Pros/Cons of Different Med Schools

I know that most people will say that all the med schools are equal in quality to each other. Which I agree with. But are there any minor pros/cons or differences between the various colleges in Ireland that you wouldn't hear about from open days and prospectuses? I only ask because I'm trying to decide which order to place the colleges on my CAO, not to incite college rivalry!

Pleo

aviod trinity like a plague

tallaght01

Pleo wrote: »

aviod trinity like a plague

That's pretty unhelpful, in fairness.

I know you're looking for minor differences, and people will be able to help out out with that.

But, in reality, Irish med schools have a great reputation and they follow the same broad curriculum.

The only thing I would say (and I'm in Oz at the minute, so I've no way of checking) is that some of the unis are cutting back on dissections and doing more PBL-style teaching. I'd be less inclined to go to one of those schools, to be honest.

If I had to make a choice, I'd go to Trinity, as it just has that slight edge in terms of international reputation, which might make your application more attractive if you want to work in a competitive job overseas.

flerb22

Pleo wrote: »

aviod trinity like a plague

i have no idea why you would say that. tcd has a great med school - the admin side is a bit hectic and disorganised but thats the only problem really

1st and 2nd med is all about trinity campus, which is great craic, especially with hitting the pav after lectures.

clinical years are going to be pretty much the same everywhere though id think.

Traumadoc

No difference really, goes in cycles, leading horse to water....etc. If you get any medical school place you are doing well.

yerayeah

I've never heard anything good about Trinity tbh but I don't know why people don't like it. I know that the pharmacy course there is appalling though so maybe it's a general health sciences thing...

flerb22

yerayeah wrote: »

I've never heard anything good about Trinity tbh but I don't know why people don't like it. I know that the pharmacy course there is appalling though so maybe it's a general health sciences thing...

im a 4th med in trinity and the only thing i could complain about is that we dont get lectures emailed to us regularly and that sometimes exam results take a while to come out.

its a great place.

yerayeah

flerb22 wrote: »

im a 4th med in trinity and the only thing i could complain about is that we dont get lectures emailed to us regularly and that sometimes exam results take a while to come out.

its a great place.

There just seems to be a lot of bad reviews about it though. I don't know what it is but I would never consider going to Trinity for medicine. And this is admittedly this is baseless speculation but I think that since it doesn't have a great reputation but still has the highest points (i.e. the highest demand) there's probably more people there for the prestige of doing medicine and I can't stand people like that...

Piste

I had to make a quick pros/cons list between RCSI and UCD today as I was offered a place in medicine in UCD after my rechecks came back.

My list is:

RCSI Pros
-In town
-great facilities due to high fees paid by foreign students
-Very well regarded internationally (even if people
in Ireland don't seem to know all that much about it)
-Free laptop
-5 year course with optional 6 year course
-Small college so lots of oppertunities for
individual attention
-Lots of opportunities to travel because of links with
foreign universities

UCD Pros
-Large University, get to know people from other faculties
-exhibition scholarships for high LC points
-clinical teaching is in St. Vincent's which is really near to me
-more social activities because of more clubs and societies
-UCD Horizons means you can take modules in other areas of interest-UCD has a brand new health sciences building

RCSI Cons
-Small college, doesn't have that "University" feel.
-Attached to Beaumont, which is really far from me
-A lot of foreign friends will go back home

UCD Cons
-almost everyone does premed, it's very difficult to get into the 5 year course, whereas you can automatically get 5 year in RCSI if you have LC chemistry and another science
-Large university so it's very easy to be just a statistic and not get individual attention
-it's not on that many direct bus routes, a bit of a pain to get to if you're coming from very north or very south of the city.

GradMed

Clinical teaching in UCD is either in Vincent's or the Mater and I think, and I may very well be wrong, that the laptop from RCSI is not free, the cost is included in your fees.

Pleo

Pros and Cons of different GEM programs

Is the UL program on par with the others given that it doesnt have anatomy practicals with cadavers. Also is there as much clinical exposure in the UL program in the first 2 years.

mardybumbum

yerayeah wrote: »

I think that since it doesn't have a great reputation but still has the highest points (i.e. the highest demand) there's probably more people there for the prestige of doing medicine and I can't stand people like that...

I have read that for the umpteenth time and it still makes no sense.
Are you saying that people who do medicine for the "prestige" are more likely to get into trinity?

Im sure you have a valid point in there somewhere. Perhaps it just needs to be explained to me.

yerayeah

mardybumbum wrote: »

I have read that for the umpteenth time and it still makes no sense.
Are you saying that people who do medicine for the "prestige" are more likely to get into trinity?

Im sure you have a valid point in there somewhere. Perhaps it just needs to be explained to me.

Well the way I look at it, Trinity's medschool has probably got the worst reputation in Ireland but as a whole, Trinity is the most prestigious university here. So I think it is more likely that students who go to Trinity go for the prestige of being able to say they do medicine in Trinity than for the quality of education they will recieve.

I don't really have any idea how good medicine in Trinity actually is but I would never do it there becuase there seems to be a lot of people like Pleo above who think it is a bad course...

PhysiologyRocks

yerayeah wrote: »

Well the way I look at it, Trinity's medschool has probably got the worst reputation in Ireland but as a whole, Trinity is the most prestigious university here. So I think it is more likely that students who go to Trinity go for the prestige of being able to say they do medicine in Trinity than for the quality of education they will recieve.

I don't really have any idea how good medicine in Trinity actually is but I would never do it there becuase there seems to be a lot of people like Pleo above who think it is a bad course...

I go to UCC and I love everything about it, so I'm not defending Trinity as an insider. A very small percentage might do what you're talking about, but no more. Some might just love the place. Some might believe it's the best (it might be, I don't personally know). Some will go because it's close by and the convenience will allow them to study more. It could be a family tradition that everyone going to university goes to Trinity. Someone might just want medicine and not care where, and list all schools in descending order of points. The particular hospitals might appeal to some students.

I've not heard many complaints about it.

yerayeah

PhysiologyRocks wrote: »

I go to UCC and I love everything about it, so I'm not defending Trinity as an insider. A very small percentage might do what you're talking about, but no more. Some might just love the place. Some might believe it's the best (it might be, I don't personally know). Some will go because it's close by and the convenience will allow them to study more. It could be a family tradition that everyone going to university goes to Trinity. Someone might just want medicine and not care where, and list all schools in descending order of points. The particular hospitals might appeal to some students.

I've not heard many complaints about it.

Ya, agree with all you say there but I still would be very wary about going there but that is just my own opinion on it... I reckon there probably is very little between all the medschools here in reality, but there seems to be a minority of people who think Trinity is not much good.

mardybumbum

yerayeah wrote: »

I think it is more likely that students who go to Trinity go for the prestige of being able to say they do medicine in Trinity.

WOW, that is an amazingly warped view you have there.
Do you know anyone studying medicine in TCD?
If so, are they stuck up their own hole?

I don't really have any idea how good medicine in Trinity actually is but I would never do it there becuase there seems to be a lot of people like Pleo above who think it is a bad course...

Im going to make a wild assumption here.
Im guessing that pleo doesn't study medicine in Trinity, nor does he know anyone in the course.
I have heard the "Trinity is rubbish" rumour before.
Funnily enough, its only ever been off students from other colleges.
I wonder why they resent poor TCD so much???


Physiology Rocks comment is the most sensible post on this thread.
People choose which university to study in for a number of reasons.
Personally, I wanted to study in Dublin.
I didnt meet the matriculation requirements for UCD or RCSI so my decision was an easy one.
Other people go because they live down the road, most of their friends go there, they like the look of the place, their favourite cafe is right across the road, yada yada yada.


Apologies for turning this into a "my college is better than yours" debate but I couldn't let your "facts" go unchallanged.
TCD is a great place to study medicine and I would recommend it to anyone.

bythewoods

Pleo wrote: »

aviod trinity like a plague

The only people who say this are those who had it as their first option and got offered UCD instead.

yerayeah wrote: »

Well the way I look at it, Trinity's medschool has probably got the worst reputation in Ireland but as a whole, Trinity is the most prestigious university here. So I think it is more likely that students who go to Trinity go for the prestige of being able to say they do medicine in Trinity than for the quality of education they will recieve.

I don't really have any idea how good medicine in Trinity actually is but I would never do it there becuase there seems to be a lot of people like Pleo above who think it is a bad course...

Trinity- worst reputation?
O RLY?

That's interesting.
I got offered UCD on first rounds, but took Trinity on 3rd rounds. When I was making my decision I spoke to a Doctor chap I kind of know. He advised me to go to Trinity, without a shadow of a doubt, for various reasons. One being its brilliant reputaion both in Ireland and abroad.

OP, Medicine anywhere's going to be great. It depends on loads of things.
Do you want to do PreMed?
Many people do, I was not one of them. This made Trinity more attractive to me. UCC also offers a 5 year course.

Would you like to work abroad in the future? If so, Trinity has the edge... and RCSI's international reputation's quite something as well.

UCD, so I'm told, has the country's most modern Anatomy labs. It's also the largest, coldest and most impersonal imo.

Where do you live? I'd have liked to go to NUI Galway, but decided that it'd be a bit of a trek from Wexford, and I like having the option of going home at weekends. So Dublin won out.

It all depends on what you want from the Med School you go to.

yerayeah

mardybumbum wrote: »

WOW, that is an amazingly warped view you have there.
Do you know anyone studying medicine in TCD?
If so, are they stuck up their own hole?




Im going to make a wild assumption here.
Im guessing that pleo doesn't study medicine in Trinity, nor does he know anyone in the course.
I have heard the "Trinity is rubbish" rumour before.
Funnily enough, its only ever been off students from other colleges.
I wonder why they resent poor TCD so much???


Physiology Rocks comment is the most sensible post on this thread.
People choose which university to study in for a number of reasons.
Personally, I wanted to study in Dublin.
I didnt meet the matriculation requirements for UCD or RCSI so my decision was an easy one.
Other people go because they live down the road, most of their friends go there, they like the look of the place, their favourite cafe is right across the road, yada yada yada.


Apologies for turning this into a "my college is better than yours" debate but I couldn't let your "facts" go unchallanged.
TCD is a great place to study medicine and I would recommend it to anyone.

Feck sake, I knew this would happen! I just wanted to make the point that when it comes to Trinity medicine there always seems to be a minority of people who say it is sh1t, of course you could easily disregard that as other students being jealous of Trinity... I never stated any "facts", I pointedly said my points were baseless speculation, partly because I con't know anyone doing medicine in Trinity. In all probability it is a good medschool, but I personally would not have gone there because you hear more bad reviews about Trinity than anywhere else...

My decision was purely becuase Cork is a lot closer than me than Dublin and I liked the look of the course from open days.

mardybumbum

yerayeah wrote: »

My decision was purely becuase Cork is a lot closer than me than Dublin and I liked the look of the course from open days.

Thats great, Im very happy for you.
But please dont say that you know the pharmacy course in TCD is terrible when you dont, or that many students do medicine here for the prestige when its just not true.
This afterall is an education forum, where many prospective health science students will visit.
You never know, some of the comments here may even influence their decisions.
I think it would be a terrible shame if a student decided against Trinity on baseless speculation.
I just popped in to stick up for wee TCD.

yerayeah

mardybumbum wrote: »

Thats great, Im very happy for you.
But please dont say that you know the pharmacy course in TCD is terrible when you dont, or that many students do medicine here for the prestige when its just not true.
This afterall is an education forum, where many prospective health science students will visit.
You never know, some of the comments here may even influence their decisions.
I think it would be a terrible shame if a student decided against Trinity on baseless speculation.
I just popped in to stick up for wee TCD.

I just wanted to point out that when these type of conversations come up, there's always a few who speak strongly against Trinity, for whatever reason. I didn't get my point across too well though I admit!

But whatever about medicine, Trinity came very close to having it's licence to teach pharmacy taken away and I think Boots won't hire Trinity grads any more, so that doesn't really sound too hot... Maybe things have improved though, I don't know...

tallaght01

yerayeah wrote: »

But whatever about medicine, Trinity came very close to having it's licence to teach pharmacy taken away and I think Boots won't hire Trinity grads any more, so that doesn't really sound too hot... Maybe things have improved though, I don't know...

These sorts of rumours used to go around all the time when I was a student, too. Is there any truth to them? I doubt it, but I could be wrong.

The world league tables of unis were released a few days ago. TCD scored highest in Ireland as always, being 43rd in the world. That puts it in the top o.5% of unis in the world AFAIK.

TCD does not have a bad rep in Ireland or abroad for medicine. IN fact, it probably has the best rep. Not that it really means anything.

yerayeah

tallaght01 wrote: »

These sorts of rumours used to go around all the time when I was a student, too. Is there any truth to them? I doubt it, but I could be wrong.

The world league tables of unis were released a few days ago. TCD scored highest in Ireland as always, being 43rd in the world. That puts it in the top o.5% of unis in the world AFAIK.

TCD does not have a bad rep in Ireland or abroad for medicine. IN fact, it probably has the best rep. Not that it really means anything.

I'm fairly sure it's bad or at least it used to be very bad, it got very out of date but they were given deadlines to improve by so the must be meeting them if the course is still around. It does all come down to which uni suits you the best in the end, regret posting in this thread now cos I made my points pretty shoddily...:D

tallaght01

It's more that a lot of the points you made have no basis in any tangible reality. That would be a real shame, as kids read these threads when picking their med school.

But, as a qualified doc, if I had to pick an Irish med school to start again, I'd pick Trinity.

MjcMurfy

I chose Galway myself, and I'd do it again. Galway is a great city to live in. A bit on the small side, more an overgrown town really, but very relaxed lifestyle compared to Dublin.

From what I've heard from friends in other colleges, all of the med courses are pretty much in line with each other. Really the decision is more on your own university/city preferance.

I highly recommend Galway though!

ZorbaTehZ

Well there is no shadow of a doubt that Trinity has the best reputation of any college in Ireland at the moment and it seems like it is just getting better and better.

Having said that, as a former med student, I have heard some terrible stories about the disorganisation in the med-school from other people and I know one guy personally who left the place because it was so bad.

That said, I can only really speak on the pros and the cons of NUIG from my 2 years there, CarsinianThau might be along in a bit to give a better view of it. Good college, the CSI (where your lectures are) is an almost brand new building, and Galway itself is just a great town. Most of the lecturers are quite good and the Hospital is literally right beside the college, which is very handy.

GradMed

UCD, and I think RCSI, offer an open evening for the graduate medical course. At the UCD one you'll have a chance to talk to the med students during a building tour and in a small group. Even if you're going into the undergrad course you may get some useful information. The open evening was held in mid January last year.
One downside to the undergraduate course is dissection. Because of class size you'll be split into three groups with each group dissecting every third week.

yerayeah

ZorbaTehZ wrote: »

Well there is no shadow of a doubt that Trinity has the best reputation of any college in Ireland at the moment and it seems like it is just getting better and better.

Having said that, as a former med student, I have heard some terrible stories about the disorganisation in the med-school from other people and I know one guy personally who left the place because it was so bad.

That said, I can only really speak on the pros and the cons of NUIG from my 2 years there, CarsinianThau might be along in a bit to give a better view of it. Good college, the CSI (where your lectures are) is an almost brand new building, and Galway itself is just a great town. Most of the lecturers are quite good and the Hospital is literally right beside the college, which is very handy.

This is what I was trying to get at, there just always seems to be stories like this floating around the place...

me2gud4u

Just like to clarify something up there mentioned by Gradmed, especially if prospective medical students are basing their applications on this information!
In undergraduate medicine in UCD, as Gradmed correctly mentioned, the year is divided up in to three "big" groups. However once inside the anatomy lab, each "big group" is subdivided into approx 6 students per cadaver and these are the people you work with every week. We do not only get into the dissection room every three weeks. In fact the least amount of hours possible in any one week is 2 hours and most weeks it will alternate between 4-6 hours. In second med for example, you study GIT, Endocrine, Lower Limb,and Neuro. You have 8hrs of dissection in lower limb alone (4 sessions by 2hrs), 8hrs of dissection in GIT (again 4 by 2hr sessions), 6 hrs of endocrine dissections (3 by 2hr sessions) and then for Neuro 8hrs dissection (again 4 by 2hr slots).

Dissections days are Tues and Thurs....we go through a serious amount of latex gloves on those days....:)

drzhivago

Factors to influence decision

• Where will your friends be
• do you want to develop w hole new social circle in colege or will you continue to hang out with current friends
• who wil you live with - at home or in apartment
• if in apartment what part of town
• some colleges have on campus accommodation- good for social life
• where do you wnat to go to training hospital UCD Vincents/mater Trinity James/Talght RCSI Beaumont/Drogheda/Connolly Hospital-- you will spend a few years travelling to these places so if you dont own a car and dont plan to taht is an important factor too

Didnt mention anything about the education because they should be all pretty much on a par

TAllaght dont really agree regarding Trinity and international reputations, if anything more people internationally know about RCSI (didnt go there)

When applying for jobs do homework and find out of there is an Irish guy/Irish grad in the department you are applying to and arrange to meet them, they will know your standard and probably help- college may not be that relevant unless you are on the alumni committee or something

tallaght01

drzhivago wrote: »

TAllaght dont really agree regarding Trinity and international reputations, if anything more people internationally know about RCSI (didnt go there)

What I meant really was about how good they perceived it to be, rather than by how many knew about it. People seem to equate TCD with a god education overseas.

Having said that, I doubt it makes much difference in an interview.

I'd pick TCD as it's a big uni in Dublin city centre. If UCD was put in its place geographically, I'd pick UCD.

Thankfully it's not a decision I have to make again :P

imported_guy

im actully leaning towards UCC my 1st choice, since im from cork, otherwise royal college or UL, because they both mainly use PBL, and im a fan of PBL, like i heard in limrick they show you a case on one day, and then rest of the week you basically get to study that case in detail etc for the first year, not too sure though, we'll have to see what galway is doing as well

A Neurotic

imported_guy wrote: »

im actully leaning towards UCC my 1st choice, since im from cork, otherwise royal college or UL, because they both mainly use PBL, and im a fan of PBL, like i heard in limrick they show you a case on one day, and then rest of the week you basically get to study that case in detail etc for the first year, not too sure though, we'll have to see what galway is doing as well

We're also doing PBL in TCD - although it can be quite the load of **** sometimes, I must admit that it is a good method of learning. We started off with general social and ethical problems for the first couple of weeks but we're being given more scientific topics now, gradually getting towards clinical scenarios - the last two topics have been protein structure and blood cell formation, and the next topic is a specific clinical scenario, which should be pretty cool/interesting...

Echani

imported_guy wrote: »

im actully leaning towards UCC my 1st choice, since im from cork, otherwise royal college or UL, because they both mainly use PBL, and im a fan of PBL, like i heard in limrick they show you a case on one day, and then rest of the week you basically get to study that case in detail etc for the first year, not too sure though, we'll have to see what galway is doing as well

RCSI doesn't really "mainly" use PBL, they supplement normal lecture-based learning in the preclinical years via a case of the week, which you'll have a few sessions on and answer questions about with your tutorial group. That's on the GEP side of things anyway, and I think the mix works pretty well.

It's not PBL-based on nearly the same level as UL

flerb22

A Neurotic wrote: »

We're also doing PBL in TCD - although it can be quite the load of **** sometimes, I must admit that it is a good method of learning. We started off with general social and ethical problems for the first couple of weeks but we're being given more scientific topics now, gradually getting towards clinical scenarios - the last two topics have been protein structure and blood cell formation, and the next topic is a specific clinical scenario, which should be pretty cool/interesting...

lol PBL is a joke in trinity. waste of time. thats why the only make 1st years do it.

tallaght01

We did a bit of PBL. PBHell, we used to call it.

Load of balls. But it's easier than getting lectures arranged.

One of our consultants called it FOFOY medicine. Fcuk Off and Find Out Yourselves.

bythewoods

I dread PBLs...

Tbh, I'd rather we didn't have them, they involve a lot of preparation, and there'll always be at least one suck up in your group who'll make your hours of preparation look like crap seeing as they know so much more.

Also- UL? I assume you're applying for a PostGrad Med course?

mardybumbum

A Neurotic wrote: »

We're also doing PBL in TCD - although it can be quite the load of **** sometimes, I must admit that it is a good method of learning.

True.
Infact most of the stuff I remember from last year is from PBL. :eek:
I need to read over my sherwoods again me thinks.

emz4

PBL is torture!

Is it true that we dont have to do it after 1st year in trinity?
That would be great!
Id completely preferr lectures!

Other than that trinity is a great med school!
I totally disagree with those who have been knocking it without any personal experience of the college!

mardybumbum

You can kiss PBL's ass goodbye in second year, you'll be happy to hear.

emz4

Wow you just made my day! It dosnt seem as bad now i know its just for this year! :)

flerb22

mardybumbum wrote: »

True.
Infact most of the stuff I remember from last year is from PBL. :eek:
I need to read over my sherwoods again me thinks.

lol why read it again unless u are doing neurophysiology yet
keep on top of this years stuff :-p

mardybumbum

I guess your right. I just feel so guilty for not remembering any of it.
With regards to neurophysiology, did you find that sherwoods was sufficient or should I start using one of those specific neurophysiology texts?
We start neuro next term, really looking forward to it actually.
Was watching the most interesting documentary earlier about self awareness and consciousness.
And I am so fried that I missed my clinical skills in Tallaght today. My group was with a consultant neurologist which was something I was really looking forward to.
Im stuck in Mayo with the bloody Pig Flu. :mad:

flerb22

mardybumbum wrote: »

I guess your right. I just feel so guilty for not remembering any of it.
With regards to neurophysiology, did you find that sherwoods was sufficient or should I start using one of those specific neurophysiology texts?
We start neuro next term, really looking forward to it actually.
Was watching the most interesting documentary earlier about self awareness and consciousness.
And I am so fried that I missed my clinical skills in Tallaght today. My group was with a consultant neurologist which was something I was really looking forward to.
Im stuck in Mayo with the bloody Pig Flu. :mad:

sherwoods is grand for the neuro stuff. but beware, prof anwyll doesnt "do" powerpoint, all his notes are on overheads.

missing clinical skills eh? consultants tend not to teach the 2nd meds, it was prob an sho/reg on his team - but you shouldnt worry about that, id be worrying about phillipa hitting you with the squidgie next time you turn up!

DrIndy

Ah - good old phillipa!

She's a legend of a woman and someone I always have a lot of time for! Is "fortesque" still floating around on the screensaver of her computer?

mardybumbum

flerb22 wrote: »

id be worrying about phillipa hitting you with the squidgie next time you turn up!

Ha, she is mad in the head ( in a good way of course ) and pretty quick too. She had our group out of breath when she was giving us a tour of the hospital.
I've heard of this squidgie thing, but have yet to see it.
I have a medical note so hopefully she wont go too hard on me. (Fingers crossed)

flerb22

my advice is to not duck, she throws it harder if she misses the first time

Kwekubo

flerb22 wrote: »

sherwoods is grand for the neuro stuff. but beware, prof anwyll doesnt "do" powerpoint, all his notes are on overheads.

He's since come to his senses, last year he started printing out full copies of his neurophysiology course for us. Those notes plus bits of Sherwood are fine for neurophys; for neuropharm, use your regular pharm book; for neurochem, use bits from this book (you don't need to buy it though); and just use the past papers for "psychiatry".

Header15

As a current Trinity student I would unfortunately have to advise students against it.
For the first 2 years anyway, the course focuses on rote learning. The standard of lecturing is generally poor with some exceptions. There are very high anxiety levels across the course (personally J struggle to sleep at night owing to a constant fear of failure). Friends in other medical schools seem to have a much more laid back experience and at the end of the day all get the same degree and the same places on the Intern programmes.
The style of teaching is also completely outdated. There is no integration of modules i.e. anatomy is kept separate from physiology which is separate from pharm. you learn about different systems at different times and nothing is matched up which is just not efficient at all.
The administration is a farce. Students are never informed about anything. Exam results are published publicly with student numbers with little respect for privacy. I am living for clinical years and the patient side of it.

Hope this helps.

Header15

Header15 wrote: »

As a current Trinity student I would unfortunately have to advise students against it.
For the first 2 years anyway, the course focuses on rote learning. The standard of lecturing is generally poor with some exceptions. There are very high anxiety levels across the course (personally J struggle to sleep at night owing to a constant fear of failure). Friends in other medical schools seem to have a much more laid back experience and at the end of the day all get the same degree and the same places on the Intern programmes.
The style of teaching is also completely outdated. There is no integration of modules i.e. anatomy is kept separate from physiology which is separate from pharm. you learn about different systems at different times and nothing is matched up which is just not efficient at all.
The administration is a farce. Students are never informed about anything. Exam results are published publicly with student numbers with little respect for privacy. I am living for clinical years and the patient side of it.

Hope this helps.

Er, thanks but I made this thread 9 years ago so you're a bit late :pac: decided not to do medicine at all in the end