A little help needed

triloko

First of all I would like to say hi to everyone and that I am new here and I apologize if this shouldn't be posted here but I honestly didn't see where else it could go; if any moderator feels it should be moved, well, just do

(I have posted this in a different board aswell, I found this board and the other one to be the most apropriate ones for such posts, as I said above, feel free to move/delete it if this is considered to be spam or wrongly placed)

I will try to sum up a few things before asking for some help on doubts I have, just so that anyone who feels can help and has the time to reply understands why I'm asking.

Im not Irish, and nor have I coursed secondary education in the EU.
I come from Uruguay, South America, I finished secondary school there a while back, Im 19 and I would like to go to college here in Ireland.

According to EU regulations even if I am a EU citizen (I hold Italian citizenship) since I have not been living here for the past 3 years, I have to apply as an international student (if anyone knows any information than differs to this, please post it).

I am currently trying to apply to a few colleges in Ireland, the first one I have tried is Trinity College; I have been told in the international office that Uruguay's secondary level education system do not meet the needs to apply to Trinity, and therefore I will probably not be able to apply. I havent applied to other colleges yet (as of the date this is posted) but I am planning to do so.

What I would like to know, is if anyone has any experience or knows of a website or information database/library/any place where I could find more information about this, and hopefully an alternative to somehow solve this (aptitude tests?). I have been told at the International Office something about a so called "Foundation Programme" which is useful in cases similar (or a bit similar) to mine. Unfortunately I have not been able to find information on such program in the net.

In conclusion; there is nothing more than I desire right now than to be able to study here, in Ireland, so if anyone knows ANY kind of information that could help me out it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

FluffyCat

OK well I would have a liitle bit of info for ya. As an international student you will have to pay fees. These are about 16-20 thousand a year. I could be a bit off with that figure. If you were in the EU then the fees would be about 8 thousand a year.
Your best bet would be to ring the colleges you are interested in explain. You might have to do the Leaving Cert though if no colege will accept your school qualification. Its normally a two year program but you may be able to do it in a year if you apply yourself to it.
If you end up having to to the Leaving Cert make sure you talk to the head of the courses you are interested in so that you do the right subjects.

BlueCam

FluffyCat wrote: »

If you were in the EU then the fees would be about 8 thousand a year.

All EU students are eligible for the free-fees scheme (not just Irish students), so since you've Italian citizenship you would be too.

FluffyCat

Oops sorry.
I thought you needed irish citizenship to get the free fees. I was just going on the 8 thousand fees because there are EU citizens in my class that pay these fees because they are not irish citizens.
I sure theres more to it but you really should ring the international student services of the colleges and ask them.
Im sure everybodies case is different.

Unshelved

All information is available here -
http://www.tcd.ie/Treasurers_Office/fees/index.php

Free fees are available to EU nationals who have been resident in an EU country for three of the last five years. They are subject to a registration fee.

triloko

Hey everyone thanks for all the replies, however, I think I have been missunderstood a bit (or I just failed to express what I wanted to). My issue is not with the fees, but with the fact that they don't recognize my country's secondary school level as high enough to go to Trinity, my main concern is if there might be any chance I have that I am not aware of, of sitting some kind of exam (like mature students do) in order to be able to apply. Thanks

BlueCam

Have you considered sitting the SATs? I would assume you could do them somewhere in Uruguay, and they'd definitely be accepted by Trinity.

diluvial

I'm not exactly sure, but something like this:

http://www.tcd.ie/Trinity_Access/

May be of use to you.

Sir Ophiuchus

How old are you? If you are 23 or over you could apply as a mature student, which has different requirements.

Also, take a look at the prospectus (http://www.tcd.ie/Admissions/undergraduate/assets/pdfs/TCD_Prospectus_2010.pdf) - pages 7 through 10 are about applications.

enda1

triloko wrote: »

Im 19 and I would like to go to college here in Ireland.

Sir Ophiuchus wrote: »

How old are you? If you are 23 or over you could apply as a mature student, which has different requirements.

Also, take a look at the prospectus (http://www.tcd.ie/Admissions/undergraduate/assets/pdfs/TCD_Prospectus_2010.pdf) - pages 7 through 10 are about applications.

He's 19.

So normal undergraduate entry I'm afraid.

Sir Ophiuchus

enda1 wrote: »

He's 19.

So normal undergraduate entry I'm afraid.

Ah, sorry. I actually reread his post to see if he'd mentioned it ang managed to completely miss it.

triloko

Hello again and Im sorry to bring this topic back again, but seeing as Im borderly desperate on the matter right now (not about Trinity itself but about the fact that I still haven't been able to apply to a University); I would like to know hypothetically, how possible (or normal so to say) would it be to ask for an interview with someone in charge of the International Students department (not only in Trinity but also in UCD and other universities) to ask for more help in the matter. Does this sound crazy? (As I've said before; Im not Irish, but I just need to find more information on the matter and I don't think it's an insane idea considering the huge investment of both time and money that it would undertake to study here as a non-eu student).

Thanks again and Im sorry to bring this up.

andrew

Have you tried emailing admissions@tcd.ie and asking them what you could do? I don't see why you couldn't independantly sit the SAT's and then apply using those results.

triloko

Im sorry if I offend anyone by this; but they're not really informative at the admissions office, I talked to the woman who apparently handles the whole applications and the process etc, and I don't think she has the slightest consideration to what it means for the person on the other side of the counter (I honestly don't think she considers the fact that it'd be a huge investment in terms of both money and time to go to Trinity as a non-eu student); and since she said she's the one who handles the applications and probably she's the one who reads the e-mails, etc. that's why I'd like to know if there is a possibility to talk to someone else.

If anyone has any suggestion on what else I could do that'd be great.

PS: Im still gonna try sending an e-mail to the admissions office; thanks for all the help everyone.