope of starting med school in 2004 or 2005. Well, one of the admissions people from Atlantic Bridge just emailed me and told me that I could apply to a six-year program at the Irish medical schools WITHOUT taking the MCAT and WITHOUT finishing my prerequisites (bio, chem, etc.). He has a file on me (I sent him a letter with my GPA, schools attended, explanation of my plans, etc. a few months ago), so I don't think he's confused about any of the details of my academic past. He even mentioned some of them in this last email. Waiting only a little over a year to go to med school sounds wonderful for to me, but frankly, I'm still a little wary. I thought that all the Irish medical schools except Trinity required the MCAT, regardless of whether you were applying for a five- or six-year program. I also thought you at least had to have completed the basic premed requirements to apply. I guess my question is, have any of you applied or do you plan on applying for a six-year program without the MCAT and without the prerequisites? Did you even know it was an option? Am I the only person who was seriously confused about this? Any thoughts? 🙄 Thanks, guys.

 

[leorl]

Let's clear this up:

The Irish schools have a regular Undergrad program and a Graduate-entry program. The latter requires that you have already earned a degree, and that you have MCAT scores thus took the basic med prereqs (except Trinity). The Grad program let's you skip a year of the regular course schedule, thus is 5 years and not 6.

However, if you apply for the Undergrad program, it is assumed you have not earned a degree or been specifically pre-med. You are entering just like any other irish secondary school leaver, into an undergrad program for medicine. Therefore, you don't need MCAT scores, but I do believe they want SAT scores (you'd have to check). Thus, you don't have to sit through the premed requirements, because you will not be exempt from learning any material.

While most people on this board applied to the Graduate entry program (5 years), a couple applied for the undergrad program. There's one guy I know who completed 1 year of college (canadian) and decided not to complete it, and apply to Ireland to enter med school earlier. I also know others from my year abroad in Ireland who went there as a visiting student, loved it, dropped out of their home university and started studying medicine in Ireland.

Too bad you didn't have this info. before - if this is the path you want to take, you could have entered a bit sooner 🙂

 

[brontehardyeliot]

Thanks for the info, Leorl. 🙂 I'm not sure why it took me so long to figure all this out, but I really appreciate getting such a thorough explanation. Now if I could just figure out how to deal with Ireland's whole required six-month pet quarantine period, I'd be set.... Oh well. Thanks again!