Is there any difference in applying from England for Dublin?
I want to apply to do Physics at Trinity College Dublin, I'm from Essex in England. is the application system in Ireland any different and will this affect the fees and/or my chances of successful entry?
Hey! 
Yeah there's a bit of a difference. Ireland uses the CAO system. I'm not entirely sure how it works myself but you get something like ten choices of university placed in order of preference. If you get an offer it will generally be in points. You generally have to do 4 A-levels in order to meet the minimum number of points needed, but that may just be for the higher demand courses!
Go for it! Can't be any harder than getting into uni in the UK!!
Yeah there's a bit of a difference. Ireland uses the CAO system. I'm not entirely sure how it works myself but you get something like ten choices of university placed in order of preference. If you get an offer it will generally be in points. You generally have to do 4 A-levels in order to meet the minimum number of points needed, but that may just be for the higher demand courses!Go for it! Can't be any harder than getting into uni in the UK!!
Of course it is. It is a seperate country outside of the UK. I don't know why people on here assume it will appear on the UCAS form. We have a different school, exam, and university entry system.
www.cao.ie You apply online by February 1st in the year of entry and pay around €35. You can apply by May but the fee is double then. There are two lists, one for Level 8 honours degrees and one for level 6/7 diplomas and ordinary degrees. Almost all university courses will be level 8 so don't worry about that. There are 10 spaces in the list- you can apply for any selection of courses in any university you want (none of the universities will know- the CAO is a middleman and handles everything). So you could have 1. Medicine at Trinity, 2. Arts in Maynooth, 3. Business in DIT. It doesn't matter. The important thing is that the order MUST BE IN GENUINE ORDER OF PREFERENCE.
That is SO important. Every year there are stories of people who don't think they'll get say Dentistry, so put it second and a lower curse first. But the CAO will only ever offer you your first choice if you fufil requirements for it- you will NEVER get Dentistry then if your first choice was Science even if you had the points for Dentistry. So definitely have Physics at TCD Number one!
We do not have predicted grades, personal statements or any of that. It basically works like this: Be February 1, application (usually done online on that link I gave) will have been acknowledged after it went through. You can change the order of your courses afterwards. In March or April they will send out a change of mind form as well. You can change as late as the start of June, but that might incur a fee. For most of the time it is free and easy to do. Anyway, our exams take place in June- usually ending on the 26th. Results come out on around the 12th of August- always a Wednesday. Round One of the CAO offers will come out the following Monday at 6AM online.
They work through your list and will offer you the FIRST course you have the points and requirements for. Subsequent rounds continue until all places are filled. There IS a round zero at the end of July but you must hve your final results by then t be considered for that. It is a completely fair system. The university does not know you exist and will not know you exist until you accept the offer (online). You are given a number and the CAO deals with you that way. It might sound weird but it works great here.
Leaving Cert students do 7 subjects. Grades are very specific- 5% in each category for almost all of them. Each are converted to points, which means that everybody can be ranked fairly. 6 are counted for points- 600 maximum points. Less thn 1% get that. That is a huge problem- a huge percentage get top grades in England, it's tough to compare the two when your grades are so much broader and therefore much more common! Average points are 350,400 and above would be considered very good, 500 and above starts getting extremely competitive course-wise. 4 A-levels are needed when you want a course over 500.
Which is the course you want? Theoretical physics or Physics and Chemistry with Advanced Materials? Or Science (General Entry)? Physics and Chemistry has the lowest points, 410. You would still need fairly good grades for that- ABB or AAB. Science is 455- AAB should be enough. Theoretical though is 500- you would need AAA or even AAAB. That might sound crazy but bear in mind it's tough for ALL applicants to do so well.
Please quote me an ask if you want anything explained further. Unfortunately, being an internal applicant, I don't know enough about applying from the UK. You do qualify for free fees though (Irish government pays tuition fees) BUT you still have to pay registrations fees of approx. £1700 a year. You do not need to provide profiency at English language certificates You will nee to have a foreign laguage up to at least GCSE level (bearing in mind Irish students do English, Irish and one other language to Leaving Cert level- ALL mandatory!). The TCD handbook is available online, I will try to get it for you. The CAO handbook can be ordered online or your school might have it. There is no student loan culture because of free fees. There are grants but you would need to be resident here for quite a while first. Your government will not help you to study here. Jobs are readily available and pay quite well. Trinity accommodation is quite expensive, but outside of that it cn be quite reasonable.
www.cao.ie
http://www.tcd.ie/Admissions/undergraduate/assets/pdfs/TCD_Undergraduate_courses_2011.pdf
(that is the prospectus)
I bet I've put you off now! I am going to graduate from Trinity soon. It is an AMAZING university with incredible lecturers, beautiful buildings and some great facilities. It is smack bang in the city centre, could not be more convenient. I'd recommend a visit if you can- air fares and ferries are VERY cheap.
www.cao.ie You apply online by February 1st in the year of entry and pay around €35. You can apply by May but the fee is double then. There are two lists, one for Level 8 honours degrees and one for level 6/7 diplomas and ordinary degrees. Almost all university courses will be level 8 so don't worry about that. There are 10 spaces in the list- you can apply for any selection of courses in any university you want (none of the universities will know- the CAO is a middleman and handles everything). So you could have 1. Medicine at Trinity, 2. Arts in Maynooth, 3. Business in DIT. It doesn't matter. The important thing is that the order MUST BE IN GENUINE ORDER OF PREFERENCE.
That is SO important. Every year there are stories of people who don't think they'll get say Dentistry, so put it second and a lower curse first. But the CAO will only ever offer you your first choice if you fufil requirements for it- you will NEVER get Dentistry then if your first choice was Science even if you had the points for Dentistry. So definitely have Physics at TCD Number one!
We do not have predicted grades, personal statements or any of that. It basically works like this: Be February 1, application (usually done online on that link I gave) will have been acknowledged after it went through. You can change the order of your courses afterwards. In March or April they will send out a change of mind form as well. You can change as late as the start of June, but that might incur a fee. For most of the time it is free and easy to do. Anyway, our exams take place in June- usually ending on the 26th. Results come out on around the 12th of August- always a Wednesday. Round One of the CAO offers will come out the following Monday at 6AM online.
They work through your list and will offer you the FIRST course you have the points and requirements for. Subsequent rounds continue until all places are filled. There IS a round zero at the end of July but you must hve your final results by then t be considered for that. It is a completely fair system. The university does not know you exist and will not know you exist until you accept the offer (online). You are given a number and the CAO deals with you that way. It might sound weird but it works great here.
Leaving Cert students do 7 subjects. Grades are very specific- 5% in each category for almost all of them. Each are converted to points, which means that everybody can be ranked fairly. 6 are counted for points- 600 maximum points. Less thn 1% get that. That is a huge problem- a huge percentage get top grades in England, it's tough to compare the two when your grades are so much broader and therefore much more common! Average points are 350,400 and above would be considered very good, 500 and above starts getting extremely competitive course-wise. 4 A-levels are needed when you want a course over 500.
Which is the course you want? Theoretical physics or Physics and Chemistry with Advanced Materials? Or Science (General Entry)? Physics and Chemistry has the lowest points, 410. You would still need fairly good grades for that- ABB or AAB. Science is 455- AAB should be enough. Theoretical though is 500- you would need AAA or even AAAB. That might sound crazy but bear in mind it's tough for ALL applicants to do so well.
Please quote me an ask if you want anything explained further. Unfortunately, being an internal applicant, I don't know enough about applying from the UK. You do qualify for free fees though (Irish government pays tuition fees) BUT you still have to pay registrations fees of approx. £1700 a year. You do not need to provide profiency at English language certificates
You will nee to have a foreign laguage up to at least GCSE level (bearing in mind Irish students do English, Irish and one other language to Leaving Cert level- ALL mandatory!). The TCD handbook is available online, I will try to get it for you. The CAO handbook can be ordered online or your school might have it. There is no student loan culture because of free fees. There are grants but you would need to be resident here for quite a while first. Your government will not help you to study here. Jobs are readily available and pay quite well. Trinity accommodation is quite expensive, but outside of that it cn be quite reasonable.www.cao.ie
http://www.tcd.ie/Admissions/undergraduate/assets/pdfs/TCD_Undergraduate_courses_2011.pdf
(that is the prospectus)
I bet I've put you off now!
I am going to graduate from Trinity soon. It is an AMAZING university with incredible lecturers, beautiful buildings and some great facilities. It is smack bang in the city centre, could not be more convenient. I'd recommend a visit if you can- air fares and ferries are VERY cheap.Nope- UCAS conditional offers depend on predicted grades, right? So no, nothing until mid-August I'm afraid. Don't be worried about accommodation, as everyone is in the same boat at the same late stage. To me it sounds crazy to base offers or even potential offers on predicted grades 
If you do not have your final grades before the end of July you cannot be considered for round zero- which is very small anyway.
There are only about 70,000 CAO applicants each year, so really it's a very small system. Wales has more universities than us!
Nope, the two applications are seperate. Neither will know. If you get what you want on UCAS and you get the CAO offer, you can just decline it and it will go to someone else. I'm sure you can decline any UCAS offers too if you get the CAO offer you want.
If you are applying for the next academic year, CAO applications open at the start of November. I'd recommend getting your hands on the handbook if at all possible. It will explain the process in more detail and will have all the details for external applicants.
If you do not have your final grades before the end of July you cannot be considered for round zero- which is very small anyway.There are only about 70,000 CAO applicants each year, so really it's a very small system. Wales has more universities than us!
Nope, the two applications are seperate. Neither will know. If you get what you want on UCAS and you get the CAO offer, you can just decline it and it will go to someone else. I'm sure you can decline any UCAS offers too if you get the CAO offer you want.
If you are applying for the next academic year, CAO applications open at the start of November. I'd recommend getting your hands on the handbook if at all possible. It will explain the process in more detail and will have all the details for external applicants.
Original post by StarsAreFixed
I bet I've put you off now! I am going to graduate from Trinity soon. It is an AMAZING university with incredible lecturers, beautiful buildings and some great facilities. It is smack bang in the city centre, could not be more convenient. I'd recommend a visit if you can- air fares and ferries are VERY cheap.
I bet I've put you off now!
I am going to graduate from Trinity soon. It is an AMAZING university with incredible lecturers, beautiful buildings and some great facilities. It is smack bang in the city centre, could not be more convenient. I'd recommend a visit if you can- air fares and ferries are VERY cheap.Hi, you obviously know about the system, If I want to do BESS at Trinity and therefore need 475 what A level results would I need?
Original post by Beanz123
Hi, you obviously know about the system, If I want to do BESS at Trinity and therefore need 475 what A level results would I need?
I was an internal applicant so I don't know enough about a-level points conversion. Generally courses 500 and over, you need 4 a levels- something like AAAB or higher. BESS though, you could get away with AAB or AAA. Points rise and fall every year- BESS was 460 in 2007, so it's not an exact science, even for Irish results.
Original post by StarsAreFixed
Original post by StarsAreFixed
I was an internal applicant so I don't know enough about a-level points conversion. Generally courses 500 and over, you need 4 a levels- something like AAAB or higher. BESS though, you could get away with AAB or AAA. Points rise and fall every year- BESS was 460 in 2007, so it's not an exact science, even for Irish results.
Is BESS not rated particularly highly?
Original post by Beanz123
Is BESS not rated particularly highly?
Points are driven by supply and demand. Medicine and Dentistry are extremely competitive and therefore require close to 600 points. But there are courses with lower demand that still require a lot of brainpower! Midwifery, Nursing and Computer Science are all in the 300-400 points range, from below average, to average, to good points but nothing spectacular. English though is over 500 points, History's points are the same as BESS and English and History combined are 525 and over.
BESS is by far the largest course in Trinity. As a result, its points are lower than other competitive courses. It is still higher than just about every other business course in the country, except for Actuary and the fact that they are that high given the fact it has double the places and more of just about every other course in Trinity is impressive. BESS is widely known and extremely respected, because it is such a versatile course. You have to take all modules in 1st year (and you must have a good grasp of maths too) but after that you can pretty much make the degree what you want- you can make it a pure Economics degree if you want, or have a joint-honours one. The prospectus link in my first post will have a good explanation of what's involved in BESS. 475 is not to be sneezed at!
Original post by LittleMisssPipedream
Can't be any harder than getting into uni in the UK!!
Unfortunately, for some courses, it can be- though it's definitely a much simpler system- no personal statement, no interviews, no conditionals. From what I've heard from teachers, places for A-Level applicants on quite a few courses are very restricted. I don't know anything about the physics course to be honest, but last year, they expected 3A*s 1A from medicine applicants which is significantly higher than the grade requirements for UK medicine courses, the highest requirements being 1A* 2As. So overall, A level grades are very, very important for the Republic of Ireland but it's worth a shot
They don't appear to put much emphasis at all on gcses or AS levels, so that's always a bonus, on top of the simpler application system.Original post by CantThinkOfaUsername
Unfortunately, for some courses, it can be- though it's definitely a much simpler system- no personal statement, no interviews, no conditionals. From what I've heard from teachers, places for A-Level applicants on quite a few courses are very restricted. I don't know anything about the physics course to be honest, but last year, they expected 3A*s 1A from medicine applicants which is significantly higher than the grade requirements for UK medicine courses, the highest requirements being 1A* 2As. So overall, A level grades are very, very important for the Republic of Ireland but it's worth a shot They don't appear to put much emphasis at all on gcses or AS levels, so that's always a bonus, on top of the simpler application system.
They don't appear to put much emphasis at all on gcses or AS levels, so that's always a bonus, on top of the simpler application system.I would agree, but worth bearing in mind that Medicine (or Dentistry since that is officially the highest now Medicine is done via HPAT but still needs 570+) requires A1 A1 A1 A1 A2 A2 or A1 A1 A1 A1 A1 B1. Which is extremely difficult for students here to get, and less than 5% would really. Medicine requirements in the UK seem positively low in comparison! It still is only a reflection here at least of the competitiveness- generally only those capable of 560+ will aim for medicine/dentistry so filling up the course is automatically going to be those with those points.
The problem with A-Levels, as I have mentioned, is the difficulty in equalising scores as our system is very narrow and yours is the opposite. Trinity has its own system which works fairer than other universities- but all are striving for the best systems possible. Trinity attracts far more a-level students anyway, and foreign students in general. 1 in 8 in Trinity are non-Irish students. Places are reserved in ALL courses for non-Irish applicants. All universities are keen to do this as although EU applicants qualify for free fees, internationals don't and all universities here are massively in debt and salivate at the prospect of full fees. Aside from reserving places on courses, it generally is a case of best results, first in, so in general everyone is on the same footing. They literally fill courses on best results, and the last person's points are the cut-off point.
Trinity skews everything, because the majority of its courses are over 500 points. This is not the case for any other university. In fact, there is one with only one course over 500, and another with two. Because the majority of A-Level students apply for Trinity and RCSI it gives the impression that in general, course requirements are very high. This really only applies to Trinity and in general- Law, Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Actuary and Veterinary.
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