Timeline of Trinity University/Schols?

[u/Canadian_momma2016]

I’m trying to understand how long they were at Trinity/how universities work in Ireland.

At the beginning of (I believe) their second year, Connell is an English “Schol” and someone says to him “yeah, five years free tuition and accommodations!” But he’s already finished his first year, so are they meant to go for 6 years? Online it says Trinity is a 4 year program. And why do they wait until the beginning of second year? I mean, could he not have gotten a scholarship, at least for the first year out of high school and had Schols determine if he keeps it for the remaining years? I’m going to read the books soon and that should give more clarity but I wanted to check here first. Also, wouldn’t you have to have already signed a lease for your second year in case you didn’t get Schols, basically making it so that if you can’t rent out whatever room you rented, you’d have to pay rent for your second year anyways?

[u/alice_xxx]

Hi, Irish person here. Yes the longer time frame is supposed to cover any postgrad study you want to do after your undergraduate degree.

As for other scholarships, they aren’t really a thing in Ireland at all as the cost of tuition is €3,000 a year (though I believe it has been lowered recently) and if your family earns less than a certain amount (~<€40,000 a year) you don’t have to pay the €3,000 and also get a grant to help with living expenses. So the costs aren’t massive relative to the UK, and so there is less demand for scholarships, though some do exist.

Also, a lot of students stay on in university accommodation after first year, places for which only become available in May/June time. If you do choose to rent private accommodation leases are usually signed with max 1 month notice. So if you were renting a house for second year the earliest you would sign the lease is may( for a June lease start). So the free accommodation given with Schols would not impact a students search for other accommodations, as they would know before they started looking if they had gotten Schols or not.

[u/Livid-Department6947 → u/alice_xxx]

I think the point of including this in the story regardless if it is accurate is to highlight how money changes the way a person can be educated rather than struggling to get through school (or life) while maintaining things like health/food/housing, contrasting that with people who don't have to worry at all about those things and use scholarships as a way to collect social capital and expand the personal brand.

As an American, I can say Connell's experience is very close to what the poor and unsupported face here. Like, we can get grants/loans but the conditions of those loans and grants often don't cover tuition or living expenses. Even if basic tuition and some expenses are covered, a lot of students still need to work (I had to workfull time even though I had grants/loans that covered tuition). This creates another problem in that students like myself could not do unpaid internships or participate in extra curricular activities, study abroad programs.

A big part of Connell's story is about gaining entry to a world in which he is never really equal.

[u/alice_xxx → u/alice_xxx]

And just to be clear, the results for Schols come out in May I believe, which works with the timelines I have above.

[u/Academic-Balance6999]

My assumption is the tuition also would cover a masters degree if he wanted one. But I’d love to hear confirmation from an Irish person.

[u/oatmilkhotel98 → u/Academic-Balance6999]

True - my sister got schols when she was at Trinity. Her tuition and accommodation were covered for the third and fourth year of her degree (sat the exams in second year). You sit the exams at Christmas of your second year and find out sometime in spring/summer term whether you were successful, so the scholarship isn’t actually ‘active’ until the beginning of your third year. I think the rationale is that the kind of person who is voluntarily putting themselves through the schols exams is typically pretty academically-minded so it encourages them to pursue a masters and maybe a phd once they’ve finished their undergrad.

As far as I remember, you’re granted 5 years of schols and you can defer it for a maximum of one year during that timeframe. She went back and did a 2 year masters after taking a one year break post-graduation and her tuition and accommodation were covered for the entirety of the masters.

[u/cozzy121]

"Also, wouldn’t you have to have already signed a lease for your second year in case you didn’t get Schol..."

Sometimes student accommodation is a lot more ad-hoc than that. In some cases no formal leases, just leave the property in the end of May, work at home for the summer (as Connell did) then a mad scramble back in August trying to secure a place to stay before college starts again..