Mature Students
General Information
All mature student undergraduate applicants must complete an online application form at the Central Application Office – www.cao.ie. The CAO has a mature student information page here http://www.cao.ie/index.php?page=mature. The deadline is the 1st of February each year. Late applications are not accepted.
To be considered a mature student applicant you must be:
- 23 years of age or older,
- an undergraduate applicant,
- an EU applicant.
A TCD FAQ on this can be found here - https://www.tcd.ie/maturestudents/faq/
All mature students applying to TCD must complete a CAO application AND a separate TCD mature student application form.
Please find the correct course form through the link at this page - https://www.tcd.ie/maturestudents/apply/
TCD has a dedicated Mature Student Officer, Clodagh Byrne who can be contacted via email at: mature.student.officer@tcd.ie. Mature student information webpages can be found here - https://www.tcd.ie/maturestudents/
Full details on the application process can be found at the above website link. You will also find support information, important dates and profiles of some mature students at TCD. It is recommended that you read through as much information as possible before completing your application.
School of Psychology: Mature Student Selection Process
The School of Psychology invites all mature students who have successfully applied to study Psychology to attend TCD Psychology aptitude tests. The tests take place approximately 4-6 weeks after the CAO closing date. The TCD Admissions Office will contact all applicants and inform them of the date, time and venue for these tests. The tests are usually held at a TCD venue on a Saturday morning.
Aptitude Tests
There are two aptitude tests:
- A general test of academic aptitude, and
- A test of specific academic aptitude for Psychology
- Each test lasts under one hour and is in multiple-choice format.
You will be given a short break in-between each test. Since these are tests of aptitude, there is no special preparation that you can do in advance. There are no samples or practice tests.
There is no pass or fail mark on these tests. The test scores are used as a basis for short-listing candidates for interview. There are generally many more applicants than we can interview, let alone offer a place, so not getting an offer of an interview should not be taken as meaning you do not have the academic aptitude required – simply that enough others scored higher.
Interview
Interviews for short-listed candidates usually take place 2-3 weeks after the tests. The Admissions Office will contact candidates confirming the time, date and venue for this.
Interviews are usually held at the School of Psychology offices on a weekday. Unfortunately, we cannot hold interviews outside of normal working hours.
Two members of the School of Psychology academic staff will interview each candidate individually for approximately 20 minutes. The candidate’s background, knowledge, reading and interest in psychology will be discussed.
Candidates are scored out of 20 in the interview.
Place Offer
The names of those who score highest are sent to the Admissions Office. The Admissions Office will make offers of places directly to the successful candidates over the following months. Those who have not been successful will also be informed by the Admissions Office at this stage.
The TCD Mature Student Guidelines booklet 2019 can be downloaded here.
Further reading:
Overview of Psychology UG course - https://psychology.tcd.ie/undergraduate/