GEM UL 2011

heybert

Hi all,

I wanted to set this up as a forum for all those who are Limerick bound in a few weeks time. Congratulations to everyone!

If anyone has questions, information or anything else to share please do so. P

Personally having been delighted this morning I am now petrified at the fact that I know nothing and will be like a fish out of water for many months to come!! I am sure this is common.

Looking forward to meeting you all in September!

ULbound

Hiya ill be joining you in UL :D:D delighted! cant wait to start and apparently work has recommenced on our medical school building so there is so hope we might get to use it in 2nd yr! me going to live on campus in Cappavilla anyone else resortin to campus?

Cailleachdubh

I will also see ye there! I'm totally petrified now that I've had a bit of time to think about it. The next three months could be pretty scary. Hope we love it, despite the challenges [I just made the mistake of reading some UL-bashing posts and my spirits are slightly dampened - don't be tempted!].

Don't think I'll be living on campus though...haven't been tempted by campus accomm yet and I'm unlikely to start now!

heybert

Congrats!

If anyone has the skills to set up a facebook page for the incoming students that would be great too.

Don't worry about the UL bashing. There are lots of opinions out there and on this forum most of them are from people like us - pre-med students who don't actually know the whole story. Be excited - this is a great time!

With regards to on campus I too will be avoiding it. Heading up next week to look at apartments anywhere between Castletroy and the city centre.

Does anyone (from the previous cohorts) have any experience of the banks taking on previous student debt in the loan (10k plus)?

ULbound

yeah a facebook page would be great-im useles with that though so have hope someone else will do the needfull for us!!

goin down to ul tmr goin to try sneak a peak at cappavilla accomadation and see whats its like reckon its the handiest till christmas and then will try finding a proper house/flat somewhere

btw does anyone know the proper orientation days for us? on the ul med school site it has up the 30th &31st aug in one section and then the 31st/1st in another just wonderin if anyone knows which ones are right?

chanste

heybert wrote: »

Congrats!

Does anyone (from the previous cohorts) have any experience of the banks taking on previous student debt in the loan (10k plus)?

I did about 2 years ago with AIB. I owed about €14k. So I borrowed €100k for the 4 years and spread the remainder over the 4 years. I would say just to be very careful with your money though once you get it. I'm in a very awkward position of facing a repeat exam for 2nd year and if I fail it AIB won't give me more money and I'm prevented from going elsewhere by loan agreement. If I fail I'm screwed, and I'll only find out if that is so after 6 weeks of 3rd year!

On another note... Congratulations to all who got offered medicine in all colleges. I am thoroughly enjoying UL despite how tough it is and anyone who says otherwise is being to negative. I feel privileged to have such a chance, and I think anyone doing medicine should too.

If anyone has any questions about the course, I'll try and answer any I can.

bluewall

There's one already set up for the canadians in your year who were accepted a few months back!

http://www.facebook.com/groups/195691933805183/

Congrats and best of luck to you all, I'm sure you'll love it!

randommair

heybert wrote: »

Congrats!

If anyone has the skills to set up a facebook page for the incoming students that would be great too.

Don't worry about the UL bashing. There are lots of opinions out there and on this forum most of them are from people like us - pre-med students who don't actually know the whole story. Be excited - this is a great time!

With regards to on campus I too will be avoiding it. Heading up next week to look at apartments anywhere between Castletroy and the city centre.

Does anyone (from the previous cohorts) have any experience of the banks taking on previous student debt in the loan (10k plus)?

Hey CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! Well done all of you on getting places despite the UL-bashing, its a great school and believe it or not we have a pretty decent rep out there with the Doctors, healthcare professionals and patients out there. (Don't mess it up newbies!! )

Campus is totally overpriced, try areas like annacotty for somewhere to live.. its more of a young professional area. some of us lived in the groody area nice house 0867359838, might be worth a shot. Cois Gruda is nice, but just be aware that the neighbours prob might not be madly in love with you if party a lot.

As for facebook.. search UL class of 2015 and it should bring up a page which all your canadian class mates are already on. (they get in earlier)

I have heard of AIB taking on debt from people but check with Jenny in the castletroy branch as she is the expert there and really nice too!!

Well done all of you don't forget to have fun and DO YOUR ANATOMY SHEETS!! Nancy's is a good spot to run into other years of Meds. Best of luck!!

galwayllm

Hi all, (The frowny face was an accident, I'm actually thrilled!)

I'm heading to U.L. too! I'm equal parts excited and terrified. I just can't wait to actually start and get stuck in to the PBL cases.

I already got accomodation sorted, going to ring AIB tomorrow about the loan, eek!

Actually, do any current U.L. students know which internet providers are available in the Castletroy area? I already tried UPC but they don't provide in the area

randommair

galwayllm wrote: »

Hi all, (The frowny face was an accident, I'm actually thrilled!)

I'm heading to U.L. too! I'm equal parts excited and terrified. I just can't wait to actually start and get stuck in to the PBL cases.

I already got accomodation sorted, going to ring AIB tomorrow about the loan, eek!

Actually, do any current U.L. students know which internet providers are available in the Castletroy area? I already tried UPC but they don't provide in the area

Magnet?

ULbound

randommair wrote: »

As for facebook.. search UL class of 2015 and it should bring up a page which all your canadian class mates are already on. (they get in earlier)

cheers will look for that facebook group so

randommair wrote: »

DO YOUR ANATOMY SHEETS!! Nancy's is a good spot to run into other years of Meds. Best of luck!!

chhers will look for that facebook group so

these anatomy sheets sounds like a barrel of laughs :eek::eek: i take it they start from week one too? so is nancys the place to go to recover from the cases each week?

btw re vaccinations am i right in saying that we wait till we start down there to sort them out? think im up to date with everything but havent had titers done in a while

galwayllm

randommair wrote: »

Magnet?

Thanks! I'll look into that now

randommair

@ULbound you will have 2 orientation days and then straight into the first week anatomy and all, then 65 more weeks of them. My one piece of advice is do them and if you get stuck on anything GO TO NIGEL!! His office is always open and he looks scary but would rather you went to him to get the correct answer/where to find the answer than fail a spotter.. plus there is the bonus of him knowing you did the sheet (cos believe me some anatomy days it will feel like you havent!)

ULbound

cheers randommair- must find out where nigel hiding in ul so!

btw would you recommend gettin the core textbooks now or wait until were a few weeks in? ive visions of startin there with the first pbl case and all the textbooks been checked out of the library and been royally screwed!

Wilhelmet

Cailleachdubh wrote: »

I will also see ye there! I'm totally petrified now that I've had a bit of time to think about it. The next three months could be pretty scary. Hope we love it, despite the challenges [I just made the mistake of reading some UL-bashing posts and my spirits are slightly dampened - don't be tempted!].

Don't think I'll be living on campus though...haven't been tempted by campus accomm yet and I'm unlikely to start now!

Best of luck to you all at UL. I would've loved to have gone there, and was going to.....but made the mistake of falling in love with a woman in Dublin (sh!t happens), so will be at UCD instead. Never mind any bashing you hear....absolute BS....and I plan to make it one of my aims for my time in Dub to vocally counteract any of that nonsense that I hear, if I hear it. The new medical school building that UL has in the works is simply stunning (speaking as a now 'former' architect) and I envy the hell out of you guys that you're going to have it next year. And PBL is the way forward. Seriously, best of luck......we're all on the road to being doctors, could life be any better??!

randommair

@Ul bound wait a bit there are loads of the core books in the lib on short loan and some you cant actually take out of the lib so there are usually always there or some variation/ someone in the area will let you use the one they have on their desk if they are not using it. Also different people tend to prefer different books eg some people with no science/physiology background might prefer tortora or vanders and other people prefer the less picture more explanation approach of Guyton, the same goes for most pharm/anatomy books. Also I know last year MedSoc set up a book sale where the 3rd years sold their basic sciences books to the 1st/2nd years on campus. Also cough cough there may be pdf versions of the books going around....

ULbound

@randommair okay thats good to know will wait a few weeks into the programme so and see whats ones im using the most before i buy (or happen to suggest to ppl for my bday!)

sorry have another question for you: you know what range the fees are likely to be? ive now seen two different figures on recently update pages: €12,700 and €13,900. would you guess which one is more accurate?

randommair

@ULbound.... We've already started placement in 3rd year and so far we haven't heard what our fees will be. The rumor is that because the portion that the HEA pays has been reduced in all the GradMed courses by 800 so we have to make it up. To be honest is you are living in lim and don't have kids a car that costs 2000 to insure and don't buy EVERY book on the list you should be able to live on the remaining 10,500 (after you take the vaccination money out) without much of a problem because rents are around 250-300 for a nice house and food, drink etc is sooooo much cheaper. It could be a bit more of a struggle in 3rd and 4th year as some of the places where students are on placement have more expensive rents than Limerick ( and trips to africa to save for).

Oh yeah I think i forgot to say that wait until you get to UL to sort out vaccinations and find out what they require.. I had mine already but had to get tests for mmr, heps, tetnus, tb, varicella etc from my own gp and everytime i came back with one i would be told i needed another.. so wait till you get there are ask.

Sorcha88

Headed for UL here too, so excited! Is it a bit early to be planning the colour of my stethoscope? ha. A bit worried about this loan business though, I already have a loan of 2k with BOI so hoping AIB will absorb it!

line_of_fire

got an offer for UL today and am completely shocked!! After getting 55 in Gamsat i had written off even getting an offer never mind a round zero one. Want to see what loan situation is now with AIB cos i have looked into nothing as of yet. Its scary that accepting that one offer can change your whole life. Congrats to everyone by the way

ULbound

you'll have no trouble if your previous loan is only 2k. im hopin to pop into the aib castletrop tmr to try 'rob' some money from them! you've got me excited now about stethoscopes! maybe an orange/pink one!-want a colour that no-one will rob around the wards on us! presume we get them down there? also presume thats yet another expensive purchase! so what are ppls plans for the nxt three weeks?

btw has anyone applied for that scholarship ul have for medicine? wonder when we hear back from them and what their actual criterias are

Sorcha88

Oh I hope so I wont be able to relax until I have everything sorted. I'm planning on a purple stethoscope thus far
Congrats to everyone on getting in, we've a long road ahead of us but hopefully some of it should be fun!

heybert

chanste wrote: »

I did about 2 years ago with AIB. I owed about €14k. So I borrowed €100k for the 4 years and spread the remainder over the 4 years. I would say just to be very careful with your money though once you get it. I'm in a very awkward position of facing a repeat exam for 2nd year and if I fail it AIB won't give me more money and I'm prevented from going elsewhere by loan agreement. If I fail I'm screwed, and I'll only find out if that is so after 6 weeks of 3rd year!

On another note... Congratulations to all who got offered medicine in all colleges. I am thoroughly enjoying UL despite how tough it is and anyone who says otherwise is being to negative. I feel privileged to have such a chance, and I think anyone doing medicine should too.

If anyone has any questions about the course, I'll try and answer any I can.

Thanks for the info Chanste.

Can you confirm if they simply absorbed the loan into the 100k or that they actually gave 114k in total over the four years? Mine is nearly double that so I would struggle to live on the remainder if I was to get the 100k.

chanste

heybert wrote: »

Thanks for the info Chanste.

Can you confirm if they simply absorbed the loan into the 100k or that they actually gave 114k in total over the four years? Mine is nearly double that so I would struggle to live on the remainder if I was to get the 100k.

Unfortunately I was only given €100k in total. I think if you need more you'd probably need to re-mortgage a house or something like that. Some people were ok to work a little while doing the course but I myself feel I couldn't have kept up if I did. If you do go that route I'd recommend putting the next month to good use study wise and try get ahead of the game (Even though the course design kinda doesn't want people doing this). PM me if you want some suggestions about things you could study in advance.

MedGal

Hi all,

I got offered UL too, delighted. I'm abroad for a few weeks so is there any chance if anyone gets any info on loans etc you could PM me? See u all in Sept my new classmates

needzmanualz

Hi all,
Gonna be heading to UL too..so excited/scared! wasnt expecting it at all..was already studying for the next GAMSAT session in london, so ye can imagine i got the shock of my life yesterday morning when i opened the cao letter!..(thought they were sending me a rejection letter to rub it in )

Neways was hoping somone could point me in the right direction re loans. Thinking of getting it from AIB, can we only get them from the UL branches? Does anyone have a number to contact AIB UL branch re these loans?

Any help appreciated, see ye all soon

melanie87

Do we have to wait for ul to send us a letter of acceptance before we can anything about the loan? Or do we need to get cracking asap?

Other then accom and the loan is there anything else we need to do before we start?

Sid_Justice

You could get in contact with the staff in AIB bank in Castletroy (Jenny is her name) to introduce yourself and they'll let you know what you need. You can't sign off on the loan until you have a letter of acceptance, going from memory, I don't think the CAO form is enough.

A lot of us didn't get the loan fully sorted until a few weeks into the course, which meant we didn't register (e.g. pay fees) and were slower getting student cards. The only thing we needed student cards for was getting books out of the library (and joining gym, you can can access library sans student cards).

Other than that I really can't think of anything else you need to do asap other than tie up the loose ends in your life (e.g. quit your job etc. and tell your friends you won't see them til Xmas ).

snoopdoop

just got accepted in to med in ul also so will see all ye guys there, i will find the group on facebook also guys

melanie87

Sid_Justice wrote: »

You could get in contact with the staff in AIB bank in Castletroy (Jenny is her name) to introduce yourself and they'll let you know what you need. You can't sign off on the loan until you have a letter of acceptance, going from memory, I don't think the CAO form is enough.

A lot of us didn't get the loan fully sorted until a few weeks into the course, which meant we didn't register (e.g. pay fees) and were slower getting student cards. The only thing we needed student cards for was getting books out of the library (and joining gym, you can can access library sans student cards).

Other than that I really can't think of anything else you need to do asap other than tie up the loose ends in your life (e.g. quit your job etc. and tell your friends you won't see them til Xmas ).

Thanks Sid!
Do we have to go with AIB in Castletroy or could I just stroll down to my bank and ask them for 100k? Lol

Already handed my notice in....flipped the lid....but meh im not gonna need a reference anytime soon!

Sid_Justice

No, presuming it's like last year or the year before it's only the castletroy branch. if you walk into your local they'll very likely have no idea what you're talking about.

Cailleachdubh

Do you need to make an appointement with the elusive Jenny, or can you just walk in? I'd imagine she'll be pretty busy for the next few weeks with queues of manic GEMs following her around?!

heybert

Cailleachdubh wrote: »

Do you need to make an appointement with the elusive Jenny, or can you just walk in? I'd imagine she'll be pretty busy for the next few weeks with queues of manic GEMs following her around?!

I called a couple of days ago and they said that Jenny had moved on to another branch however they were very clued in to the fact that the loan existed (unlike your local branch).

Just give them a call and arrange to meet with them about it. My meeting is on Tuesday so I'll report back on how it goes.

ULbound

hiya
just back from my w/e in limerick-well impressed with the city! went to see cappavilla and they allowed me in to see a flat there-was very impressed with the accomadation there so reckon ill defo stick with there for first year gettin really excited now about goin just the minor detail of sortin out the loan tmr! sure itll be no problem to get 100K!

Cailleachdubh

I'm just back from Limerick now too and I must say the campus is very impressive, although the new med building is nowhere near finished yet and I have my doubts whether it'll be done by next year even...

Accommodation - Tick! Done! Delighted!

Loan - rang AIB Castletroy first thing in the morning and was told Marie was the woman to speak to, but we kept missing each other's calls all day. They were flat out. They eventually managed to squeeze me in at 3.30 (with Joanne). Don't know how my odds are on getting the loan cause I have a mortgage... If I don't get it I have no idea what I'll do.

Advice to anyone applying: book an appointment in advance and bring ID/driver's licence, copy of Gamsat results and CAO letter regarding the offer.

Good luck!!

hattie

Hi did not think that having a mortgage would affect your ability to get a loan for GEM? Has anyone else had this problem?

Cailleachdubh

hattie wrote: »

Hi did not think that having a mortgage would affect your ability to get a loan for GEM? Has anyone else had this problem?

I was told my chances of getting it with a mortgage were slim to none..

Scary.

But then when I told her the property was being let for the past 5 years, she said I may have a chance.

I don't know what I'll do if I don't get approved. I can't even think about that possibility...

Sid_Justice

UL have a scholarship. They were adamant you had to apply for one at time of application and not on acceptance of offer. But I would investigate.

Also, the typical GEM loans are unsecured and without guarantor. You might be able to get a similar but different loan if you could put something against it.

alcomoholic

hi sid i got a phone call from ul today offering me a place, i had only a 53 in my gamsat and had given up on the chance of getting in.however im wary enough of starting the course, ive been in rehab twice in the past for alcohol and drug related issues, ive them pretty much under control tbh though.i also had some issues with depression in the past and was on medication but ive also got that under control now. nonetheless i still just finished my degree in ul and got a 2 1 so know the run of the place and in spite of all my issues still came out ok. i feel like this is my chance now to put all my problems behind me and get on with living life, i never thought i ever had a hope of passing gamsat but low and behold ive got in.however i do have a mild case of tourettes syndrome, would this impact heavily on me in the course? i mean how disruptive would i be in pbls tutorials or clinic tutorials ? my tourettes isnt too bad, it gets worse when nervous and. i didnt really attend a lot of my lectures and tutorials in my old degree because i was in fear i would be disruptive or interruptive, nonetheless the lecturers would give me the lectures and notes as i had a medical condition they were very helpful? do you think i could arrange a similar arrangement with the medical school?

Sid_Justice

You're in luck, any lectures we do have are always updated online so non-attendance will not penalise you too much. I think someone with a mild case of Tourette's would be a very welcome distraction in the usually dull and uneventful PBL and Clinical tutorials. Alcoholics aren't particularly a rarity in the medical profession so I don't see why you can't give it a go. I wouldn't go on too many benders though, even the odd weekend slacking will put you behind in your work. The course is very very tough, most people say it's the hardest thing they've done, but sure give it a lash it's only 15 grand.

imported_guy

Sid_Justice wrote: »

but sure give it a lash it's only 15 grand.

hahahahaha loving the positivity on boards today , and they wonder why banks fail

cece

Hi

Did anyone else out there get an offer on 53 - I am sitting on 53 and wondering if there is any hope of being offered a spot in UL in the coming weeks!!

heybert

cece wrote: »

Hi

Did anyone else out there get an offer on 53 - I am sitting on 53 and wondering if there is any hope of being offered a spot in UL in the coming weeks!!

Hi Cece,

The points that came out today didn't show a drop for UL just yet. However, with many people with gamsat scores of 53-55 being surprised at getting an offer, I suspect that there will be a higher refusal rate this year. When the big loan and four years is taken in many candidates may decide against it (you'll see some other posters on here doing just that).

I would be extremely surprised if UL did not drop another few points before the end. My fingers are crossed for you!