Hello! My name is Jonathan Loke, I am a final year currently studying in Trinity College! I first decided to study in Ireland as I knew friends who were applying to Ireland so they were quite familiar with the whole application process and I also knew seniors who were already studying Medicine in Ireland and had really good experiences studying there. In retrospect, I am truly glad that I did! I really enjoy the pace of life in Dublin, as well as the accessibility of everything. Dublin is a very vibrant city, with new cafes and restaurants popping up every other week. The people in Dublin, especially the patients in the hospitals are always friendly and willing to help or just chat. I found this especially helpful in Medicine, where communication forms such a big part in trying to take a proper medical history.
Trinity also has a well structured curriculum with early clinical experience, which I found was particularly beneficial in slowly learning to be comfortable speaking to patients and improving my soft skills. The first two years are the pre-clinical years and generally more content focused with modules such as anatomy, pharmacology, pathology, microbiology and immunology. I also found it helpful that there were sessions in the laboratory as well as the dissection theatre to supplement the content being taught in lectures. Besides school life, studying in Ireland has offered me the unique ability to travel around country and explore various nature reserves, cliffs, waterfalls and mountains. I found weekend hiking trips or cycling expeditions to different towns particularly beneficial as a form of exercise as well as stress relief. All in all, I think that studying here in Ireland is definitely a once in a lifetime experience and a one that I will greatly treasure for a long time to come.