What Students Say
Likes
- The college provides best in class infrastructure, Students have access to dedicated labs with GPUs and libraries that are accessible 24/7.
- Courses are highly practical based, majority of the grading is done on the basis of Assignments rather than written examinations.
- The faculty are very knowledgeable and are experts in their field with many of them having relevant industry experience as well.
Dislikes
- Very difficult to get a scholarship especially as a taught postgraduate student compared to other universities.
- Assignment work load is very high leaving no time to prepare for job interviews or working part time.
- Due to campus being located in the city centre it is expensive to live close by and you need to find accommodation further away to save on rent.
Course Curriculum
- The difficulty level of the course curriculum is very high, it is very practical oriented.
- The positive aspect is that courses are graded based on practical application in assignments but this leads to a very high work load as they try to cover a lot of courses within a single semester which can be very stressful.
Admission Experience
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Manchester University, Admitted
University of Glasgow, Admitted
Queen Mary University London, Admitted
Stony Brook University, Rejected
University of Illinois U.C Rejected
University of Alberta Rejected - I was majorly rejected by Universities in Canada and USA possibly because their masters are more research oriented and my profile was more fit for taught master's programs hence i got accepted to all the UK and Ireland universities i applied to.
- I chose Trinity College as it is the #1 ranked university in Ireland and tech giants like Microsoft and Amazon are known to hire from Trinity College Dublin. Additionally it is also much more cheaper in terms of tuition fees compared to my other offer from Manchester University.
- The Admission process after applying consisted of a programming test where I was required to code in Either C, C++, or Java. The test was relatively simple and was intended to check whether I was familiar with basic programming concepts.
- After attempting the test, I soon got a conditional offer as I had not yet graduated at that time. I was required to provide Trinity with my provisional degree before the start of the semester to get the unconditional offer.
- In terms of eligibility criteria, the university requires an upper second-class (2.1) Honours degree, in my case this meant I had to score more than 70% in my Bachelor's Program.
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Additionally there is an English language requirement, the minimum scores of the accepted tests are as follows:
IELTS : 6.5 overall, 6.0 in each band
Duolingo : 120 overall 100 in each sub score
TOEFL iBT: 90 overall 21 in each section
Cambridge Advanced or Proficiency : 180 overall no score below 170
PTE Academic/Pearson : 69 overall 59 in each sectionI myself had taken the TOEFL iBT and scored 111.
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My overall admission experience was very pleasant, my visa got approved in the first try even though I only had a conditional offer, this was likely due Trinity's reputation. A challenge I faced during the application process was that my professors from my Indian college missed the email for sending out my references because of which I had to request Trinity College to extend the deadline for sending references. Trinity was very supportive and extended the deadline for me and my professors were then able to send out my references. Also, another positive factor was that they sent out the acceptance fairly quickly, but the deadline for paying the deposit to confirm the seat was within 30 days, which is relatively short compared to other universities.
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There is only one intake for this course, which is during September.I had applied on 2nd December, 2023.I received the invite for the programming test on 20th December, 2023.I received the conditional offer letter on 29th January, 2024.I received the unconditional offer letter on 24th July, 2024 after submitting my provisional degree.
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In total the admission process took around 2-3 months, the delay in getting the unconditional offer was due to the reason that I had not graduated yet, people who were already graduates got their offers even earlier.
Class Schedule
- The schedule of class varies depending on the day, there are days where you have only 1 lecture, and also days where there are four lectures. The earliest lecture is usually at 9 AM and the latest lecture might end is 7 PM.
- On average lectures have around 50-60 students. Some popular modules can have around 200 students.
- Around 50% of the students in my course are Indians.
Faculty
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Faculty to student ratio is around 1:10, Students are able to have one on one interactions with faculty and reach out to them if they have any difficulties, the quality of education is very good.
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The teaching methodology of the faculty is very interactive, professors encourage participation from students during lectures rather than one-way lectures. There is sufficient connection to real world application of concepts to prepare us for securing a job.
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And No, faculty members do not assist in the job hunting process.
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Some faculty members I admire the most are :
Professor Owen Conlan : His lectures are very interesting and he always bases the lectures on student led discussions.
Professor Stephen Kenny : He is very unfiltered and straight forward during his lectures talking about flaws in how certain concepts are applied in the industry.
Campus Life
- Trinity has one main campus, which is located in the City Centre at Dublin 2.
- Facilities on Campus: Library,Gym,Swimming Pool,Rock Climbing,Football/Cricket Ground,Rugby Ground,Tennis Ground.Clinic,Dining Hall,Cafe,Bar.
- Major campus festivals are the Trinity Ball and the Freshers Fair
- I am not much into sports but there are football matches every weekend and also Rugby matches that take place on campus. There are many societies such as the Indian Society which host events regularly, recently Holi was celebrated in Trinity as part of a society event. There are lunch/dinner parties hosted by different societies almost every week which are open to all students.
Part Time Jobs
- My Course is not eligible for Assistantship Roles
- Other on campus jobs are available in the form of volunteering positions during events.
- International Students are allowed to work 20 hours per week.
- It is not easy to secure on campus part time jobs as most of them are seasonal positions with very less openings. Additionally since the course is so work load heavy , students do not find time to work part time.
- Student typically earn around 13.5 € on an hourly basis. It is very difficult to secure part time jobs, common part time jobs for indian students are in retail at stores like Penney's and Tesco. Students need to have relevant previous experience in retail on their resume in order to get a part time job. Application process is usually online. I have not applied to any part time jobs so I am aware of the other procedures after applying.
Placement
- Currently no students from our batch have secured jobs, so this question is hard to answer.
- Although students are able to get interviews at companies like Amazon and Google, no offers are being sent out yet, possible due to bad market conditions.
- Students usually find jobs themselves online. There is no placement system in place. Although there are job fairs, these fairs are usually more targeted towards Undergraduate and EU students.
Accommodation
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I opted for Off campus accommodation
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I found it using online whatsapp groups and daft.ie website.
Monthly rent is 850 €
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Facilities included:
Kitchen (Including Microwave and Toaster)
Washing Machine - Challenges Faced were that there is high demand and low availability, accommodation would often get booked before you could get to confirm it.
- I would recommend future students to look for accommodation through friends/family already living in Dublin.
- My accommodation is around 4Kms away from campus.
- There is no specific locality commonly used by Indian students, Although Dublin 8 is a popular location for Trinity Students to stay.
Exams
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There is only an English language requirement, the accepted tests are as follows:
IELTS : 6.5 overall, 6.0 in each band
Duolingo : 120 overall 100 in each sub score
TOEFL iBT: 90 overall 21 in each section
Cambridge Advanced or Proficiency : 180 overall no score below 170
PTE Academic/Pearson : 69 overall 59 in each sectionI myself had taken the TOEFL iBT and scored 111.
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Documents Required:
A CV which outlines academic and professional experience of the past five years
A Personal Statement which has a relatively short word limit of around 500 words
Two Letter of Recommendations -
There is no interview for this course.
Fees
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I was not able to get on campus accommodation, as they are mostly reserved for undergraduate students so there was no hostel fees. The tuition fee for the entire course was : €26,969.00
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Students can pay fees either yearly or semester-wise.
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Monthly Expenses:-
Rent + Utilities : 900 € (For a Single Private Room), It can be cheaper (around 600 €) for Shared Rooms. Can be even cheaper if a student decides to live far away from campus. There are also purpose built student accommodations like Yugo which cost around 1200 €.
Food and Groceries : 100 € (If cooking at home), eating out is very expensive, average cost for a meal at a restaurant is 10-15 €.
Transportation : I don't have any transportation expenses as I use a Bicycle (One time cost of 160 €). But if I had been using public transport it would cost me around 40€. Each Trip on public transport costs 1€, using the student travel card (LEAP card)
Sim/Data Plan : 13€ for Monthly Unlimited Data
Scholarship
- No, I did not receive any scholarship. I had Applied for the Global Excellence Postgraduate Scholarship and the E3 Scholarship, for each of these scholarship applications I was required to write a 200 word statement on how I would contribute to Trinity College and had to provide a resume describing my past accomplishments.
- I only know of one person in my batch who received a scholarship, the amount was around 2000€. They most likely received the Global Excellence Postgraduate Scholarship.
- Very few students receive a scholarship (1 or 2), the typical reward amount ranges from 2000€ - 5000€.