6% increase in CAO First Preference Applications to Trinity College Dublin

Posted on: 10 March 2010

The  2010  CAO  figures show an increase of 6% in first preference applications  to Trinity College Dublin by prospective undergraduate students.

The CAO data shows that there were 447 additional first preference applications to Trinity for 2010. This represents an increase of 6% on the application level for 2009, and a 17% increase on the figure for 2008. The  increase in applications was spread across each of the university’s faculties.  Furthermore, the College attracted the greatest number of first preference applications from A-level students.

The degree of choice offered by Trinity’s main Arts programme (TSM) once again proved to be very popular with applicants, with an overall increase of 5.3% in first preference applications, and particularly strong interest in options such as History (+29%), Sociology (+24%), Psychology (+17%) and languages such as French (+17%) and Spanish (+10%). The recently introduced degree in Ancient & medieval history and culture proved extremely popular, with an increase of 61% in first preference applications, while the well established European studies course was boosted by an 11% increase.

Although, in line with the national trend, first preference applications for Law decreased, the number of first preference applications for Law and a language rose by 53% (Law & German) and 26% (Law & French).

In Trinity’s Business and a language courses, there was an increases of 19% and 32% for Business & German and Business & Spanish respectively, while there was a 44% increase in first preference applications to the Business and computing course.

Following the trend in 2009, there is strong demand in 2010 for Health sciences courses at Trinity where there was an  increase in first preference applications of 20% in Medicine. Trinity’s dental courses were also very popular with increases in first preference applications to the Dental science, Dental nursing and Dental technology courses of 29%, 19% and 14% respectively.

The strong reputation of Trinity’s general entry programmes in Science and Engineering was once again evident, with increases in first preference applications of 5% and 3% respectively. This follows a 13% increase in first preference applications to the Science course in 2009. There was a surge in demand for the university’s Computer science course in 2009, and this demand continued in 2010 with an increase in total applications of 16%.