University of Limerick Interns

Flange/Flanders

Hi guys,

If anyone has been taking any notice of the GAMSAT thread in the GAMSAT forum, they will be well aware of the debate regarding the UL gradmed course. There's lots of disparaging remarks from some posters and then others defending the course.

So my question is, after the first year of UL grads currently completing their intern year, what is your experience? Have you coped adequately with the work load and has your knowledge been up to scratch?

And for other doctors who work with interns. How do the UL grads match up to other medical schools? Im sure you'll have more and less competent grads anywhere but is the average competancy the same.

Please no trolls, I am just looking for honest posts, as a perspective UL student, I want to know will UL give me as good an education as any other med school.

Thanks.

bluewall

"So my question is, after the first year of UL grads currently completing their intern year, what is your experience? Have you coped adequately with the work load and has your knowledge been up to scratch?"

Despite the potential innocence of this question, I guarantee you that no UL student, past or present, would dignify that kind of question with a response.

To my knowledge, UL graduates have performed well in their intern year (there has only been one cohort so far, so it's very early to make any assumptions). I know that 2 UL students secured places on the RSCI GP training scheme which has 15 places in total - a pretty good return considering. From the doctors I have encountered that are directly involved in a working capacity with these graduates, there has been nothing but good feedback so far.

I have also heard that a very high number, if not all, canadian students graduating from UL this year managed to match in Canada, e.g. they have all secured places in hospitals for training. This means that the school must be doing something right seeing as the training schemes in Canada are already over-subscribed by domestic students, before taking into account the large numbers of Canadians training in medical schools worldwide.

If I were you, I would:

1) Do your own first hand research on UL and any other college you are interested in.
2) Take anything you read on boards with a pinch of salt and realise that many of the people on here that contribute opinions on UL (and other medical schools) do so with limited factual knowledge. Very often their aim is to antagonise and troll, although some raise valid points from time to time.
3) Use all the information you can gather on university websites regarding course curriculum etc. to weigh up your pro's and cons
4) Realise that because RSCI requires the highest GAMSAT points and UL requires the least, it is only a reflection of the number of students they take in from year to year. Cutoffs are controlled by the CAO - not the college, and therefore does not necessarily correlate in any way (someone show me hard research suggesting otherwise) to one medical school being better than another based on these entry requirements.
5) One way or the other, if you make it through you are going to be a doctor at the end of the day, just the same as any other intern across the country (equally clueless and equally at the bottom of the chain). It is up to you as to what you make of it from that point on.

Best of luck.

Flange/Flanders

bluewall wrote: »

"So my question is, after the first year of UL grads currently completing their intern year, what is your experience? Have you coped adequately with the work load and has your knowledge been up to scratch?"

Despite the potential innocence of this question, I guarantee you that no UL student, past or present, would dignify that kind of question with a response.

To my knowledge, UL graduates have performed well in their intern year (there has only been one cohort so far, so it's very early to make any assumptions). I know that 2 UL students secured places on the RSCI GP training scheme which has 15 places in total - a pretty good return considering. From the doctors I have encountered that are directly involved in a working capacity with these graduates, there has been nothing but good feedback so far.

I have also heard that a very high number, if not all, canadian students graduating from UL this year managed to match in Canada, e.g. they have all secured places in hospitals for training. This means that the school must be doing something right seeing as the training schemes in Canada are already over-subscribed by domestic students, before taking into account the large numbers of Canadians training in medical schools worldwide.

If I were you, I would:

1) Do your own first hand research on UL and any other college you are interested in.
2) Take anything you read on boards with a pinch of salt and realise that many of the people on here that contribute opinions on UL (and other medical schools) do so with limited factual knowledge. Very often their aim is to antagonise and troll, although some raise valid points from time to time.
3) Use all the information you can gather on university websites regarding course curriculum etc. to weigh up your pro's and cons
4) Realise that because RSCI requires the highest GAMSAT points and UL requires the least, it is only a reflection of the number of students they take in from year to year. Cutoffs are controlled by the CAO - not the college, and therefore does not necessarily correlate in any way (someone show me hard research suggesting otherwise) to one medical school being better than another based on these entry requirements.
5) One way or the other, if you make it through you are going to be a doctor at the end of the day, just the same as any other intern across the country (equally clueless and equally at the bottom of the chain). It is up to you as to what you make of it from that point on.

Best of luck.

Hi Bluewall,

Yeah, it was a completely innocent question and I realise that it was a bit of a daft question. I know that CAO points dont make a scratch about the quality of the course and I of course realise that the Dublin courses would naturally be higher for geographical reasons, I was only asking about UL interns as
1) it is a new medical school and
2) It has a different style of teaching.

I've done plenty of research about all the medical schools tho I do not know anyone who is directly working with UL interns so short of going down to ask a consultant....

Thanks anyway.