Institute of Education

UnknownEntity

Hi, I just have a few questions for any current LC students in the Institute. So I am currently in 3rd year in<snip>and I am thinking of going to the Institute next year and skipping 4th year. I've got a few questions and any answers would be greatly appreciated.

1: Am I able to apply to enter? My birthday is on<snip> and I want to skip 4th year and go to 5th year. Is that fine or am I too young?

2: Do I need a certain range of academic results. I do 11 subjects and I've only ever gotten 1 C. I usually get 9/10/11 A's in any set of exams, nothing lower.

3: WHEN do they start taking application forms for the next 5th year?

4: What is their interview like? What do they expect out of me and what type of questions do they ask you?

Thanks a lot in advance.

emersyn

1.) I'm not certain but I would highly doubt that they would turn you away for being too young, the Institute is a business so as long as you're willing to pay I'm sure they'd accept you (and there would only be a few months between you and most of the other students anyway).
2.) The website says "Students applying should have a minimum of 4 Higher Level C grades at Junior Cert (or have an expectation of same)." So if you're expecting all A's and B's in the junior cert you shouldn't need to worry
3.) From their website it doesn't look like they're accepting applications for 2015/16 yet, I presume they will be fairly soon though.
I'm not attending the Institute so I can't really answer question 4, but for more information here's their website and it looks like they're holding an information evening for students going into 5th year on the 3rd of March so that would probably be helpful too, good luck

Hon the Dubs

Pretty sure you wouldn't be let skip 4th year. Everyone that I know that went there all had to do it

Raspberry Fileds

Age not a problem. They don't care about academic results, but yours would be decidedly sufficient if they did! The interview is a formality: I asked in mine what the likelihood of my being accepted would be, and she didn't understand me initially, and then was like, "Oh, I mean, of course, yeah, you have a place if you want it."

Schnook

Actual Institute student here!

1. You very likely won't be turned down based on age. You are soon 15, so you'll be 15 in September, and a BUNCH of people I know here were 15 last September! I know only one person who was turned down, but she was trying to get in when she was like 13 or something. Don't listen to the person who says you have to do 4th year. Maybe it's changed since then but now in the Institute, 4th year is optional. A lot of 5th year came straight from 3rd year! It's not mandatory.

2. Your results are FINE! People here are all over the spectrum of results. The Institute is a business, like the other person said, so as long as you're willing to give them the money they don't care for the grades.

3. Probably soon? I'm sorry, I applied very late last year so I can't help here.

4. Their interview is a formality. They just ask about your grades and the subjects you want to do. I honestly can't remember the specifics, but I just remember them asking about my grades because my situation for applying was unique. It's probably different for everybody, but the woman is lovely and it's pretty chill imo.

good luck!

UnknownEntity

Thanks for the help guys, just thought of a few more questions.
What are the class sizes like?

Are there lockers or what's the story with that?

How does the timetable work? I don't really understand how you can customize it.

Schnook

My classes are about 25-30 each. The English (HL) classes are huge. It gets a lot bigger in 6th year, obviously.

There's no lockers, but there's no heavy textbooks either (except for a few subjects, like depending on your maths or Irish class you may have a textbook) just the teachers notes.

you're given a master timetable of all the classes/teachers/times available and you choose which ones suit you best. For example if you want a certain maths teacher and he has his maths class at 9:30 and 11:30 you can choose which of those classes you want. You can also choose when you have your lunch. kinda don't really know how to explain it, it makes a lot more sense during welcome days. What subjects do you want to do? I might be able to help you with teacher recommendations and whatnot.

randylonghorn

Schnook wrote: »

What subjects do you want to do? I might be able to help you with teacher recommendations and whatnot.

Let's NOT get into discussions about actual teachers on a public board.

UnknownEntity

Schnook wrote:

you're given a master timetable of all the classes/teachers/times available and you choose which ones suit you best. For example if you want a certain maths teacher and he has his maths class at 9:30 and 11:30 you can choose which of those classes you want. You can also choose when you have your lunch. kinda don't really know how to explain it, it makes a lot more sense during welcome days. What subjects do you want to do? I might be able to help you with teacher recommendations and whatnot. 

So if I plan on taking the bus to and from school, will my schoolbag be heavy or is it fine? And I plan on doing core subjects (Maths English Irish) and I also want to do Physics, Biology, Chemistry, French and I'm not sure what else yet? And are the teachers still helpful even in huge classes?

spurious

OP, I've removed silly identifying info you put in your first post. PLEASE, be careful about what you put online! Remember, it is there forever.

If you want to find out about the Institute, go visit them. They are a well-oiled business, well used to selling themselves to people they think they can get money from. We don't need to have ads here for them on boards. Unless they want to pay for them.

UnknownEntity

spurious wrote:

If you want to find out about the Institute, go visit them. They are a well-oiled business, well used to selling themselves to people they think they can get money from. We don't need to have ads here for them on boards. Unless they want to pay for them.

What is your problem with the Insitiute? It seems like you are on every single post saying bad things about them...

spurious

This is a forum for educational matters to do with the LC, not to advertise or ask about private businesses.

spurious

As usual, if you have a problem with moderation, please follow the correct procedures and report it.

Schnook

haiyna wrote: »

So if I plan on taking the bus to and from school, will my schoolbag be heavy or is it fine? And I plan on doing core subjects (Maths English Irish) and I also want to do Physics, Biology, Chemistry, French and I'm not sure what else yet? And are the teachers still helpful even in huge classes?

Well, for me my schoolbag is heavy (I take 2 buses and walk about a half an hour extra in total) but I have textbooks and I get a lot of notes for most of my subjects. So... yes your schoolbag might be heavy. But it's better than carrying 6 textbooks, lol.

Afraid I don't do any of those subjects and can't help, I'm sorry

Yes, the teachers are helpful. Even in English where the classes are h u g e they can still make time for you.

UnknownEntity

Schnook wrote:

Well, for me my schoolbag is heavy (I take 2 buses and walk about a half an hour extra in total) but I have textbooks and I get a lot of notes for most of my subjects. So... yes your schoolbag might be heavy. But it's better than carrying 6 textbooks, lol.

Schnook wrote:

Afraid I don't do any of those subjects and can't help, I'm sorry

Schnook wrote:

Yes, the teachers are helpful. Even in English where the classes are h u g e they can still make time for you.

Well I'll probably be taking the bus from Lucan into town so that'll be around 30-50 minutes but my bag right now is extremely heavy and I have learned to deal with it on the bus so hopefully I'll be ok.

Schnook

haiyna wrote: »

Well I'll probably be taking the bus from Lucan into town so that'll be around 30-50 minutes but my bag right now is extremely heavy and I have learned to deal with it on the bus so hopefully I'll be ok.

Yeah your bag wont be as heavy as it is in a regular school with all those textbooks