Gamsat 2013

Somalion · 12-07-2013 12:30am

Stephan Grundy wrote: »

Definitely RCSI for me...nice to know I won't be the only *really* older student there.

But hey, my father's still running his department (nutrition and metabolic diseases) at UT Southwestern at the age of 80, so I figure in spite of my late start I've still got plenty of mileage left in me.

At the end of the day, if it's something you think you'll love it'll be worth it regardless of when you start. Fair play for taking the step though!

mabs12 · 17-07-2013 1:56pm

Is your real name Stephan Grundy? ...as in the author?

Stephan Grundy · 17-07-2013 2:17pm

mabs12 wrote: »

Is your real name Stephan Grundy? ...as in the author?

Author of Rhinegold, Attila's Treasure, and Gilgamesh, among others...yes, that's me! (unless there's another Stephan Grundy out there writing books that I don't know about)

Imperial_Ldn · 17-07-2013 3:38pm

Stephan Grundy wrote: »

Author of Rhinegold, Attila's Treasure, and Gilgamesh, among others...yes, that's me! (unless there's another Stephan Grundy out there writing books that I don't know about)

wow this is amazing!

Hypnos · 18-07-2013 8:57am

Stephan Grundy wrote: »

Author of Rhinegold, Attila's Treasure, and Gilgamesh, among others...yes, that's me! (unless there's another Stephan Grundy out there writing books that I don't know about)

You have an impressive set of accolades there. What made you take such a sharp turn from writing to med school? If you don't mind me asking...

Imperial_Ldn · 18-07-2013 10:04am

Finally someone will be qualified to use mythological artchetypes to develop psychotherapeutic intervenions

Stephan Grundy · 18-07-2013 10:09am

Hypnos wrote: »

You have an impressive set of accolades there. What made you take such a sharp turn from writing to med school? If you don't mind me asking...

A sharp downturn in the publishing business (they went into a period of desperation, when they were basically only printing authors who were guaranteed best-sellers and new authors who they thought they could make into the new hot sensations), plus an agent who decided her time was not well-spent going for the steadier, but smaller, "genre" contracts.

I'd actually grown up thinking I was going to be a doctor, but then I discovered that I could write, so it's not so much a single sharp turn as a U-turn.

pc11 · 18-07-2013 11:03am

Stephan Grundy wrote: »

A sharp downturn in the publishing business (they went into a period of desperation, when they were basically only printing authors who were guaranteed best-sellers and new authors who they thought they could make into the new hot sensations), plus an agent who decided her time was not well-spent going for the steadier, but smaller, "genre" contracts.

I'd actually grown up thinking I was going to be a doctor, but then I discovered that I could write, so it's not so much a single sharp turn as a U-turn.

That's really interesting Stephan. I have to ask, how did you do in SI and SII of GAMSAT given that you're a successful writer? (if you don't mind)

Imperial_Ldn · 18-07-2013 11:49am

can non-eus do gamsat?

pc11 · 18-07-2013 12:07pm

Has anyone heard anything from CAO about our paperwork and eligibility? It's getting close to offers time, I would have expected word by now.

nomoreexams · 18-07-2013 12:17pm

pc11 wrote: »

Has anyone heard anything from CAO about our paperwork and eligibility? It's getting close to offers time, I would have expected word by now.

I heard from them back in April about documents & eligibility.

"The institutions concerned have reviewed your application and based on the
documentation received, they have deemed you eligible to compete for a place in
Graduate Medicine."

pc11 · 18-07-2013 12:21pm

nomoreexams wrote: »

I heard from them back in April about documents & eligibility.

"The institutions concerned have reviewed your application and based on the
documentation received, they have deemed you eligible to compete for a place in
Graduate Medicine."

Yeah, that's cos you're not a raging eejit and you got the docs in on time, whereas I was late so I'm waiting to hear . They were supposed to meet in early July. CAO told me I would be ok to be reviewed then too, but warned me they would not accept late people after this year.

ojomhgoek · 18-07-2013 12:24pm

i'm a 2013 graduate so i only had my transcripts in june so i was working against the july 15th deadline, haven't heard back yet either.

pc11 · 18-07-2013 12:28pm

ojomhgoek wrote: »

i'm a 2013 graduate so i only had my transcripts in june so i was working against the july 15th deadline, haven't heard back yet either.

Ah, yes of course, the new grad deadline was July 15th so they won't meet before then. I presume it will have to be very quickly after the 15th, offers are due in only a couple of week.

02ma · 18-07-2013 1:55pm

That email came last year on Friday 20th July so at a guess I'd say it's due tomorrow.

ojomhgoek · 18-07-2013 5:39pm

Just got my eligibility email there.

Stephan Grundy · 18-07-2013 8:27pm

I just got the same letter about ineligibility I got in April - at which time I called the Director of Admissions as RCSI, was told all they needed was my PPSN for EU status (which I had sent in November, but they apparently lost it, etc.) - sent it in, called several times to check that it was in my file.

What on earth?

And, of course, they pulled the usual trick of sending the message at 5 PM, to make sure I'll have a night of misery before I can find out what the problem is and how to fix it before July 24...

(Oh, and btw, my SI was 77 and my SII 76)

pc11 · 18-07-2013 9:06pm

ojomhgoek wrote: »

Just got my eligibility email there.

Got it too, that's a relief.

Only the barrier of the loan now.

j.mcdrmd · 19-07-2013 12:54am

pc11 wrote: »

Got it too, that's a relief.

Only the barrier of the loan now.

How do you plan to pay back on the loan?

pc11 · 19-07-2013 9:46am

j.mcdrmd wrote: »

How do you plan to pay back on the loan?

With considerable difficulty, no doubt.

But, first I need to get the loan, and then I have to make the final decision whether to go ahead with GEM. As I've posted here before, it's very daunting and I have many doubts, including financially.

Stephan Grundy · 19-07-2013 9:59am

Half an hour until I can check with the Director of Admissions to find out what went wrong...if this is another CAO screwup, I'm really going to be annoyed. Just terrified now that they changed the EU-status rules between April and now.

susieoscar · 19-07-2013 10:20am

Hello,

I am new to the boards and freaking out after reading about this years gamsat scores and the increase in applicants!

As a general feeling, will a score of 59 cut it for Dublin this year (either school)?

Thoughts?

Thanks

pc11 · 19-07-2013 10:42am

susieoscar wrote: »

Hello,

I am new to the boards and freaking out after reading about this years gamsat scores and the increase in applicants!

As a general feeling, will a score of 59 cut it for Dublin this year (either school)?

Thoughts?

Thanks

To be honest, no-one really knows, we can do little more than guess. But, I think the consensus would be that 59 would have a well over 50% chance of an offer from UCD/RCSI.

That said, what do you have as No. 3? If you're keen to go ahead this year, I would make contingency plans to be safe, better to plan than fret I would say.

pc11 · 19-07-2013 10:45am

I see the CAO website now confirms that Round 0 offers (ie GEM) will be out from 6.00AM on Thursday, August 1st - that's less than 2 weeks from today!

The reply date is just 1 week later on August 8th. If you are arranging bank loans, don't forget that week includes a Bank Holiday so we need to move quickly.

RCSI in particular told me they will start contacting those with offers pretty quickly to see if they intend to take them, they are apparently quite proactive with this.

Stephan Grundy · 19-07-2013 11:14am

Massive relief, not unmingled with annoyance.

Today, the director of admissions at RCSI - the same lady who told me in April that all I needed to send was my PPSN - told me that, actually, all residents in the State get PPSNs regardless of tax status, so what they really need is my tax returns for 3 of the last 5 years.

No problem - except that if she'd told me that in April, I could have avoided all this mess. Now I have to drive from Birr to Limerick to pick up the papers at my tax accountant's office, to make *sure* they're in and confirmed by Wednesday - and CAO only accepts appeal letters by post, you can't drop them off yourself!

Aargh, but at least the problem is sortable!

amorris452 · 19-07-2013 11:35am

Does anyone know what the craic is with this appeals process and how long it takes? As in, will it be sorted in time for the Round 0 offers? Having a mini heart attack here, lol.

pc11 · 19-07-2013 3:28pm

Stephan Grundy wrote: »

Massive relief, not unmingled with annoyance.

Today, the director of admissions at RCSI - the same lady who told me in April that all I needed to send was my PPSN - told me that, actually, all residents in the State get PPSNs regardless of tax status, so what they really need is my tax returns for 3 of the last 5 years.

No problem - except that if she'd told me that in April, I could have avoided all this mess. Now I have to drive from Birr to Limerick to pick up the papers at my tax accountant's office, to make *sure* they're in and confirmed by Wednesday - and CAO only accepts appeal letters by post, you can't drop them off yourself!

Aargh, but at least the problem is sortable!

That sucks Stephan, best of luck with sorting it all out.

pc11 · 19-07-2013 3:29pm

amorris452 wrote: »

Does anyone know what the craic is with this appeals process and how long it takes? As in, will it be sorted in time for the Round 0 offers? Having a mini heart attack here, lol.

You have until July 25th I gather. What is the problem they have with your application? I presume you contacted the college right away?

Stephan Grundy · 19-07-2013 3:38pm

It's until Wednesday to sort it - and the appeals have to arrive in the post.

So, I gather that everything is done in time for the Round 0 offers - it would have to be. I've just mailed my documents after a drive to Limerick - and this time, cunningly got my tax accountant to ring the Admissions Director at RCSI to personally confirm with her that what they prepared would be sufficient. Which means that in the event that anything else goes funny with this, I have a witness who can say that the documents were confirmed as acceptable by the Admissions Director.

Still going to be sweating bullets until I have my acceptance letter in hand, though, given the appalling history thus far.

I mean: would it have killed them to tell me that I needed my tax documents to prove I'd been paying taxes for at least three out of the last five years back in November? Or in April, when I called about the EU status thing again? My father wasn't kidding about medicine being a high-stress profession, I'm highly stressed already and haven't even gotten an acceptance letter yet!

amorris452 · 19-07-2013 3:42pm

pc11 wrote: »

You have until July 25th I gather. What is the problem they have with your application? I presume you contacted the college right away?

Yeah contacted them this morning, they're saying my transcript isn't original, which it is. But I've only graduated this year so I've gotten my degree cert now since the closing date for evidence so gonna send a copy of that as well along with my another copy of my transcript. I was told to get them both certified by Garda as my college is in England. Oh the drama! Lol. Hopefully I'll get this stuff away today was just wondering when they'd get back to us again.

Gamsat 2013

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