Offered a place as a Mature Student

peekaboodell

Hi. Ive been offered a place on the general Sciences degree:D I was wondering when the term starts for Mature Students. Can anyone telll me. Is there Anything else I need to know or should start looking into. Thanks in advance.

King.Penguin

october

xeduCat

Regular term starts in the first week of October, with Freshers' Week (which includes registration, orientation, etc as well as the various things from clubs, societies, SU entertainments etc), with classes normally starting the following week. However, there are usually some additional orientation activities for mature students (I gave a talk at it once upon a time!) and also, there may be science courses the week before Freshers' Week (i.e. introduction to chemistry for certain students).

I'd try and be around after the middle of September anyway; Trinity will write to you with the precise dates, or you can always ring the Admissions Office with general queries - they are more accustomed to dealing with students who have not yet registered/started, and can refer you to somewhere else or get an answer for you when in doubt.

King.Penguin

Good luck with the course by the way. I'm just finishing it now (Moderatorship Zoology) and there are a couple of people in the same boat on this forum (Apexaviour - Physics).

For first year science you'll need the basic college kit - pens, pencils, a4 pad, folders and a calculator (scientific). For Science you'll also need to buy a laboratory coat (white coat), you can get that from a small shop ( Students Union book shop) on campus. If you take biology you'll also need a disection kit (scaple, tweasers etc.) also available in the book shop.

You'll have a litte hour 20 hours worth of lectures and labs in your first year. Usually one 3 hour lab for each lab subject you take (physics,biology and chemistry) and thne a couple of lectures for each of these subjects. Classes will start off very large, over 200 people in some cases, so it's easy to feel like a very small fish in a very large pond but I'm sure all your life experience will help you adjust to this.

In terms of books, you may get a grant for being a mature student or from else where or you may have to buy them out of your own pocket. Some people buy a good general book for every subject they take in first year but many others just use the library facilites. Depends on the person. Books can be in between 50 and 100 euro (or more). Depending on how long its been since you've been in an academic background (things like leaving cert chemistry you did 10 years ago maybe long forgotten) if may be worth your while reading up on stuff. However, there is a short catch up course jsut before the term starts for chemistry (as xeducat mentioned). I wouldn't be too worried, the material you cover in college doesn't really require a close following of the leaving cert syllabus more of a general understanding of the area. It's up to yourself really.

Trinity is famous for having very active clubs and societies. Clubs are basically sports clubs like tennis, basketball and rugby (about 50 in total). Socities are basically clubs for like minded people interested in things like History, Debating, Music (DURNS). Again, they are many and varied and you should find something interesting to you. There's also groups specifically aimed at mature students. Feel free to join as many or as few of the socities and clubs as you want.

If you have any specific questions I'm sure people will here will be quick to answer them. The college website is also a good source for certain information too. Good luck.