Placement and subsequent PhD

Ratings
Overall
5
Academics: 4
Support: 4
Fun: 5
Housing: 2
Safety: 5
Review

I first came to RCSI in 2014, working as an intern in a small research project in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health Medicine, in order to finalise my Master of Science final thesis from a Dutch University. As I got on well with my supervisors, we decided to continue collaborating. I applied for PhD funding, hoping that I would be able to return to Ireland and RCSI - which I did, a year later. I am mid-way through my PhD at RCSI now and do not regret this decision at all. People in Dublin, or wider in Ireland, but also specifically in RCSI are very friendly, helpful and open to foreigners like me (German-Lebanese). The biggest challenge with moving here certainly was the housing condition in Dublin - renting contracts are expensive, housing conditions not always ideal and in particular at the beginning of the academic year, the competition for rooms is high. Looking back at this now, I should ideally have taken a short-term rent somewhere farther out of the city centre until the worst flow of incoming students was over and search from there. Apart from this, however, there is no single reason why I would not recommend studying at RCSI. The city is a bit pricey, but has a lot to offer all the same, the weather is actually not as bad as people always tend to say, and both within and outside the college, people here know how to enjoy their lives and socialise. On top of that, for anyone seeking contact to people from similar backgrounds, RCSI has a lot of international students - sometimes I wonder whether these outnumber the Irish people you get to meet here.
A short note on the research programme, I assume like everywhere this can differ widely depending on supervisors and the actual programme chosen. However, I have not heard bad stories from other postgraduate studies. Speaking for myself, I am enjoying an excellent level of supervision, the well-built research infrastructure offered at RCSI, and I am able to work independently.

Would you recommend this program?
Yes, I would
Year Completed
2018
Private Note to Provider (optional)
I am not sure whether "provider" means that this is going to RCSI or to 'Go overseas', but here are a few more detailed thoughts on my suggestions as to how the programme could be improved:

Most students coming to Ireland have difficulties finding long-term accommodation, getting a bank account, applying for and retrieving their PPS number... Additionally, for me it was strange to move into a country where I am not registered with a city council, and where I do not hold a public health insurance contract. It took up a lot of my time finding out about these things, so it may be of help to a lot of other students, too, if there was a central body to turn to, or at least a list with phone numbers, addresses and steps to be taken when and where, which was sent out to new incoming students. Partly, I think, this is covered in a little booklet, but I never retrieved this before my arrival as my supervisor had not been aware of its existence. Hence, it may require a few promotion efforts as well to make sure that all incoming students can get access to such information. Additionally, the main information provided to me at the beginning of my stay were related to student homes reserved for RCSI students. While they are very centrally located and were generally good-looking, they unfortunately exceeded my budget by far. Another good initiative may be to set up a system of people who may be willing to function as mentors for incoming students before arrival and within the first month of their stay. I experienced this in another University in Hungary I was staying with for a semester, and found this very helpful. Although my mentor turned out to not be the most reliable person in the world, she took away my fears around moving into a completely unknown place.