I have a friend who is interested in applying to Medical school in Ireland. I was a bit cautious about encouraging her to apply to medical school in Ireland as I do not have a lot of info on these schools.
How does the Atlantic Bridge Program work?
What percentage of students are Canadian?
What percentage of students are American?
How much is tuition per semester?
Where are clerkships done?
Do students have to set up their own clerkships?
Do students have to pass USMLE Step 1 BEFORE beginning clerkships?
Do students have to write Step 2 to get their degree?
What percentage of students pass USMLE Step 1 on their first try?
What percentage of students pass USMLE Step 2CK on their first try?
What percentage of students pass USMLE Step 2CS on their first try?
What percentage of students pass PLAB on their first try?
What percentage of students pass MCCEE on their first try?
Do the schools in the Atlantic Bridge Program and RCSI have match lists with the names of residents and the schools the matched to for residency for at least 3 years if so where can I find the lists?
These are important questions to get answers to before I would feel comfortable encouraging her to apply.
Thank you
Go on the Atlantic Bridge website. These schools aren't designed for students to go do residency in Canada/US so they won't be publishing their stats.
Most of the students are Irish but a significant minority are Canadian with a smaller number of Americans.
Clerkships are done in Ireland not in the US or Canada.
Tuition you can look up on the AB website, its more expensive than Caribbean
Generally, students will match, keep in mind that a lot more people are going abroad in recent years so the match rates will FALL unless something dramatic is taken (opening up new residency spots in the US).
Its a risk, but it is no harder than getting into medical school itself. I.E., if you don't work hard, don't really want it, you won't match.
They don't take everyone, they have higher standards for entry than the Caribbean
The community will definitely be much friendlier than the Caribbean and you won't have the stigma of being a reject.
The programs are more well regarded than the Caribbean by PDs as many grads have mentioned from their interview experiences
There is no need to do the USMLE or MCCEE for anything. The program is entirely in Ireland and you can graduate without doing any NA exams.
The administration understands the reality of many NA students and is more lenient on students taking time off for interviews for matching etc etc.
If your friend decides to consider, keep in mind she will likely have to scratch anything other than FM, IM, Peds, Psych and possibly OB/GYN, Gen Surg off her list.
Is your friend Canadian citizen, American or dual?