Biomedical Science

hey, im going into second year Biomed in UC/Cit this year so i can help i stayed in Victoria Lodge but in reality it doesnt really depend where u stay because theres a good bus service (the 205) out to CIT and you always get about two hours to get between UCC and CIT lectures! Or you can do what i did and make friends with people who have cars in the class! :P I wouldnt advise stayin in accomodation closer to CIT because you miss out on the Mardyke and the Boole Library and youre further from town for nights out etc. one word of advice, first year Biomed is very easy, enjoy it

xLisaBx wrote: »

Thanks a million Easy!? Really?! I was preparing for the impossible haha :P Do you make friends with a lot of other biomed people as the class is so small??

its fairly easy, you'll have big lectures with like 300 or so people for maths and physics that arent great but theyre easy enough. the other lectures are very manageable, we always have 5 or 6 missing for every lecture and almost no one failed an exam this year as a general rule, show up, pay attention, you'll be fine! yeah the small class is great! i get on really well with the whole class and ive made really good friends if ye have a class party at the start of the year, go to it! you'll be seeing your Biomed buddies 26 or 27 hours a week and you'll end up going out with them so make an effort at the start

of course you can Freshers week has nothing on RAG Week tho...which we get two of :P

xLisaBx wrote: »

Ooh biomed perk, 2 rag weeks! Do people go out freshers week or is it more joining societies and meeting people?

theres a freshers ball, but its mostly people going out on the town :P best way to meet people is pre drinking, get yere Entertaintment Rep (when ye elect one) to organize a class night out. take all the free stuff you can in freshers week cos its Lidl dinners and tesco vodka for the rest of the year!

xLisaBx wrote: »

There's freebies? Awesome :P yeah a class night out sounds like a great idea to meet people on registration day will we meet our class?

all the sweets, pens and sticker you can deal with! :P yeah, but the ice-breaker games are awkward as hell :P dont worry, you'll be with the class so much you'll get to know them

Turtle_Dove wrote: »

Speaking as someone who's graduated from that course I agree with Tipperaryguy, live close to UCC or you'll end up missing out on the UCC perks. I also agree that you should make the most of first year and even second year cause it steps up an awful lot in third year and without scaring you off, fourth year is bloody tough to put it mildly. The fact that UCC have introduced semesterisation now should help massively though. One major piece of advice is not to forget that THIRD year counts as well. You'll do 12 modules in 3rd year and (the equivalent of 12) in 4th year to total 24 modules (more or less, the final year project complicates this but it stands as a general guideline) and your degree is derived from your combined result of 21 of those modules. So basically you can discount 3 modules over the 2 years and that's it. So buckle down for the last 2 years in particular and you'll be fine. Also, attendance is a lot more important in this course than most others for the simple reason that the lecturers will know each of you by name and will absolutely notice if you're slacking off and skipping lectures so it's worth dragging yourself out of bed for that 9am start. Otherwise it's a very broad course that provides an excellent basis for a lot of other opportunities as well as qualifying you for a ready made job in a clinical lab, which is more than can be said for most 3rd level qualifications.

Hi, sorry to interrupt, I'm a recent convert to Biomedical Science and its first on my CAO atm as regards the course being an excellent basis for a lot of other opportunities, what are these opportunities? Did you go on to do any further studies after this course? I am contemplating living in Brookfield next year, will it be easy to get to all my lectures in UCC and CIT from here?

Hello, sorry for the delay in replying I haven't checked this in a while.

Welcome to Biomed (potentially)! What I mean is it's extremely broad in terms of what subjects you'll study. You do the usual ones that ultimately allow you to be recognized to practice by the medical board (Haematology, Transfusion science, Biochemistry, Immunology, Microbiology, Histology) and you'll also do modules like Statistics, Bioinformatics, Biomolecules, Structural biochemistry, Pharmacology etc. Just google 'biomedical science ucc modules' and follow the first link to see a full list of modules you'll cover over the 4 years.

Unless you've done something in science before then none of that is going to make much sense but it basically means that you'll come out with a lot of training in the specific medical science subjects as well as have a fair idea of the basis of Biotechnology, Bioinformatics, and all that sort of thing is about too. So you can ultimately go into clinical practice (hospital labs) or industry (generally quality control stuff in food companies or chemical producers etc. but I've heard of people going on to work in companies like Abbott and Roche as well), or of course research. Classmates of mine have done each of the above and they all seem to be enjoying it so it really is down to personal preference what you do after. I haven't done any further study yet but I'm planning on heading towards biotechnology as that's really where the future is going I think.

As I've already said the course itself is very demanding at the best of times but realistically if you can get the points to get into it in the first place then you're obviously able to study so you'll manage it. A couple more things that should be pointed out to anyone choosing between UCC/CIT and GMIT are; 1. The length of the courses. GMIT is 4 years including a 6 month placement in a hospital lab, whilst UCC/CIT is 5 years including a 9 month placement in a hospital lab. 2. The structure of the courses (this explains the extra year for Cork) are different. GMIT cover general science modules for first and second year and then students choose two disciplines to specialise in. However, Cork cover all disciplines in equal depth. This really comes into effect if you want to travel and work abroad as a lot of countries require multidisciplinary training. This doesn't mean that GMIT students can't work abroad, they absolutely can, it just makes the whole finding a job process more difficult. I don't have any first hand experience of the DIT course so I really can't comment on it unfortunately.

Brookfield is right beside the UCC campus and has a bus stop outside the front gate where you can get the bus to CIT so yes that's a perfect location. It's great craic too, you can end up living in 8 person flats with a mix of boys and girls or you can request fewer people etc if you like. I agree with LisaB as well, it's a brilliant basis for Grad Medicine and the likes as you study a lot of the same topics as them in first and second year in particular.

That covers a lot I think but fire away if you have any more questions, I know how difficult it was finding info on all of this when I was applying for it so I'm willing to help if I can.

first and second year are grand really, i never really felt stressed in them really. theres always enough time to do the work. like i was working 5 days a week during the chritmas exams with only days off to sit exams, i still got a few 1:1's. failed my first exam in college tho, a physics mcq, but i havent since :P learned my lesson :P
i'd recommend it as a course, better than going into a general course like biochem where you've to make a big decision in year 3 on what career to take, not easy

xLisaBx wrote: »

EEEEW I detest biochemistry! thank jaysus there's no friday 9am labs, complete disaster! Essays? :O Good grief 2nd year sounds desperate and I hear 4th year has people in mental breakdowns and everything! Oh the struggles of a biomed..:D

it gets tough enough alright, you'll really hate the textbook, Lehninger, all 1200 pages of it! :P yeah, molecular biology and clinical biochemistry are good modules in second year! ah no need to be worrying about fourth year for a good while, plenty have survived it before us! best to get accommodation or a house near ucc, youre there more next year

xLisaBx wrote: »

Oh brilliant a rather being in ucc Yeah we'll get through it alright! Do we finish Lehninger like? Or only certain chapters :O

about 15 chapters of it, dont worry theres plenty there to fry the brain!

Hey guys, sorry to be dragging up an old thread! Im currently in 2nd year biomed and was just wondering which books we really need for the course?? According to the lecturers, we need them all :P thanks in advance!