[StarsAreFixed]

(Original post by i06grhan)
I would ideally like to apply to TCD to study PPES (philosophy, politics, economics and sociology) it says that the entry requirement is 510 points. Roughly what would i need to get in GCSE, AS and A-Level to get these points. Thank you!

510 is extremely high- not medicine high or anything but extremely high for an arts course. I don't think you can use an AS, just 4 a-levels but I'll see from the tables.

http://www.tcd.ie/Admissions/undergr...culation/gcse/

You can actually, but your results would need to be A*A*A* at A-level and an A at AS. This gets 515, ideally you would want slightly higher than this as points do fluctuate. It is much easier if you use 4 a-levels because there isn't as much pressure to get perfect a-levels.

AAAB is perfect, it gets 525. AABB gets bang on 510, which may very well be enough but it just wouldn't guarantee it, points could well rise to 515.

Your GCSE results don't count for scoring purposes- calculating points. They are only used for matriculation, to satisfy subject requirements. You need to have passed Maths, English and a foreign language at them, that's all they care about. This is because Irish students do all of these subjects and Irish at school-leaving level so they need to have it somewhat fair.

[Clare~Bear]

My boyfriends is hoping to go to the New York Film Acadamy.

He realises it's tough to get into so will probably apply to some Irish universities for drama courses aswell.

He's half Irish, so we think can get free tuition at unis in the republic of ireland? He's lived in England all his life but his mum is from County Limerick, so can he get free tuition?

We've noticed that UCAS only includes NI unis, so how would he apply to unis in the republic of ireland? Do they have an equivilent to UCAS or do you apply to them individually?

Plus we're assuming that he won't be able to get free tuition in NI??

[StarsAreFixed]

He is an EU student, so is entitled to free fees, having Irish citizenship is not neccessary. However this still means the reg fee must be paid, €2500 a year. I seriously don't know why people are surprised that Irish unis dont appear on the ucas form. Why on earth would they? It is a seperate country with a completely different exam system, you won't find foreign unis on your own form. Northern Ireland obviously is part of the UK so is on it. You pay normal tuition fees for their unis.

In the roi you use cao. You apply online www.cao.ie before Feb 1st and pay €35 or pay the late fee of twice that before may in the year of entry. It is a continous form, not like ucas. This means that you can change the order of it and info at any time up until July, what matters is your cao number, once you have one you're in the system. You are ranked by grades only, no personal statement, no interview, no predicted grades. Our grade system is so specific that students can be ranked effectively, also there are only 70,000 or so applicants anyway. Works in a small country. Grade requirements are high for courses in demand, any course over 500 points needs 4 a levels. You must have English, maths and a foreign language to at least gcse level and trinity will not accept media studies, general or ict or both English subjects.

I can't link on my phone but I'll tell you where the handy links are. The first one is the cao handbook- he MUST read this in full. www.cao.ie its on a tabbed menu at the too or can be downloaded under downloads. Also on this website is the list of points for all courses, on the homepage click points on the lower left, then select 2011 points and the third option down- level 8 points. As I said, over 500 and he needs 4 a levels. Under 500 means 3 and an as is fine. The first column is the actual points, the second is what the average person who got it last year got.

The 7 unis are trinity college Dublin, university college Dublin, university college cork, university college galway, university of limerick, Dublin city university and national university of Ireland maynooth. They are ranked in this order, trinity way way ahead of the others. Anything with IT in it is a polytechnic. Some are extremely well regarded like DIT. Any other colleges are either specialised like art or teaching or are private.

To see what grades are needed when you see stuff like points 435 525 or whatever there is a converter on www.tcd.ie go to prospective students then undergrad admissions then admission requirements. Gce/a level is listed and the converter is there on that page. Trinity has a drama course which is extremely in demand- I know for a fact its over 500 or at least was when a friend applied a few years ago.

[Clare~Bear]

Thanks

You say he needs gcses in english maths and a foreign language. He's dyslexic and his school only let him take 8 gcses (AA BBBB CC) and only let him do a welsh certificate thing in french which he passed, but it's not quite equivilent to a gcse (well it's equivilent to something like a E/D I think) - is this going to be a problem or wil he get a chance to explain this and it be ok?

[StarsAreFixed]

It appears that drama also requires interview or assessment, which means it's lumped in with art and medicine as 'special' courses. This means that it cannot be done under late-entry CAO and means it has to be done by February. However minimum points are still neccessary.

Drama at UCC- 400 points. This is above average but not by much. ABB and an A/B at AS should do it- not sure, check the converter.

Drama at DIT- 415

Drama at Trinity- 455. Now that's a surprise, it was definitely 515 at one stage. There is a swing towards more practical for employment courses though. 455 is much better than I thought, and does not need 4 A-levels.

Arts with Theatre and Performance, UCG- 465

Doesn't really seem to be offered anywhere else. Anyway all of these can be put on the form- you can put down ten in any uni or all different unis, doesn't matter. Has to be in genuine order or preference. Very lucky those points have fallen!

[StarsAreFixed]

(Original post by Clare~Bear)
Thanks

You say he needs gcses in english maths and a foreign language. He's dyslexic and his school only let him take 8 gcses (AA BBBB CC) and only let him do a welsh certificate thing in french which he passed, but it's not quite equivilent to a gcse (well it's equivilent to something like a E/D I think) - is this going to be a problem or wil he get a chance to explain this and it be ok?

I'm not sure. It's there because Irish students take Irish, English, Maths and a foreign language to final school exams so this way is seen as more fair. He should email the CAO about it, it's under contact us. Also read my other post, it turns out the points for drama have fallen quite a bit which is great news.

[BiscuitTin]

(Original post by StarsAreFixed)

The cheapest rent I have heard of is about €400 a month. Trinity Hall costs €6-9k a year, you can get much cheaper than that but Halls has the instant community of mostly non-Irish students bonus.
..

As far as I understood it Trinity Hall accommodation was more in the €4-5k range http://www.tcd.ie/Admissions/undergr...eo/page10.html

Are there some hidden costs that I'm not factoring in?

[StarsAreFixed]

You may absolutely be right, stupidly I was going by what it was in 2007-2008, where one section of it was €6k, the more rundown part, and the rest was €9. Rent has fallen massively in Dublin, glad to hear Trinity eventually followed suit. €4-5 is a very big drop though, it's possible the old figures included the cost of food and/or transport to the college or something.

[notoxa]

Applied to BESS at Trinity, can see that the minimum points for this year will likely be around 480 if it doesn't change too much. I'm safe with that I think, probably getting ~505-520 points.
However I understand that Trinity separates A-level and Irish applicants for ranking purposes. So, for example; if there are 100 places on the course, 80 will be set aside for Irish students and 20 for A-level students (assuming no other countries involved). The 80 Irish places will be given to the top performing Irish applicants, and the 20 places to the best A-level applicants. I think I understood that right (all described on the last bit of this page).

Does this mean that the quoted 480 minimum points for BESS last year potentially won't be accurate for those applying with A-levels? Should I expect it to be higher? The points could be inflated, for example (I know a lot of people say that it's easier to get a certain number of CAO point with A-levels than it is with leaving cert).

[StarsAreFixed]

You are correct in that Trinity does not just use points for UK students, unlike other Unis here. However, I don't understand it, its classed as a proportional weighting, no idea what it is. But places are held for international students, not EU students. You have the same status as an Irish student and treated as such. They get huge fees off internationals who also bump it up the rankings, proportion of internationals is one of the factors. If you can get over 500 points then relax, that's well above it. Every Irish student doing six out of 7 subjects at highe level has the potential to get 600 points. Those doing 3 a levels and using an as don't. It is far easier to get top grades in your system than ours though, it balances.

[notoxa]

Thanks for the reply !

(Original post by StarsAreFixed)
But places are held for international students, not EU students. You have the same status as an Irish student and treated as such.

Well Trinity don't describe it as such; the bottom of the page I linked to (under 'Allocation of places') says how I'll basically be put up against only those applying to BESS with A-levels (not Irish students as well). Which is why I'm thinking the points needed might be different, you see my point?

Trinity College applies a two-stage admissions procedure whereby it , in the first instance, allocates ranges of CAO points to A-Level grades in order that A-Level applications can be compared with Leaving Certificate applications. Places on courses are then determined based on the proportions of eligible applications coming from the Leaving Certificate, and A-Level examination systems or, in a small number of cases, equivalent EU systems. Once these proportions are determined, places on the course in question are offered to applicants coming from each respective examination system group on the basis of ranking within that group.

I see your point about being well above the minimum though, I guess I'll just have to wait and see in August.

[StarsAreFixed]

Hmm well I've actually been to trinity and never knew it worked like that. It is still different though to internationals. It sounds pretty vague. The proportions are so different for each course, English and history have a huge amount of uk students in particular, small courses might have none.

[thetobbit]

Any fellow History applicants about?

How's the points situation looking for this for History at Trinity, I'm hoping to get AAA (b) in August, and possible A*AA (b)

Seems to hover around 480? 2011 final points it was down to 440 which doesn't seem right.

I do hope that whole "proportionality" crap doesn't come in it this year :L

[StarsAreFixed]

.I'm looking at it now, it was around 450 when I did the CAO in 2007. 2011 final points: 445, 2010: 480, 2009: 445, 2008: 450 and 2007: 455.

I would say it hovers around 460, not 480- that looks like a fluke. Final points usually are a drop on round one, but not by a much with a course as popular as that. Not sure if it's you I've said this to before but it is an amazing course (I did 1-2 modules of it every year, but not single-honour or TSM). Have a look at doing History of Ireland.

[luker1994]

How much is it roughly pointwise for economics at Trinity or UCD?
Also if I finished my A-levels this summer and took a gap year to complete a GCSE in a foreign language would I be eligible?
Cheers

[StarsAreFixed]

Economics is not done by itself in Trinity. It's part of BESS mainly, business, economics and social studies. After the first common year you can manipulate it more, and graduate in pure economics if you wish. You can also study economics in combination with another subject- like History or English. BESS is around 460. You can check points for any year by going to www.cao.ie and clicking points. Once you've chosen the year- choose level 8 undergrad courses if it gives you an option. BESS doesn't change much. You'll also find UCD's courses there, I don't know their points. To pinpoint the colleges in that list better- UCD's course code at the extreme left- you;ll see it for every courses with different endings- is DN. DN101 for example is Arts. Trinity's is TR. Trinity is nearer the top usually in that list. If you do the subject combination thing with Ecnomics it's hard to determine the points for that- it depends on what you combine it with. If you combined it with Russian or Irish, it would be low. If you combined it with History or English, it would be over 500.

You can calculate your points here. http://www.tcd.ie/Admissions/undergr...culation/gcse/ The great thing is, 460 isn't very high (high, but not insane) so you do not need to present 4 a-levels. You can just use an AS grade. Your grades still need to be good. If you DO have 4 a-levels, you have a huge safety net. It just states you need a foreign language until at least GCSE level, once you have the cert stamped and sent, I highly doubt they would care. Please email them to make sure of this, there's a contact email on the www.cao.ie website. Don't email Trinity or anyone, they won't know. Also, check the link above to make sure you are not presenting forbidden subjects or combinations.

[thetobbit]

(Original post by StarsAreFixed)
.I'm looking at it now, it was around 450 when I did the CAO in 2007. 2011 final points: 445, 2010: 480, 2009: 445, 2008: 450 and 2007: 455.

I would say it hovers around 460, not 480- that looks like a fluke. Final points usually are a drop on round one, but not by a much with a course as popular as that. Not sure if it's you I've said this to before but it is an amazing course (I did 1-2 modules of it every year, but not single-honour or TSM). Have a look at doing History of Ireland.

Ah cool Trinity would be my dream choice.

About 460, yeh I talked to the head tutor for history at one of the Trinity open days and she said if I got my three A's I'd have a good chance (which would be 465)

The period after results day is gonna be hectic lol.


Also, what about proportionality?

[glitter_star12]

For a-level applicants, as soon as we get our results on the 16th august do we just send them to cao? Ourselves or our schools?

[luker1994]

Thanks for all that. I got an A in AS, do maths at A level, and I'm likely to get between an ABC and A*A*B at A level so 460 points should be alright to reach.
The problems that I never did French or anything at GCSE so I can't apply this year, I was just wondering if I got the GCSE in French before next summer whether I'd be accepted?

[StarsAreFixed]

(Original post by glitter_star12)
For a-level applicants, as soon as we get our results on the 16th august do we just send them to cao? Ourselves or our schools?

They get them straight from the exam board. Other exam systems (ie. not Irish or British) you do need to do this, but you're fine.