missing days in college full time

lightspeed

hi im doinga part time degree but wanna change to full time and get the free tuition fees paid as opposed to shelling out over €2000 at the moment. i can rearrange my hours at work but still wont be able to go to college monday to friday so if i was absent for a for 2 of the 5 days each week would they notice or care as long as i passed my exams at the end of the year?

IM0

do they do a roll call in your classes, if so then unlikely. If however you are in a big course with no roll call then you have a much better chance of getting 'lost' also attendance might be part of your marks for exams check that if you can

lightspeed

well im in a part time evening degree in dit at the moment but at 3 nights a week its just too much to handle and i could just be studying at home with the time it takes to drive in and out. yes they call the attendance role for the part time degree im in now and i think it accounts for 5% but the assignments alone add up to 30 or 40% so im not to worried if i was to lose 5% . ive a few to many bills to be forking out €2000 for another year and it really grinds my gears that i work full time and pay taxes and i have to shell out over €2000 a year on college fees from a government funded college just so young people out of school who many have never worked a day in their life can just have the college experiance just for fun.why cant i get free education and those that are contributing nothing have to pay? i may be able to go 2 days a week so maybe i could get away with it. i read another post about some people missing days in college and one guy said he never went to one class and passed his exams so just wonderig anybody else ever do something like this?

Larianne

Education isn't free though. College fees were €1,500 last year and going up to €2,000 next September. So if you went full time you would still be paying the two grand plus you may have more assignments and college work to do and could be putting more pressure on yourself if you will be working full time also.

Not all courses take attendence. If you do decide on a full time course, find out from other students whether the department is strict on attendance.

lightspeed

yes someone told me the same but i rang citzens advice and they put me through to the fingal county council for the student grant department and i think the woman i was talking to said that would be covered under the free tuition scheme as my parents are on disability. its all a bit confusing if this is not the case. Am i to assume then that there are no longer free tuition fees scheme in place for full time education?

bnt

In my experience at UCD, only a few courses had any attendance checks, and all your attendance alone meant was a few extra percent. But that's not the reason why you'd want to attend regardless: you need lectures to make sense of a course. It varies, of course, but I went in (to Engineering) with the aim of attending every lecture, and found that I really did need them.

Feu

lightspeed wrote: »

yes someone told me the same but i rang citzens advice and they put me through to the fingal county council for the student grant department and i think the woman i was talking to said that would be covered under the free tuition scheme as my parents are on disability. its all a bit confusing if this is not the case. Am i to assume then that there are no longer free tuition fees scheme in place for full time education?

even if you are eligible for free fees, you may still have to pay the annual reg fees as Larianne pointed out, of €1500+.

may i ask why further education interests you? Just from your posts perhaps its not the right time? Or if it's purely for the qualification then perhaps it is the right plan for you also, would you be able to switch into 2nd year, or would you have to begin again in 1st year?

But imagine you were to work 5 days a week and be enrolled at college, you would have assignments, presentations, exams, probably group work (for which you would need to meet other people in your class) on top of full time work, which you would have to complete in the evenings and weekends, so would you really be better off than you are now? and remember exam period for full time courses could see 6 exams spread over a 2-3 week period. would you be able to take the time off?

and yes, attendance notwithstanding you could pass if you didn't go to any classes, but, as pointed out, the lectures can be vital tp your understanding of certain subjects. I think attending is even more important as a mature student, you can really get a lot out of classes, and interacting with classmates and lecturers.

W86indow

dont even think about it .

I wouldnt even entertain the thought . you are an absolute fool if you think you can miss a few days of college and catch up ...
it is tough enough to work part time and keep the study going let me tell you

That is my opinon , I did miss college for a week to do training for my part time job regreted that even . Its working out now thank god but , i did a practical the following week i was in and i hadnt a clue because i wasnt in the week before and I would be good to listen and take it in and prepare myself for the following class

I felt so useless that day . I came in and couldnt think properly i felt so guilty for missing the prep lecture and the lecturer wasted their time explainin it to me in the practical I hadn't a foggy at all cause I hadnt prepared . also messed up another exam in another subject cause i wasnt in when they were goin through the notes .

all because I thought ah sure its the end of year a week isnt going to kill me , I know i will pass everything cause i have put in work before and since
but you have no idea what you could miss in the space of a day an hour like.

Fea.

I did what your thinking of doing. I changed my work hours to work weekends to allow me to go to full-time college Mon to Fri. Unfortunately, that means I haven't had a day off since last September when I started (other than the 9 days I was snowed in just before Christmas - which was fun.... NOT...)

The major bonus in doing it this way is, I get the whole summer off Monday to Friday while continuing working weekends (plays havoc with the social life but that never really existed to begin with anyway LOL)

Best of luck, with whatever you decide
xxx