Trinity College Dublin for Medicine (International Student)

Student Lounge International Students
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Hi everyone!

I received an email from Trinity College Dublin the other day and thought it’d be really cool to study over in Ireland! Additionally, I want to become a doctor and could complete my medical degree over there in 5 years! Unfortunately, I cannot find the exact requirements for admission for international students. I’ve found general criteria but nothing specific to the major. Could anyone give me some insight and let me know what the additional requirements would be for an international student (US) looking to be accepted into Trinity’s Medicine program? Thanks so much!

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  1. Do you understand that Dublin is not in the UK?
  2. Do you understand that a foreign medical degree will not allow you to just turn up and practice medicine in the US? I am not an expert in this so I suggest you consult someone who is (have a look on the medicine forum here at CC for a start). At a minimum you will probably have to take some tests again, costing both time and money.
  3. I agree it's not clear on the Trinity website the US entry requirements for medicine. This is suspicious because for other courses the entry requirements are clearly listed. It does say "This is a restricted entry course". That may well mean restricted to EU citizens (in order to fill all the vacancies in national health systems). I recommend sending the admissions office an email with your question, but don't get your hopes up. If there are any international admissions it's probably just a handful and admissions requirements (and that means test scores) will be high.
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Hey @cupcake , I traveled to the UK at the end of 2015 so I am aware that Ireland is not a part of the UK. I’ve read up on the requirements to practice in the US after receiving a foreign medical degree and know all of the tests/procedures I would need to go through, although I am not sure if I will even want to return to the US after (I’ve always wanted to live overseas). I emailed TCD because the requirements were so “shady” and they have not gotten back to me yet (it’s been around 2 weeks), so I figured I’d post on here, but I’ll go and check the medicine forum. Thank you for all your help! :slight_smile:

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@cupcake I didn’t post in the UK forum, the site had to have moved my post to there, just noticed that that’s why you mentioned it haha :wink:

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So the admin are geographically challenged then!

If you are planning to work in Ireland after graduation, that may be difficult unless you have an EU passport. I know nothing about Irish working visas but do look into this if it applies to you.

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As far as I know the 5-year program is for American students with a bachelor’s degree

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As far as I know the 5-year program is for American students with a bachelor’s degree

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@MYOS1634 really? I’ve seen some forums on SDN and other sites in which people are accepted straight out of high school…doesn’t say anything about the admissions requirements though

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Don’t overlook the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland (RCSI), which has a healthy international contingent, including a fair few Americans (I know some grads from there who have successfully transitioned back to the US).

Yes, TCD is 5 years from secondary school, as is RCSI, where the entry requirements are a GPA of 3.5+ and three APs with minimum scores of 4 in Chem, Bio and either Calc or Physics.

Don’t get too excited about those seemingly low requirements- those are minimums! I know an RCSI Dean and she impressed with the caliber of the US students and how qualified they are.

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@collegemom3717 I’ve actually looked into RCSI and meet the minimums for admission (obviously I understand that this doesn’t guarantee acceptance). I’ve looked into UCD as well. The only thing I’m concerned about with these two schools is that they’re more expensive than TCD, and I come from a fairly low-income family that lives in the most expensive county in the U.S.! Money is going to be a huge problem for my family and I. If you know anything about financial aid at RCSI, I’d be really interested. From what I’ve seen it does look like a great school with a diverse community! Thank you so much for the help :slight_smile:

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You won’t get financial aid from any Irish university: one of the reasons that you are attractive as a candidate is that you pay international fees. You can get the Fafsa $5K from the US, but that’s about it. Sorry.

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If you’re low income, forget about Irish universities since they won’t offer you any financial aid.
Yes the program is 5 years but I thought there were two more years(total OF 7?) I may have been mistaken.

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@MYOS1634 my thought process was that I’d be spending less money in total if I went for 5 years as opposed to the 8 it’d take me to get my degree here in the US. Not really sure tho…

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Hello everyone! I’ve recently been kind of investigating how possible it would be to spend my first year of college at Trinity and then transfer back to an American school. Does anyone know how that would work? Like studying in Ireland my first year in Ireland but not going through a US school? Thanks for any and all help!

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The two systems are so different that I wouldn’t do it without having a formal arrangement in place with the US college before you went- otherwise you could well lose all your credits and no longer have 1st year status (so very limited financial/merit aid possibilities).

(also, you should start your own thread next time, rather than hijacking somebody else’s admittedly dead one)