*Everything HPAT and Medicine 2015*

EoghanIRL

Say hello to my little friend wrote: »

Thinking about that. Why would anyone who if offered, say, Trinity in round 1 not take it up after all the work with HPAT etc. The 2nd round offer for Trinity to the person who accepted UCD must have been rejected by some such person if I understand the system.... You thought your reply was convoluted! :eek:

It can come down to a lot of things really.
Money is a big one.. Parents tell them that it isn't feasible to move to another county and pay for college. So they refuse Dublin and take cork/Galway if that's where they are from.

People don't put as much thought into their CAO as you might think.

randylonghorn

EoghanIRL wrote: »

It can come down to a lot of things really.
Money is a big one.. Parents tell them that it isn't feasible to move to another county and pay for college. So they refuse Dublin and take cork/Galway if that's where they are from.

Well, they can't opt for Cork / Galway that year if they get offered Trinity, but yes, they could wait a year and re-apply. Or they could defer for a year, and then go to Trinity. But yes, definitely, finances are a common issue.

EoghanIRL wrote: »

People don't put as much thought into their CAO as you might think.

So true. And that brings us to another issue: the person who puts down medicine "to please the mammy" or the CG teacher or whoever, full sure they won't get the points, and will get their second choice or whatever that they really want, and then they get the points for medicine. Cue meltdown!


Or, more understandably, the person who genuinely thinks they want medicine and then over the summer when all the hype has quietened, they realise that actually, no, it's not for them.

And then you also have the people who have applied both abroad and here, get offers in both, and opt to go abroad (probably quite a small number, but it happens).

Probably other reasons too, but they're some of the main ones.

iamtheonewho

What is everyone putting down as their second option?
I'm torn between choosing either nursing (because I want to be able to actively help people and care for them) or biomedical science which would go into the science side of medicine but not have the patient side to it... It's so frustrating because I don't want to end up studying something and then realising it's not for me.

BBHenry

iamtheonewho wrote: »

What is everyone putting down as their second option?
I'm torn between choosing either nursing (because I want to be able to actively help people and care for them) or biomedical science which would go into the science side of medicine but not have the patient side to it... It's so frustrating because I don't want to end up studying something and then realising it's not for me.

I sat LC last year and had biomed as 2nd choice and then nursing.

Day before CAO closed I put nursing 2nd - a great option

I've done 2 months placement in the hospital and gained so much! Working in the hospital really helped me to understand the sacrifice it takes to be a doctor, being in there you'd get talking to the majority of SHOs etc.. Great insights from them and really inspired me to work harder for this years HPAT. You see the power struggle between nurses and doctors too, in that nurses haven't got much say at all in patient treatment and diagnosis', etc, which it was fascinates me the most! Way better than taking a year out. Also I have a friend in Biomed who says the majority of her year are people who were resitting the HPAT. There seemed to be a lot of competition. I felt that because I was in nursing I was a lot more relaxed, nobody knew I was resitting or studying for the HPAT I didn't have anyone questioning me on how many hours I was doing etc.. Really took the pressure off and made fantastic friends too. hope that helped! 😊

woopah92

iamtheonewho wrote: »

What is everyone putting down as their second option?
I'm torn between choosing either nursing (because I want to be able to actively help people and care for them) or biomedical science which would go into the science side of medicine but not have the patient side to it... It's so frustrating because I don't want to end up studying something and then realising it's not for me.

BBHenry wrote: »

I sat LC last year and had biomed as 2nd choice and then nursing.

Day before CAO closed I put nursing 2nd - a great option

I've done 2 months placement in the hospital and gained so much! Working in the hospital really helped me to understand the sacrifice it takes to be a doctor, being in there you'd get talking to the majority of SHOs etc.. Great insights from them and really inspired me to work harder for this years HPAT. You see the power struggle between nurses and doctors too, in that nurses haven't got much say at all in patient treatment and diagnosis', etc, which it was fascinates me the most! Way better than taking a year out. Also I have a friend in Biomed who says the majority of her year are people who were resitting the HPAT. There seemed to be a lot of competition. I felt that because I was in nursing I was a lot more relaxed, nobody knew I was resitting or studying for the HPAT I didn't have anyone questioning me on how many hours I was doing etc.. Really took the pressure off and made fantastic friends too. hope that helped! 😊

I'm going to play the devil's advocate here.

After I did the HPAT the first time, I didn't get a place in medicine and so went into Biomed in UCD. Managed to get medicine then once I repeated the HPAT during my first year of college. I can't speak for the the other colleges, but the Biomedical Science Programme in UCD is top quality. I wouldn't choose a different second choice if I was to do it again.

The modules you study in Biomed are more closely related to the medicine modules than the nursing. Completing 1st year in biomed you're going to cover the majority of the anatomy for 1st and 2nd med as well as the key topics of physiology and pharmacology too. Those students who move from biomed stage 1 into medicine stage 2 the following year have such an advantage of those coming from premed.

While yes, what the user above me says is true about the majority of the year sitting the HPAT again I can tell you from my experience there was no competition among us biomeds. There are more than enough places to fit everyone into stage 2 medicine. It's really only as competitive as you make it. You're also going to have a lot of modules with the medicine students too so you get a chance to get to know your future class if you move in.

Aaronlp5

What's the story with the new rule about being able to use LC points again? Like sitting lc and hpat one year and then just hpat if you had to try again? I heard about it on here but has that/will that come into effect?

Doctorhopeful

Aaronlp5 wrote: »

What's the story with the new rule about being able to use LC points again? Like sitting lc and hpat one year and then just hpat if you had to try again? I heard about it on here but has that/will that come into effect?

Being able to repeat the HPAT and use LC points from a previous year has been the status quo from the beginning. However, I heard from my guidance counsellor that this was being phased out and LC and HPAT points have to be presented from the same year. Just to add the the confusion, when I emailed ACER they said that there was no plan to alter the current entry process! Still haven't gotten my head around it

randylonghorn

Doctorhopeful wrote: »

Being able to repeat the HPAT and use LC points from a previous year has been the status quo from the beginning. However, I heard from my guidance counsellor that this was being phased out and LC and HPAT points have to be presented from the same year. Just to add the the confusion, when I emailed ACER they said that there was no plan to alter the current entry process! Still haven't gotten my head around it

Isn't it more that HPAT has to be the current year? (Originally your HPAT results were current for two years, I think). That might be what's confusing your GC ... before, if you repeated LC, you could re-use your HPAT score from the previous year if you were happy with it, now (in *that* case) the LC and HPAT points would have to be from the same year.

I haven't heard anything about people only being able to apply with this year's LC, and tbh I couldn't see it being implemented; DES and the SEC would be opposed to that rule I'd say, let alone students / parents / schools;you'd have serial LC repeats by people who had excellent LC results, but weren't doing well in HPAT.

That said, I'm not expert in this med stuff, so double-check for yourself.

Aaronlp5

I'll probably need to get my LC points up when I repeat rather than hpat anyway so I guess it's grand either way.

Hon the Dubs

Still have 3 exams to go and I already know I won't get the points I need....

Gallagher1

Exactly one week to go..

Itsjacklad

Does anyone know of anybody who has got their results for this year already ie. A mature student..?

vladd25

Do you know if the results will come in the night before the 22nd or during the day??

Iamtheduchess

vladd25 wrote: »

Do you know if the results will come in the night before the 22nd or during the day??

Last year they were out at like 6 in the morning on the Monday.

etherealfairy

Leaving Cert was a disaster to be honest so I'll need to seriously rejig my CAO. Thanks for all the info re: biomed. Anyone have any other suggestions?

Gallagher1

etherealfairy wrote: »

Leaving Cert was a disaster to be honest so I'll need to seriously rejig my CAO. Thanks for all the info re: biomed. Anyone have any other suggestions?

Under no circumstance take Medicine off your CAO

randylonghorn

I'm presuming / hoping she means she's looking seriously at / re-jigging backups!

Or else ...!

etherealfairy

randylonghorn wrote: »

I'm presuming / hoping she means she's looking seriously at / re-jigging backups!

Or else ...!

Yuuup don't worry! It will stay on :rolleyes:

Tzashi

does anyone know when the hpat results are coming out?

etherealfairy

Tzashi wrote: »

does anyone know when the hpat results are coming out?

People are saying next Monday, the 22nd. From 6am.

ediface11

BBHenry wrote: »

I sat LC last year and had biomed as 2nd choice and then nursing.

Day before CAO closed I put nursing 2nd - a great option

I've done 2 months placement in the hospital and gained so much! Working in the hospital really helped me to understand the sacrifice it takes to be a doctor, being in there you'd get talking to the majority of SHOs etc.. Great insights from them and really inspired me to work harder for this years HPAT. You see the power struggle between nurses and doctors too, in that nurses haven't got much say at all in patient treatment and diagnosis', etc, which it was fascinates me the most! Way better than taking a year out. Also I have a friend in Biomed who says the majority of her year are people who were resitting the HPAT. There seemed to be a lot of competition. I felt that because I was in nursing I was a lot more relaxed, nobody knew I was resitting or studying for the HPAT I didn't have anyone questioning me on how many hours I was doing etc.. Really took the pressure off and made fantastic friends too. hope that helped! 😊

I also sat the leaving cert last year and narrowly missed medicine, with Pharmacy as my second option. I put it down on the CAO with 15 minutes to go on the deadline, and it was the best decision Ive ever made! I repeated the HPAT this year but can honestly say I thoroughly enjoyed the year of Pharmacy. It is such a similar course to medicine in the fact that you get experience in working with people, counselling patients, and the ins and outs of diseases and the drugs used to treat them. In fact, this year I completed a Pharmacology module with second year Meds, and we were required to know the subject in more detail than them, even though we had the same lectures!

It is such a broad degree, you can work in a hospital, community, industry, or in regulatory bodies. There really is something for everyone. ( If you dont like working with people at the end of the day, you could go into researching diseases and developing drugs to treat them!) Personally, after lots of consideration, I will accept Medicine if offered it following my HPAT results, but I would not be unhappy to continue my Pharmacy degree.

I have nothing against Nursing, but In my opinion, It is a vocation more focused on the caring side of Healthcare. If you are more orientated towards clinical knowledge of diseases and how they are treated & cured, I think Pharmacy would be a better choice.

I'm not trying to put any other choices down here, everybody is different and may be completely happy in their own choices! Im just trying to offer some advice to people who may be as clueless as I was this time last year!

Pookla

ediface11 wrote: »

I have nothing against Nursing, but In my opinion, It is a vocation more focused on the caring side of Healthcare.

That's actually a very important point. I know a lot of people who have encountered that sometimes people doubt someone's true commitment to medicine because they don't have nursing as a second option.

But they have such different ethoses that it's very unfair to compare the two. Sure they both take place on the wards but the similarity really begins to wear very thin after that.

Pharmacy is an excellent alternative and I'm glad it worked out for you.

FYI, physiotherapy is another excellent alternative and if you ever go on to do graduate entry medicine, it provides as good a starting block as pharmacy does.

Messo

etherealfairy wrote: »

People are saying next Monday, the 22nd. From 6am.

How do you know this for sure tho? Thank you!

etherealfairy

Messo wrote: »

How do you know this for sure tho? Thank you!

I don't, I saw it mentioned on this thread :rolleyes: That's why I said 'people are saying' :P

EoghanIRL

Dent is also a good option. Pretty much up there with med. A lot of the modules are very similar in year 1 and 2 , e.g physiology,pharmacology,biochemistry,clinical skills etc..
Nearly the entire dentistry class is comprised of people who decided to do med later in life due to missing med slightly in lc.
Dentisty is also the only course which allows you to do the advanced entry to medicine option.
Plus you can work as a dentist straight of the bat with a really good salary , allowing you to save for the expensive graduate entry fees.
A lot of lecturers have degrees in med and dent. For specialties like max fax, craniofacial, plastic surgery etc.. both are either necessary or desired.

It is a good option to consider.


Also I'll let you in on a secret.
Those who miss med do dent.
Those who miss dent do pharmacy.
All I can say is think carefully before you put down pharmacy. It's not as diverse as it's made out to be. Be prepared to work behind a counter in boots for the rest of your life.
I have spoken to several people who got out of pharmacy while they still could.

If you want to be a clinician of some sort then don't settle for second best. Repeat the lc and don't waste money on a year of a different course.

etherealfairy

EoghanIRL wrote: »

Also I'll let you in on a secret.
Those who miss med do dent.
Those who miss dent do pharmacy.
All I can say is think carefully before you put down pharmacy. It's not as diverse as it's made out to be. Be prepared to work behind a counter in boots for the rest of your life.
I have spoken to several people who got out of pharmacy while they still could.

If you want to be a clinician of some sort then don't settle for second best. Repeat the lc and don't waste money on a year of a different course.

What would people's opinions be on studying psychology? (Possibly with a language). I would probably go into psychiatry if I studied med, so perhaps it would be a good degree to then go on and do GEM?

ronivek

etherealfairy wrote: »

What would people's opinions be on studying psychology? (Possibly with a language). I would probably go into psychiatry if I studied med, so perhaps it would be a good degree to then go on and do GEM?

If you're interested in Psychology then of course; but GAMSAT needs undergraduate level (1st year at any rate) science. Also GEM is pretty expensive; if Medicine is really what you want and you don't get it this year then maybe repeating would be a better option.

etherealfairy

ronivek wrote: »

If you're interested in Psychology then of course; but GAMSAT needs undergraduate level (1st year at any rate) science. Also GEM is pretty expensive; if Medicine is really what you want and you don't get it this year then maybe repeating would be a better option.

Ahhhh... of course. As in, you'd be really lost prepping for the GAMSAT having not done biomed/pharmacy etc? Haven't done much research into it. Kind of took it for granted that I could do any undergrad I wanted and it would all work out just fine :pac:

Maybe I'll continue to delude myself for the moment, enjoy the summer, and deal with the possibility of repeating in August :rolleyes:

ronivek

etherealfairy wrote: »

Ahhhh... of course. As in, you'd be really lost prepping for the GAMSAT having not done biomed/pharmacy etc? Haven't done much research into it. Kind of took it for granted that I could do any undergrad I wanted and it would all work out just fine :pac:

Maybe I'll continue to delude myself for the moment, enjoy the summer, and deal with the possibility of repeating in August :rolleyes:

Well you wouldn't be really lost; but certainly you'd have to put in a decent bit of extra work to make up for it. It probably depends how strong your written section might be.

I guess my point is if Medicine is your ultimate goal then the Leaving Certificate is going to be the quickest and cheapest route. Maybe you've done much better then you think!

taara

When do the results come out? I thought it was today but I never got an email about it and when I logged onto the ACER HPAT website there is nothing up yet.