Questions about Ireland Applications...

I am thinking about applying to Trinity, UCD and UCC for 2009 entry on a politics related course.

I have a couple of questions about the admissions process though as I know it is different and in terms of helpful websites UCAS>>>>CAO.

1) Can you apply to more than one course at the same uni?
2) Is it true places on courses are allocated after results come out?
3) I will be hoping for AAAa at A level next year, but have heard that for some Irish universities, particaularly Trinity, you need 4 full A levels to stand a chance of getting in. Is this true?

Thank you for any help!! :redface:

Reply 1

Heldenzeit

1) Yes. You can apply to up to 10 courses, which on the application you list in order of preference. These 10 courses can all be at the same university.
2)Yes it is true, if you are applying from the Uk mainland ie not Northern Ireland, you would need to send photocopies of your exam results to the CAO immediately after they are given out in August (The Northern Irish board is the only board to send them direct to the CAO). The CAO has a really useful handbook on their website which explains all this.
3) It is true for many competitive courses you need to take four full a-levels to have a chance of getting in and even with four A's at A2 you can still lack the necessary points. If you look on the Trinity website you will find a document entitled 'admission-requirements-2008.pdf' which lists the necessary points range to get in, however the way in which they say they award points to A-level applicants is overly optimistic and you would do better to look at a document called 'A-level & LC Equalisation Final.pdf' to see how they actually do it.

Reply 2

pinkpenguin

Thank you that was a lot of help :smile:

Reply 3

roxy potter

I don't really have much to add but I will say that even though politics in Trinity might have required 4 As at A level last year(for example) it doesn't mean that it will be the same this year. Most courses tend to fluctuate a bit, Trinity seems to fluctuate more than most for some reason.

It's all done on a supply and demand basis, the lowest required grades for a course are the grades of the last person that has been let into the course, it's not simply a set requirement it depends on results in a given year. (although maybe it is different for no n LC students)

You probably knew that already but I figured I'd mention it because it wasn't written here.

Reply 4

StarsAreFixed

Trinity points tend to go up when everywhere else is dropping. Not everything will require 4 A's at A-Level, but keep in mind that the CAO grading system is a lot less vague..an A-Level A is worth anything from 510-600 (maximum) points in the CAO system. If a course is more than 500 points, 4 A-Levels would be best.