Trinity Mature Student Interview

flowerbattle

Hi all, I've applied for European and Middle Eastern Studies in TCD and I have my interview in a few weeks! I'm just wondering if anyone has been through the interview process themselves for anything in TCD and could give me some tips please?

Thanks a million!

DeeAvery

I did one for Trinity a few weeks ago, every course is different I'm sure there are similarities with most mature student interviews. I did an mature interview for Maynooth in March, one for Social Work in TCD a few weeks ago and I have another one for a different course in Maynooth tomorrow and one for DCU on Thursday. So I'll be able to compare more by the end of the week.

Both that I have had so far were casual but I found the TCD interview was more like a job interview. However Social Work in Trinity is well known to be a very competitive course.

One tip I will give is if your interview is at college green give yourself loads of time. That area is full of road works and traffic restrictions. I made my interview just on time but when I arrived I got stuck behind tourists and Trinity Monday. Bad luck. I was told in my email to go straight to an interview waiting room and not a reception. They had a4 print outs to sign post the way. I was waiting there a few minutes when one of my interviewers came looking for me. Good thing I was there! I was interviewed by two lecturers off the course and not someone from the department or admissions which I thought was different. I could be wrong.

With the maynooth interview they were just interested in telling me how the cao works and talking about my previous academics and results. (Including my LC, I was like WTF, I thought being a mature student was about your experience but anyway). They were clearly just trying to find out if I could do assignments at level 8 standard. They didn't even ask why I wanted to do the course. I am in Maynooth right now doing a level 8 cert so that might have made my interview different. They did ask how I would fund myself though. It was for arts and they didn't even ask what subject combination I wanted to do. I brought that up myself.

Trinity asked things like: What does a social worker do? Why do I want to be a social worker? Give an example of when you helped someone and what would you have done differently looking back? How would you deal with aggressive behaviour? Have you worked with social workers before?

I was also asked what would I see as the most challenging thing about going to college. I said handing in assignments/doing homework. (That what I was like when I failed out as not a mature student. I went to class all the time but was too lazy to do independent study). They continued the conversation on with how would I overcome that. And I talked about how I'm handling the courses I'm doing now.

They were quite positive though, it was casual and they asked if I had anything I'd like to add at the end that I didn't get to say. (After the any questions part) I said no. A few hours later I thought of what I should have said. Ah well.

I made them laugh that's all I care about lol

Trinity only let you apply for three courses as a mature student I'm sure you're aware. Out of my three I got an unconditional offer for Sociology and Social Policy without an interview in the middle of March, I got an interview for Social Work (They said they'd let me know the outcome early May). And last week I was notified my application for TSM- Sociology/History of Art and Architecture was unsuccessful. So it seems the courses are all doing their own things when it comes to timelines and decisions.

Moomat

It seems like ages ago now but I did my interview around this time 3 years ago.

In my case, they were really trying to find out about my motivations and commitment. It was actually really enjoyable and I get on very well with some of the interview panel now.

I covered some of it in an article I wrote- http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/facing-bankruptcy-and-attending-trinity-how-i-started-my-new-life-1.2861998

Congratulations to you both, I hope you get what you are seeking!