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My RCSI Experience
- Thread starter IrishDR
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What you said does make sense. I would recommend UCD/TCD or other Irish schools over RCSI if for nothing but the cost. Having seen the video of RCSI facilities I wasn't very impressed, looked very average too be honest.
With that being said, the Caribbean isn't a much better option either. Now i don't know how disorganized the classes are or how "biased" the profs many of the Caribbean schools are located on islands with intermittent electricity outages and are very boring apart from the beach. The environment will be rigorously competitive because there are all students who want to make it back, whereas in Ireland or the UK there are a fewer number of students and very likely a more collaborative atmosphere.
Ireland does say that you will be classified as an IMG when you apply, so i don't think you should be holding that against them now.
I wonder, how does your school mark? My school marks solely on mid terms and final exams and gives out a mark and your class rank (private). They also explain the marking scheme and publish the # of students in each rank.
The multiple choice is just fed through the machine. Your name is not included on the written exam paper and there are about 10 different examiners marking a specific section of your exam. It doesn't leave too much room for bias.
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It seems IrishDR sole goal was to join and then proceed to spam every thread with his hatred for RCSI. As a former RCSI student I can acknowledge some issues, as there are with any school you attend. Sometimes lectures are late or cancelled with little to no notice (though this happened today at the med school I'm currently a resident at, and the students complained just the same about the lecturer not showing up). The school is not a full blown university, but a professional school that has less than 5000 students and only 3 programs (physio, pharmacy and medicine). The facilities have a rich history, but granted they are not state of the art. I prefer the history personally (i.e. like having one of the oldest anatomy labs in the world).
At the end of the day, RCSI and Irish med schools as a whole, get people matched at a rate between 70-80% (Canadian numbers, US society doesn't keep track quite as closely, but I know the numbers are similar). On top of that, RCSI students matched to some excellent specialties this year (and in past years), ones that are often considered unattainable for IMG's. These include general surgery (categorical), orthopedic surgery, plastic surgery, radiology and emergency medicine. I know other schools in Ireland had quite successful matches as well. I don't tend to comment on these threads but this seems more like a jaded student who has recently gone through re-sits and not passed then from someone genuinely non-biased. This ridiculous notion that people know Trinity more than UCD or RCSI (or vice-versa) is silly too, people here in the US seem to only know the school (any of them) if they happen to have a family friend who attends one of them.
Truthfully, the place to research your medical school is not these forums unfortunately. Only the utterly disappointed or people who are blinded to a school's issues to prove that they're school is "the best" seem to post here. I would not let a post like this dissuade you from considering attending if you understand the inherent and very real risks of being and IMG. If anyone is interested in a fairly honest opinion about RCSI feel free to private message me. I can't comment on other schools in Ireland because I didn't attend them.
At the end of the day, RCSI and Irish med schools as a whole, get people matched at a rate between 70-80% (Canadian numbers, US society doesn't keep track quite as closely, but I know the numbers are similar). On top of that, RCSI students matched to some excellent specialties this year (and in past years), ones that are often considered unattainable for IMG's. These include general surgery (categorical), orthopedic surgery, plastic surgery, radiology and emergency medicine. I know other schools in Ireland had quite successful matches as well. I don't tend to comment on these threads but this seems more like a jaded student who has recently gone through re-sits and not passed then from someone genuinely non-biased. This ridiculous notion that people know Trinity more than UCD or RCSI (or vice-versa) is silly too, people here in the US seem to only know the school (any of them) if they happen to have a family friend who attends one of them.
Truthfully, the place to research your medical school is not these forums unfortunately. Only the utterly disappointed or people who are blinded to a school's issues to prove that they're school is "the best" seem to post here. I would not let a post like this dissuade you from considering attending if you understand the inherent and very real risks of being and IMG. If anyone is interested in a fairly honest opinion about RCSI feel free to private message me. I can't comment on other schools in Ireland because I didn't attend them.
Anybody going the IMG route really shouldn't expect to get spoon fed USMLE material. The Caribbean schools do that, but they also have a diploma mill stigma attached to them.
Shouldn't you have known that you were going to be classed as an IMG before you went to RCSI? That's just common sense. Why do you seem so surprised to learn that. FYI, you're also an IMG if you graduate from a Caribbean school because it doesn't sound like you understand that fact. Unless you go to medical school in Puerto Rico, if that's the case I hope you speak Spanish.
The Irish schools are well-respected around the world. The Caribbean schools are largely viewed as off-shore diploma mills.
How can you act like you didn't know RCSI was an Irish medical school before you enrolled? Of course their clinical rotations are in Ireland! DUH! They're not a dodgy off-shore med school that conducts clinical rotations in the US and exists solely to make doctors out of people who didn't get accepted in the US or Canada.
Go to the Caribbean, I think you're making a big mistake and trading down. But then again you clearly didn't do much research before you chose to attend RCSI, I doubt you've looked into the Caribbean either. Good luck pal.
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