Are you determined to continue your studies by enrolling in a university? Great, then you “just” need to pick your college. Good luck with that. You would probably rather comb Bob Marley’s hair than make this choice, but someone has to do it, and it’s better if it’s you, don’t you think?
If you stumbled upon this article, you’re reasonably plumbing the depths of the internet to find answers to your many questions: what are the top universities in Ireland? Which are the courses offering better job prospects? What am I good at? What do I want to be when I grow up? Should I retire in a hermitage and breed alpacas avoiding all human interactions?
Even if the last option might be very tempting, we would suggest to at least give university a try, not because we think it’s better to live among people, but because, on the long run, it might be a bit more lucrative.
To clear your head, we prepared a quick guide that will help you with your college selection or at least narrow the choice down to a couple of options. It’s time to roll up your sleeves and take charge of your life!
Top Universities in Ireland in 2018
Before showering you with the list of the top ranking university in Ireland, let’s get something straight. What will one day distinguish you from all the people out there is not the university of wow you attended, but the skills you have developed, which no title can ever replace. The name of a good university on your cv does have a certain importance, but it will never be as crucial as a hands-on experience or some practical expertise. With that said, it’s your legitimate right to know which are the universities that can provide you with the best education. Here’s an updated ranking for the year 2018 featuring the top 9 institutions in Ireland. We also included a more in-depth description of the best universities in Dublin located near Hazelwood Student Village.
Trinity College Dublin
According to the World University Rankings of 2018, the most accredited university in Ireland is Trinity College. It was established in 1592 as an equivalent of the English universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Trinity College has been providing excellent teaching standards for 400 years, seeking to enhance the learning of every single student through assigning a personal tutor and providing a campus-based Careers Advisory Service. It is especially recommended for Political Science and Literature.
University College Dublin
Known as “Ireland’s Global University”, UCD has the largest number of international students and exchange programs. It offers courses ranging from humanities to sciences, but it is mostly famous for its clinical and health courses.
Dublin City University
Recently built, it is the youngest university in the capital, it has the best modern accommodation and study facilities. It offers specialized courses especially in economic matters and works in close collaboration with the main industries in the sector, such as Samsung, IBM, Microsoft. It is located in Dublin 9, at about 25 minutes from the city centre.
Dublin Institute of Technology
It hosts more than 20 thousand full-time and part-time students divided into small classes, of which over 600 are students coming from more than 70 countries. It offers degree courses in optometry, dietetics and human nutrition, tourism marketing and logistics and transport marketing grouped in 6 areas.
Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
The Royal College of Surgeons is the biggest medical school in Ireland and it’s mainly recognized for its surgical and pharmaceutical faculties. It’s a private school, but it offers a good number of scholarships for both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.
The Right College Or The Right Job?
Choosing a faculty means also deciding what will be your future career. Many teenargers lose sight of the big picture when it comes to pick a college. It’s not enough to like the subjects you’re going to study, you need to consider if you like the career paths that the faculty will open for you. In other words, you shouldn’t choose your profession according to what you like to study, but study what will allow you to fulfil your ambitions. This probably sounds contradictory, but there’s a huge difference between studying law and being a lawyer, don’t you think? Or again, if you like studying new languages but hate speaking to people, you might want to reconsider your choice. By the same token, if you love the idea of studying the human body, but you faint at the first sight of blood, maybe medical school should not be your first option. This doesn’t mean that you can’t overcome your fears or stop being a misanthrope, but at least you should take your limits into account.
That’s great, but you could argue, what if I haven’t the faintest idea of what I want to do? Well, in this case, you need:
A little self-analysis. The first and most important thing to do is to ask yourself what were the aspects and the school subjects that interested you most and resulted to be the easiest for you. But do not limit yourself to school, think also of all the activities you have done during the last few years, potentially applicable to a business context.
Think with your head: do not let yourself be influenced by what your teachers, your parents or the psychological tests you took think of you. Follow your inclinations and aspirations.
Think goal-oriented. Do you want to make a lot of money? Do you like people or are you a lone bear? Are you willing to study for life or the less time you spend on books the happier you are? These are all questions that help you define your goals, indicating the possible degree programs to be taken into consideration.
Contact college students. Listen to the voice of those who walked the college corridors before you. There is nothing more effective than the advice of students enrolled in the course in which you are most interested. But how to reach them and contact them? During the Open Days, many information booths will undoubtedly be run by students, to whom you can address all your doubts and concerns. Moreover, in the age of Social Networks, certainly you cannot miss the opportunity to join the Facebook groups of the various faculties. They are usually managed by university students and turn out to be a good method of comparison and mutual help. Why not exploit them, then, to immediately establish new friendships?
Experience. Visit the university where you would like to enroll, breathe that atmosphere, attend a few classes, go and try an exam. Are you hesitant between Law and Medicine? Go to the hospital, breathe the smell of disinfectant, look at the color of the walls, watch the patients from side to side of the corridor and try to figure out if you want to spend the next years of your life doing the job or not. And then go to court, sit in the last row, look at how the judge moves, as he pronounces the sentence, as the defendant leaves, his head down. And then, only then, decide.
Take It Easy, University Is Just A Step
Any problem you have right now, even what you think is enormous, like "how to choose the right university for you" is only one step compared to the whole staircase you have to climb.
At this point of your life, your Leaving Cert results, your CAO offer and your college choice may seem like the most decisive events in your life, but, in reality, they are just the peak of a mountain of hard decisions and difficult situations you have to overcome. We want to tell you that this is not the most important decision of your life and it can always be reversed. If you are between 17 and 25 years old, you are living a very delicate period of transition, in which you will change your mind and ways of doing so many times that you’ll lose count of it. The university will represent only the mirror of all the internal changes you will experience, and one day you will see it only as ONE of the many difficult choices you had to make. So, don’t look at the step, look at the staircase!
So, What College Should I Go To?
You are probably very dissatisfied with this post because it didn’t tell you which college you should go to. In truth, this wasn’t the purpose of this article and you should distrust whoever has the arrogance of telling you what to do.
You can read as many books and take as many aptitude tests as you want, but you won’t find the answer anywhere because you can only find it in yourself. The real question is not what faculty you should attend but who are you? Who do you want to be? Find the answer to this and you’ll know what to do.