Rcsi gep

[SilverStain]

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1st yr RCSI GEP- I can take any specific GEP questions here...

 

[balkinator]

Care to give us a little information? Where are you from? Where did you do your undergraduate degree? etc.

What are your experiences from the first year? How do you find the cross-year interaction?

 

[SilverStain]

Sure. There are only 60 of us with 10 or so Americans...so probably give myself away very easily, but i dont mind. Need to give back to this board as it helped me tremendously last year.

Country: NJ/Boston, US
Age: 29 (avg age for our class is like 25 with range of 21-31)
Education: BS in 2006 with GPA of 3.3/4.0; MCAT#1=28; MS from Boston U in 2009; MCAT#2=32; cancer research 3+yrs
Med app: 1st applied after mcat28 got 1 interview but no luck. Did MS at BU got the 32 but didnt apply right away as I got involved with cancer research. Finally, applied as my mcat was going to expire and got 4 interviews including RCSI GEP (only one in Ireland).

I've taken some medschool classes at BU so can do a very good comparison between an American and Irish system. There are subtle differences but for the most part I've been very impressed with the layout of the course work and the difficulty level.

Class: roughly 30irish/UK, 20canadians, 10americans. Its a bit weird meeting everyone in the beginning but you get to know everyone (every single person!) very quickly. Most of your day will be spent at Sandyford, which is a specific building for 1st yr GEPs, and your bound interact with your classmates.

Lectures: There are roughly 10-15 students with no science background, so each module tends to start off really slow with general science and recap of what you might already know. Once they get everyone on the same page (2-3 lectures in) they really pick it up with details regarding anatomy, physiology, and some clinical application (path/tx). Each semester there are 5-7 modules (not all at the same time) and they are taught by PhDs and clinicians. When comparing to my time at BU- I would rate the profs as somewhere between "ok-good" (bad-ok-good-great scale). Workload is somewhat similar as all testable material is in ppt/notes with 1-2 group projects per semester and weekly case discussion/presentation. You're in Sandyford from 830-2 most days with anatomy lab on Mon & Tue from 3-5 at city center.

Can't think of anything else at the moment but any specific questions regarding the program or living/moving to Dublin are welcomed.

 

[balkinator]

Thanks so much! I have a ton of questions (accepted for Sept entry), so I'll just start asking them and you can respond at your leisure.

How did you get all of your stuff over to Ireland?
Did you visit before you moved?
Are you living on campus or off campus? How are you finding the cost of living compared to the US?
Are there USMLE/MCCEE specific references during coursework?
How are the facilities?
How do you find the Irish vs NA students in terms of knowledge?

 

[SilverStain]

Thanks so much! I have a ton of questions (accepted for Sept entry), so I'll just start asking them and you can respond at your leisure.

How did you get all of your stuff over to Ireland?
Did you visit before you moved?
Are you living on campus or off campus? How are you finding the cost of living compared to the US?
Are there USMLE/MCCEE specific references during coursework?
How are the facilities?
How do you find the Irish vs NA students in terms of knowledge?

Congrats!
-3 giant suitcases. All you need is clothes really.
-I didn't visit before I moved. I came over late June and travelled a bit before school started in Sep. I had a hotel booked for the day of my arrival, dropped my stuff, got a prepaid phone, called up places (daft.ie) i was interested in, checked them out and signed the lease the same day. Highly recommend carrying some $$$- enough to sign lease and other urgent matters, RCSI acceptance letter, letter from previous landlord.
-I'm living off-campus by myself (1bed 800euro) in city center where 99% of 1st yr GEPs live. I was living in Boston before this so its about the same. I would highly recommend living in city center (Dublin 2 or on the luas line) rather than Sandyford.
-GEP curriculum is very much geared towards the USMLE. If there are USMLE details that are being purposely left out of lecture, they will highlight it at the end of the lecture. There is also a specific prof responsible for addressing anything relating to USMLE.
-1st yr GEPs have a specific building in Sandyford (20min on Luas) where all lectures are held. There is 1 lecture room, 6 smaller discussion rooms, and admin offices in this building. We are the only students in this building so theres not much traffic. Anatomy is held on Mon and Tue at the main building in city center and there are about 10 students per cadaver.
-Tough question but I'll give it a shot...
Here are some rough numbers: 30 NA and all 30 have science background out of which 20 have masters and/or research experience. 30 Irish/UK with maybe 10 with absolutely no science background. However they did have to take an exam and do very well to get in. I'm not particularly sure about the process but RCSI only accepts the best.

Obviously, if you had a solid science background in undergrad it helps but it will only take you as far as basic science (anat,physio,biochem). You might slack off in beginning of a certain module because you've heard of it before but when it comes to pathology/treatment/pharmacology everyone looks equally clueless. Ex/ NE module has 50 lectures with 15anat/physio lectures, 20 biochem, 15path/pharm (this along with 4 other modules). I was a biochem major in undergrad and masters had no idea what was going on in the second half of this module. Spent twice as long re-learning the first half so I can understand the second half. I was playing catch-up game with other modules the rest of the semester. Its really not about your knowledge base coming in but more about your work ethic. Some of the hardest working people in my class are non-science irish- they practically live at the library.

Side note:
As I said before, avg age of our class is around 25 so most of us have some level of maturity and humility. As a matter of fact, 1st semester is all about developing professionalism and humility. They take the "break you down build you up" approach by putting you on the spot in front of class- either getting grilled by prof in anatomy lab, on case of the week or critiquing on your history with mock pts. If you don't know the material, lack confidence or you know too much and are showing off- they will pick on you until its corrected. I can confidently say all 60 of us have had an embarrassing moment in front of the class. It is this fear that makes you want to learn and re-learn something stupid like transcription/translation for the 40th time.

Hope this helps.

 

[balkinator]

Huge help! Thanks!

 

[medbug]

hey silverstain, do you find it hard to keep up with your busy gep schedule and run marathons/look so gq all the time?