RCSI vs UCD GEM 2016

movingtothe70s

I know this is not a very original topic but I would love to get any up to date advice available. This is a monster post but I need to put down the thoughts that are constantly rolling around my head about this question! I am fortunate in having a 65 Gamsat score and am weighing up the pros & cons of which Dublin med school to choose for GEM 2016 entry. I have attended both open days (RCSI one was GEM oriented whereas UCD was mostly populated by school leavers) RCSI's open day left me very excited about the prospect of studying medicine & I didn't really get the same rush of enthusiasm from visiting UCD. If I thought I would get better teaching in any particular school, that is hands down where I would choose but I am finding that difficult to determine. I am also thinking a bit about the logistics of attending each school. I am in my early-mid 30s & haven't really studied for a long time so despite having an allied health BSc and having worked in hospitals for my whole professional career I'm terrified! My undergrad was a case of being in a small class who were stuck on to the med class for a lot of our first 2 years and we were virtually ignored as the less important people in the room as we not meds. I WANT to learn well this time & just didn't get any support in this at undergrad so need to get it right this time! I am also afraid of basing my decision on shiny marketing and missing the important insider info I might glean from boards! Here are my notes for each as they stand, I would love it if any current/former students could point out any misconceptions I might have, or highlight any additional points to note.

UCD

Large class size ~100 - any issues with getting lost in the crowd?
Large teaching hospitals in Dublin - do you get to spend most of your clinical attachments in Dublin then or are there many placements outside Dublin?
Facilities - I know the health sciences building in UCD is new, but to be honest the med part looked very tired when I visited & we were shown around by one of the security guards, rooms looked like they were in progress of being cleared out/cleaned when I was there (though we did see the mock ward & were told that students can film themselves and watch back their clinical skills, which was impressive) - did I miss something otherwise about the building?
Any issue with amounts of resources available considering the large number of med students overall eg books from the library?
Quality of teaching: a consultant I spoke to said he heard teaching at UCD could be 'patchy' (not my opinion, his, please don't kill me) is this unfounded or not?
'All in one' campus - all lectures delivered in the one place.
Cheaper fees (I got asked by another consultant when I said I was leaning towards UCD: why, is it cheaper? which made me feel like I was being told that it was inferior & the only reason I would choose there was for that reason - I didn't get the opportunity to ask him to elaborate)

RCSI

Very slick marketing - is this indicative of generally being polished & put together in all aspects or just that they spent loads of money on good graphic design?
Smaller class size - I got the feeling from them that you would be more nurtured through the course & get lots of attention - is this actually correct?
Dedicated GEM buildings (but they are scattered all over the place) I saw Connolly at the open day but really only saw some classrooms and no other facilities as such
Lectures in both Sandyford & St Stephen's Green in 1st year - do you spend an awful lot of time traipsing about between different places? I don't mind inconvenience - I am considering medicine - but I get the impression that you are moving around a lot & time spent travelling is time not available for studying (or eating, sleeping etc) is that correct?
I was told by the same consultant who made the 'patchy' comment above, that as RCSI market so heavily to foreign students, that he felt they were more under pressure to deliver a high standard of teaching as negative reporting of their standards online could hurt them a lot internationally (again, his opinion, not mine).
More expensive fees - is it actually worth the extra money?
RCSI are building a large new building where the flats used to be on York Street - will this have any effect on the Gems?
RCSI is obviously health science only - more focused? (I've done the college thing already & am not too bothered about societies etc)

I need to put this question to bed before it drives me mad. If the standard of teaching is equal, the all in one place aspect & the likely more time on placement in Dublin could be the winner for UCD. RCSI just seemed to have an X factor that I can't shake off however I'm afraid of being scattered all over the place on placement in Ballynowhere & increasing my carbon footprint through lots of travel! Please help!

Anita Blow

Currently in UCD GEM. There's really a negligible difference in teaching between the universities. Teaching is to a very high standard in all the Irish medical schools. The best advice is to choose the university whose teaching hospitals are most convenient for you to get to. In UCD you pick either the Mater or Vincent's as your base hospital, and you spend around 70% of your placements in that hospital. The other 30% you are sent to GPs, smaller hospitals etc. I'd imagine UCD would have the least peripheral (outside Dublin) placements though, given how many affiliated hospitals they have in Dublin and the capacity of Mater and SVUH which are both very large.

With regards to the above points, I'd have no issue with teaching/facilities/class size in UCD. In terms of class size it's around 110 but our class gets on fantastic and with the other GEM years too.
In terms of the health science building, it's very modern. We find the facilities there great and the library is beautiful to study in- a big glass cube.
Regarding the teaching, I wouldn't have any massive complaints. You're always going to have consultants who aren't as good at teaching as others, but that happens in all schools. Over all I found the lecturers great and actively sought feedback to improve their course. They'd put on extra lectures and tutorials to cover aspects people found difficult and would do drop-in clinics where you could go for 1-on-1 teaching on any particular part of the course you found difficult.

Genuinely though I would say there is no difference with RCSI so again, make your decision based on the practical aspects of getting to hospitals for 7am starts etc

movingtothe70s

Thank you so much Anita Blow, that was really helpful. I'm glad to see that you are enjoying your experience at UCD, I think perhaps I need to visit campus again to make my decision but that was all very reassuring. Its great to hear that the lecturers are so approachable, I wish I could have said the same for my previous university experience! Enjoy your summer break! Do you have any tips for what to brush up on before term starts? Anything particularly challenging that you wish you had gotten a head start on?

Anita Blow

Well UCD have a really extensive peer mentor programme so they'd get you well setup with what you need to know to do well in first year. They take you on your first week and show you the campus, discuss the course, answer questions and do some team-building in your groups of 5 students. I found that fairly helpful, and there's a good few mixers with the other GEM years to help you settle in and get to know everyone.

I'd say enjoy your summer and don't worry too much about getting a head start on anything! Without lecture slides or knowing the lecturer, it'd be very difficult to know what stuff to focus on. My advice would be to hit the ground running when you do start though. GEM is very condensed, and in first year you'll sit a monster module called MBLD which is seven 22-lecture undergraduate modules condensed into 45 lectures. So spend an hour or two in the library per day at the start, but also enjoy the social aspect of med school. It's easy to manage both!

sReq | uTeK

From what I've heard UCD trumps RCSI in terms of placements in Dublin Universities (Mater and Vincents), for that reason alone as I would want to stay in Dublin I'd be attending UCD.

Caolan

sReq | uTeK wrote: »

From what I've heard UCD trumps RCSI in terms of placements in Dublin Universities (Mater and Vincents), for that reason alone as I would want to stay in Dublin I'd be attending UCD.

UCD has teaching hospitals in Vincent's and Mater but has over twice as many grad students (competing with twice as many undergrad students) - so placement opportunities in Dublin are relatively the same.

I'm a mature RCSI student and really enjoy it. Lots of opportunities and supports are provided and delighted I chose it- people will usually big up their own college and likewise I feel If anyone picks RCSI I don't think it will disappoint them, but both have excellent reputations. I like RCSI because it has a good atmosphere, excellent class mates and is a dedicated healthcare college. It has its cons too, but generally it suits me well.

I think someone above said it best when they said to take the geography of teaching hospitals into account. You could spend 50% of your education in one of these hospitals. RCSI is mainly Beaumont. So I think research your access and what suits you best and give this suitable weighting when making your decision.

Good luck either way!

sReq | uTeK

Caolan wrote: »

UCD has teaching hospitals in Vincent's and Mater but has over twice as many grad students (competing with twice as many undergrad students) - so placement opportunities in Dublin are relatively the same.

I'm a mature RCSI student and really enjoy it. Lots of opportunities and supports are provided and delighted I chose it- people will usually big up their own college and likewise I feel If anyone picks RCSI I don't think it will disappoint them, but both have excellent reputations. I like RCSI because it has a good atmosphere, excellent class mates and is a dedicated healthcare college. It has its cons too, but generally it suits me well.

I think someone above said it best when they said to take the geography of teaching hospitals into account. You could spend 50% of your education in one of these hospitals. RCSI is mainly Beaumont. So I think research your access and what suits you best and give this suitable weighting when making your decision.

Good luck either way!

TY, again its only what I've heard. I'd be close to UCD also, a 5 minutes walk which would seem attractive to me.

Again I dont think I'd be or anyone else would be disappointed with any of them they both come highly recommended.

movingtothe70s

Thanks everyone, having seen what you've all said, I'm glad to see that everyone seems to be happy wherever they choose to study (or they're being very diplomatic ) so as I suspected, it is down to the logistics of it. For me, I think it's going to be UCD if they'll have me! Good luck everyone in making your decision and perhaps we'll meet in person one day!

movingtothe70s

For anyone who's interested, there is a page that links to the module descriptors online for UCD's 2015/16 programme, including the monstrous MBLD that Anita Blow mentioned above!

I can't post the link but if you search for ucd gem central you'll find a really useful page.

Anita Blow

movingtothe70s wrote: »

For anyone who's interested, there is a page that links to the module descriptors online for UCD's 2015/16 programme, including the monstrous MBLD that Anita Blow mentioned above!

I can't post the link but if you search for ucd gem central you'll find a really useful page.

Sure if you've anymore questions let me know

eimear_1993

Which have you put down first on the CAO? Surely it's too late now to change for 2016 entry?

pfannkuchen

eimear_1993 wrote: »

Which have you put down first on the CAO? Surely it's too late now to change for 2016 entry?

It's too late to make a new application, but you can change the order of your choices up until July 1st as far as I know.

movingtothe70s

Yes pfannkuchen is correct, change of mind is open until July 1st. You can't add restricted entry courses to your application, but you can change the order of preference.