Couple of questions from a "prospective student"

suavek · 13-02-2006 11:56pm #1

Hello everyone, it's my first post here so I gues a bit of introduction is due

I live in Lublin, Poland, and wish to study CS at Trinity. I've just received a letter from CAO confirming they found the bunch of xerox copies I sent them trustworthy enough to put me into their database.
It's very nice of course, but at this point there are still some things i'm uncertain about. Hope you guys might help.

1) Tuition fees. As an EU citizen, I shouldn't have to pay them. There's a catch however- i've completed 2 years of mathematics here in Poland (and technically i'm still a student of my so very fine university). Does it mean I'm excluded from the free fees scheme for my first 2 years at trinity? Maybe the fact that Poland was outside EU at the time I started my studies matters, I have no idea.

2) You see, cost of living in Dublin is a little bit... should I say intimidating for a person coming from a city where a litre of milk costs somewhere around 0,35e and ISPs will be happy to provide you with a 1Mbps broadband for as little as 15e/month. OK, the thing is, if Trinity accepts me I'll have to work to maintain myself. Do you think it's very hard to work and study CS at Trinity? I know it depends on a person, but maybe you know someone who was in a similar situation?

I guess that'll be it for the first time

TIA for your insights..

Crash · 14-02-2006 12:16am

ok, on the "work and study CS" topic - the CS course lectures, especially in first year, can be a right doss. as long as you put in the work for assignments and do the odd bit of reading up, getting a good mark isnt hard, especially if you have a bit of a mathematics background. you are gonna be a bit shocked with the cost of living when you get over here though

xeduCat · 14-02-2006 12:43am

suavek wrote:

1) Tuition fees. As an EU citizen, I shouldn't have to pay them. There's a catch however- i've completed 2 years of mathematics here in Poland (and technically i'm still a student of my so very fine university). Does it mean I'm excluded from the free fees scheme for my first 2 years at trinity? Maybe the fact that Poland was outside EU at the time I started my studies matters, I have no idea.

You won't have to pay them at all. It's not the EU issue that decides, though, it's the fact that your education to date has not received support from the Irish government; therefore, you are considered to be a 'first time undergraduate' for the purposes of the scheme. Assuming you satisfy the residency rules (in Poland; basically that you've been normally living there for 3 of the last 5 years, with various other possibilities if not), you're good to go, although you may need to show proof - if you're lucky, just your Polish passport, but possibly some documentation too.

nutball · 14-02-2006 12:43am

suavek wrote:

1) Tuition fees. As an EU citizen, I shouldn't have to pay them. There's a catch however- i've completed 2 years of mathematics here in Poland (and technically i'm still a student of my so very fine university). Does it mean I'm excluded from the free fees scheme for my first 2 years at trinity? Maybe the fact that Poland was outside EU at the time I started my studies matters, I have no idea.

It says here that: "In order to qualify for “Free Fees”, students must be first-time full-time undergraduates, hold EU nationality or official refugee status and have been ordinarily resident in an EU Member State for at least three of the five years preceding their entry to an approved third level course."

The 'and' I have italicised makes me wonder whether they mean you need to be both an EU citizen AND resident in an EU state for at least three years. Because even though you are an EU citizen now, Poland didn't join until two years ago. I hope that doesn't exclude you from their definition because it would be very unfair.

If they accept you as an EU student, it would appear from the phrase 'first-time' that you may be liable for the first two years' tuition fees: E5,782 annually for an EU CS student, E16,929 for non-EU (both inclusive of the E775 registration fee which you will have to pay even if you do qualify for free fees). See here.

Your best bet is to contact Admissions with your details. They should be able to help you out.

xeduCat · 14-02-2006 12:45am

No, residency in a state that was not in the EU but now is is considered as EU residency for the purposes of the scheme. Reproduced in the College Calendar at page G5 ('Prior residency in an accession country will be treated as EU residency for this purpose').

The other point ('first time undergraduate') is already answered above.

suavek · 14-02-2006 3:37pm

xeduCat, thanks a lot for the clarification. The truth is, if I really had to pay those fees, I would probably have to give up thinking about studying in Ireland at all.
As for the price shock, I plan to take a leave of absence from my current univ and come to Ireland in late March, so by the time the next academic year starts I should be over the initial trauma

I have just read the previous sentence and it looks as if I was sure of getting accepted.. In fact I am not. There doesn't seem to be a standard way of calculating CAO points on the basis of Polish high school leaving cert, so it's hard to make any estimations. But hope is quite a powerful drive anyway

Thirdfox · 18-02-2006 11:20pm

Good luck with your application!

suavek · 20-02-2006 8:58pm

Thanks!

The funny thing is, I have stumbled upon Trinity's web page like.. about 2 months ago... So the whole idea of me studying in Ireland is quite fresh

suavek · 14-08-2006 5:17pm

Ok so it's just a message for other people in a situation similar to mine: you won't get free fees if you've already studied anywhere in the EU even in case that your studies started before your country's accession.

Crash · 14-08-2006 6:02pm

So not coming to trinity suavek?

Couple of questions from a "prospective student"

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