GEM - Open Evening - 25 Nov 2009

[zepplin]

I also went! Don't have the comparison with RCSI's open day as I registered for that too late but thought overall it was a good experience. There were approximately 80 people there but a lot said they were just trying to find out info. It was a bit unstructured at the start but the GEM students i was talking to were lovely and really informative and i thought the facilities were great I don't know if it was just the students I was talking to but it seemed like it might have been a (slightly!) less full-on work load first semester then what i've heard from RCSI GEP. They seem to have some patient contact early on in fairness, our student said they were taking histories from trained patients within the first week, did some home visits and they have a practice ward on site. Anatomy lab is really well ventilated and bright. It's great to have the increase in places confirmed officially! Overall I'm probably going to put RCSI first because their program is more familiar to me but I feel a lot more confident about UCD's program now and it doesn't seem like a 'second choice'.

[Vmash]

I think most people I've spoken to are leaning towards Surgeons for 1st choice.

I am going to ask a very silly question does it bother anyone that UCD ranks around 450 in the world and surgeons ranks 10 times (about 4680) places below it? Or I'm I being petty

[Dr Freddy]

That is a good point to make.

Can you post the link where the global rankings are??

Thanks

[Jakkass]

does it bother anyone that UCD ranks around 450 in the world and surgeons ranks 10 times (about 4680) places below it? Or I'm I being petty

Is that university rankings or medical school rankings? I'm almost certain it's university rankings, so it's obvious that UCD would be better because it's got a huge campus, facilities, many different departments, huge staff and student numbers, sporting success, more research output etc. Those are the measures that determine the rank.

But when it comes down to just is it a better med school, there's simply no way RCSI could rank that much lower.

[Vmash]

Hey Jackass you're right, it is uni rankings not med school rankings (relief!) There are different rankings depending on which you want to go with, here's the one that make me ask my question; World Universities' ranking on the Web: Home.

I could not find rankings for med schools outside the UK and US, since Ireland is a small country with about 5 (now 6) med schools, its quite difficult to compare as Trinity is always ranked 1st due to prestige, research, long academic history, facilities, student + staff numbers etc.
But as J said Surgeons will not come that low when ranked on Med terms (I hope).

Sorry for the trouble but I did warn that I was going to ask a silly question

[zepplin]

let's just be glad if anywhere takes us

[rbrbrb]

Did they mention anything about what the GAMSAT cut off might be for next year? With the increase in places it should stay the same I reckon but I'm not sure. I got 62 so I'm wondering is it worth a repeat in March just to be sure??

[AlaCourt]

Did they mention anything about what the GAMSAT cut off might be for next year? With the increase in places it should stay the same I reckon but I'm not sure. I got 62 so I'm wondering is it worth a repeat in March just to be sure??

They don't set a "cut-off". The level you see for last year is just the score that the lowest scoring student that was accepted onto a course got. So while they might be able to guess at it, that's all it would be, a guess. More ppl are applying for medicine this year with the recession, but with the increase in places, well, that all just makes predictions all the harder.
I'd check to see where you got on the GAMSAT graph. I've heard top 20% is usually you sorted (although don't quote me on that). 62 is a good score though.

[UCD Medicine]

Thank you to everyone who attended our GEM open evening. We are pleased that you found interactions with the students to be particularly useful. Our students are extremely generous with their time and they are our best ambassadors.

In our experience, seeing the facilities and chatting with existing students or staff is the most useful way of getting a feel for what UCD Medicine has to offer. For this reasons we deliberately didn't overly structure the evening and worked hard to avoid a "UCD Sales Pitch".

If there are particular questions that you would like to have answered, please feel free to contact us on GEM@UCD.ie.

We can't tell you what the GAMSAT cut-off will be in 2010 as this is a function of supply and demand. As UCD Medicine is the most popular among Irish students and demand >> supply, we expect it will remain at a similar level despite the increased number of places.

You should be careful about international rankings which usually apply to the whole university. Also some rankings have unusual criteria (e.g. number of nobel laurates) which are designed to maintain the status quo. While obviously we would say that UCD Medicine is a strong, internationally recognised institution, so too are the other established Irish Medical Schools. We would have no hesitation in endorsing RCSI as a fine teaching establishment and one that we collaborate in many research programmes.

Best wishes,
UCD Medicine

[liberal]

While obviously we would say that UCD Medicine is a strong, internationally recognised institution, so too are the other established Irish Medical Schools.

UL bashing

I didnt get a chance to attend the open evening, is UCD GEM a purely PBL based course? Or does it offer didadactic elements? Thanks