Carlow - Cost of living etc?

entropi

I've got my interview in Carlow IT tomorrow and I'm just wondering about whether I'd have to move there if I got accepted, and associated costs of living like rent and household bills. Not too concerned about price of drinks as I dont drink that often anyway but being a student in Carlow, it would tend to crop up alot:p

Just looking for information from people who live/have lived there recently for college, as commuting from Dublin by train doesnt sound too nice and could be pretty costly.

ShayK1

I haven't lived in Carlow as a student but I have done the Carlow to Dublin commute for work.
A weekly ticket costs around €65 iirc. I'd imagine you'd rent a room for less than that.
But, I think the train times would be quite restricting. AFAIK, the return trains from Carlow to Dublin go at 16:15 and 19:40. So, if you had classes till 16:00 or 17:00 you'd have to wait until 19:40 to get the train. It takes about an hour and 15 minutes to get to hueston so that makes it a very long day.

I'm sure somebody else on here will give you more of an idea of cost of living in Carlow but I'd say, for a quality of live, move down.

Here is the current accomodations list from the IT Carlow website
http://accommodation.itcarlow.ie/list.php?top_section=1&lower_section=2&lower2_section=6&sel_sect=22&uid=itcarlow

Hope that helps...and good luck in your interview

Master of Nothing

Master of Nothing wrote: »

I've got my interview in Carlow IT tomorrow and I'm just wondering about whether I'd have to move there if I got accepted, and associated costs of living like rent and household bills. Not too concerned about price of drinks as I dont drink that often anyway but being a student in Carlow, it would tend to crop up alot:p

Just looking for information from people who live/have lived there recently for college, as commuting from Dublin by train doesnt sound too nice and could be pretty costly.

Best of luck in your interview. had my own today. went ok. i live in south tipp and to be honest im going to get a place in accommodation if i can get a place in college. not that i have the option of the train i think it would be certainly cheaper then driving up every day and living at home.

duffman13

Im from dublin myself and commute after living down their for 2 years. im moving back next year in the long run it will cost you more to commute better of moving down. Houses close to the college i.e southern gardens will cost you the most money, if your looking for cheap and cheerful their are places available for 50-60 a week.

The commute will kill you, look into a cheap house if you want individual recommendations let me know but aviod areas such as southern gardens and green road as that where the younger crowds tend to live

entropi

ShayK1 wrote: »

I'm sure somebody else on here will give you more of an idea of cost of living in Carlow but I'd say, for a quality of live, move down.

Here is the current accomodations list from the IT Carlow website
http://accommodation.itcarlow.ie/list.php?top_section=1&lower_section=2&lower2_section=6&sel_sect=22&uid=itcarlow

Hope that helps...and good luck in your interview

I had a look at that website and it was great help thanks!:) I even got to use that in my interview today and they explained a little bit about that too. The commute really would be a killer, and looking through the site places can be found for as low as 50e which is very nice indeed!

Carlow's a pretty nice town, had a look around it for a while before heading back to the train:) Oh my interview went very well!

Deleted User wrote: »

Best of luck in your interview. had my own today. went ok. i live in south tipp and to be honest im going to get a place in accommodation if i can get a place in college. not that i have the option of the train i think it would be certainly cheaper then driving up every day and living at home.

Cheers, I hope yours went just as well as mine did:D Yeah accommodation seems to be the way to go.

duffman13 wrote: »

Im from dublin myself and commute after living down their for 2 years. im moving back next year in the long run it will cost you more to commute better of moving down. Houses close to the college i.e southern gardens will cost you the most money, if your looking for cheap and cheerful their are places available for 50-60 a week.

The commute will kill you, look into a cheap house if you want individual recommendations let me know but aviod areas such as southern gardens and green road as that where the younger crowds tend to live

Thanks for that info duffman13, that'll sure be helpful in finding a place to live, now I dont mind all the young crowd, sure I'm 29 myself and in class with 18-24 year olds so that wont be a problem (either will the fact I look 22-23:))

Cheap and cheerful will be the way to go, and as I dont spend too much on food or drink that'll be grand.

duffman13

duffman13 wrote: »

The commute will kill you, look into a cheap house if you want individual recommendations let me know but aviod areas such as southern gardens and green road as that where the younger crowds tend to live

young female virgins...giggidy giggidy!:D:D:D:D:D

Master of Nothing wrote:

Cheers, I hope yours went just as well as mine did Yeah accommodation seems to be the way to go.

glad to hear it went well. shop around for accomodation sure i suppose, you'd be surprised.
if im successful myself ill be sure to help you best as i can.

The_B_Man

What courses were u applyin for? I was considering going back if they'd let me do a 1 year degree course in IT. Not sure if they allow that though.

ShayK1

The_B_Man wrote: »

I was considering going back

Oh oh!

entropi

Deleted User wrote: »

young female virgins...giggidy giggidy!:D:D:D:D:D



glad to hear it went well. shop around for accomodation sure i suppose, you'd be surprised.
if im successful myself ill be sure to help you best as i can.

Sounds good that, shopping around shouldn't be too hard, there's quite alot of places to stay down there:)

Giggity:pac:

The_B_Man wrote: »

What courses were u applyin for? I was considering going back if they'd let me do a 1 year degree course in IT. Not sure if they allow that though.

Sports Rehabilitation and Athletic Therapy was the only one to interest me from Carlow. About going back, sure you could always enquire about it...:)

lil_lisa

The_B_Man wrote: »

What courses were u applyin for? I was considering going back if they'd let me do a 1 year degree course in IT. Not sure if they allow that though.

Is this true? :eek:

*squints eyes at monitor full of jealousy!

lil_lisa

Oh yeah so, rent can go anywhere from e50 - e100 depending on the house/apt, location, if bills are included, number of rooms and owner. Then take maybe another e50-e100 a week for groceries (depending on how much you eat) and any extra bills (internet, tv, electricity...) would be another like e10 a week. Then nightlife. Believe me, if you're moving to Carlow there's no such thing as

Master of Nothing wrote: »

I dont drink that often anyway

So we'll add another e70 a week socialising. That ends with roughly e240 a week, depending on how stingy you live!

The_B_Man

ShayK1 wrote: »

Oh oh!

lol nah i'd be a good boy if i went back, as it was my unbecoming behaviour that put me in the position of needing to go back in the first place!

lil_lisa wrote: »

Is this true? :eek:

*squints eyes at monitor full of jealousy!

Careful, that monitor might retaliate!

How much are the college fees these days anyway?

ShayK1

The_B_Man wrote: »

How much are the college fees these days anyway?

Sure'll you'd be a "Mature" *cough* student at this stage.
Can you not go back for free?

The_B_Man

maybe! and maybe the govt might even give me the mature student grant and living away from home allowance and back to school allowance!
i knew a bloke in college back in the day who was rakin it in just for goin to college! madness!

however, i wonder would carlow take me back! especially into that last final year degree course....:(

Hank Scorpio

The_B_Man wrote: »

maybe! and maybe the govt might even give me the mature student grant and living away from home allowance and back to school allowance!
i knew a bloke in college back in the day who was rakin it in just for goin to college! madness!

however, i wonder would carlow take me back! especially into that last final year degree course....:(

They took back 2 lads who cheated and another lad who threatened the year head from my old class.. Dont see any reason why they wouldn't take you back.

lil_lisa

Ask Nigel nicely and he should. He's still the Head of Department right? Well in my final year almost everyone else was new, everyone came in at the final year for college...oh, even I did! You should be fine.

The_B_Man

nuxxx wrote: »

They took back 2 lads who cheated and another lad who threatened the year head from my old class.. Dont see any reason why they wouldn't take you back.

haha classic. I suppose i may as well try so. Your sig is pretty apt!

lil_lisa wrote:

Ask Nigel nicely and he should. He's still the Head of Department right? Well in my final year almost everyone else was new, everyone came in at the final year for college...oh, even I did! You should be fine.

Good old Nigel. I'm glad its him thats head coz i didnt deal with him really at all. which is only a good thing!!

RealistSpy

What course were you doing before?

YoungPayters

lil_lisa wrote: »

Oh yeah so, rent can go anywhere from e50 - e100 depending on the house/apt, location, if bills are included, number of rooms and owner. Then take maybe another e50-e100 a week for groceries (depending on how much you eat) and any extra bills (internet, tv, electricity...) would be another like e10 a week. Then nightlife. Believe me, if you're moving to Carlow there's no such thing as

So we'll add another e70 a week socialising. That ends with roughly e240 a week, depending on how stingy you live!

€240 a week! haha, more like €120 and that would be a bad week.

lil_lisa

Yeah if you have extremely cheap rent, eat from the euro saver menu every day and don't go out at all during the week!

The_B_Man

RealistSpy wrote: »

What course were you doing before?

I was doing that BSc in Software engineering, i think CW082 or something like that.

lil_lisa wrote: »

Yeah if you have extremely cheap rent, eat from the euro saver menu every day and don't go out at all during the week!

pfft, i have a sister living there so rent=$0.

Actually, i know she'd feckin charge me! stingy git!!

entropi

lil_lisa wrote: »

Oh yeah so, rent can go anywhere from e50 - e100 depending on the house/apt, location, if bills are included, number of rooms and owner. Then take maybe another e50-e100 a week for groceries (depending on how much you eat) and any extra bills (internet, tv, electricity...) would be another like e10 a week. Then nightlife. Believe me, if you're moving to Carlow there's no such thing as

So we'll add another e70 a week socialising. That ends with roughly e240 a week, depending on how stingy you live!

I'd have reckoned 50-75 for rent, 70 for food (being a veggie means cheap but good meals), the extra 10e for electrics etc. The 70 a week socialising actually seems a little high for me, I normally go out twice a month sure, and I'd be actually doing some study and playing guitar to keep me busy too haha!

The_B_Man wrote: »

maybe! and maybe the govt might even give me the mature student grant and living away from home allowance and back to school allowance!

Living away from home allowance, what is that I've never heard of it...?

Oh hopefully there'll be light at the end of the tunnel regarding mature grant + BTEA...I'd be hoping for it myself tbh, would help make things ALOT easier for me down there!

The_B_Man

Ye im not too sure on the living away from home allowance (LAFHA) myself. when i was in college there was a guy who was getting it i think, tho he was gettin all sorts of grants for some reason. he was pretty loaded! buyin them PCs in Aldi, trips to america, buying laptops...

Plus, the government would pay for his first degree, for reasons which are personal to him so not saying!

probably why he got all the grants actually...

Anyway, is there a mature student thread around here anywhere? Gonna send in me application over the next day or two.

FocusRS

Just wondering about a certain course at Carlow IT

I'm thinkin of doing mechanical engineering (LEVEL 7) in Carlow IT and im wondering wats the course like AND wats the maths like on the course?? Do they do much work on cars on the course?

Also wats the accomadation, social life, sports facilites, people etc. like at Carlow IT??:D:D

Thanks

ShayK1

The_B_Man wrote: »

Anyway, is there a mature student thread around here anywhere? Gonna send in me application over the next day or two.

Start one?

Don1

FocusRS wrote: »

Just wondering about a certain course at Carlow IT

I'm thinkin of doing mechanical engineering (LEVEL 7) in Carlow IT and im wondering wats the course like AND wats the maths like on the course?? Do they do much work on cars on the course?

Also wats the accomadation, social life, sports facilites, people etc. like at Carlow IT??:D:D

Thanks

Hey, I did that course in Carlow, well an earlier version of it, and found it good. Maths starts off easy enough. Honours is not required but definitely wouldn't do any harm.
Not much car stuff on it, just a bit of engine theory. Car design course in DIT Bolton Street or an Industrial Design course would be better if car design was what you were after.
Mechanical Engineering tends more to be about Power Generation, Steam Plant, Mechanics, etc. not car mechanics as most people would think.
Accomodation is plentiful and relatively cheap in Carlow, social life is a little too good, sports facilities are right up there and the people are generally bang on.
If Engineering is what you want I can't think of any reason why not to choose Carlow.
PM me if you need any more info.

Don

The_B_Man

ShayK1 wrote: »

Start one?

lol that'd be a short thread:

Hi, this is the mature student info thread.

Info to follow...

FocusRS

:DThanks Don1! Wats the clubs and socities like??

entropi

The_B_Man wrote: »

Ye im not too sure on the living away from home allowance (LAFHA) myself.

Plus, the government would pay for his first degree, for reasons which are personal to him so not saying!

Ah right I see Will have to look into it myself, might book an appointment with local Citizens Advice Bureau to see what I could actually qualify for if accepted into Carlow as a mature student...maybe thats what that other guy did haha!

Oh that first degree thing, sure that's open to all Irish citizens for their first undergrad afaik...(except for private colleges ofc).

FocusRS

Thanks Don1! Wats the clubs and socities like??

IT Carlow

Hi, If you log onto www.itcarlow.ie and click into the CAO Change of Mind page you will get loads of information on IT Carlow and clubs and societies. I recently uploaded a slide show of all students who won clubs and societies awards http://www.itcarlow.ie/curr_sports_recreational.asp?top_section=1&lower_section=2&lower2_section=58&sel_sect=80&uid=itcarlow Also if you search for Institute of Technology Carlow on Facebook and become a fan you will receive regular updates about Life at IT Carlow. If you need any other information you can email the college info@itcarlow.ie