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How beneficial is a masters degree for GEM?

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  • 20-05-2014 6:36pm
    #1
    outnumbered
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,696 ✭✭✭


    Hi All,
    I am a current Human Health and Disease student in TCD. I missed out on med and decided that GEM would be the best route for me.
    I am really interested in what I am studying at the moment but still long for clinical medicine and patient contact. I was looking at some masters which i could do. One masters in the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm really caught me eye- Biomedicine. It's two years long and completely free. I know that I would find it very interesting but still would want to do medicine. By the time my masters is finished i would be 23, so still young.
    GEM in ireland is out of the question for me since it's too expensive and the loan is "fees only", so i would be applying in the UK.
    My question is, how useful would this masters be to my career in medicine and to my application for medicine in the UK? With the current course I am in, it would be fairly acceptable to get in without a masters, wouldn't it?
    I am researching all this very soon but judging how quickly the years are going, i want to know where I am going after this degree.


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    #2
    Nonoperational
    Registered Users Posts: 7,401 ✭✭✭Nonoperational


    Just make sure you get a 2.1H in your primary degree in case you do get in a position to do GEM in Ireland. The masters would be interesting, but to be honest pretty much not at all useful for medicine. It may help with parts, but it's quite a specific course medicine, and you will be under no illusion what you need to know. A lot of it requires detailed recall to so a masters you did a few years ago won't be much help.

    If you really want to do it, get a 2.1H and get a GAMSAT that will allow you go to the UK. I'd even venture to suggest that working for the 2 years the masters would take and saving to do it in Ireland would be a more certain route.

    Don't let me put you off the masters if you want to do it, it could be great, but probably won't make a huge difference to your medical degree if and when you do it.


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    #3
    outnumbered
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,696 ✭✭✭outnumbered


    Nonoperational wrote: »
    Just make sure you get a 2.1H in your primary degree in case you do get in a position to do GEM in Ireland. The masters would be interesting, but to be honest pretty much not at all useful for medicine. It may help with parts, but it's quite a specific course medicine, and you will be under no illusion what you need to know. A lot of it requires detailed recall to so a masters you did a few years ago won't be much help.

    If you really want to do it, get a 2.1H and get a GAMSAT that will allow you go to the UK. I'd even venture to suggest that working for the 2 years the masters would take and saving to do it in Ireland would be a more certain route.

    Don't let me put you off the masters if you want to do it, it could be great, but probably won't make a huge difference to your medical degree if and when you do it.
    Thanks for the reply!
    You are right in what you say.. although, even living in stockholm is something in itself!
    But maybe it's best to go straight into medicine...


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    #4
    pc11
    Registered Users Posts: 979 ✭✭✭pc11


    Nonoperational wrote: »
    Just make sure you get a 2.1H in your primary degree in case you do get in a position to do GEM in Ireland. The masters would be interesting, but to be honest pretty much not at all useful for medicine. It may help with parts, but it's quite a specific course medicine, and you will be under no illusion what you need to know. A lot of it requires detailed recall to so a masters you did a few years ago won't be much help.

    If you really want to do it, get a 2.1H and get a GAMSAT that will allow you go to the UK. I'd even venture to suggest that working for the 2 years the masters would take and saving to do it in Ireland would be a more certain route.

    Don't let me put you off the masters if you want to do it, it could be great, but probably won't make a huge difference to your medical degree if and when you do it.

    I completely agree with every word of this. Work for 2 years, save, do GEM in Ireland (if you wish).


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    #5
    face_plant
    Registered Users Posts: 19 ✭face_plant


    Something to be aware of in respect to applying for GEM courses in the UK is that they are extremely competitive, moreso that in Ireland. Also the entry requirements vary significantly; some require the GAMSAT, some require the UKCAT, etc. In addition, all the universities that run these courses interview. As a result, getting in to a GEM course in the UK is less certain than in Ireland because you might have the best exam results ever, but if you have a bad day at the interview, you're out of luck. Here you just have to get the required mark on the GAMSAT and you're in.


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