age of junior freshmans?

Rich_1089

i'm still deliberating over if i get an offer from tcd to defer it or not. because i skipped year 6 at primary school i won't be 18 untill exactly 2 weeks after fresher's week starts. i've heard mixed answers from people about the average age of freshers. i don't want to be the only person not being able to drink in fresher's week! and of course if everyone else is 19 and i'm 17 that could be awkward.
what do you think anyway?

Awayindahils

I started college at 17 and wasn't 18 for nearly 2 months after freshers week. It's really not an issue in the course, there is a larger mix of ages than you would have had in school, and nobody really cares anyway.

For freshers' week itself you may wish to consider sourcing some sort of decent fake id but usually its not needed, as in average going to the pub or to the pav.

Lots of people start college at 17 and you will be no means be the youngest.

Edwardius

I was 17 starting college. Back in errr.... 2001. You'll be able to drink in freshers' week, don't worry about that.

PHB

i'm still deliberating over if i get an offer from tcd to defer it or not. because i skipped year 6 at primary school i won't be 18 untill exactly 2 weeks after fresher's week starts. i've heard mixed answers from people about the average age of freshers. i don't want to be the only person not being able to drink in fresher's week! and of course if everyone else is 19 and i'm 17 that could be awkward.
what do you think anyway?

You'll be young, but there will be many many many more people in college who are younger than you.

Rich_1089

excellent. i really hope i get an offer- dublin sounds like an amazing place. i'm slightly disheartened by an anti english thing but i hope to remedy this because i want to escape my english public school past.

Nietzschean

anti-english thing? what?

Rich_1089

Nietzschean wrote:

anti-english thing? what?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054980942

DemonOfTheFall

I don't think you'll have any problem really. Tell people where to shove it if they have anything negative to say.

King.Penguin

TCD has a large and vocal British contingent and lots of british (and other nationalities) are well integrated into the college community. You're very unlikely to suffer. Couple of lads I know from Eton and Harrow and they've never had a problem fitting in.

Of course it's up to yourself whether you want to take the year out or jump straight into college. But I wouldn't let being 17 rather than 18 put you off. If you're living in Halls (college accommodation in Datry) there will be plenty of house/apartment parties so you won't be too hindered by not having Id for pubs/clubs.

I was 17 until February in my first year. And everyone won't be 19!

DaXiS

I was 19 starting, but it didnt matter. I made friends with 17 yr olds and 18 year olds.its hard to tell sometimes anyway..forget about it

Pet

There's no anti-English sentiment, not at all. There may be a slight anti-Team-England sentiment, but they (a small but vocal minority) bring it upon themselves by refusing to associate with "the natives", and bringing the class divide back into the 21st century (basically, they won't let you into their clique unless you went to the right school and your parents earn over a certain amount of money).

If you're coming in with the attitude of wanting to meet Irish people, then you're already doing fine and won't have a problem.

balzarywex

currently a junior fresher and i wont be 18 till 3 days before exams start in may (yes... gona be a **** bday i knw...). neways i dont remember much of freshers week. speaks enough for itself methinks!

Time Magazine

Pet wrote:

There's no anti-English sentiment, not at all. There may be a slight anti-Team-England sentiment, but they (a small but vocal minority) bring it upon themselves by refusing to associate with "the natives", and bringing the class divide back into the 21st century (basically, they won't let you into their clique unless you went to the right school and your parents earn over a certain amount of money).

Time travel FTW.

cianclarke

2 weeks until you're 18? Hardly worth worrying about, you'll get through freshers week.

And this anti-english lark, talk of team england - haven't seen *any* evidence of it whatsoever, coming from a science-end perspective.

Calm Horizons

Age is barely an issue; Freshers range in age from 17 to 20 generally. Sure I just finished lectures in final year and I only celebrated by 21st 3 weeks ago; it won't affect you at all.

Sangre

Any anti-english sentiments in Ireland ususally come from those without a college education.

Rich_1089

Rich_1089 wrote:

i'm still deliberating over if i get an offer from tcd to defer it or not. because i skipped year 6 at primary school i won't be 18 untill exactly 2 weeks after fresher's week starts. i've heard mixed answers from people about the average age of freshers. i don't want to be the only person not being able to drink in fresher's week! and of course if everyone else is 19 and i'm 17 that could be awkward.
what do you think anyway?

Just saw this thread (don't know if you're still around) -
I was in maynooth for my undergrad, and I started at 15. I had no problems socialising at all. Tbh, putting off college because you can't drink is a little... silly.

Time Magazine

You started your undergrad at 15?

So you started school at 3 and skipped Transition Year?

Wow. Talk about jailbait.

Time Magazine

Actually, wouldn't that make you two when you start school?

NUIM Age Requirements wrote:

Students must normally have attained the age of seventeen years by 15th January following entry to the University. Where a candidate below that age seeks to enter the University, special application must be made to the University’s President.

Youngest.student.evAr.

europerson

Ibid wrote:

Actually, wouldn't that make you two when you start school?

Youngest.student.evAr.

That really is shockingly young. How did you (bluewolf) end up at college so young? Were you only eleven or twelve doing your Junior Cert, i.e., when most kids are still at primary school?

Pet

I'd imagine bluewolf was some kind of maths prodigy, and got offered a place at university after taking a special entrance test.

nettranny

actually, this "team england" thing is new to me also. well, there aren't many English people in Science for some reason. That's probably why. I'm sure it's not a snobbish clique thing, probably more of a "ill stick to my own cause i feel more at home-" sort of clique. im sure ill feel the same if i move to england for college

xebec

nettranny wrote:

I'm sure it's not a snobbish clique thing, probably more of a "ill stick to my own cause i feel more at home-"

It's like that for some of them, but the ones who people usually notice are the snobbish clique crowd.

Definitely a greater presence in the Arts Block, but there are some down the Hamilton aswell.

Ibid

Ibid wrote:

Actually, wouldn't that make you two when you start school?

I was doing fairly advanced maths and devoured books by the time I was 4 and started school, so I skipped Junior and Senior infants. I was 13 doing the JC, I took a year off, then did 6th year, so I've skipped 4 years in total. I was still bored as hell though... easy shtuff.
I started uni at 15, though tbh my birthday was a month after the start of term so I was 16 for most of it. It did mean I got to graduate at 19 though

It's true that one must usually be 17, and if you aren't, your CAO points appear as 0, but if you have a word with the college they'll fix it and let you in no problem.

I'd imagine bluewolf was some kind of maths prodigy, and got offered a place at university after taking a special entrance test.

Nah, I didn't have to sit an entrance test. I'm not a maths prodigy, I have talent enough at it but I could as easily have done music or languages... I'm not especially good at any one thing I think...

Wow. Talk about jailbait.

I'm 21 now, a growed-up postgrad

I didn't mean to cause this much fuss XD

Sangre

I'm a 21 year old postgrad as well. Am I special?

Sangre

Sangre wrote:

I'm a 21 year old postgrad as well. Am I special?

Well you aren't jailbait, which was the point... =p

ApeXaviour

bluewolf wrote:

It did mean I got to graduate at 19 though

*shakes head*

I did my leaving cert at 19...

24 now, still an undergraduate.

Nietzschean

bluewolf wrote:

Well you aren't jailbait, which was the point... =p

nerd. You'd get on great with Calin i'd say, he likes all those prodigy types, i seem to recall something about him saying if you can't get your PhD in 2 years yer an idiot or something....

Nietzschean

Nietzschean wrote:

nerd. You'd get on great with Calin i'd say, he likes all those prodigy types, i seem to recall something about him saying if you can't get your PhD in 2 years yer an idiot or something....

I'm incredibly lazy, I don't think I would manage that

Nietzschean

bluewolf wrote:

I'm incredibly lazy, I don't think I would manage that

If ye think your lazy now, wait till yer a post grad.........toughest part of the day is being arsed in getting out of bed i find... the actual research into my research topic is pretty easy in comparason

Nietzschean

Nietzschean wrote:

If ye think your lazy now, wait till yer a post grad.........toughest part of the day is being arsed in getting out of bed i find... the actual research into my research topic is pretty easy in comparason

I am a post grad now - msc- and I've always been lazy! I think once I figure out wtf I would be doing with research ( that takes the first two years doesn't it?? ) I'd do pretty well at it... I'm just sick now of lectures in stuff I don't even like and shouldnt have chosen, ever

Nietzschean

bluewolf wrote:

I am a post grad now - msc- and I've always been lazy! I think once I figure out wtf I would be doing with research ( that takes the first two years doesn't it?? ) I'd do pretty well at it... I'm just sick now of lectures in stuff I don't even like and shouldnt have chosen, ever

Well i ment research, lack of structured requirement of lectures does provied one the choice of what hours to work, be an odd number of people wandering the halls in the wee am hours of the day.And it varies depending on the topic i think but i expect i won't be doing any actual research before next november or so at the earliest. Might be some work done on exploring aspects/uses of certain technologies together and so on but no proper research till then. I think group expects a beta version of my part of the project after 2 years so i guess after nov i'll have to start doing my own stuff one way or another. I'd just about gotten into researching stuff in my old phd it does become more interesting, alot of the inital getting 'up to speed' and doing lit surveys as part of getting into a phd tend to be rather boring and tedious(i don't think some people write journal papers with the expectation that someone will ever read it or attempt to implement what they have described).....

violatom

I'm over in Glasgow - loads of people start uni at 17, and its not really a problem. You can get into anything and most were told not to drink, but it wasn't really enforced. Have a good one