RCSI Bahrain

speeding

Hi Guys

Just wondering if people know much about the medicine course in rcsi bahrain. I'm thinking of applying next year. Obviously i'll be applying to irish uni's and doing the gamsat aswell. Just wondering if there are any irish people studying out there ? Thanks

conorhaugh

Hey, I did my first year of the five year course in RCSI Dublin last year, and I'm currently on an exchange to RCSI Bahrain for the first semester of this year. In Dublin there are about 3500 students in the college, here it's about 1000. The college building in Bahrain is really nice and modern because it's only a few years old. The college is located in an area called Busaiteen, and there's not too much to do around this area, but if you have a car you can head into the city (really small city compared to Dublin) and go to shopping centres/cinema etc which are really big and quite nice, and even if you don't have a car taxis are sooo cheap because fuel is cheap. Nearly everyone in Bahrain has decent English and EVERYBODY in the college does so don't worry. There are a few clubs and pubs and restaurants etc which are really quite nice nice, but they're not as good as in Dublin. There are a bunch of apartments next to the college (5 min walk max) and they're all nice and cost varies from €400-600/month all costs included. Bahrain itself is quite hot, it's got nice beaches which are cool for chilling out. But it can be quite hot during the afternoon, so it's best to stay inside then, everywhere has air conditioning. Bahrain is quite an open country and I haven't had any problems adapting to the culture or anything (ie it's perfectly fine to get drunk in pubs/clubs, but booze is hard to come by outside that, also pork is really hard to find). Negatives are that Bahrain is quite a small country and I'd say if you were here for the whole five years you'd run out of things to do. There are a few Irish people but they're mostly people of Asian ethnicity whose family moved to Ireland. If you're paying full fees RCSI Bahrain is much much cheaper than Dublin, and I think academically it's just as good as what I have experienced in Dublin thus far. There's a lot of collaboration between the two colleges so the coursework is much the same. A difference here though is that they don't use cadavers (bodies) for anatomy, they use plastic models which are good, but I much prefer the cadavers and dissecting in Dublin. Here the majority are Canadian students, there are a few from South Africa, the UK, India, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Palestine, Pakistan. Everyone is really awesome too. The only other course here is Nursing but they don't really interact with the meds much. Ummmm, fun things to do, I just came back from Dubai, a 55min flight away, round trip plane tickets cost €170 and it was amazing, there's a football team, basketball, diving club, running, the football/basketball courts are nice, gym is alright. Food is much the same as home, prices too. That's all I can think of for now... If you have more to ask email me at conorhaugh@rcsi.ie