Type of housing: Apartment/House

Arranged by: Independently - My choice

If returning, I would choose: Apartment/House

Why? I enjoyed the mixture: living in a house with both native and foreign people, some of whom were students, others were working. I prefer the independence compared with university accomodation.

Personal comments:
There is very limited university housing. If you want this type of accomodation, ask for it as soon as possible. Dublin is very expensive for accomodation. Often it is a lot cheaper to share a room with someone. Don't be put off by this, it can be very character building learning to live with a new person, and often it will create an awesome friendship that will last (my old room-mate just came to visit me in Madrid and we are about to arrange a reunion with our whole flat in amesterdam). Also try to get accomodation near the bus route 10, it is the most regular bus out to UCD.

Describe host city: Students equally interact with the local and student community

Activities, Nightlife, Travel: Takes place both within and outside of the university/student environment

Personal comments:
If you go to Dublin you have to go to the Whealan's: it's in the city centre, there are concerts every night and after the gigs there is a dj that plays a kind of alternative rock stuff. I think the best club in Dublin is the Ri-Ra: it's small but the music is the coolest that you can find in Dublin. If you want to listen to some real Irish Traditional music then you have to go to Blackrock on monday night to the Whishing Well

Course recommendations:
Actually I haven't studied at the University, but I only applied for application process of the English Exam IELTS - Intenational English Language Testing System to Language Department at this University. I passed that Exam at the University in October 2003. Exam took about 5 hours and included four parts: Reading, Listening, Writing, Speaking. It was worth to take this exam because it gives me international qualification

Personal comments:
none

Language of instruction: English

Main source of funding:
Family

Other sources of funding:
None

Work opportunities:
I didn't explore any work options

Personal spending habits:
The exchange rate was not advantageous for me so no matter how cheap an item was, it was still more expensive when considering the exchange rate. The best advice I got is don't think about the rate and enjoy yourself. This is a once and a life time opportunity.

Food, Travel, Nightlife, Overall, Telephone, Housing: was more expensive than at home.

I wish I had known...
That it would have been a fuller experience had I gone completely by myself. my boyfriend, who was not a student, came with me and at first it inhibited me from taking full advantage of all the benefits.

In my opinion:
Everybody loved it, you will too!