Amazing experience, rough around the edges

Dublin is an amazing city for many reasons, including its charm, pubs, and views, but it's also not without its flaw when looking to study. There is a very real chance you will not get accommodation from UCD, as me and some of my friends did not. You will instead have to constantly search sites like daft.ie and the student accommodation pad for some of the most insulting accommodation listings. I ended up paying more than most campus accommodation prices, with a 20 minute bike commute (in Ireland's rainy weather too) that takes over an hour in Dublin's absolute joke of a public transit system. If you're like me, this may even lead to a lengthy tour of the Irish healthcare system after getting hit by a van on your way to class. It's very slow (you're looking at around 9 hours in the ED for just a concussion), but at least the price is much better than the US (hospital visits are free with a GP referral!).

Despite dropping the ball on accommodation, however, there are many things to praise about UCD. Academically, I never once felt as relaxed studying in the US as I did on even the busiest weeks here; the lack of gamified busy work gives you much more time to focus on actually learning the content. Even in my more difficult classes like thermodynamics and heat transfer, I felt I learned just as well as in my home university with only a fraction of the difficulty. There are, however, some culture shocks on final exams since they are such a large part of your grade. UCD also has an amazing system for clubs and societies which I wish my home university would adopt itself (go to freshers week and sign up for as many societies as you can!). The campus resources are plentiful, and the library is amazing, even if its usually too packed to find a good spot to study with friends.

I specifically studied chemical engineering, which had an even smaller program here than at my home university. One of the reasons I chose UCD was because of the lack of similar programs at other institutions. The faculty in all my engineering classes were amazing, however, and I felt welcomed and encouraged in all my classes. Overall, I would recommend UCD to anyone looking for study in Ireland, looking for easy access to cheap Ryanair flights, or anyone that just needs to enjoy some much lighter schoolwork for a semester.