UCD undergrad medicine

Keanoutd

Hi there!

I'm an international student that is keen to apply to UCD. I've visited their website and have some questions to ask regarding the undergrad medical programme. Wrote in to UCD and they just gave me a link for the prospectus, which didn't really answer my questions. Would appreciate it if current students can help me out

A) it's stated that UCD doesn't use PBL? Is it a medical school that uses traditional teaching methods or a combination of both traditional and PBL?

Can I please know what the class size is ? It's stated that class sizes are small.

C) are all students allowed to undertake a research project abroad ?

Thanks ! Look forward to hearing from you guys!

jenga-jen

I'm in the graduate entry class, which joins with the undergrad class for clinical years.

PBL has limited use in UCD, especially when compared to the likes of UL. It was 24 sessions in the year for the Grad Entry. Can't comment for Undergrad which I know you're applying for. It's largely lectures, tutorials, seminars and practical work (dissection, clinical skills etc)

Research projects abroad are usually an open competition when organised by the University and can also, in some cases, be funded. However, if you want to complete a research project abroad which you've organised yourself then it's possible to do this during leave periods. People have taken a year out for research during their degree but obviously they are a year behind then.

Class size and the proportion of undergrads to grad entry students has varied over the last few years

drbtrenier

Keanoutd wrote: »

Hi there!

I'm an international student that is keen to apply to UCD. I've visited their website and have some questions to ask regarding the undergrad medical programme. Wrote in to UCD and they just gave me a link for the prospectus, which didn't really answer my questions. Would appreciate it if current students can help me out

A) it's stated that UCD doesn't use PBL? Is it a medical school that uses traditional teaching methods or a combination of both traditional and PBL?

Can I please know what the class size is ? It's stated that class sizes are small.

C) are all students allowed to undertake a research project abroad ?

Thanks ! Look forward to hearing from you guys!

Hi there, I'm in UCD undergrad Med, did premed (all school-leavers do!). Hope I'll be able to answer your questions somewhat. If you want to know more then PM me!

1. So far there's been very little PBL, occasionally in tutorials or seminars but the majority of our teaching is via lectures. In tutorials, seminars, practicals, etc, we're encouraged to think for ourselves and work things out.

2. Our class when we started had about 80 of us, which was a really nice number - not so small that you were stuck with the same people all the time, and not so big that it was really difficult to get to know everyone. Med is a really tight-knit class and a lot of our socialising is done together. For seminars and stuff like that, we're generally in smaller groups than that though, 20-30-ish. The year grows at the beginning of 1st Med (ie 2nd year) with people coming in who didn't do premed. Also a group from Malaysia come over (around 80 of them per year) to do pre-clinical years here and then go home for hospital placements.

3. I'm not really sure about research projects or what the story is with them, haven't looked into it to be honest, but the teaching staff encourage doing research in general, like summer programmes and that sort of thing, so I would guess they would be very facilitating.