The Student Room Group

Applying to Irish universities with A levels

Scroll to see replies

Original post by maemg
I've never heard of a chemistry/physics crossover subject, to me its sounds a bit stupid as they're core subjects! :s-smilie:




I've only ever heard of it in this context. It is not offered in normal schools or private schools. I think it can only be taken externally...I don't get why there would be a demand for it really?
Original post by La_Crosse
How much higher is the living cost in Ireland compared to England. What I'm sort of asking is that if I go to Ireland and pay the 2000 euro fees, will the living costs increase the cost of a degree past the cost of the same degree in England?


What part? Dublin is more expensive than other cities, but it's possible to find greater variety of cheaper stuff there. You can shop in Spar, rent in somewhere like Ranelagh and yes it will be substantially higher than living costs in the UK. Things like milk cost €1.12, cheese €2.59 cereals €2-4...I can't think of good solid examples really. It's extremely possible to cut down your living costs without living off pot noodles. The main supermarkets are Dunnes and Tesco (Tesco is more expensive here by about 15% than in the UK). There's M&S too, but we don't have Morrisons, Asda, Sainsburys or Waitrose. We do have Lidl and Aldi, and a smaller supermarket that's not a discount called Supervalu. All supermarkets do loads of promos and offers, and Lidl and Aldi obviously is where you can pick up staples much cheaper. If you go to tesco all the time, your moey will evaporate.

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. Places with a D2, D4 and D6 postcode are best avoided, extremely expensive. There are old fashioned suburbs practically in the city centre with pretty low rents. They have the rep of being working-class areas, but there's little to no scumbag element. These include Cabra and Phibsboro. Further out there's Fairview, Marino, Whitechurch, Santry and Drumcondra. Both Luas lines (tram) run to the Southside, which doesn't have great scope for cheap non-dangerous accommodation. The trains are pretty good (much cheaper than UK trains) and there's loads of bus routes that are really regular. The standard bus fare is €1.65, you can get student bus tickets but you won't save much if your bus fare is low. www.daft.ie Have a look here, main renting website. Don't be alarmed by ridiculous prices for new apartments- have a look at some of the places I mentioned- look out for postcodes D1, D3, D5, D7, D9, D11....they're your best bet without being too far away. The best deals are posted up on noticeboards on campus, really cheap.

Shopping- try not to, do it when you're in the UK. This is the biggest rip-off. Topshop I'll give as an example. All shoes that cost £65 in the UK cost €99 here, even though the actual conversion allowing for higher wages and costs here would be roughly €74. Jeans cost £40 but €61 here- again actual conversion €45. They are the worst offenders, but there's a good few others out there. We do have Penneys (Primark in the UK, but it's originally Irish and the ones in the city are brilliant), Dunnes (slightly more expensive than Penneys), H&M and Forever 21. Almost all high-street UK shops are here, with the exception of Uniqlo, I know we don't have that. Can't think of others.

Pints do cost €5-6 here, and spirit+mixer will cost €6-9. There are deals everywhere though, in particular in clubs aimed at students. Some deals consist of a bunch of drinks for €10, or free drinks before 11 but most are all drinks €3/3.50. They can't lower them to the prices offered in the UK, they're protected fiercely and if promotions clearly aim to get everyone hammered they get shut down. For the same reason- you can't buy alcohol in any off-license after 10pm and all clubs close at 2.30AM (except 2- D2 and Coppers) which as you can imagine is a brilliant idea- everyone is on the streets at the same time, without the benefit of longer to let the drink soak in. What a lot of people do is pre-drink. There's always great deals on cans if they're your thing and naggins generally cost €7.50. If you're smart about it you can have a cheap night. Other people bring drink in with them to clubs, as none of them search anymore. Night bus home costs €5, taxis are fairly reasonable also.

So see how that compares? If you want to know anything else I can probably answer it..
Reply 42
Original post by StarsAreFixed
What part? Dublin is more expensive than other cities, but it's possible to find greater variety of cheaper stuff there. You can shop in Spar, rent in somewhere like Ranelagh and yes it will be substantially higher than living costs in the UK. Things like milk cost €1.12, cheese €2.59 cereals €2-4...I can't think of good solid examples really. It's extremely possible to cut down your living costs without living off pot noodles. The main supermarkets are Dunnes and Tesco (Tesco is more expensive here by about 15% than in the UK). There's M&S too, but we don't have Morrisons, Asda, Sainsburys or Waitrose. We do have Lidl and Aldi, and a smaller supermarket that's not a discount called Supervalu. All supermarkets do loads of promos and offers, and Lidl and Aldi obviously is where you can pick up staples much cheaper. If you go to tesco all the time, your moey will evaporate.

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. Places with a D2, D4 and D6 postcode are best avoided, extremely expensive. There are old fashioned suburbs practically in the city centre with pretty low rents. They have the rep of being working-class areas, but there's little to no scumbag element. These include Cabra and Phibsboro. Further out there's Fairview, Marino, Whitechurch, Santry and Drumcondra. Both Luas lines (tram) run to the Southside, which doesn't have great scope for cheap non-dangerous accommodation. The trains are pretty good (much cheaper than UK trains) and there's loads of bus routes that are really regular. The standard bus fare is €1.65, you can get student bus tickets but you won't save much if your bus fare is low. www.daft.ie Have a look here, main renting website. Don't be alarmed by ridiculous prices for new apartments- have a look at some of the places I mentioned- look out for postcodes D1, D3, D5, D7, D9, D11....they're your best bet without being too far away. The best deals are posted up on noticeboards on campus, really cheap.

Shopping- try not to, do it when you're in the UK. This is the biggest rip-off. Topshop I'll give as an example. All shoes that cost £65 in the UK cost €99 here, even though the actual conversion allowing for higher wages and costs here would be roughly €74. Jeans cost £40 but €61 here- again actual conversion €45. They are the worst offenders, but there's a good few others out there. We do have Penneys (Primark in the UK, but it's originally Irish and the ones in the city are brilliant), Dunnes (slightly more expensive than Penneys), H&M and Forever 21. Almost all high-street UK shops are here, with the exception of Uniqlo, I know we don't have that. Can't think of others.

Pints do cost €5-6 here, and spirit+mixer will cost €6-9. There are deals everywhere though, in particular in clubs aimed at students. Some deals consist of a bunch of drinks for €10, or free drinks before 11 but most are all drinks €3/3.50. They can't lower them to the prices offered in the UK, they're protected fiercely and if promotions clearly aim to get everyone hammered they get shut down. For the same reason- you can't buy alcohol in any off-license after 10pm and all clubs close at 2.30AM (except 2- D2 and Coppers) which as you can imagine is a brilliant idea- everyone is on the streets at the same time, without the benefit of longer to let the drink soak in. What a lot of people do is pre-drink. There's always great deals on cans if they're your thing and naggins generally cost €7.50. If you're smart about it you can have a cheap night. Other people bring drink in with them to clubs, as none of them search anymore. Night bus home costs €5, taxis are fairly reasonable also.

So see how that compares? If you want to know anything else I can probably answer it..




Ah, cheers
Original post by La_Crosse
Ah, cheers



Also, with most courses and any Arts course, you can get a job. Minimum wage is much higher €8.65 and all campus jobs like shops catering and library pay €9. Shops pay €9.10 or so, pubs generally lower, bang on €8.65. Tougher to get than thye used to be of course, but still.
Reply 44
Can you apply through both UCAS and CAO?
Of course, why would one know about the other? Neither will care but there's nowhere on the form to put info like that anyway.
Reply 46
I've been reading studentfinance.ie and apparently I won't qualify for a maintenance grant until I've been resident in Ireland for 3 years. Does anyone know if AIB or BOI would give me a loan for three years of living costs if I study medicine? Also, I've been told the cost of living in Dublin for a student is around 9000 - 10000 euro per year. Is that true?
(edited 12 years ago)
AIB or BOI are giving nobody loans. They would always have been very reticent about giving students loans anyway (though not anybody else- in the past) but nowadays, nope. Both have significant portions of them owned by the state, loans are just dead. Credit unions are much freer with loans than banks anyway, but you need an account with money coming into it first. I would agree with that estimate also- if it includes a social life of some sort and buying clothes. You COULD scrape by on less, but that would probably by the typical amount. You'd need to learn fairly fast that you can save a fortune by buying in €2 shops and Lidl/Aldi and Dunnes and Tesco own-brand stuff as well as renting in places like Marino, Whitehall, Cabra, Phibsboro and Rialto will be so much cheaprt ahn typical studenty places like Rathmines, Rathgar, Ringsend and Ranelagh.

I wouldn't have thought it'd be as long as 3 years, but I'm sure they would know. Of course most people get by with the grant/parents but so many get jobs, which pay so much higher here, unfortunatel not much use to you since you're doing medicine. Is there no chance your local bank will give you a loan or something?
Reply 48
Thank you :smile:

How do credit unions work? Is it possible to defer repayment until the end of the degree, or do they start hassling? It's just I have a friend a couple of years older than me who got into a lot of trouble because she took out a private loan.
Reply 49
Original post by ThinkingOfIreland
I was just wondering if someone could help - it's so confusing!
I'm predicted AAB/AAA at A-Level, but according to the points system used in Ireland this doens't seem to be enough at all!
I want to do psychology and philosophy, and the course I've found at Trinity College in Dublin asks for 560 points ... I'd need like 4 A*'s nearly at A level?!

Please please please can someone help? I'm also annoyed as it says they don't accept A/S levels taken previously before the first year of college, but I took 2 at school and got 2 B's - do these not count at all?!

Thanks.


Trinity is so hard to get in to unless you do get all As why not try Queens in Belfast? Its just as good only easier to get in to plus Dublin is sooo soo expensive more so than London
Reply 50
Original post by chliara
Thank you :smile:

How do credit unions work? Is it possible to defer repayment until the end of the degree, or do they start hassling? It's just I have a friend a couple of years older than me who got into a lot of trouble because she took out a private loan.


You wont get a loan from the credit union unless you have a family member to sponser you, you also have to have an account for years before they even give you a meeting and when you do get the loan they look for it back kinda straight away in monthly installments because its other peoples money.
Credit unions are based on loyalty. You can't stroll in, set up an account and get a loan. You need to have been with them for a good bit of time- and not just a dead account with barely anything in it, preferably an account where you're regularly lodging money. They are however very pleasant to deal with- a friend needed money for a course and seeing as she had been with them 10 years putting in money every month, they handed it to her straight away. She did not need someone to sponsor her, but perhaps that varies from branch to branch. Same with someone else I know. I don't know what they're like about repayment though, but I don't think you could really approach them as a new customer anyway.

Anyway, I didn't really mention them as a logical next step. But just to say that they ARE the only ones giving out loans at all really. The banks are in an absolute mess here, they're all letting go of staff and refusing all loans in a desperate money-saving attempt.

I wouldn't argue about Queen's being a great university- and obviously much easier to get into with a cheaper cost of living. But fees would probably balance that out in favour of the ROI- our fees are still less than half, every year. I'm not sure if Queen's will rise to £12k or whatever that ridiculous 2012 hike is, but our fees are currently at about £1600ish and unlikely to rise past £2200. It would depend how high Queen's fees will be.
Reply 52
Yeh, I study in Dublin...and it is very expensive.

Trinity is a really great school, but to be honest, you would be better looking at other option because it is so competitive.

If you want any more info, just reply.
Reply 53
Original post by StarsAreFixed
I wouldn't argue about Queen's being a great university- and obviously much easier to get into with a cheaper cost of living. But fees would probably balance that out in favour of the ROI- our fees are still less than half, every year. I'm not sure if Queen's will rise to £12k or whatever that ridiculous 2012 hike is, but our fees are currently at about £1600ish and unlikely to rise past £2200. It would depend how high Queen's fees will be.


I'm from Northern Ireland so I'd get fees at £3500 or whatever it is at Queens, also I think student finance ni lets you use your maintenance loan/grant for universities down south and your education board pays the registration fee... I'd have to double check that though.

I've got a question for you :biggrin: I just filled out the CAO form and in the FAQ it says there's no submit button which is fair enough but it also says you need to post them your GCSE certificates to arrive within 7 days of submitting so is that after the closing date or after filling in the form?
Well yes it updates any changes and just saves them, so it's not the same as a final 'submit' button. But I would take that to mean your initial application when you receive confirmation and a CAO number. Afraid I don't know for sure, as I never had to post them anything- they don't need the Junior Cert results because we fufil subject requirements in the Leaving- that is all they want GCSE's for, to see your foreign language and a pass in English and Maths. Also warning- that FAQ does say 'do not post originals, post photocopies'
Reply 55
Original post by StarsAreFixed
Well yes it updates any changes and just saves them, so it's not the same as a final 'submit' button. But I would take that to mean your initial application when you receive confirmation and a CAO number. Afraid I don't know for sure, as I never had to post them anything- they don't need the Junior Cert results because we fufil subject requirements in the Leaving- that is all they want GCSE's for, to see your foreign language and a pass in English and Maths. Also warning- that FAQ does say 'do not post originals, post photocopies'


Thanks, yeah I've photocopied them, just need to get them stamped at school and I'll send them off on Monday. There's no way they'll arrive in 7 days... Although I doubt they'll be working on Christmas Day so it should be ok.
(edited 12 years ago)
I didn't see a time limit in the FAQ though. I'm sure it will be fine.
Original post by erin94
Can you apply through both UCAS and CAO?


No, you can only apply to Irish (and by that I mean universities in the Republic of Ireland eg.Trinity, UCD, NUIs etc.) via a CAO form. UCAS will only allow you to apply to universities in Northern Ireland (eg.Queens).

Also, there was a question about 560 points in Trinity in A Level terms? Yes, you're right, it is very few A*s at A-Levels, as the UK system subjects are valued as being higher than the Leaving Cert subjects, because you have a more concentrated and in-depth knowledge of your subjects as you only do 3-5.


Hope that helps :biggrin: Best of luck with Trinity - it's beautiful!!!!:smile:
560 was mentioned because however you arrive at it- Leaving Cert or A-Levels, Trinity gives you book vouchers- €200 or so. The threshold is lower in other unis, 500 I think.
Reply 59
Original post by StarsAreFixed

Original post by StarsAreFixed
Well yes it updates any changes and just saves them, so it's not the same as a final 'submit' button. But I would take that to mean your initial application when you receive confirmation and a CAO number. Afraid I don't know for sure, as I never had to post them anything- they don't need the Junior Cert results because we fufil subject requirements in the Leaving- that is all they want GCSE's for, to see your foreign language and a pass in English and Maths. Also warning- that FAQ does say 'do not post originals, post photocopies'


We have to send GCSE certificates?? where does it say this? I applied the other day but I have no idea how it works :s-smilie:
where do you send the GCE/GCSE stuff to?
(edited 12 years ago)

Quick Reply

Latest