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Undergrad. Medicine and Pre-Med | UCD or TCD?

EsteemedEntity

I'm down to the last day (:rolleyes:) and still have not decided what to put down 1st on the CAO form for Undergraduate Medicine. UCD or TCD?

The main factor that is driving my choice is the Pre-Med. I did not do Chemistry for the Leaving Cert, and I've heard that if you haven't, it's a good idea to do Pre-Med. However, I have also heard that Pre-Med is a somewhat "laid-back" year, and of little value. I've only heard things from a few fellow LC students. Any Med students or others out there in the know?

UCD does Pre-Med, and TCD doesn't. Does that mean I should be putting UCD in 1st place on the form. Will I be struggling without Chemistry and Pre-Med in TCD?

Additionally, I've heard that TCD is "better" for medicine than UCD in general. Any truth or basis to that? Any other factors that I should be taking into consideration, or is there little difference besides the Pre-Med?

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theowen

There's a lot of things to consider. I sometimes wish I could have done pre-med. If you go straight into first year, you're straight into a difficult course. In saying that, I'm glad I was able to skip it. You can have great craic in first year. The work load isn't huge by any means. But I'd recommend pre med if you're young as a lot of the younger crowd straight out of the leaving cert struggle with the whirl wind nature of college, and having to study medicine during this confusing and adapting time can be difficult.

As for chemistry, I wouldn't take that into consideration. I got an A1 in chemistry, and it was of verrry little use to me. Biology was a lot of useful.

spagboll

My opinion is that UCD is a more modern, better organised and more manageable course, but Trinity as a whole is right up there with Oxford and Cambridge, so it's a hard choice. Both colleges have some top international lectures/researchers but Trinity has one or two that would turn heads at any medical conference worldwide. UCD is semesterised, major advantage, some people don't like semesterisation, but when it comes to med it's a God send.

caroline1111

As far as I know medicine in TCD is now semesterised? Could be wrong though.

Vorsprung

I posted on the TCD forum about this recently. I'm on my phone so copying/pasting it is a hassle.

The essence of the post was that people shouldn't look on prestige of the college you'd like to go to as afactor in choosing (that was the topic on that thread). Similarly if you're going to think about choosing your first choice college on the basis of one subject out of about 20-30, in one year out of 4-6, I'd suggest you rethink your priorities. The degrees mean the same thing at the end of the day, and your choice of college does not count for anything in training or consultant post interviews.

Your choice would be better based on where you'd like to live, convenience of campus/hospital facilities and other practical considerations. I'm out a few years now and my college is good for
networking for jobs and not a whole lot more. Your choice of college won't even have a lot of influence on your intern jobs, as the whole thing is centralised now resulting in a big mix.

Food for thought I hope, and hope you don't take it the wrong way

theowen

caroline1111 wrote: »

As far as I know medicine in TCD is now semesterised? Could be wrong though.

It is. Very handy indeed. Same for the other colleges?

Kwekubo

caroline1111 wrote: »

As far as I know medicine in TCD is now semesterised? Could be wrong though.

Not quite semesterised, but modularised so that it fits in with a semesterised system for the purpose of visiting students etc. Medicine always had Christmas exams anyway so not that much has changed.

yournerd

Would you have good chances getting into Med TCD with 1 Science subject?

QueenOfLeon

yournerd wrote: »

Would you have good chances getting into Med TCD with 1 Science subject?

Have a read of this, particularly the table on the 2nd page. Trinity needs 2 science subjects.

Link will not work straight away as it includes the words Med Entry which are censored by boards. When you open the tab, just replace the the stars in the URL with Med Entry (without the space).

yournerd

What if you do Biology and get a good grade in Maths?

QueenOfLeon

yournerd wrote: »

What if you do Biology and get a good grade in Maths?

Maths is irrelevant for medicine apart from needing an OD3. Read the table of requirements.