need help with medical course

thedan

im trying to get into medical school as a post-grad or go abroad, does anyone have any suggestions of what course i could do beforehand that would be most benefical to medicine, did the leaving a couple of years ago and only got 330 points, due to lack of effort, so the course points cant be above this and also i didnt do a science based subject in the leaving cert, I have the cao in, but the change of choice is closed on the july 1st, any help much appreciated but needs to be quick! thanks

newestUser

I posted the following in a discussion on people doing legal courses for the money on the Legal Discussions forum a few days ago. Clearly, I was supposed to post it here in response to your question.

There might be something here that's of help to you, apologies if it's stuff you already know.

Also, I recall hearing noises that undergrad entry to medicine would at some stage use aptitude tests and interviews to determine eligibility, instead of solely CAO points. Don't know how close that is to being adopted, or even if it will be.

At present, there are two graduate-entry med courses in Ireland, run by RCSI and UCD. I'm not counting graduate entry into courses run by Trinity or any other institutions (Trinity has accepted a small number of non-medicine graduates onto it's medicine course who didn't meet the CAO requirements for a while now).

The courses offered by UCD and RCSI are both 4 years in duration.

See here

http://www.rcsi.ie/index.jsp?1nID=93...ID=214&nID=247

and here

http://www.healthhub.ie/index.cfm/lo...DE576ACF16.htm

Both colleges stress their desire to broaden the range of backgrounds from which medical students are picked.

From the UCD news website:

http://www.ucd.ie/news/sept05/medicine.htm

Quote:
We have made this decision for strategic and educational reasons. We need to educate and train more doctors, and we need to encourage diversity by creating more entry pathways to our medical schools. (Prof Bill Powderly, head of school of medicine)

From the same page:
Quote:
The UCD School of Medicine will accept applications from students who have achieved at least a upper second class honours grade in an honours bachelor degree (NQAI level 8) 2.1 or higher honours. Applicants will not have to have a science-based primary degree, so that students with primary degrees in humanities, social sciences and other areas may enter medicine through this new route.

From the RCSI website:

Quote:
EU graduate applicants will be selected for admission to the Graduate Entry Programme on the basis of open competition using three criteria;

1. Competitive GAMSAT results

2. Basic Eligibility (academic degree)

3. Confidential references and life experiences (work life balance, extra curricular activities, relevant work/ voluntary experience etc.)

Candidates will be scored on sections 1, 2 and 3.

85% of weighting will apply to section 1

15% of weighting will apply to section 2 and 3 combined

The RCSI page states that the GAMSAT aptitude test is weighted as being worth 85% of an applicants assessment. If that's true, it's quite possible that someone could, for instance, have a totally irrelevant primary degree and work experience, but could be accepted onto a medical program on the back of stellar GAMSAT results, and relevant voluntary/life/extra-curricular experiences.

DrIndy

This is all still evolving as funds are being released under the Fottrell report. RCSI jumped the gun and set up a course before the report was officially signed off and are charging exhorbitant fees - which I do not know if it has been downscaled as of yet. UCD has a more affordable course in the offing and all the other colleges are gearing up too with courses coming on stream soon. NUI Galway have plans for a joint course with University of Ulster which will allow use of hospitals in the north for training and University of Limerick were granted graduate entry courses too.

Bison

thedan wrote:

im trying to get into medical school as a post-grad or go abroad, does anyone have any suggestions of what course i could do beforehand that would be most benefical to medicine, did the leaving a couple of years ago and only got 330 points, due to lack of effort, so the course points cant be above this and also i didnt do a science based subject in the leaving cert, I have the cao in, but the change of choice is closed on the july 1st, any help much appreciated but needs to be quick! thanks

Dan, my advice would be to throw your CAO form in the bin, apply for the leaving cert next year and enter that way.

Otherwise you have to spend 3/4 years getting a degree, sit the GAMSAT and then compete against all the other graduates that want that spot.

Judging by the all the other forums in which you have posted a variation of this thread, you are not 100% set on Medicine. Try to do some volunteer work before your apply again.

thedan

Bison wrote:

Dan, my advice would be to throw your CAO form in the bin, apply for the leaving cert next year and enter that way.

Otherwise you have to spend 3/4 years getting a degree, sit the GAMSAT and then compete against all the other graduates that want that spot.

Judging by the all the other forums in which you have posted a variation of this thread, you are not 100% set on Medicine. Try to do some volunteer work before your apply again.

I do want to do medicine (when I say abroad I mean a foreign med school), and I didnt do any science subject in school, so getting a degree would be better than going in unprepared, I just want to know which course would be best for medicine (bioscience, applied biology, applied chemistry etc.) So if anyone has a suggestion . . .

Bison

Dan, I think you are trolling but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt for one more post...

The graduate entry to med is currently a small part of the overall entry system. It is supposed to get bigger but I wouldn't bet your valuable life years on it happening when you want it to.. after all it is in the hands of the government so decisions + actions will not happen timely. It is not supposed to matter what degree you do, but this is a bit misleading because you need to score well in the GAMSAT, which requires a good Chem base at least.

Just because there is "graduate entry", it doesn't mean you can rock up to your nearest med school with degree in hand and expect to be let in. You will be competing with science PhDs, Masters, Vets, Physios, Pharmas and then all the other non-science hot shots who have scored well their leaving and their degrees. Then you have the GAMSAT, which is no walk in the park either, and you will be rated on a percentile basis with your peers. This will be a large weighting factor in your application.

Since your leaving points are so low and you do not have a degree, I still think on a time/effort basis your best bet is to go the leaving cert route.

Medicine is one of the top choices in every country so applying abroad will not get you in any quicker. Even if you do get in to some far away school, you need to know if you can get back here without any extra exams etc.

Your posts give the impression that this is a whim you have decided on whilst reading the newspaper articles on Grad entry. If you can't be bothered your arse to research this on your own you are not passionate enough for this course or career. A simple call to any of the schools would have given you the info you need instead of relying on the views of anonymous forum posters to decide your life for you.

*belle*

just wondering does any1 know anything about studying medicine (in
english)in Hungary!!!!thanks

eth0_

Sigh...why do people think it's so easy to go to eastern europe to get a medical degree?

*You will be out a fortune on fees, accommodation, flights home
*You don't speak the language
*After your pre-clinical years you HAVE to have conversational Hungarian - do *you expect a translator to follow you around?
*You will have to re-train for registration with the Irish medical board or the NHS if you want to work in Ireland or the UK
*The course won't be any easier than an Irish or British medical degree

tallaght01

I've worked with some docs who've gone to Eastern Eurpe to get their medical degree. The most common one was Charles University in prague. The course is just as tough as the courses in Ireland/UK.

The disadvantages are the language barrier and the cost. There's also the fact that it's harder to get the good jobs when you get back home. I think you also have to do your intern year again when you get back...and that would be an almighty pain in the arse (although by the time any of you guys would be doing it, conditions are likely to be significantly better than they are now).

The advantage is that you see lots of cool pathology and you get to live somewhere cool for a few years.

As for the OP who was asking about courses to do before medicine...I did Biomedical sciences. Totally glad I did it too. It meant I had a really good science background going into medicine. It also, more importantly, meant I was older when I graduated. It's a really really tough world in hospital as a new doc, and I think a few years under your belt means you are a little better prepared to handle it, and you're less likely to take the abuse.