Thread: Question about RCSI (Royal College of Surgeons)

Hello everyone!
I'm a Taiwanese student studying abroad at Tokyo.
I'm currently in an International School.
I've applied to RCSI already. I am just wondering about the studying environment in RCSI as well as teaching styles and tuition fees (I checked the school's website and found out that the tuiton fee is pretty expensive for non-EU students...are there loans or financial aids for non-EU students??).

*Also, i was wondering that if it's possible for students to transfer from RCSI to UK medical schools after the first year??

Thank You!!

Hi Sillydog911,

I'm pretty sure there aren't any funds available to non-EU students, at least that is the case in the UK. International students are either expected to have:
a) very rich families or
b) loans from their home country or
c) a rich sponsor.

As for RCSI specific teaching sytle and value for money, I'll leave that for someone who has been there to comment on.

I think transfers even within a country are quite rare (including UK->UK). If you want to go to a UK medical school, why not apply there directly?

For what it's worth, I believe the RCSI has an excellent reputation and I believe that it is used to dealing with international students, so you could always email/phone their administration directly to enquire about the funding available to you.

Best wishes

Thank you TheSpiritOfTruth,

The UK applicaton....hmm...I actually did apply...the story went like this:
I just transferred to the current International School in my senior year, therefore the teachers here couldn't give me expected grades.
I heard that the UK medical schools give out offers based on expected grades, which i got 0 = = Therefore, all of my choices were unsucessful.
I was a little bit of mad at my counselor for not telling me that he didn't put any expected grades into my UCAS application, which i just got them recently for the RCSI applicaton (38, which is pretty high for IB expected grades-->the max you can get for 6 subjects is 42).
I guess I can't all blame it on my counselor since no one transfers to new school in his/her SENIOR year....so...but it's because of taiwanese military problems.
Well, thank you TheSpiritOfTruth.

*Do you think it's possible to contact all the UK medical schools and inform them of my expected grades? Do you think they will reconsider my application after it's unsucessful?

Thank You Very Much again

Hi SillyDog911,

Wow that would have really annoyed me!! The problem is that UCAS is a bit of a "machine" that all the universities have to go with. Not to say that places can't overturn their decisions, but it might be worthwhile getting in touch with your UCAS choices.

I'm not sure whether it would be better to email the admissions tutor or try to call them. I think an email might be good, if you can find out who is the admissions tutor for medicine at the institutions. The problem is that there might not be *one* admissions tutor, but a panel of people making decisions. There is a good chance that there will be only one admissions administrator, so looking at the department's administration/registry webpages may get you going in the right direction.

I'm just thinking "what would I think if I were an admissions tutor and someone emails me asking to be allowed onto the MBBS course, claiming that there was a problem with their application?" I don't want to put you off - If you don't ask, you will never know! But if you bear this question in mind -- phrase your email/phone call in a way that would address his/her concerns that there was some sort of administrative mix up. This could be done by emphasising that you had only just moved to the school when the UCAS application deadline occurred, and emphasise your (now known) score. Also, was there anything in your military service that could sound impressive to an admissions tutor? Was there any emergency medicine training?

I hope that's of some help

Thank you for taking time to reply my inquiries.
I think I will try to contact the universities...however, i do believe that the "admission" is actually a board of members instead of just one person determining the applications.

What i meant by military problem was that all Taiwanese males are required to attend the military when reach the age of 18 if and only if he does not pursue his education as a college student.
Therefore the government has two routes for students:1. you either go abroad on the year when you reach 18 and get into a college then you can come back during your college years or 2.finish military then attend college after high school.

P.S. the military is a one year thing, but i've decided to finish my education as a college student then attend military

Thank you again!!