Ireland or Caribbean?

[Michael W48]

Hi

I am a resident of Alberta going to Queen's University in Ontario, Canada. I have applied to premedicine (3rd year of it) at St. Georges and got an interview (This means that to get my MD I would do this third year of pre-med then 4 yrs of med = 5 years total). I also just got accepted into medicine at University College Dublin in Ireland (5 yr. program). I have done two years at Queen's. I am either going to Ireland or St.Georges for sure next year and I don't know which to pick. My final goal is to practice medicine in the States. I realize that SGU teaches the American curriculum and allows you to make contacts while you do rotations in the states - but the Irish school has a 100% success for their their Canadian students recieving residencies in the states after passing the UCLME (which they all do). It also has a good reputation. Cost is not an issue (the difference isn't very much).

Does anyone know how good a school University College Dublin is?

Does anyone know how hard it is to do well and prepare for the UCLME after going through a European curriculum? I don't wan't to make life hard by learning two different curriculums and struggling on the UCLME or possibly not passing.

Any thoughts on my situation? Thanks for the help

Mike

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[leorl]

My opinion will be biased because I don't know much about the Caribbean schools. What I can tell you is that UCD, and the other Irish schools are very well-reputed in the US, and that there are quite a lot of UCD medical graduates practicing in the US. The Irish schools don't cater to Americans/North Americans (well, supposedly. But they sort of do) so nothing will be handed to you in terms of USMLE prep, etc. But you study that stuff on your own anyway. Going the Irish route would provide you a very good route into medicine. Having said that, I don't really know anything about SGU.

The thing I think you'd have to go on is possibly location. Caribbean sounds nice, but I've heard that living conditions aren't quite so nice - I don't really want to say anything about that because it's all heresay to me and I don't know definite facts. Actually, if you visit the Caribbean forum in the International boards, you might be able to get more insight (if you haven't done so already). And I know you say that money isn't big concern, but think carefully about that one. The US and Canadian dollars have seriously slid against the Euro, with no end in sight. That really pushes up costs. Tuition might be cheaper still than going to school in the US, but living expenses/food/going out can add up.

Anyway, hope that helps. keep posting if you've got more q's!