Urgent Advice Needed!!

Matilda600

Hi everyone,

I am a UK student and, being without Science/Maths subjects at A-Level, have applied to the Royal College of Surgeons and UCD (1st and 2nd CAO choice respectively), both of which offer a Foundation year for Medicine.

Now however, doubt has taken over as regards whether I have made the right decision and with the Change of Mind deadline looming, I was wondering if anyone had any advice on which to choose

Which of the two has the best facilities (teaching hospitals, lecturers etc.)?
Is the Royal College of Surgeons as respected as UCD (in Ireland and abroad)?
Are both courses as rigorous?
What's student life like?
Would I be at a significant disadvantage being without Science subjects?

Thanks in advance for any help.

tywy

Well I'm not doing med myself but I did consider it, I went to both the UCD and RCSI open day, thinking about it, the student life would be better in UCD, you don't just meet Health Science students, more active societies etc.

A friend of mine doing med now, who was capable of getting the points for each of the med courses in Ireland, put a lot of thought and research into which uni to go to, she chose UCD because she felt it had good facilities and a good international reputation for medicine (not just as a uni like TCD).

The Health Science block is in the process of being completed, the students moved in there after Christmas last year I think, so the equipment is brand new.

About not having a science subject, I don't really know about this but I would say if you are capable of getting the A levels to get into Medicine then you are obviously a hard worker, so if you apply yourself you shouldn't have too much of a problem. Also pre med doesn't have a lot of hours. I think they have 4 subjects, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Clinical Science. This may have changed with modularisation though I'm not sure. Check here: www.ucd.ie/modularisation.htm

hope I've been of some help despite not being a med student myself

Vorsprung

Final Med student here

Facilities:

UCD has brand new facilities as said above, all based in Belfield! This means social life will hopefully become more varied, and makes doing sports easier.

Hospitals are good, we've got the Mater and Vincent's as our main teaching hospitals. They're close enough to the city centre, while the RCSI ones would be further out, one is beside the M50.

Respect:

I don't know about the RCSI reputation abroad, but I suppose an Irish medical degree is well regarded generally. To be honest (and I'm not being "go UCD!" here or anything like that!) it wouldn't have the best rep in Ireland, compared to UCD. Tutors in the smaller hospitals (e.g. maternity hospitals) where you'd get all 3 med schools together have said in the past that RCSI doesn't produce the quality of graduates that UCD would.

Courses:

Both are very rigorous, RCSI would have a reputation for spoon feeding its students, I'm not sure in what way though. It does seem a lot more regimentalised, whereas in UCD you'd be left more to your own devices. You might hear that loads of people get 1sts in RCSI - that's because they have a lot of foreign students coming in paying a ****load of money, and it's been suggested that potential students might be put off paying that money if there wasn't a good chance of getting a 1st.

In UCD, it's very hard to get a 1st, I think only 4 people got a 1.1 this year. This is well known in Ireland, but abroad I'm not sure if people would know the difference. However, I think this is changing, ie RCSI awarding less 1sts, UCD starting to award a couple more a year.

Student life:

Great! I'm not sure what it's going to be like in Belfield as I did most of my years in the old school in the city centre. There's an active Medical Society (cough society of the year 2007 cough) and being in Belfield I'm sure the social life will only improve. When you get into hospitals there's parties every 3-4 weeks where you'll get a good few free drinks. There are also active football teams in the hospitals, rugby for the lads too.

Remember that UCD is a proper big university, while RCSI is tiny in comparison, so that'll impact on student life too!

No science subjects:

I'm sure you'll pick it up tbh! Definitely do Foundation year (actually you probably won't be offered the skip). It probably will be a bit tougher for you without basic sciences, so you will have to work that bit harder at it. That said, pre med is a pretty easy year (or at least it was when i did it, modularisation might have changed things) so you should have time to read around stuff.

That came out very pro-UCD unintentionally! Personally, I'd go to UCD again if i was to restart, and I would recommend all my friends the same! I'm not particularly attached to the university, I haven't been based there in about 4 years, so all of what I'm saying is coming from my experiences about the medical school itself.

There's a few other meds knocking around the place, they should be able to offer you a few more ideas.

Any questions, just post or PM, I'd be happy to answer them!

sweet-rasmus

in theory, both courses should be quite similar. i admit that in the ucd forum, the replies may be a little biased. just considering location; the royal college is in the city centre, whereas UCD is close but not in the centre. a good 15 min bus ride away. i myself enjoy the student atmosphere of belfield and am happy not to be in the city centre. also, it's true that belfield just got a fancy new building for medicine which only opened fully this year, i think.

i'd say no matter where you go you will enjoy yourself tbh. hope you last minute nerves calm down!

Matilda600

Thanks for all the advice! I've decided to put UCD as my first choice.

As I haven't carried on any science/maths subjects to A-Level, I was wondering if anyone could recommend any good pre-course reading to get a head start.

Thanks in advance!

dajaffa

Well basically it'll help a bit to cover some bio, chem + physics. For physics I'd recommend Hallidays' Fundamentals of physics (which will be handy for 2 of your first year modules), or else rapid revision physics which is a lot cheaper. For chemistry a leaving cert revision book called rapid revision chemistry. For bio there's one called (leaving certificate) biology by Micheal O'Callaghan.

I'd say you'll pick up the maths ok once you have a decent standard of it from your GCSEs. I don't think there's any mathy maths, but you need a decent grounding to get on with the physics.