Questions....

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benzylique

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15+ Year Member
I Just had a few questions if people don't mind answering....

When i arrive in dublin... do i have to go to the immigration office or anything like that???

Also I was wondering, as IMGS do we have to write TOEFL down the line????

thanks!
 
No, you will not have the do the TOEFL. English assessment is done along with USMLE Step 2 CS (the clinical oral part). You will have to go to the alien's office, although not immediately. You have awhile to do it. It's on the quays (Burgh Quay, if you turn eastward when you see the Messer's McGuire pub coming off from O'Connell St.) so it's not too hard to find. just go early to avoid the queues as much as you can, and bring a book
 
Hey Leorl,

Just checking out the Bio Soc website, it doesn't really look like much is going on in terms of a Med Soc... is this the case? Also, it seems like only selecting members of an exec from final-year students would sort of remove it from 1st/2nd year student interest...

How do you find the Med soc there?
 
You don't have to do the TOEFL? I thought I saw on the ECFMG website that everyone has to write the TOEFL, even if you're a USIMG. (Note: I am stating this from memory, and will be the first to admit I could be wrong.)
 
That is old info. Before the Step 2 CS, everyone (including USIMGs) had to do the TOEFL and the CSA (Clinical Skills Assessment). This has now changed when Step 2 CS was created a couple years ago, which now includes all US students as well. So the old TOEFL and CSA requirements have been replaced by Step 2 CS.
 
TCD Biosoc is pretty active and fairly large. Each class has representatives to BioSoc, and the whole of BioSoc is run by 5th year medical students as the BioSoc officers(well, in the new system, 4th year medical students). This being that 5th years have the most experience in BioSoc (because those elected usually have been involved in biosoc throughout the years) and have the most contact with clinicians who're very useful. Final year students don't run anything, and we don't participate in much during final year because of the exams. But don't worry, it's fully inclusive 🙂 and I'd recommend getting involved in it as a new student. BioSoc coordinate several really big events - two of which are Med Day (massive, very awesome, and increasingly successful. Last year all TCD med students raised over 60,000 during the day) and Med Ball.
 
Good to know, leorl. Thanks for the info. Are the Med Soc at UCD and BioSoc connected at all? I only ask because Med Soc at UCD has a Med Day and Med Ball; although, perhaps BioSoc organises them, and Med Soc just attends, lol.
 
Yeah, I don't know if UCD has a biosoc and a med soc or just the one.
 
ucd medsoc organizes med ball, med day, etc....i think there might be a bio soc but it has nothign to do with medicine that i've ever seen, so it's likely for undergrad biology students.
 
Yeah. What I was curious about was whether the UCD and TCD med balls and med days were linked or if they were just separate things.
 
Hey leorl, I think you mentioned you are heavily involved with the boat club at Trinity. I've never rowed competitively before, but it looks like something I'd like to try. How easy is it for one new to the sport, albeit reasonably athletic, to get involved with the club? Would you mind writing a bit about your experiences with it?
 
hey billy,

ucd medball and tcd medballs are not linked at all....our medball is around halloween, beginning of novemberish, and trinity's is sometime in jan/feb.

as for rowing (not to steal leorl's thunder because i know she loves talking about it LOL), do a search for it, beacuse i've read tons of posts about it from her....she's the resident expert.....i shoudl get back into it...i did it in high school and university but now i've got a beer gut.....ugh
 
Thanks Bad. I was just curious. I can't wait to attend my first medball, lol.
 
Why are you so excited about med ball??? what is so fun about it?!

I actually wouldn't mind to go... but in my univeristy in canada... we never had anything like that.... so probably tha'ts why i'm not to excited about it!
 
Calm down. I'm not wetting my pants in anticipation, I just think it will be a fun time--in med school, in Ireland, at a social event with other meds.
 
sorry i didn't mean for you to take it that way!

I'm pretty excited too. I think it's great that all those social events are going on during the year!
If you're going to TCD.... what is the trinity ball?? Is it for athletes only or can anyone go??
 
EHEHEHEHEH. Okay 😉. Med balls are just fun...period. I mean, medics like to have fun just like everyone else. All the classes get together and do what you do at any ball. Imbibe, get to hang with your classmates, etc. Depending on how good the organizing committees are, sometimes special things are planned (ie. fireworks, etc).

Trinity Ball is hit or miss - I've gone years where I've hated it, and have gone years where it's been fabulous (mainly if you have some place to stay on campus and keep apt hopping plus visiting music tents). It's pretty much a ball which most of Trinity attends, they have music tents with big name bands and it's just a massive party. it's not just for athletes 🙂.

Rowing - it's a great sport in that it's one of the few where people can start brand new in college without ever having had prior experience. I'll write more on it later (yeah, do a search like badkarma suggested) because I'm on call now and I'm getting dirty looks from my senior resident.
 
I don't know about you guys, but I'm pretty stoked about the whole experience.

Badkarma, how often does medsoc have events and other goings on?

Cheers,
Jocks
 
I'm just starting the application process, but I'm excited too! We should all meet or something when we get there, just for fun.
 
FYI Rowing for med students in Ireland.

I've been in my uni's boat club as an active member for my first 2 yrs of medschool. It is a time commitment but manageable in these years. Now i'm a committee member and organiser so i don't have to do the training (yay!). It is a fun sport and beginners can be first crew members after one year of training. There is a great social life associated with it, too. So join up!

Ps. Medsoc is the beer drinking society. Gets old after a while but the parties are brilliant at the start of 1st year. There is not much interaction between the different med schools in the country, unlike the dental schools with the IDA Ball (all dent students in Ireland & NI). Something like this would be mad if made possible for us!

The Medsoc also arranges the IMSA the Irish Med Student Association or something like that. It does a sport day. Not very big.
 
Regards sport for meds in dublin it has to be rugby for the boys. The students get to mingle with doctors and in some case consultants years before they get to enter hospitals. It is a round robin tournament followed by a final between the top two teams. Four teams compete each representing hospitals throughout the city. Rivallry is usually fierce but good natured especially within ucd where there are two teams .Also there are big inter hospital rivallries.
The three universities supply players to the hospitals Mater and Vincents teams get players from ucd , while trinity supply players to the Federation of hospials and these are joined by dental students, and rcsi supply players to Beaumont . The students are joined by doctors from the respective hospitals.

The final takes place in december and is usually attended by a few hundread witha disco and party afterwards.

Supposedly it is the oldest continuous rugby cup in the world but that might be bunkum.



For the girls there is inter collegiate tennis and i think golf?
 
How the heck did you get out of training?!!! I've rowed for all my years here (4 so far), been on committee for 3 and was Captaining last year, and did all (ok, most) of the training! didn't get to socialize that much cuz med stuff was really hectic last year, but I agree....the social side is very fun, a bit insane, and definitely...unique. I'm actually headed to the world championships in Eton next weekend for the 3-day party!!!

In dublin, both TCD and UCD have class boatclubs/equipment. If you want to try out rowing, this would be the time to do it because it'll only cost like 3 euro to join (as opposed to the 300-400 euro annual membership fee at other clubs). Rowing in both colleges is also one of the most prominent sports on campus. There are also a few rowers at RCSI. UCC has a rowing team (their novice men were successful this year), as does NUIG (quite big down there too).

It's not something I can really explain without you trying it. The life is fun, if not dramatic, and you can fall in love with it your first day. Not to mention get great fitness. You do spend a significant amount of time training, but that's partly social too!

Rugby's also fun. I played rugby as well my first two years of college. For the guys, there's the Hospital's Cup which is great for networking, and very big among the med faculty. I think the Hospital's Cup is one of the oldest "tournaments" in the country/world. College rugby is very hard to join without any experience though. I like it better than American football (blasphemy, I know) because I think it's faster-pace and more exciting.

I think medsoc has fun but I wouldn't really say it qualifies as the beersoc...they do very important and useful events besides socials/parties. IMSA is a separate organization.
 
Damn, I might have to look into this rowing thing. It sounds like a great time.

BTW, good luck in Eton leorl! :luck:
 
well i'd always recommend sport to mix things up a bit. rugby is huge in ireland and Munster just won the Heineken cup (European club cup competition) so there is a lot of interest. Rowing is good and all universities are competitive at different levels. sad to have to give it up to an extent after putting so much time into it, but med has a bit more of a time committment in the clinical years. now i get to live on my past glory like every other old timer and has been. yippee!!!!!!
 
Fender said:
Regards sport for meds in dublin it has to be rugby for the boys. The students get to mingle with doctors and in some case consultants years before they get to enter hospitals. It is a round robin tournament followed by a final between the top two teams. Four teams compete each representing hospitals throughout the city. Rivallry is usually fierce but good natured especially within ucd where there are two teams .Also there are big inter hospital rivallries.
The three universities supply players to the hospitals Mater and Vincents teams get players from ucd , while trinity supply players to the Federation of hospials and these are joined by dental students, and rcsi supply players to Beaumont . The students are joined by doctors from the respective hospitals.

The final takes place in december and is usually attended by a few hundread witha disco and party afterwards.

Supposedly it is the oldest continuous rugby cup in the world but that might be bunkum.



For the girls there is inter collegiate tennis and i think golf?
Click to expand...


True - oldest running rugby tourney in the world! One of the best social events in Dublin Medicine!

Hospital balls (especially the Mater and Vincent's ones are the best ones) - they are organized by the rugby teams. I played and was an old stalward of the SVUHRFC for a total of 7 years (including post grad time). I also was a part of the executive one year (usually done by 5th/res year med students) that run the ball ... 6 Vinnie's balls, 3 Mater balls and not a complaint.

BTW, if you are a guy ... as above rugby and medicine are intertwined ... get involved with the clubs ... I am sure I don't need to say any more 😀
 
ugh Vincent's 🙂 . Suppose it could have been worse - Feds double ugh. 👎 .
 
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