Has anyone any info on Trinity College Dublin?

[5starzz]

DS is having a nosy for History grades in hand (3xAstar). Would he be able to get a student loan to pay the fees?

Any practicalities of studying in Dublin and where would it be seen / ranked by future UK employers against top UK unis?

No to the student loan, I'm afraid.

In terms of how it's seen by employers in the UK, it's like Durham or St. Andrews - not quite Oxbridge but the next best thing (Trinity College, Dublin is the sister college of St. John's College, Cambridge and Oriel College, Oxford). Admissions standards are very high.

Trinity offers a dual BA with Columbia (Ivy League) in NYC, which could be an interesting option for your DS.

Be warned that Dublin is an expensive city with a massive housing crisis, so finding accommodation can be tough. €1400 per month for a room is not unusual. Also, Trinity does four year undergraduate degrees - an extra year of living expenses and fees over an English university.

Trinity does offer the chance to sit 'schols' exams in second year for generous fees and accommodation scholarships extending through to postgrad education. These are obviously very competitive.

The campus is beautiful and the college attracts students from all over the world. It's a great place to learn and certainly worth considering, but many great UK options would be cheaper.

It is the #1 university in Ireland. Accommodation is scarce and expensive. Often the 4 year degree programs do not offer a year in industry or an MA / Msc outcome.

You do get an MA at the end but you have to pay to convert your BA as they do at oxbridge (and it’s a few grand so I’ve never bothered). Lovely city and I had a great time, but yes to echo others, it’s expensive

Yes you can access student loan for fees under an agreement called CTA.

It’s a fabulous university and has an international reputation. It has strict entrance requirements so as well as meeting the offer high offer grades, one which is quite odd (I think) is that your child needs to match the equivalent of the Irish matriculation at GCSS which includes a GCSE in a modern foreign language. I believe there is no way round that even when the degree has no relevance to languages.

As previous poster have warned, housing is eye watering expensive - equivalent to London but in short supply

This is not the case. There is no access to student finance as per the UCAS scheme. I think the AIB offers a loan but I wouldn’t be certain an English student could access that.

My DC is off to read history this academic year. We live in England. History as a single honours this year was a lower point offer than previous years but it does seem like an anomaly so bear that in mind. You need to look up the points score based upon your DC’s A levels. My DC took 4 A levels this year one of which was a MFL but none of the 4 were maths. DC also had a sweep of 9’s at GCSE.

The Irish system is much fairer and is based wholly on academics. Got the grades? Great, you’re in. You apply with no personal statement, no interview, no school reference. No notes about your Dofe efforts or your grade 8 in cello. Or what type of school you are applying from. The places are awarded once everyone’s grades are known and like A levels, the grade boundaries change once the results are in for everyone and the numbers of places per subject is known. The only thing you know about before the offer rounds is whether or not you might have an accommodation. There are a minuscule number of places in halls versus students. The original Trinity halls are £140pw but are about 40 mins to uni. The private ones are in Kavanaghs court and are £240pw but you do get a en-suite and travel time of about 15 mins to uni.m but is maybe in a less salubrious area. You will almost certainly get a place in halls if you are prepared to share (mine was not so has ended up in KC) The local transport system caps at €11 pw for a student card for unlimited travel which is obviously excellent. There are no conditional offers and TCD offers in ‘rounds’. I believe there are 5 rounds. My DC got a round one offer which meant they had a place at both the UCAS system and also TCD and could decide which to take before relinquishing the UCAS offer. DC’s school friend did not get a Round one offer for a diff degree and therefore had to decide to take a gamble of getting a round 2 place after they would have to have rejected their UCAS place…because of their course being filled by round 1 students they did not get a round 2 place despite only being 1 point off a round 1 offer if that makes sense?

Tuition fees for this year were due before starting but are way less than the UCAS fees (I’ll check what we paid but it is circa €3000). The halls can be paid monthly. DC will get a PT job once settled but did spend the summer working so has got a healthy bank balance before starting. We will top up but overall it is no more expensive than the english system as far as I can see. DC was not entitled to anything above the lowest maintenance loan so it would’ve been expensive for us as a family anyway) It is a two semester system so Dc is done and dusted by early May after yr1. The accommodation rate is for 38 weeks. We will worry about a place to stay years 2/3/4 as and when… it is a bit nerve wracking but also an adventure.

It is academically very rigorous and Dc has their timetable in advance of starting, knows every deadline for the two semesters and the likely topics. From my understanding it is not dissimilar to the work level and intensity of Oxford which suits my DC. Their school advice was that it was a no-brainer for mine to take the place over the firm UCAS offer.

DC chose to go specifically because of the employability on leaving. And the fact that no student loan access means they have to be smart with money but will leave with no loans. For tax reasons all of the major firms are headquartered in Dublin which gives access to a much wider range of Internships and graduate opportunities. Obviously the city is expensive but then so is Edinburgh, London and anywhere students are likely to looking at.

Obviously it is nerve-wracking as a parent letting them go but cheap flights means careful planning/booking can be cheaper than getting a train to/from Manchester from where we live in the UK. Obviously the chance for them to just pop home reduces but the fact they’re in Dublin does make them popular for friends to visit (DC already has mates flying in all term)

Apologies @Brownthomasismynewdestination will clearly know better but
my relative is going this year and has definitely had access to some kind of student loan. I will try to find out what

No probs. Your relative may have received a means-tested award maybe? If @5starzz is looking to predict cash flow over the 4 years it is important that they understand the level of support a student has access to. Tbh, we’ve seen it as a bit of a blessing that there will be no student loans but it will be tight financially as we have one other going into third year in the uk also. Luckily DC was grafting all summer knocking out 10 hour shifts in a role that ended up being quite lucrative and has got a cash buffer before going which will give them time to make friends/socialise before getting a PT job…. But they will have to work. But so did I at the same age at Uni and it did me no harm 😉

This is enormously helpful thankyou. I hadn't considered it was 4 years - that might be an issue unless one of those years could be used as a workplacement. He is entitled to an Irish passport - so we need to get that applied for if it helps anything.

Also can anyone give clarity on timelines - if applying grades in hand does that mean he would have to wait until end of Aug 2025 to hear anything?

No the degrees awarded are 4 years excluding industry placements (which if allowed would make his degree 5 years) but students of TCD can participate in the Erasmus scheme so a year abroad studying is possible.

Correct. The process I think has a deadline of January(?) and runs outside of UCAS so you can run both in tandem. Your DS needs to look carefully at the points requirements to ensure he would stand a good chance of a round one entry.

@5starzz you can apply for up to 10 different courses. Points requirements vary so it would be a good idea to have a range of point entry. They will automatically get a place on the course that requires the highest number of points.

@5starzz your DS needs to be invested himself. I had nothing to do with the choice of course or the process at all!

The equivalent to UCAS is the CAO
https://www.cao.ie/index.php

All the deadlines etc are there, but it usually end of Jan deadline with a "change of mind" period in the early summer.

There are no tuition fees for UK and Irish students. There is a "registration fee" though which is just over 3k pa at the moment.

Most degrees are 4 years, and Trinity will require a second language and a decent maths grade at GCSE, so read the requirements carefully. And it is v v competitive as Leaving Cert points are still being artificially inflated to pandemic levels, on average by 7%. So it harder for non Irish applicants right now. Some high point courses are resorting to random selection, which is painful for kids who have highest marks possible.

It does say ‘tuition fees’ on the invoice DC received.

@5starzz invoice 1 is €1500 (half tuition fees) payable before starting plus a student levy of about €200 followed by 2 further payments of €750.

Your DC needs protocol of funds for the whole tuition amount or someone to act as guarantor.

If your DC is looking for work, they'll also need to register for a PPS number. Lots of useful info here
https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/

And remember health care isn't free. You'll be looking at a €60 a visit charge, so you'll have to budget for that to.

The GP at the student health centre at Trinity is free.

@5starzz They don't guarantee accommodation to all first years though, and there is a significant housing crisis in Dublin at the moment, which has pushed prices through the roof. Be prepared to be absolutely gouged for housing if your child doesn't get uni accommodation.

Trinity is really letting its students down by not having spent the last 10 years building more student acommodation of its own.

This seems pretty clear that there are fees, but bizarrely they count “British” as EU!

(edited as I posted too quickly and did not read the definition of “EU” to begin with)

https://www.tcd.ie/academicregistry/assets/PDF/fees-and-payments/UG-24-25-fees.pdf

This answers the question re loans. It’s a nope.

SUSI say they need 3 years residence in Ireland so the Irish passport won’t help

www.susi.ie/eligibility-criteria/

UK students in Ireland are treated the same as Irish students. There's a reciprocal arrangement. There are no govt student loans because college places are heavily subsidised. Instead of fees you pay a 'student contribution' of 3k a year. The rest is paid by the govt.

It's a great university. Your biggest issue would be finding accommodation.

https://hea.ie/funding-governance-performance/funding/student-finance/course-fees/

Thanks all. Accomodation seems to be the issue both availabiliy and cost - is it worse than London do you think?

The actual registration fees look a bargain compared to UK fees (which might well go up to £12k/£36k rather than £9k/£27k)....he is my 4th - the older 3 are saddled with ridiculous amount of student debt and being bled dry renting in London for their jobs. He has this year out to make more savings and has always had 2-3 jobs on the go (He worked full-time just turned 16 on a farm for the whole summer after GCSEs) - so financially its potentially doable and attractive - if we do the sums re extra rent and the extra 4th year of costs.

In my opinion, it is not worse than 'all' London, in the same way as there are peers of DD paying much, much more in Edinburgh, York, Exeter, Bath etc, but the real challenge as PPs' mention is supply in Dublin. Less and less UK 1st years are securing Trinity Halls accommodation and if you do what we did, which was apply for both TC and private, you get rejected for TH. School boy error on our part, but we also didn't want to take the risk on zero accommodation when R1 offers came out so bit the bullet on Kavanagh C at around £9k for 38 weeks. Blessing really, the location itself was a massive bonus, resulting in her staying their 2 years being back and forth campus in 15 mins to enable her to maximise academic/social side of life via walking and frequent luas lines.

But, students work there. And they work during their summers too, often staying on RoI for their jobs, Laidlaw scholarships etc, so they make the most of their 51 week contracts if using private halls.

Re 4 years, anecdotally from my DD's year, most have secured year abroad for Y3, the offering is vast and open to most courses (mandatory on my DD's), history included; Vienna, for example, is popular for history. ALL students are able to access Erasmus, with partner universities non EU also on the list. Some territories are deemed a cheaper cost of living so self-fund only to offset the higher costs of other regions/spread the funding pot. Middle East as an example. Subject to where a student chooses, this can be a year of savings vs TCD Y3 costs, unless they choose US where student will need to demonstrate circa £20k - £25k savings plus incur the higher costs of US living.

Re Y4, students who have played an active uni life by 'giving back' through their society roles, club participation etc, get priority dibs with campus accommodation. Basic, but much cheaper for final year.

TCD is not for everyone, it's grown up living from the get go but for those who are independently minded, want to be around smart kids due to the high entry requirements alone, who are (in my opinion from what I've seen), pretty driven, active in society life and work/play hard, it's a great place to study if you have one of those!

Again, can only answer this anecdotally OP from my DD's cohort, but I do not believe it is disadvantageous from an employment perspective to be studying at TCD vs the high ranking UK unis, it is on the roster just like the UK ones, lots of EMEA HQ's based in Ireland. The same rules apply wherever - students wanting to get onto grad schemes need to research the admissions processes and practice/apply accordingly.

Some companies also taking more of an All Ireland approach to hiring too, there is no differentiation for us due to CTA, but having an EU passport for those eligible will give them wider access to EU opportunities as an addition. DD has secured a conditional offer for employment with Belfast as a base post graduation on 2026. She is not alone. Not sure if the careers department had much to do with it, but the general early bird student competition there is fierce, I think that had more of an influence!

Thats an excellent insight @ealingwestmum - thank you. Sounds right up his street.

Can I just check with you re halls. If Trinity Halls - you only pay for term time, are cheaper but they are further out and risk of not getting a place?

If private halls ie Kavanagh - they are nearer, more expensive and have to pay more weeks (is it 39 or 51you have to pay for/) - but could stay for 2 years. Is your 9K euros or sterling?

Great news about 3rd Year abroad thats very interesting - as is the giving back to uni to get first dibs on 4th year accomodation.

My sons friend is off to LSE shortly and is paying £14k a year for first year halls.

One of my DC is contributing to the £5,000 a month rent for a terraced house in salubrious Bethnal Green.