<p>Hi, I'm a current freshman and I'm really clueless about the study abroad application process. As my name suggests, I'm really interested in going to Ireland. My school does not have a study abroad program to send students to Ireland so I'm going to have to apply through another program and my school suggests the Arcadia program.
What I'm confused about is how many schools I would have to apply to and how competitive study abroad programs tend to be. I've been really interested in Trinity College and Dublin City University. The only criteria it gives me is that I need a 3.5 for Trinity English program (the English program is more competitive than the univerisity already is) and a 3.0 for Dublin City University and I need to be on good academic standing. I'm not sure if this means that you're in if you have the required GPA and everything else is good or if I'm going to need to treat this like normal college applications. Also any other general information would be helpful. Thank you :)</p>
<p>Hi IrishLove79, I would treat it just like any other college application. Unfortunately, just having a 3.5 GPA and being in good academic standing won’t guarantee you acceptance, especially at a top notch school like Trinity. </p>
<p>There is good news. Speaking from personal experience, I’ve found that students studying abroad for a semester or year seem to have had a much easier time getting acceptance than those students (both from the US and international students) applying for four years. I don’t know if this applies in Ireland, but in the UK, UK residents do not pay tuition, so universities tend to like international students because we pay full tuition (although I believe there is a set number of international students allowed acceptance).</p>
<p>Not to say around a 3.5 won’t get you in, I have friends who were accepted to Trinity with a 3.6 GPA. As long as you are a well rounded student, maintain a 3.5-3.6 GPA, and present a convincing application, from my own experience, I would say you should be okay. Sorry I don’t know anything about the Arcadia program, but hopefully this helps a little bit!</p>
<p>[Study</a> Abroad Blog](<a href=“The Study Abroad Blog - Nate Nault”>http://thestudyabroadblog.com/)</p>
<p>Thank you so much for your advice! It definitely cleared up alot. One more question: what do you mean by well-rounded? Would this mean taking different types of classes and such? Thanks again :)</p>
<p>This is kind of a long answer to your short question but here goes. By well-rounded, I mean you do well in school, maybe play a sport (doesn’t have to be at the varsity level), are active in student government, and/or volunteer. They may or may not directly ask you for extracurriculars, volunteering experience, etc. on the actual application - I’ve only seen the apps for a few schools - but they will ask you for letters of recommendation from faculty who probably will want to know all of this info. Being well-rounded will allow faculty members to present a more positive picture of you to your chosen university through their recommendations, and furthermore, your chosen university will see that you are capable of handling the challenges associated with going to school in another country.</p>
<p>[Study</a> Abroad Blog](<a href=“The Study Abroad Blog - Nate Nault”>http://thestudyabroadblog.com/)</p>
<p>Thank you so much for you help 
You definitely cleared things up for me</p>
<p>I’m an Irish student and I would definetely reccomend Trinity College Dublin over DCU (DCU is isolated in the North side of the city and the campus is a bit depressing)</p>
<p>Trinity is in the city centre and an absolutely beautiful university (has the Book of Kells and all) and has a great English program.</p>
<p>Have you thought about a school outside of Dublin? NUI Galway and University College Cork are both well regarded and give a much better “feel” for Ireland than Dublin (as well as being much nicer cities). They would also be easier to get into than Trinity. (Irish universities have free tuition for home/EU students and similar courses to one another, university admissions are far less about how prestigious the college is and far more about location)</p>
<p>American students are very popular in the national universities (as far as I know, they pay tuition to their home college)and most offer a lot of support.</p>
<p>If there’s anything else you want to know about Irish universities, will do my best to answer.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for the advice! It is great to hear from the perspective of an Irish student. I will definitely look into those schools as well. I don’t have any current questions at the time but I will definitely let you know if any other questions come up. Thanks again! :)</p>
<p>No worries. Infrastructure in Ireland is pretty terrible so where the university is/location can be a factor in our decision as our universities all have pretty much identical academic standing (Trinity is a different case. Most of it’s courses are the same as elsehwhere but it’s age, history and highflying programs for things like Law mean it’s got the best academic reputation, although it’s courses are more or less identical to those outside Ireland).</p>
<p>I’m not sure how it is in the US, but over here, nobody really takes study abroad college prestigiousness into account. It’s more about learning something new, seeing a different culture etc. Have a look over the univeristies on offer. The main ones are;
[Trinity</a> College Dublin<a href=“lovely%20place,%20right%20in%20the%20city%20centre”>/url</a></p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.dcu.ie/]Dublin”>http://www.dcu.ie/]Dublin</a> City University](<a href=“http://www.tcd.ie/]Trinity”>http://www.tcd.ie/) and [University College Dublin](<a href=“http://www.ucd.ie/”>http://www.ucd.ie/</a>) are both grand but they’re campuses are fairly isolated/outta the way and a bit miserable.</p>
<p>[NUI</a> Galway](<a href=“http://www.nuigalway.ie/]NUI”>http://www.nuigalway.ie/) is lovely. Genuine student city and located in the west. Great nightlife and atmosphere as well as probably the best for an “Irish” experience with language courses, Irish history and politics etc. Would be reccomendation for an all-round experience.</p>
<p>[University College Cork](<a href=“World-class Undergraduate and Postgraduate Education in Ireland - University College Cork”>http://www.ucc.ie/en/</a>) is pretty much the same as Galway. Matter of preference really.</p>
<p>[University</a> of Limerick](<a href=“http://www.ul.ie/]University”>http://www.ul.ie/); meh. Not a fan of the city myself. Don’t know much about the campus or university.</p>
<p>[NUI</a> Maynooth](<a href=“http://www.nuim.ie/]NUI”>http://www.nuim.ie/) is grand but basically a satellite of Dublin. You’ll be heading in there a lot for nightlife etc.</p>
<p>Galway and Cork sounds really lovely. I’m definitely adding them to my potential study abroad schools list. Thank you for opening my eyes to more schools. I had convinced myself that I HAD to go to Dublin without giving other Irish schools a thought. Thanks again for the info, its been so incredibly helpful :)</p>
<p>Ah it’s grand. I’m getting enough help off Americans on this site so I’m glad I could return the favour. Nearly all Irish universites are state universities anyway (Trinity being the exception as an ancient protestant university, UL and DCU are state universities but former institutes so the campuses are a bit grim) so honestly, the quality is identical.
Was fairly pleased to see someone wanting to study abroad in Ireland.</p>
<p>I’m finishing up my degree in NUIG and would definetely reccomend it. Otherwise, most universites have foreign offices/student forums and messaging boards that can answer anything I’m unable to.</p>
<p>so university college cork sounds like a pretty cool school, and i spent almost four hours on their websites and im impressed but im an international student and im not exactly sure on what kind of pass ill need to make it to ucc. also im doing IGCSE and was wondering whether i apply for an undergraduate course after 10th grade or 12th grade?</p>