UCD stuff

[buena suerte]

So I got accepted to UCD's four year GEP program. ABP is giving me until March 31st to get all of the paper work in, so i will probably be compelled to go to UCD. I interviewed for RCSI in Chicago last month and received no word from them yet.

My situation:
I am from California. I will be getting married in the summer prior to school commencing, and will be bringing my wife to Ireland for the entire duration of my education there. I will be financing my education entirely through loans, which is adding a level of anxiety to the upcoming decisions I need to make.

Questions:

Is UCD an engaging, and stimulating place to attend medical school? Does the school's location on the outskirts at all take away from the excitement of going to medical school in Ireland, i.e, does it elicit a sense of place, not just space as many locations in the U.S. bring to mind?

I won't be living on campus. I will be living in a rental somewhere. Based on your knowledge of the area, where is an interesting place to live outside of Dublin 4, that is somewhat between the city centre and UCD, with easily accessible transportation?

I'll probably have a lot more questions later. Thanks for any information you can provide.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Blizzardcake]

-

 

[bartonaw]

Well, I visited all of the campuses last October to be certain I would be able to get on there...although I have lived for several months twice in Italy so I didn't think it would be much of an issue.

I have some pics of UCD I could post here if you are interested--I know you must be very excited about attending.

From what I remember it is in a very nice part of Dublin...to the North, next to a largish and beautiful park. Quiet residential streets close by.

The campus itself looks very modern--although what I believe are the administrative offices across the street are in a classic stone building.

I will try and post some pictures tonight...

And again--congratulations on your acceptance

 

[Sohcahtoa]

Well, I visited all of the campuses last October to be certain I would be able to get on there...although I have lived for several months twice in Italy so I didn't think it would be much of an issue.

I have some pics of UCD I could post here if you are interested--I know you must be very excited about attending.

From what I remember it is in a very nice part of Dublin...to the North, next to a largish and beautiful park. Quiet residential streets close by.

The campus itself looks very modern--although what I believe are the administrative offices across the street are in a classic stone building.

I will try and post some pictures tonight...

And again--congratulations on your acceptance

woohoo pictures!

 

[buena suerte]

I would love some pictures, thank you. But I thought ucd was in the South, on the outskirts, not the North. Still, sounds nice.

 

[bartonaw]

You may very well be correct...Dublin was at times a bit disorienting. I went from Trinity...to RCSI and then to UCD...while trying to take in all of Dublin in between.

Not to mention I was only going to be in Ireland for 5d and had to go from Dublin to Cork to Galway and back again because I had to have my obligatory week in Italia.

But I loved everywhere I went...Cork and UCC were especially beautiful to me.

Let me know if I could perhaps include some other schools for others who are looking forward to the opportunity of attending in Ireland

 

[buena suerte]

I sent in the deposit today for UCD. yikes

 

[buena suerte]

Hey, does anyone know the exact date UCD starts? What about registration, etc? I am just excited .

 

[Badkarma25]

congrats to all of you who got accepted to ucd. i haven't been on here that much lately, but i remember how useful it was to hear from people who were already here back when i was applying. i'm originally from hamilton, ontario and just matched into the family medicine program at the university of manitoba. first of all, dublin is a fairly small city, and while the public transport is pretty crappy by north american standards, it's not that bad to get around.

overall i don't regret coming to ireland to study medicine but having seen how my classmates have fared in the match this year (it was a very rough year, both in canada and the states as far as ucd goes), i'd really be coming in with my eyes open. unless you are interested in something fairly easy to match into like internal medicine, family medicine, peds, psych, you're going to have a rough time. you need to know what you want to do from the minute you get here and from that very minute be very focused and do all the right things to get back to north america, because there is no job waiting for you here at the end. no one told me that when i was applying. it wouldn't have changed my mind, but it's just nice to know these things.

as for ucd being an engaging place to study, i think it's getting better. overall the best aspect of my education here was really nothign to do with the education; it was the lifelong friends i've made and the ability to travel all around europe. in terms of the education, mine was, and still is very traditional. we don't get to do anything in the hospitals related to patient care or management the way north american students do. having said that, our knowledge base is much better, i think, that what north american students get. i think they are shifting the curriculum now though towards earlier development of clinical skills and that is a huge plus. overall i've had a great time and i can't believe it's almost over. the last 5 years went like the blink of an eye. if you have anymore questions don't hesitate to give me a shout. anything to put off studying for final exams.

 

[Blizzardcake]

Hey Badkarma25, thaks for your input I think it is very important to go in knowing what you're getting into. I've always wanted to go into peds or family medicine in the first place, so hopefully with some hard work I will be able to come back when I finish!

ETA: How hard was it for those who wanted into internal med, peds, and family med to match in Canada and the US this year?

Does anyone know if you can stay in student housing after 1st year btw??

 

[Badkarma25]

residence is a difficult thing here. you're basically guaranteed it in first year nad it's good for meeting people and getting the lay of the land. if you end up in merville, you won't want to stay. no heat, barely any hot water, no internet, no landline phone. nothing. 4 bare walls and a tiny bar fridge for 4-5 people. pretty austere conditions. as far as the match this year, i applied for family medicine and emergency medicine (in canada only) and got family medicine. my roomate applied to 30 anesthesia programs in the usa, got no interviews. he applied to 6 in canada, got 5 interviews, and matched. another guy in my class applied to 50+ radiology programs in usa, got 2 interview, applied to 5 programs in canada, 3 interviews, matched. another girl in our class matched in family med in nova scotia. overall it was a really tough year and its only going to get harder, that's for sure.

 

[Badkarma25]

as far as looking for places to live, www.daft.ie is the only website you should look at. great rental website.

 

[Blizzardcake]

thanks a lot for the info Badkarma25

 

[brownie1989]

Hey,
Has anyone been offered admission this week?
I guess they would wait for the accepted people to pay their deposit before letting others in? When are your deposits due?

Thanks!

 

[Blizzardcake]

As far as UCD goes (for the 4-year program at least), our deposits are due March 31st.

 

[brownie1989]

Hey,

So 4 year is march 31st, when is the 6 year? Therefore I assume I will have to wait about 2 weeks before I hear from them. I'm applying in the 6 year program and haven't herd anything yet?

Waiting for RCSI and UCD
UCD would be my first choice due to cost etc. But RCSI I will accept too

 

[margiethemoo]

i hope we hear from them soon...
i can't stand the suspense...

does anyone know what the chances are of us getting in if we're waitlisted?
i guess it depends on who's accepting and rejecting their offer in the first round..
but i haven't heard of anyone in the 6-year program getting accepted at UCD yet...

 

[Arsenal]

my roomate applied to 30 anesthesia programs in the usa, got no interviews. he applied to 6 in canada, got 5 interviews, and matched. quote]
I thought Anest wasn't that competitive. What was up with your roomie? Is he from the US? Just curious.

 

[Badkarma25]

well from my roomates numbers, i would say anesthesia is very competitive. some of the u.s. programs he applied to had 4 or 5 positions and got 1500 applications. i think the new trend is that if you're graduating from a foreign school, everything is competitive. to think otherwise is absolutely stupid. if you approach it as an uphill (but very doable) battle, you can start preparing early and do the things you need to do.

 

[leorl]

you can look this up in other threads and review the nrmp data yourself too, anaesthesiology in the US (and other countries) is very competitive. Non-competitive fields (and hence FMG friendly) include IM, psych, family medicine, and potentially peds and obs/gyne.

 

[Arb]

Expect even bigger changes to UCD soon. Much more North American friendly and organized. Things look promising.

Anesth, radiology, FM in Manitoba, gen surg and obs/gyn at freakin' Mayo clinic sound damn good!

 

[leorl]

yup... competitive fields between canada and the US are slightly different though, but fair play. Also, when you apply for match, be wary of being too impressed by big name hospitals. It always sounds nice, but big name hospitals are not always better than other programs in certain fields. Not to take away from anyone's accomplishments but this is just a word to the wise when you choose which programs to apply to. Do your research!

 

[Blizzardcake]

Hey guys, quick question...

With the 4-year GEP program, should we plan to take our NA elective in our second summer? And are there only particular universities where you can take them in Canada?

Thanks in advance for any info

 

[Badkarma25]

the blanket rule on canadian electives is that they SAY they will only take students who are in their final year. now what i can tell you in REALITY is that if any of your parents are doctors or you have hookups that way, you can do them basically whenever. everyone in my class who had hookups started doing clinical electives after 3rd year (a year sooner than they were technically allowed). you have to strike a balance between starting early enough to get enough electives and letters of reference and not starting so early that you look like a tit who doesn't know how to do an abdominal exam etc

 

[med2UCC]

the blanket rule on canadian electives is that they SAY they will only take students who are in their final year. now what i can tell you in REALITY is that if any of your parents are doctors or you have hookups that way, you can do them basically whenever. everyone in my class who had hookups started doing clinical electives after 3rd year (a year sooner than they were technically allowed). you have to strike a balance between starting early enough to get enough electives and letters of reference and not starting so early that you look like a tit who doesn't know how to do an abdominal exam etc

Even if you don't have parents that are doctors or contacts in the field you can do electives in many programs after 3rd year if you present yourself as a 4th year medical student on the application. You can also do observerships from 1st year on, but do make sure you keep some time in the summer for yourself; remember once you start residency you will have little time off. I hope this will encourage the people who, like me, are doing this all with no contacts in the medical world - my parents are musicians, and my siblings are a) a private music teacher b) a construction worker c) a computer consultant and d) a law student. The nearest relative I have who was involved in medicine is my late paternal grandmother who worked in Montreal with Wilder Penfield (sadly she died when I was 12 so I never got to talk to her about her work there). Cheers,
M

 

[Badkarma25]

yeah definitely. it's how you market yourself. be careful with observerships though, most programs state openly that these do not count as elective experiences and won't be weighted in your application. so i guess the take home message is that if you're getting a letter of reference out of an observership, make sure the person writing it has no problem with lying.

 

[torontonerd]

hey guys, i had a question for anyone whos currently in ireland...what is a consultant? i was just wondering if a consultant = family doctor? also if someone cud explain how the irish system works, i'd be grateful. uptil now all i have is high school --> med school-->internship(3-5 years?)--> then what?

i am a canadian citizen, and if i like ireland(prolly will) and decide to become a citizen and practice there, what shud i do right now? any advice?

 

[Badkarma25]

ok i hate to burst anyone's bubble but as a foreigner in the irish system you will be at the bottom of the list forever. it is not like canada, where you apply based on merit to training programs of designated lengths, and then upon finishing that training program, you are a licensed doctor who can practice autonomously in the specialty you've trained in. that is how it works in north america. if you're coming to ireland, erase that system from your memory.

the medical system in ireland is an old-fashioned, insular, old boys network. when you finish med school in ireland you do an intern year which consists of 6 months medicine, 6 months surgery. then you move onto sho (senior house officer schemes, which are medically or surgically oriented depending on what you want to end up doing). then you apply for registrar training positions, then specialist registrar positions, then finally, if someone dies and you're thought to be worthy, you are crowned a consultant. a consultant is a staff level doctor in north america. however, instead of taking 5 years to become a general surgeon (for example), in ireland it takes minimum 10 years to become a consultant surgeon. i know a few who did it in 8 years, but that's the absolute minimum. and that is assuming EVERYTHING went perfectly, ie, you did all the right training schemes, kissed the right *** etc. not based on merit at all. during your training program you will be changing jobs (moving to different cities quite likely) every 3-6 months, and to be competitive enough to get a consultant post (which are like knighthoods) you have to do some fellowship training in north america. add to this the fact that if you're non irish, you're basically persona non grata. this could change but i can't see it changing dramatically. the way intern jobs are allocated is by nationality. so even if you're a non-eu student paying ridiculous money, you are at the bottom of the heap when it comes to getting an intern post. so the irish eu students get first dibs, then non-irish eu applicants, then north americans somewhere down near the bottom (at least at ucd). and everything depends on getting the right jobs (whatever the hell that means). it's a very murky and illogical system with no standardized tests or anything. the gp (family medicine) scheme is 5 years here. so you have ot ask yourself if you want to train in a place that takes at least twice as long and probably wouldn't allow you to work in canada without redoing some parts of your training. ireland is a really fun place ot be and i've enjoyed it but as a non irish person your ability to move through the system here will be very difficult. if anyone disagrees with me that's fair enough but my description is based on a lot of observations i've made over the past 5 years. i know there are exceptions and the odd north american stays and can move up the ranks but this definitely not the norm.

 

[buena suerte]

Question: Since there is nothing out yet on the four year GEP curriculum at UCD, could someone please assure me that students in the GEP program do not have to take any of the premed physics, chemistry, or biology classes listed as stage one on the website?

Thank you

 

[Kerala20]

For anyone who is coming to Ireland to start medicine and is looking for housing. I have a single bedroom in a 3 bedroom penthouse apartment in Milltown. Milltown is a 15 minute walk from where your classes will be in Belfield. I recently graduated from UCD (class of 2008). I am originally from New York City and will be working in Dublin for the year as an intern. The room is 450 euro per month which is an absolute steal for Dublin prices. The lease starts July 1st and runs for a year. There will be one other person in the apartment who is a medical student at UCD. He is in the Res year (4th year out of 5). If anyone's interested in a gorgeous apartment with friendly roommates give me a shout.