What Students Say
Likes
- The course structure is intensive enough to cover a vast number of topics regarding Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Systems
- The assignments are very detailed and provide a great way of learning the state of the art techniques.
- The campus being in the centre of the city provides a lot of opportunities for job search, recruiting events happening around Dublin with a great connectivity with public transport.
Dislikes
- Due to being a major tourist attraction from around the world, Trinity faces a lot of overcrowding and often during day major spots and lunch areas are crowded with tourists.
- High cost and limited student living options are available which forces students to find accommodation outside of campus and travel time to and fro college increases.
- The course being very particular and hectic does not provide often much time to explore student activities or enjoy college organised events.
Required Exams for Admission
Course Curriculum
- The course is fairly difficult and requires a good pre-understanding of basic computer science concepts. It is fairly more practical as most of the evaluations are on assignments and they involve applying concepts in real time to state of the art methods.
- Positive Aspect:- Fairly practical course with very detailed assignments which impart knowledge via practicals.
- Negative Aspects:- The course is fairly hectic and might become difficult if not constantly practiced and needs good time management skills.
- Mostly there are 2-3 classes a day but students spend a lot of time on group assignments so typically are in college from 10AM - 6PM
- There are 60 students in my class and almost 40% are Indians.
Admission Experience
-
Applied to 5 universities and got accepted in 3.
1. Trinity College Dublin - Accepted
2. University College Dublin - Accepted
3. Northeastern University - Accepted
4. University of Maryland, College Park - Rejected
5. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign - Rejected. -
I believe a major reason for getting rejections was my low GPA (8.37) in bachelors and also a upto par SOP.
1. I chose Trinity since out of the 5 colleges, it had the best curriculum and ranking also the course structure was exactly what I was aiming for.
2. After application, they provide a programming test which is very trivial but also requires students to score 100%, after which depending on your profile you can be accepted and rejected into the Computer Science strand you applied to.
3. Accepted exams:- IELTS, TOEFL. Required band in IELTS:- 7, in toefl score above 100 is preferred.
4. I believe that the admission process was very transparent and as per the timeline provided by the college, most of the times the admission committee was quick with responses to my queries which helped me accelerate the process. -
I applied for Fall intake(September entry). Since Trinity only opens for fall and summer intake and the majority of students are enrolled in September intake which provides a more chance of acceptance. Hence I choose the fall intake.
-
Admission process took almost 6 months
October end - application to the university
November mid - Programming Interview
Early Feb - Acceptance
Mid June - Fees payment and Visa processing
Early July - Visa acceptance
Faculty
- Faculty-to-student ratio for my course is about 1:14 within the school of computer science. This ensures that students have well oriented choices in their subject regarding which course they wish to opt. Also the graduate research project has many options when it comes to choosing the topic of interest especially in the field of AI.
- Yes the course content is enough for securing a Job in AI as it covers all state-of-the art concepts. Most of learning happens outside of the class in group projects and assignments.
- No, there is no assistance from faculty when it comes to finding jobs.
- I admire Professor Ivana Dusparic the most as the teaching methodology is very detailed and promotes learning rather than just reading out slides she explains each concept in detail with examples.
Campus Life
- The college has 1 main campus located in Dublin 02. All facilities such as multiple big libraries, all sport facilities and great and active medical services are available 24x7 in campus. Major campus festivals are Christmas and St. Patrick's day but almost all festivals are celebrated here including Indian festivals like Holi, Diwali etc.
- Extracurricular activities such as free gym, swimming, badminton and other sports are available, Trinity has one of the most active student body in the world and this allows a wide range of events all across the year be it be movie nights or discussions or quizzes, also most clubs organise events in off hours so that students can focus on their studies mostly and can relax afterwards.
Part Time Jobs
- No, postgraduate students usually do not secure Teaching Assistant (TA), Research Assistant (RA), or Departmental Assistant (DA) positions since the course is of 1 year and usually very hectic.
- Pay range for TA/RA/DA positions is minimum wage in Ireland (13.5 euros per hour)
- other on-campus jobs like volunteering or exam co-ordinators are available via the college website.
- Maximum hours during term time is 20hrs per week and 40 hrs per week in vacations.
- It is very difficult to get jobs on campus since the number of applications are very high and the number of positions is low.
- students typically earn 13.5 euros per hour in part time jobs. It is usually difficult to get part-time jobs in Dublin as there are a lot of applicants especially online but after repeated tries it is possible to land a part time job. Steps involved are looking at popular company websites for job openings and applying for referrals and then applying for the job. Usually there are 1-2 interviews per position after which you can get the job.
Placement
- Almost 80-90% of students are able to land a job within 6 months of graduation. The average salary for most students in 35000-40000 EUROS per year.
- Students usually find jobs online or via LinkedIn where they apply to jobs and give interviews after recruiters reach them. It is also possible to get good connections in job fairs which take place on campus during April and November months. Major companies:- Amazon, Microsoft, Bank of America, MasterCard, Citibank
Accommodation
- I found accommodation via friends who were already in Dublin. One of my friend was leaving dublin for India and I took over the lease agreement from him.
- Monthly rent for 2 people:- 1400 euros all facilities like dishwashers, fridge, TV, washing machine, heater were included.
- recommendations for future students:- Start finding accommodation early as there is a lot of crisis in finding accommodations, keep an eye out on scams which take place in rental properties. Also it's better if you can find contacts who can view properties for you in Dublin as that is the best way.
- My accommodation is 25 mins walk from college but the rent is a bit on the higher side.
Exams
- IELTS or TOEFL are the main exams required for the university. The cutoff is usually 7 for IELS and 100 for TOEFL.
- Documents required for the application process:- Semester wise marksheets, Degree certificate (bachelors), CV, 2 academic letters of recommendations, Detailed Statement of Purpose.
- No, for me there was no interview except a programming task which was sent to me over mail which consisted of basic C++ and python programming questions.
Fees
-
Total Fees:- 16,210 EUROS
Fees Is charged as follows:-
1. 50% before college commencement
2. 50% should be paid before start of second trimester (28 Feb) -
Monthly expenses for me are:-
650 Euros per month as rent (almost at average price for students)
55 Euros per month as bills (Electricity, heating, wifi etc)
20 Euros per month as transportation cost
70 Euros per month as grocery expenses. Total:- 800-850 euros per month
Scholarship
-
No, I did not receive any scholarship for the course. Although I had applied for E3 scholarship which amounts to 8000 Euros and anyone in computer science can apply for it.
-
3 of my batchmates have received scholarships ranging from 1000 to 2500 Euros in total. Some also received grants for living aid.
On average 2-3 students out of 100 receive a scholarship, and the average is 2000 euros.