UCC-Univ. College Cork Fall 2004

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trapper12

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Okay I finally broke down and did it. I made us our own thread. So for all those headed to UCC this Fall check in here and introduce yourselves.

I'm from the US and I'm living in DC right now, having finished up my MPH at George Washington University in January.

Sage, I haven't bought my ticket yet, because I was all worried about the return date. That's also my next goal.

Boy, I'm also on the waitlists at Farranlea and Vic Lodge.

I know of at least SuperstarMD, GraduateStud, and echostation who are also going to be at UCC, anyone else?
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Hi all,

I'm from Montreal, Quebec. I am in the process of finishing my M.Sc. at McGill university. I look foward to meeting you all soon! Let me know when you guys intend to fly down to Cork.
 
hey guys, i've booked my flight to london and from there to cork. There is no direct route to Cork from the US or canada I believe, so your best route is probably thru London, Manchester, Glasgow or Dublin via Aer Lingus local british isles flight.

If you have lots of miles on any frequent flyer card you have, USE those...they're perfect to use for now and just book a return trip on some date in 2005, that's what i've done.

What are you guys bringing to Cork? There's so much crap I have to sell right now as i'm in an apartment. it's like cutting off my arms hahaha :D

Have you guys opened any bank accounts yet or gotten any medical insurance from the places they talk about in the papers and brochures Atlantic Bridge sent to us? I'm trying to figure out if Ireland'll accept medical insurance from the US if we ever needed to head to the docs.

Superstarmd, thanks for the link about the time table/schedules, that was useful and gives me a better idea of what's going on class schedule wise. Anyone else got any other useful info or any tips about what they maybe doing in the meantime... i also suggest printing out maps and crap like that and figuring out where stores are in Cork, I haven't done any of that so i'm starting on that soon

Anyways, talk to u folks later....
 
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Hi Echostaton, when is your departure date to Cork?

As for insurance and bank accounts, I will only deal with that when I get there.

The only thing that I'm looking into now is a flight, textbooks and how the hell am I supposed to fit all my belongings in two suitcases?!
 
Well I'm flying out early September to reach London cuz I have some relatives there I plan to visit for a few weeks then I head off to Cork. There are dozens of local flights available from London to Cork that I think booking them from there even as late as September won't be problematic.

Yeah you should try booking as soon as possible, many flights are already booked up and there arne't many spots left at all.

What're you doing for textbooks? Are you getting in touch with others from who u can buy them from?

About, belongings... sell as much as you can...that's literally the only way to go... across the pond flights allow for I believe two carry ons and two check ins... I'd phone to make sure. That is defn the tough part, I need to sell me stuff.
 
As for textbooks, I've been using http://www.ucc.ie/medstud/med1l.html as a guide. I've also been talking to a friend of mine who just finished Med1 at UCC. I will probably buy the rest of my books at the big book sale at the beginning of the year.
 
Hey everybody, I know what you're talking about the two suitcases thing. I'm taking a bunch of stuff back to my parents house and storing it there for a while. I guess if I really need it I'll bring it over in subsequent trips. For now, I'm trying to sell off all the stuff I have in my apartment.

I'm still trying to figure out the living situation, I'm on a few waitlists, but I was reading more about Farranlea and Victoria Lodge and they both said they have Residential Wardens. What is that? Does that mean there will be curfews and other crap like that? I never lived in dorms in college and this smacks of dorm life, except of course that the rooms are en-suite. I'm probably wrong, but I thought I'd ask and see what you guys think.

I still have to buy my plane ticket as well, I want to get there close to that Sept. 21st Orientation thing. I'm definitely coming back for Christmas, so I'm thinking of booking the return ticket for around the 17th of December.
 
I think residential wardens are simply people who live in the residences and ensure that everyone is OK. They are the people you go to when you have problems or questions day or night. I'm pretty sure there are no curfews :)
 
do you folks know how much it generally costs to ship like a medium size box of books overseas?

That's probably what I'm going to be doing for quite a bit of my stuff (the stuff I need that is), store it with a friend, and he can ship stuff every so often and I pay for the shipping. I defn need to check on how expensive that'll be

SuperstarMD, the textbook sale at the beginning of the year should defn be very useful, plus that Medstud webpage is also very useful.

One thing I did find out was more about immigration stuff, be sure to bring your acceptance letters and copies of them, along with your passport, drivers liscence (obviously) and photocopies of them as well. Bring a crap load of passport photos cuz you're gnna need them. Both the immigration office and opening a bank account in Boole Basement which you'll probably need to do (in order to be able to register with immigration) I believe will need copies of your drivers liscence, passport, passport photos etc.

You also defn need to bring a letter showing evidence/proof of a proper home address.
 
For immigration stuff, when you open a bank account, request a statement. The immigration people will want it to see you've got enough money to be here. I hate immigration stuff when you don't have everything. They make you go back and get it, and then you find out there's something else they want so then they make you go back again.

Echo, not sure about shipping but there's a way you can put stuff you need in a special burlap shipping bag and have it ferried over, which is cheaper than airmailing it. I'd reckon put aside like 50-100 bucks, depending on how heavy the stuff you want to ship is. I had a friend who shipped over a lot of books (v. heavy) by having it ferried over, and it didn't cost that much. I'd ask how much it was, but he's in Singapore or India or wherever at the moment.
 
Well, I finally got a confirmation letter in the mail saying they got my deposit and they need the rest of it. They also gave the schedule for the first official day of lectures, which is September 27th, but I'm sure you guys already knew that.

As for shipping books, I'm not entirely sure yet, but one of my friends likes to ship things overseas with DSL, he says it's cheaper, and I think there's a media rate, where you can ship books for a cheaper rate. But I'll try and ask around more.
 
Hey, I just booked my ticket to Cork. Arriving early on Sept 14th. Kind of early, but I couldn't get any other time because I was booking on points.

Happy to have that out of the way though!
 
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Hey Sage, good to hear from you. Did you ever hear back about housing? I know you were waiting to hear from Farranlea. I'm still on the waitlist at 3 places, but they said after they get the leaving cert results in August that there's a good chance I'll get a spot.
 
Yeah, I got a spot in Farranlea.

I got a job this summer working for a doctor who graduated from UCC and now works in Canada. A 3rd year student from UCC also comes in once and a while and I talked to her on Monday. She said Farranlea (and the one beside it - just came back from work - mind is blank) are the best because they are brand new. She was in castlewhite first year and she said she almost cried when she first saw it. Really old and dirty and damp! I think she moved after Christmas. Plus, I think you can only get Internet access at the 2 new ones - I decided not to bring my computer though. I want to see if I can last for a while without it!

I'm sure you will get a spot and maybe this will help if you get offered a choice. The 3rd year student that she's never heard of an international student not getting a spot in residence somewhere if they wanted one.
 
Hi guys,

I booked my ticket to Cork and I'll arrive on Sept. 17. I'm sure I'll see you both in Farranlea! Farranlea and Vic logde are the 2 new residences. My friend lived in Farranlea and said that the rooms are bigger there than in Vic Lodge. But Vic lodge looks nicer on the outside.

Sage, what does the UCC alum specialize in?
 
He did IM - now he's head of Geriatrics for McMaster in Ontario. They actually have their own little mini-hostpital called St. Petes. Apparently, he's a leading authority in geriatrics and especially alzheimer's but I didn't know that until recently.

He's been REALLY great. He let me sit in on the cognitive exams the first morning and then let me do all of them in the afternoon with him watching. I haven't had a tonne of clinical experience so anything like that is great.

Now, I'm working as a research assistant. They do a different test at McMaster then the rest of the world does for judging how alzheimer's has progressed and whether drug therapy is slowing it down. Apparently, it's starting to catch on at some other hospitals so they got a grant to do a study on which is more accurate. My job is to go around to nursing homes and give the new test and the older one as well as a much longer (and supposedly more accurate?) test to residents. Takes about an hour to do all three because the last one is really long . The scores from the first 2 are matched against the third as well as their doctor's notes about the patient I guess. Although I'm not really sure. I've just been gathering data so far.
 
Hey guys, I'm sure this has been posted before but I'm too lazy to look through all the posts. Where are you guys from?

The reason I'm asking is because a bunch of the students from the Toronto area are getting together in August. There are Canadian students from a couple different years so it should be fun.

I also got my confirmation of accptance finally and my plane ticket is all booked so I'm getting excited. Talking to upper year UCC students is just making it worse as well!
 
I'm in DC right now, but let me know when you're all meeting up, I've got a couple friends in Buffalo that I've been meaning to visit before I go to Ireland. Who knows, maybe it'll work out.

Sage, it sounds like you've got a good set up, working with the UCC grad and everything. I haven't met anybody yet who's gone to UCC, how did you find the doctor, was it by chance or did you know before?
 
My Aunt is a drug saleswoman and she knows tonnes of docs. She mentioned she knew an Irish one and introduced me and it turns out he's from UCC so small world!

I think we're meeting Sunday August 15th but it's north of Toronto so it would be a tough drive from Buffalo.

Echo: I'm guessing you turned down UCD and are still coming to UCC? I don't think you posted what you decided to do!
 
hey guys, yeah it's been a bit of a rough week so haven't been on much (ultra ultra busy hehe , u know the drill).

I'm actually from NC so much father down south, but I sure hope we meet up at Farranlea Hall etc.

Yeap i've decided to stick to Cork and reject Dublin's offer. Just need to put it in the post on monday and send it out.

How's all ur packing coming along? Some stuff of mine is getting sold but hardly the amount i'd like sold hehe
 
Alright, so I guess I won't try and meet up with y'all. Now that it's August, I'm hoping to hear from some Farranlea or Vic Lodge or Deanshall about a spot. I know it's still a month and a half away, but I'm getting excited. I'm quitting work in 3 weeks and leaving DC in 4 weeks to go back home so I can spend a couple weeks with my family and friends before I leave. But knowing I'm quitting in 3 weeks is not a good thing, I've almost completely mentally checked out. I have to focus and get some stuff done before I go. Anyway, we'll have to all meet up in Ireland then, but Sage, I hope you have fun meeting up with everybody in Canada.
 
Hey guys,

haven't checked in for a while...

Hey echo, sorta glad that u made the same decision - to accept cork instead of ucd - that's one more person from NA!!

sage880, just realized that u work in hamilton!! do you work at mac? if so, i'm working on 3rd floor, in the blue wing. maybe we can meet up or sth. :D
 
what's with all the mcmaster and hamilton people on here? i thought i was the only one....and how come you're all going to cork and not dublin? you guys definitely need to come to dublin to party....whereabouts at mac and in hamilton are you guys?
 
hey badkarma,

i'm working for a prof/gastroenterologist in the department of medicine - intestinal disease research program (IDRP)....are you working at mac or sth?
 
hey boy915...used to work at st. joe's in firestone clinic doing asthma research......my undergrad thesis co-supervisor was in the idrp (rangachari) but he's moved out to calgary now.....working in westdale for the summer...

and leorl, i just row for fun now, never rowed for ucd...would have if it wasn't such a trek getting to islandbridge where the boathouse is...
 
oh cool! i took rangachari's inquiry class in 2nd year :)
 
boy915,

i love rangachari...he's amazing...used to rip people apart during mac med interviews...doesn't take any crap at all....wrote me a stellar letter of reference....i'm still really good friends with his son....it's too bad PK moved out to calgary, i miss his tirades...was never lucky enough to have him as a prof as i wasn't in bio/pharm or artsci
 
boy915 said:
sage880, just realized that u work in hamilton!! do you work at mac? if so, i'm working on 3rd floor, in the blue wing. maybe we can meet up or sth. :D
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Cool, for sure! I sent you a PM so check your mailbox.
 
Well, I met two first year students and a bunch of upper years from UCC and now I'm really excited about going. Everyone I met seemed pretty cool and it sounds like that had a good time the last couple of years in Cork.

They have a med-cup for soccer and basketball every year and that sounded pretty cool. Hopefully we can field a good M1 team!

Anyway, I'm just bored and bumping the thread. How's your summer been so far guys?
 
Hi Leorl,

Thanks for reminder. I've just delete it.
I heard it can be used for the info which may be useful to UCC Med students, so put accomodation info. Sorry this is my first time to post, so I wasn't aware of the character of the thread.
 
That's ok, thanks . I know, that's why I didn't delete it but very cool and thanks for doing it yourself. Next time if you have something like that come up, you can post a thread saying something like "Have accommodation availability, PM me if you'd like details." In that way, you're not advertising really, but utilizing this thread that people local to you will be viewing :).
 
Hey everybody, so it's been a while since I've come to the boards. I just quit my job and I'm going to go and see my family for a few weeks before I go to Ireland, so I'm leaving DC on Thursday, it's kind of crazy. I just got all that Orientation stuff, and I heard from the AB that my loans were approved, so everything's falling in place, except I still haven't heard from the housing people. But, I'm not too worried about that. Anybody else heard anything new?
 
Hi Trapper

I can't imagine why the residences haven't contacted you yet. I'm sure that places have opened up. Have you tried calling Farranlea Hall? I talked to Emma Buckley there and she's great. She said she'll try to room me with other international students etc...You should give her a call. Let me know if you need her number.
 
wow so i feel like utter crap now. I'm all pumped to go to Cork I guess, but it's rather annoying. my boss took me out to lunch which was very nice but then he more or less proceeded to badger me as to why an "inferior" medical school like Cork in Ireland would require students from here to have taken the MCAT and have an undergraduate degree given that the local irish students are straight out of college.

He just kept on going on about how british and european phDs aren't as good as american (which is fine, cuz he's correct...) I dunno, it'ss just how he phrased it all and kept on like snickering with a sort of wry grin on his face thru out... i swear that's like the most uncomfortable meal i've had... he more or less crushed me excitement... grrr...
 
screw him!
 
Tell him that Irish students don't need a degree to learn how to tie their shoe laces.
 
echostation,
your excitement can only be crushed if you let it be crushed, particularly via the efforts of this ignorant boss of yours. cork is giving you a chance to pursue a career you mgiht otherwise not have the opportunity to pursue. i'm assuming in your case, but i know from my own experience, that had ucd not accepted me, i don't think i'd be on track to being a doctor.

as for inferiority vs superiority of schools and so on, that's a big load of crap. i know tons of irish doctors, i've worked with them and been treated by them and there's really no basis whatsoever for saying that cork as a school or irish doctors are inferior to any other group. stay excited and you'll have a great time over there. trust me.
 
you can tell your boss that there are plenty of irish doctors practicing in ontario, and ontario has arguably some of the toughest licensing procedures for foreign medical grads in north america, so if they can practice here, they most definitely are not inferior. canadian boards are killer.
 
hey thanks for the support and advice guys and gals, I'm not trying to sound all weepy and feel sorry offor myself type bull**** but I may have come across that way and my apologies. I guess I was just more or less disappointed i my boss that is cuz i expected obviously a HELL of a lot more from him...especially in terms of support. If anything, this gets me even more determined to show him EXACTLY what the hell i'm made of in terms of doing the absolute utter best i can at what is obviously a challenging program.
 
Hey, no worries echostation...don't take what your boss says to heart because it's obvious to me that he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. He obviously doesn't know that Irish docs are very well-respected in the US, and he's dead wrong if he thinks American PhDs are superior to UK/European docs. He needs to sit back and look at the population pool of his colleagues. And I hate to say it, but a lot of PhD's have med envy.
 
leorl said:
Hey, no worries echostation...don't take what your boss says to heart because it's obvious to me that he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. He obviously doesn't know that Irish docs are very well-respected in the US, and he's dead wrong if he thinks American PhDs are superior to UK/European docs. He needs to sit back and look at the population pool of his colleagues. And I hate to say it, but a lot of PhD's have med envy.
Click to expand...

Hey Leorl, thanks for that information! I mean i know Irish medical graduates make very good doctors, I just didn't have any statistics to defend myself...next time i'll be better prepped, thanks!!

Ok I think what would be a great idea here is to write down a gigantic list of ALL NECESSARY DOCUMENTATION that all of us are gonna have to eventually bring with us to Cork. This list should benefit everyone cuz maybe there a few things you may be forgetting to bring... from what i've gathered so far, this seems to be necessary stuff to bring but i could be wrong...please fill in and add more in:

- Passport
- Notarised copy of Birth Certificate (or actual Birth Certificate itself)
- Transcripts (maybe a copy of your MCAT scores just in case)
- Acceptance letters and notifications and photocopies of them
- Passport photos
- Bank statement indicating that you have funds necessary to pay for tuition (should be an Irish bank account so be sure to also bring another bank account statement when setting up a Bank of Ireland account)
- Immunization records and health information including the all important Hep B lab results
- Driver's license for proof of permanent mailing/residence address
- Health Insurance information (unless you are not already insured then you can do this over there in Ireland) and evidence that you are medically insured

I know there's more I'm forgetting but do add to the list. :thumbup:
 
echostation said:
hey thanks for the support and advice guys and gals, I'm not trying to sound all weepy and feel sorry offor myself type bull**** but I may have come across that way and my apologies. I guess I was just more or less disappointed i my boss that is cuz i expected obviously a HELL of a lot more from him...especially in terms of support. If anything, this gets me even more determined to show him EXACTLY what the hell i'm made of in terms of doing the absolute utter best i can at what is obviously a challenging program.
Click to expand...
Yeah, my plan is to have fun at school, do well, study for the USMLE's, do well on them, and then ram my score down anyone's throat who comments about the difference in education between NA schools and anywhere else. If I decide to come back to NA that is. I've heard from people that slightly less than half the class decides to stay in Ireland.

Whenever you do anything different you have to take slack from people about it. If you lived in Ontario I'd introduce you to my boss. He's a UCC grad (internal medicine - I met 2 other UCC grads through him as well) and he's known province wide from what I've seen.

Anyway, I like your fired-up attitude! I just got my Orientation package and it looks like fun. Can't wait for the 14th so I can get back to Ireland. I'm getting cabin feaver this summer in Canada.
 
hey Sage thanks for the props, yeah I completely agree with you about studying, having fun and just dong really well on the USMLEs in general.

Question to everyone since I haven't been able to find much info on this... I figure we should just pass useful info to each other for the next couple of weeks leading up to orientation.

Do any of you know if the campus has a computer store? a bed and linen just for basic covers and a pillow? Also, what documents and things do you think would be useful in Ireland for registration, immigration and setting up banking.

What counts as "evidence of fee payment?" do any of you guys have your new room addresses at Farranlea Hall?
 
Evidence of fee payment: this is usually a receipt from the college's financial office.

You buy general stuff like bedding etc. at department stores (Dunnes, Roches, etc.) there's nothing really like a Walmart here. There's something close (an Argos) that's like a Service Merchandise where you look stuff up in a catalogue and then write the catalogue number down, take it to the till to pay for it and they retrieve it from their warehouse.

Documentation: bank account details once you set it up, so ask for a statement straight away with your address. letter from college saying that you are actually a student there. Passport. Think that's it.
 
thanks for the info leorl, i'll be sure to be on the lookout.

are students at cork generally pretty accepting of older students cuz I know of some areas in the US like that where I've had some friends who are older students (generally like 4-5 years older) who have had a bit of trouble at their respective unis in getting along. I know I won't have that problem cuz I'll just more or less talk to and hang out with whoever I find interesting but i guess me question is more in a general context.
 
in all Irish med schools, quite a few of the classes are international, and there's usually a good few North Americans. All the North Americans are older than the Irish students :) and it's never a problem. It really depends on the sort of class you have...some classes are more segregated, and some have people that get along really well. If you mean older like 30s-40s, as far as I've seen, it's not a problem either. People may think it's weird at first, but once you talk to them it's cool. They can appreciate the experience older people give.
 
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