Waiting List dilemma

Rewind

Gutted. Just got word back from Ger in UCD that I'm in the second band on the reserve list i.e the first band will get first preference. jackthelad321, do you know much about this?

Nini2014

Rewind wrote: »

Gutted. Just got word back from Ger in UCD that I'm in the second band on the reserve list i.e the first band will get first preference. jackthelad321, do you know much about this?

How did you find that out?

Rewind

Nini2014 wrote: »

How did you find that out?

I sent Ger, whom is the director of the HDip, an email: ger.moane@ucd.ie

Took her a couple of days to get back to me.

Rewind

Hey. Just letting ye know I got offered UCD this morning! I was shocked but obviously delighted. Now for the easy part, two grueling years of assignments, essays and exams! Any luck yourself Nini2014?

Nini2014

I got offered NUIG, still waiting to hear from the others - not out yet! Have to wait and see about Dublin I suppose! Congratulations though, very jealous!

Rewind

Nini2014 wrote: »

I got offered NUIG, still waiting to hear from the others - not out yet! Have to wait and see about Dublin I suppose! Congratulations though, very jealous!

Ah congrats on NUIG. Dublin might suit you better for different reasons but at least you have something. Best of luck with the rest of your applications.

Nini2014

I actually got the call from UCD and trinity about a month ago and I've decided to take trinity. I hope everything works out for you in UCD! Least we both got what we wanted ☺️

Link17

Hi, sorry for bumping an old thread but it seems like the commenters here really know what their talking about. I want to do a conversion course next year in Psychology and just wondering if I'm going about getting accepted to a course in the right way.

From what I understand a strong academic record with proof of interest and some volunteer experience is the way to go about getting on these courses.

So firstly, I've recently graduated from Maynooth University and I have a middle to high 2.1 English and History International BA. I'm doing some online psychology courses on Future Learn, a website that offer free university courses online from places such as the University of Liverpool and I'm doing about ten of them. I want to do an evening course in Psychology as well but can't find any so far that are accepting applicants. I've tried to get into the Trinity and the Maynooth Certificate courses but I've had no luck because they've already started and won't accept anyone else.

Does anyone know of any evening courses that would be good and are starting soon? My google searches are turning up nothing.

I haven't started volunteering yet but that seems to be really important too. Is there particular charities or places I should look into?

I've emailed all of the universities that offer conversion courses to express my interest as well. Do ya think calling into some of the course coordinators would be a good idea or would that just be bothering them and making myself a nuisance?

I'd really like to get accepted to either Trinity or UCD.Trinity would be ideal travel wise as I live near the train station and can just get straight into the city centre. NUIG wouldn't be too bad either but I'd rather not have to move out West because I live in Maynooth. Though saying that, I have considered studying abroad. But I don't even know where to start with looking into Universities abroad.

Again, sorry for reopening an old thread! Congrats to everyone who got the courses they want.

I feel like I'm cutting it a bit tight because the deadlines for the applications seem to all be in March.

I'm working part time in a Chemist as well but I don't know if that would be relevant for any application.

jackthelad321

Link17 wrote: »

Hi, sorry for bumping an old thread but it seems like the commenters here really know what their talking about. I want to do a conversion course next year in Psychology and just wondering if I'm going about getting accepted to a course in the right way.

From what I understand a strong academic record with proof of interest and some volunteer experience is the way to go about getting on these courses.

So firstly, I've recently graduated from Maynooth University and I have a middle to high 2.1 English and History International BA. I'm doing some online psychology courses on Future Learn, a website that offer free university courses online from places such as the University of Liverpool and I'm doing about ten of them. I want to do an evening course in Psychology as well but can't find any so far that are accepting applicants. I've tried to get into the Trinity and the Maynooth Certificate courses but I've had no luck because they've already started and won't accept anyone else.

Does anyone know of any evening courses that would be good and are starting soon? My google searches are turning up nothing.

I haven't started volunteering yet but that seems to be really important too. Is there particular charities or places I should look into?

I've emailed all of the universities that offer conversion courses to express my interest as well. Do ya think calling into some of the course coordinators would be a good idea or would that just be bothering them and making myself a nuisance?

I'd really like to get accepted to either Trinity or UCD.Trinity would be ideal travel wise as I live near the train station and can just get straight into the city centre. NUIG wouldn't be too bad either but I'd rather not have to move out West because I live in Maynooth. Though saying that, I have considered studying abroad. But I don't even know where to start with looking into Universities abroad.

Again, sorry for reopening an old thread! Congrats to everyone who got the courses they want.

I feel like I'm cutting it a bit tight because the deadlines for the applications seem to all be in March.

I'm working part time in a Chemist as well but I don't know if that would be relevant for any application.

Hey,

So I think I may have begun this thread however many years ago. I personally don't think experience is an iron-clad necessity. If you can get some experience, great, and with your marks from your degree it should be easy to get a place in one of your favoured destinations.

Getting experience of things may be more important for really teaching you what not to aim for or put down on your form. For instance, the classic "just want to help people" line. It's commendable and all, but unless you are going in to seek out a very specific avenue, maybe leave that kind of thing out. Maybe you weren't going to do that anyway, but I did the first time and I know from asking lecturers that they tend to roll their eyes at that stuff. It tends to highlight a lack or depth of knowledge in the area. It makes it easy for them to put that applicant to one side, good marks or not.

What's better, and I may have mentioned this above in other answers, is to be very specific about what type of area(s) you are interested in. Mentioning Visual Cognition, for instance, then some journals you have been reading... would stand to you better than generic experience without anything to indicate your understanding. For this you may have to delve into some texts and find hat areas really fascinate you.

The best type of experience you could get would indeed be on line lectures and another one that you may not have considered is volunteering to be a participant in a university. TCD, for instance, are always looking for people to study in their neuroscience department and you may get a few quid as well. They also did two extramural courses (Psychology; Neuroscience) from January to April (in 2012 they did anyway). All that stuff will help to show you are more serious and should see you well placed with your good grades from your undergrad.

Personally, I only had a 2.2 and I got accepted to both universities the second time around. I had a lot more experience, whatever that means (I did a few courses including an open university module, emailed lots of people, called into see the H.Dip coordinators etc etc. -- be determined, but not overbearing) but what really counted I think was that I was properly educated in what the subject is and what areas I wanted to go into.

I remember getting a book from the library called something like "embarking on psychology as a career" from some library, and reading the intro chapters to that. Gave very clear do's and don't about the application process. I would 1000% recommend doing something similar. And of course make sure it's something you really want to do. Go into some research labs and see if you might like that kind of environment, if you are interested in research and teaching.


Psychology is one of, if not the most misunderstood of subjects and people would do well to fully educate themselves of this before embarking in a career in the area. However, it is an excellent education with many fascinating areas. UCD, where I went, has a great department and I would fully recommend it to anyone. The lecturers are great and very helpful.

Finally, don't despair about getting in... too much. Trust me when I say that of our class of 17 or so, maybe 2 or 3 were exceptional (all doing funded PhD's now, two in America), the rest were normal, with a few I would consider below average. And I was told that we had a particularity excellent class by the H. Dip supervisor.

So, there you have it. I hope that helps.

The Black Oil

Active Links is worth a look for volunteering posts.

http://www.activelink.ie/

jackthelad321 wrote: »

So I think I may have begun this thread however many years ago. I personally don't think experience is an iron-clad necessity. If you can get some experience, great, and with your marks from your degree it should be easy to get a place in one of your favoured destinations.

That would be my feeling as well. As long as you make a sincere (i.e. not generic) attempt at the application process it ought to be considered. One of my classmates already had a PhD in another field. The type of PhD may not have counted for a whole lot (imo), but likely would have carried weight in terms of stamina, completion, etc - knowing he would finish the course, which is what they want. Obviously I'm not saying you need a doctorate to be in with a shout. Do your homework and use whatever experience and skills you have.

Psychology is one of, if not the most misunderstood of subjects and people would do well to fully educate themselves of this before embarking in a career in the area.

True.