Trinity... discuss.

[Slam Master J]

Trinity offers are out. Anybody on this thing currently studying there?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[leorl]

Yep.

 

[13538]

Yup, I'm in Trinity too

I'm not US or Canadian though

 

[fuzpot]

Being a UK student ( applying for medicine), Trinity is well known for its excellent reputation. It is viewed at the same level of Oxford/Cambridge- in terms of prestige,reputation and standards.

Too be honest, regarding medicine at Trinity: a medical degree from all irish schools are equally of high standard. And to even attain a place in Ireland medicine- You have done V.well!

 

[leorl]

Trinity is viewed at the same level of Oxford / Cambridge???! Um.... yay we get elevated a level! eheh. Ah no. It's a great oul place. Trinners is a wannabe American

 

[Slam Master J]

Hey,

It's great that there are a bunch of you! I'm Canadian, and leaning towards Trinity for October. I could ask all sorts of questions, but to restrain myself the most important thing to me is figuring out what happens with accomodation. Where do most first year meds live in first year? Where do most of the international people live? Is there any effort in there to get the med students in the same residence? That really doesn't matter to me, but as a Canadian, I've already spent some years doing an undergrad, so getting placed in a random residence with 1st year arts students more interested in getting hammered in their first year than anything isn't exaaaactly what I'm looking for.

Any thoughts? Basically I know nooothing yet.

Cheers!

 

[leorl]

Yeah, i know exactly what you mean. Well, it don't really matter squat here..you're viewed as a 1st year undergraduate. Meaning that if you do get college residences (likely enough, but hard to get), you'll be stuck in Trinity Hall (Rathmines) which is about a 30 min. walk to campus. They're really nice, but yeah...it would be like living in dorms with underclassmen. Or, you could get Goldsmith Hall... which isn't exactly the nicest. Rooms are "cozy." Also, if you get rooms on campus one year, it will be unlikely that you'll be offered rooms for the rest of your years here. So some international students live on campus (goldsmith or trinity halls) for the first year and then find apartments. Others find apartments straight away and if they want to, shoot for rooms in their final year (most don't). The place to look for apartments is www.daft.ie

For Trinity, look for places in Dublin 2 (dame street, merrion square) Dublin 4 (ballsbridge, donnybrook), Dublin 6 (rathmines, rathgar), Dublin 8 (christchurch). The first two can be pricey, but could be affordable if you found people to live with. They're nice areas. Rathmines/Rathgar are very student-populated places. A good walk to college, but a short bike/busride (although you want to cut on transportation costs as much as possible). Christchurch and places surrounding (Patrick St, St. Patrick's Cathedral) are about a 10-15 min. walk and perfect because it's between Trinity and St. James's Hospital, with a bus route v.close to tallaght hospitals too.

Dublin is funny though, because there are pockets of bad areas. for instance, I would not really venture onto the north side of Dublin (except Smithfield and IFSC, I don't know what Dublin region those are). Also, places past Christchurch (ie Thomas St and St. James's, but Kilmainham could be ok).

You'll learn more once you get here.

 

[Slam Master J]

Hey thanks!

Ya, I'll probably end up grabbing an on-campus room for first year and the next years will fall into place.

Otherwise, how do you find medicine at Trinity? How big are the classes, and is there a Med Soc?

 

[leorl]

There is a great med soc (It's called bio soc, don't really know why cuz it's all medics and very few science). It organizes med day (a day when all the medical students go out and collect money which is donated to one of our teaching hospitals. In the past few years, we've earned more than 50k) and the med ball and stuff, as well as book sales/nights out, etc.

The classes when I first started were around 120. 60 Irish, 60 international. this might change a bit when new proposals to Irish med ed are put into place. So roughly 120, but the thing is, as you progress through the years, more will be added...either from people who've been exempt 1-2 years and are directly entering, or Erasmus students/twinning programs. Or, from people who've failed the year above. Anyway, my class is really large because they overbooked our class and we seem to have added quite a few in the last couple years - we're around 140. Not great when there's not enough intern spots open in the Trinity teaching hospitals.

 

[dr strangelove]

Being a UK student ( applying for medicine), Trinity is well known for its excellent reputation. It is viewed at the same level of Oxford/Cambridge- in terms of prestige,reputation and standards.

Too be honest, regarding medicine at Trinity: a medical degree from all irish schools are equally of high standard. And to even attain a place in Ireland medicine- You have done V.well!

Hmmm... No, it's not. Trinity is comparable to Durham, St Andrews, Edinburgh and a few others i.e. you could probably consider it an Oxbridge reject school, although I've never known anyone who was offered a place at any of the others I mentioned to take a place in Trinity ahead ot them.

Within our own parochial setting in Ireland however, TCD could be viewed as our Oxbridge. It doesn't mean that it's viewed in the same light outside of Ireland. UCD still beats them hands down at engineering and business anyway!

My brother's having a great time in Trinity; he's in his first year medicine there and only has good things to say. Congratulations on getting in!

 

[Slam Master J]

Hey leorl,

Thanks for all the info. I'm actually on my way to visit Dublin and Cork to in the next couple of weeks to see the colleges, so do you have any advice on things to check out? Are there any buildings where most of the meds classes take place?

Thanks again

-J

 

[leorl]

Hmm. Well, you can visit the health sciences office in the Chemistry building. You can also visit the Anatomy building (it's cool, very old architecture and design) but I don't really think you can snoop around cuz of the ethics of cadaver placement, etc. Have lunch in the Pav (campus bar). Nothing else is really that special to see... a lot of clinical teaching takes place in the trinity centres of the hospitals so you won't really get to see those unless you really want to make the effort to see it for like 2 seconds.

 

[med2UCC]

Hey leorl,

Thanks for all the info. I'm actually on my way to visit Dublin and Cork to in the next couple of weeks to see the colleges, so do you have any advice on things to check out? Are there any buildings where most of the meds classes take place?

Thanks again

-J

In Cork check out the Brookfield health sciences building, about a 7 minute walk from the main campus and where most of the classes and practicals are held, on College Road next to the Poor Claire's convent, just past the Bons Secours Hospital (which is private, so you won't be doing much there although we all did 3 weeks there this year (3rd med)). PM me if you want more info on Cork. Cheers,
M

 

[Slam Master J]

Thanks very much to both of you for the tips. I can't wait to see the schools first hand. Hope the studies are going great.

Cheers,

J