Biomedical Science

xLisaBx

I'm considering studying biomedical Science next year. It's split between UCC and CIT. I'm just wondering where would be recommended for accommodation, seeing as I'll be over and back between 2 colleges. Thanks in advance

tipperaryguy

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

tipperaryguy wrote: »

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

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??

tipperaryguy

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

xLisaBx

tipperaryguy wrote: »

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

It sounds so awesome I cant wait to start already Do you know if I can go to UCC freshers week because I'm registering with CIT?

tipperaryguy

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

xLisaBx

tipperaryguy wrote: »

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

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

tipperaryguy

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

tipperaryguy wrote: »

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!

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?

tipperaryguy

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

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.

claireless

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?

xLisaBx

claireless wrote: »

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?

Brookfield is a good location for the ucc lectures. I'm in first year, and I'll tell you straight up that it's fecking difficult! :pac: But it's an excellent course for entry to postgrad medicine, dentistry or to specialise within science and do something along the lines of cancer research.

Turtle_Dove

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.

joemurf

I've read on older forums about the Biomedical Science course, that holidays were a mess because UCC and CIT have breaks at different times.
In other words, you might be on holidays from UCC modules but still have lectures etc for CIT modules.

Is this still the case?

xLisaBx

joemurf wrote: »

I've read on older forums about the Biomedical Science course, that holidays were a mess because UCC and CIT have breaks at different times.
In other words, you might be on holidays from UCC modules but still have lectures etc for CIT modules.

Is this still the case?

Yes, it's a complete disaster from the sense of holidays and exams. They seriously still haven't managed to co-ordinate timetables for the sake of the students.

joemurf

xLisaBx wrote: »

Yes, it's a complete disaster from the sense of holidays and exams. They seriously still haven't managed to co-ordinate timetables for the sake of the students.

Would be able to give the dates which are affected (if you can remember)?

Thanks for your help!

xLisaBx

It isn't really particular dates to be honest. It's more, when one is on holiday the other isn't, so we're on for a few hours each day as opposed to a full week. Ucc were back the 12th of January after Christmas but cit weren't back until the start of feb. So we were all in college but on half time. We always miss out on study weeks and exams pile up as they aren't co ordinated fairly between the 2 colleges.

joemurf

xLisaBx wrote: »

It isn't really particular dates to be honest. It's more, when one is on holiday the other isn't, so we're on for a few hours each day as opposed to a full week. Ucc were back the 12th of January after Christmas but cit weren't back until the start of feb. So we were all in college but on half time. We always miss out on study weeks and exams pile up as they aren't co ordinated fairly between the 2 colleges.

Would you be able to roughly estimate the number of weeks that you have at EITHER ucc OR cit (but not both)?
I just want to know how bad it is before I decide.
Also, what do you mean by the "exams pile up".

Another question for you, did you get ucc accommodation? I put down a deposit and emailed them to ask if the CIT/UCC scenario would have a an effect.
In their response they said:
"Can you please confirm that you will be registered under UCC and not under CIT."
I sent an email to the Admissions Office to check, but they haven't gotten back as of yet.

Thanks again for all your help!

xLisaBx

Yeah don't bother confusion ucc accommodation offices, just say your in biomed in ucc and leave it at that. Nearly everyone is in ucc accommodation. I stayed in cit this year as I left booking too late for ucc. That was my fault though. There's probably about a month of one college but not the other in total. The whole exams piling up thing, what I mean is that you could be on ucc study week but be doing exams in cit.

tipperaryguy

hey guys, me again, taking a break from procrastination! in my final few days of 2nd year. yeah i stayed in Vic lodge , which was UCC accomodation, i just through down i was doing pharmacy , they dont check, becuase you fill out the form to stay there long befor the results are out! yeah basically, forget about having long holidays, christmas exams this year ran up the 22nd,while my firends were done at like the 10th etc. similarly you dont get the long cit holidays in Jan because youre back in ucc. similary for summer, last examon the 21st may after starting this tuesday, thats longer than the leaving cert!!
also this year we got screwed over in april, we had lectures up until last week and really only had a week of holidays for easter. dont worry about exams, theyre all very very passable if any effort is applied, and none of your exams count in the first two years so youre grand. 3rd year is where the nail biting begins ive heard :rolleyes:
pick this course if you like taking buses to cit just kidding, its a great course

xLisaBx

tipperaryguy wrote: »

hey guys, me again, taking a break from procrastination! in my final few days of 2nd year. yeah i stayed in Vic lodge , which was UCC accomodation, i just through down i was doing pharmacy , they dont check, becuase you fill out the form to stay there long befor the results are out! yeah basically, forget about having long holidays, christmas exams this year ran up the 22nd,while my firends were done at like the 10th etc. similarly you dont get the long cit holidays in Jan because youre back in ucc. similary for summer, last examon the 21st may after starting this tuesday, thats longer than the leaving cert!!
also this year we got screwed over in april, we had lectures up until last week and really only had a week of holidays for easter. dont worry about exams, theyre all very very passable if any effort is applied, and none of your exams count in the first two years so youre grand. 3rd year is where the nail biting begins ive heard :rolleyes:
pick this course if you like taking buses to cit just kidding, its a great course

Pick biomed if you love knowing the 205 timetable off by heart! You seem to have had an alright time in second year? Are the modules any more interesting? I've enjoyed first year but probably will fail physics :mad:

tipperaryguy

modules get interesting, but they take a right old step up from the difficulty of first year. you'll be wishing for the days of physics mcq's when you've Metabolic Pathways essays to be preparing for glycolysis, gluconogenesis, glycogenolysis,glycogenesis and the rest :P everyone was worrying about physics last year, but its graand, sailed through it myself and i never did physics before, dont even think anyone had to sit it in august! Labs get better, no more friday at 9am labs in CIT be prepared for 4 hour labs of biochemistry though :eek:

tipperaryguy

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

tipperaryguy wrote: »

modules get interesting, but they take a right old step up from the difficulty of first year. you'll be wishing for the days of physics mcq's when you've Metabolic Pathways essays to be preparing for glycolysis, gluconogenesis, glycogenolysis,glycogenesis and the rest :P everyone was worrying about physics last year, but its graand, sailed through it myself and i never did physics before, dont even think anyone had to sit it in august! Labs get better, no more friday at 9am labs in CIT be prepared for 4 hour labs of biochemistry though :eek:

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

tipperaryguy

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

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

tipperaryguy

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!

xLisaBx

tipperaryguy wrote: »

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

*Dies inside* .. are you involved in setting up the new society?

Gitiana

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!

Turtle_Dove

Heya,

The only one I would buy is Lehninger and even at that you can do without it and just get it from the library. Do NOT buy all the ones they lark on about, you don't need them. Professor YouTube is far more useful!

tipperaryguy

Turtle_Dove wrote: »

Heya,

The only one I would buy is Lehninger and even at that you can do without it and just get it from the library. Do NOT buy all the ones they lark on about, you don't need them. Professor YouTube is far more useful!

Take lehninger out of the library and you'll be fine, the others books are very expensive and a waste of money.

EoghanIRL

I'm not familiar with biomed but when I took metabolic pathways, bio molecules etc.. I didn't even bother with lehninger.
Lecture notes and Lippincott were enough.

However I took it for a clinical course. Lehninger might be better for research/lab based careers. It definitely has more detail that's for sure!

xLisaBx

Sorry to bring up an old thread! Hope everyone is happy with the results

Going into 3rd year this year, whats the pharmacology project like? Anything I can be looking up over the summer as I'm bored mindless?

tipperaryguy

xLisaBx wrote: »

Sorry to bring up an old thread! Hope everyone is happy with the results

Going into 3rd year this year, whats the pharmacology project like? Anything I can be looking up over the summer as I'm bored mindless?

Hi xLisaBx,
There's nothing really you can prepare for it to be honest as he gives you the titles in class. Its just a long 10A4 essay about a drug really, nothing too complicated. Best to take the summer off and enjoy the rest, you'll need the energy for the first semester of Third Year!

xLisaBx

tipperaryguy wrote: »

Hi xLisaBx,
There's nothing really you can prepare for it to be honest as he gives you the titles in class. Its just a long 10A4 essay about a drug really, nothing too complicated. Best to take the summer off and enjoy the rest, you'll need the energy for the first semester of Third Year!

Oh lovely, sounds pretty interesting! although everything sounds interesting in theory, but if you are trying to finish it off at like 4 a.m. the night before, it no longer is :pac:

How did you find 3rd year? I thought 2nd year was okay but definitely a step up from 1st year

dubguy2017

This is an ageing thread but in case people are currently thinking of doing this course, and questioning their CAO choices, I said I would post an update on here. I finished this course a few years ago and then went and did the years internship.

The Course
Few points regarding the course. Its a very very tough course with a heavy work load. Because its a very open course, you don't get to drop subjects you dislike or don't do well in. There was a lot of overlap of material from year to year so good notes are essential. Some of the UCC modules were very difficult and not taught very well. This is because for those modules, you are in with other groups from other UCC courses, who might not have as heavy a module load as the biomeds do. In UCC, you are expected and encouraged to do a lot of private research on your own in your own time. In CIT, the notes are given to you and you just have to tie up the dots and relate the material from other modules to prove you understand and can relate topics.

The MCQ element of some modules was very annoying, especially when there was negative marking.
Year 1 - was lovely
Year 2 - a bit more difficult but still fine
Year 3 - massive jump in UCC expectations
Year 4 - was just crazy.

In year 4, you must do an 8 week lab project that's weighted three modules. So you have to put in a lot of effort. The way it was, you got 2 weeks to write up the report at the end, which was insane. I found myself working almost 8am to 8pm in the lab... and you still have midterms to consider. and then your straight into the last semester of classes. So expect to have very little time in year 4. Since I did the course, they did bring in continuous assessment for both UCC and CIT so that might ease the pressure a little... but some modules, particularly UCC must be very difficult to cover in a single a term.

Whatever about the course workload, I found the class to be very competitive. People will say they are not studying, but trust me they are! Lots get grinds and pool their efforts to get the material covered. (eg: 5 students get together, and decide to focus on a particular subset of topics each.. write essays to cover all possible past paper questions and then pool them). Some people even had sample MCQ papers they got from either grinds or other courses. That's the only way to get through the last 2 years of this course from what I can tell. I was stubborn and tried to do it all myself - resulting me almost collapsing at the end from exhaustion and mental distress. I failed an exam in both 3rd and 4th year because of that. Ended up with a 2:1 and was delighted with that, even though I felt the amount of work I put in, I deserved a lot more. Tip: reference what you put on the exam script - even the name of a text book.


The Intern Year
Everyone was placed in hospitals around the region... so mainly, CUH, the Bons, the Mercy, Bantry, Waterford, Limerick... from what I can remember. You do get to witness a lot of what goes on in the lab as you do a rotation in each lab, completing assignments and so on as you go. You also have to complete a library dissertation project of your choice and a practical project like your final year project which was given to us. Rotations were for 6 weeks.. in Haematology, Transfusion (including a week in the Irish Transfusion Service), Microbiology, Histopathology, and Biochemistry.

Heamatology: not very interesting. you do a lot of SOP reading and looking at machines doing the jobs. There isn't very much to learn. Everything you did in college was far far more advanced than what you need to know here. The microscope work was interesting to confirm what you did in college.

Transfusion: not very interesting. Very routine group and cross match. IT is interesting to witness the process and what goes on. But that's about it.

Microbiology: there was a lot going on here... a few different benches, but again, very routine. Identifying the species was mainly it.. which can be done by machines.

Histopathology: again interesting to see what goes on but you soon see how routine and mind numbing it can be. You don't need to understand anything.

Biochem: sit back and watch the machines.

At the end of your time, you will be kept on, but its mainly to do the donkey work.. labelling tubes and gp forms (if you are lucky), changing reagents, the skivvies... and that trend continues if they offer you a job to stay. Progression is very slow and you wont get anywhere unless you have a Masters, a 1H in ur degree helps, and you have to have 2-3 years experience. So you feel very trapped when you find yourself at that stage of the process. And what I noted too was that you get assigned to one aspect of biomed and you stay there... you don't get to switch between the sectors.. In small hospitals this may be possible but it would be very general basic analysis... nothing specific.

Robotics and advances in Biomedical Engineering are fast coming onboard.. due to their reliability and accuracy and the biomedical scientist is fast being replaced and removed from necessity. So after spending 5 years almost killing yourself to study a subject that is really on par with what Medical students study, you find yourself far too over qualified, and almost like a spare wheel at the side that no one cares about and a throng of people ahead of you willing to cut throat to snap up whatever positions come available.

Many of my class went on to study Masters or PhD's. Some went back to try Graduate Medicine (which is very tough and competitive to get into). I myself, could not bare the thought of working in a lab so I went on to do a Masters in a different sector and now Im happy with what Im doing... but looking back, Biomedical Science, was not needed to do this job, but it did help me stand out from the other applicants.

I know I must be sounding very critical and negative, but with the points for this course not far behind Medicine... I would really caution students taking this course on. If its Medicine you wanted, Id advise repeat the LC. If lab work is for you, this is the course to take but keep in mind, it will only be a hospital lab you can work in, and as mentioned.. will take years to get anywhere and basically, all you will really be doing is putting tubes on machines, and validating results on the system. I applied for some pharmaceutical labs and was shot down for every single one. Getting into a vet lab might be an option but only if you are willing to do a masters in veterinary studies which is more expense and time. Research would be a possibility, but unless you have a great concept, funding is hard to get and competition out there is incredible.

So while the course is a challenge, very interesting, tough... and you will gain a wealth of knowledge of the human body systems and laboratory techniques... (molecular biology is not even done in Ireland.. ).. a lot of what you will do in college is completely irrelevant to what you will end up doing.

I do feel at some point, especially with the trending points for entry to the course, that this course will be merged with Medicine in some way. The lab work is fine and all, but was more suited to the Medlab course that Biomedical Science replaced (no offense to anyone who did MedLab). Given the crisis the Healthcare sector is in worldwide, and the talented calibre of student currently in Biomed, some sort of merge with Medicine is the only direction that makes sense, especially with the automation of the science fast becoming reality.
It would mean redesigning both courses, increasing places, making more specialities and options for Medical students and retuning certain modules... and this would take a long time to put into practice.

Bitches Be Trypsin

Hey all! Queen of resurrecting threads here! Just wondering about the placement year, how much are we paid? I heard roughly 800 a month? Also what's the workload like? Could I manage a weekend job too?