College Accommodation
Campus Accommodation
If you are reading this in October or beyond , which you probably are, it is too late to apply for accommodation in College. Oh well... Normally the closing date for applications is sometime in January or February. Don’t worry about missing the date - there will be notices up around College or alternatively you could drop into the Accommodation Office and get the information you need there. It is located at the West Chapel in Front Square. Written queries should be addressed to:
Registrar of Chambers
Accommodations Office
West Chapel
Trinity College
Dublin 2
Living in Trinity has its good and bad points. Most people just like the idea of living in the grandest University in the country, but the reality of on-campus accommodation tends to be more monastic than palatial. Residents can only bring in one guest (who must be signed in advance in the Porters office at Front Gate) before midnight.
Students in standard rooms also have to share toilet/shower facilities and more often than not, kitchen facilities. Living in Trinity twenty-four hours a day does make you feel a bit claustrophobic, but there are some who see living in College as very convenient, with the best pubs in the city a stone’s throw from your front door, and no need for a taxi at the end of the night.
Who gets rooms?
Apply here: accommodation.tcd.ie/StudentBookings
Unless you are the child of a Fellow of the College or a scholar, you will find it hard to get a room in College. They still have to pay for the rooms but they get first call for the rooms. All incoming Freshers will have received an application form for Trinity Hall with their offer of a course place, so if you haven’t said yes by now it is too late, unless some places aren’t taken up. In this event, the free places are advertised via email and you can apply.
Otherwise, campus accommodation is limited to final year students or postgrads (but not those on a one-year course). To apply for rooms you have to fill in a form stating why you deserve rooms. Basically you have to prove that you are an asset to this college through the work you do – be it in a sport, a club or a charity. Again priority is given to those from outside the greater Dublin area, with a small pool of rooms available to those from Dublin. Exceptions to this final year rule are made for students with minor disabilities or special needs. These rooms are wheelchair accessible.
Trinity Hall
Situated on Dartry Road in Rathmines, approximately 2.5 miles from College. It was originally set up to house female students of the college, for whom close proximity to large numbers of virile young men could not possibly conduce to an academic mindset. In these more enlightened times, however, boys and girls happily share in the pleasures Trinity Hall has to offer. The majority of rooms are for Freshers, but there are a few rooms reserved for scholars and postgraduate students.
Trinity Hall has a wide range of facilities including an exercise room, an indoor basketball court, a botanical garden, a canteen and a common room. The JCR committee are there to run the craic and look after students in Halls. You can see more about the JCR and halls life on the JCR facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TrinityHallJCR/?fref=ts
Rooms are primarily selected on the basis of the distance to college from your home address.
Trinity Hall, TCD Student Accommodation.
Provisional applications for incoming first years for the academic year 2018/2019 are now open to students who have selected TCD in their CAO options.
Trinity Hall, Dartry, is recommended Trinity College student accommodation for new entrants to College. There is a vibrant sense of community with an active Junior Common Room which organises a diverse range of activities making the Hall an ideal place for first years to make friends and get acquainted.
Applicants are strongly advised to read the TCD Accommodation webpages before making their application.
To apply for Trinity Hall accommodation please click here.
For more information on student accommodation please visit www.tcd.ie/accommodation
Rooms on Campus
Without any doubt, the best On-Campus Accommodation is No.1 Grafton St., better known as the Provost’s House (The Provost is the only person allowed to live on this famous street). You are unlikely to be elected Provost unless you are a world-renowned academic, which probably won’t happen for a few weeks or thereabouts, so stop wasting time and read about normal rooms.
Apart from staff, scholars and visiting tourists, the people who usually live in rooms are final year students, post grads, students from outside Dublin.
Pearse Street rooms were built a number of years ago. They are not the best rooms on campus. They are more expensive than a standard room because each room has an en-suite bathroom, but the rooms themselves are small and the kitchen facilities are not up to the standard of some of the other facilities on campus. Other complaints include lack of ventilation, little natural light and high noise levels. The only real modern feature of these rooms is the intercoms.
The rooms in the GMB were completely refurbished a few years ago and are nice rooms. The big, high-ceilinged rooms have plenty of natural light, are well ventilated, are nicely furnished and have pristine toilet and shower facilities en suite. Only single rooms are available in the GMB but kitchen facilities are shared - there is a small kitchen with a tiny dining area for every four students. Demand for the GMB is high so getting rooms there is quite difficult.
Goldsmith Hall rooms have the dubious honour of sharing the same building as the SU Cafe . Situated beside Pearse St. DART station, there is an overhead tunnel connecting the development to the campus. A Goldsmith Hall residence has a single cubicle within an apartment consisting of 3 to 7 rooms, a shared kitchen and living room and shared toilet and showers.
Prices for rooms are roughly comparable (although by no means linked) to prices for equivalent accommodation in the city centre. The lease agreement on campus rooms ends on the 14th May. If you have exams after this date, the Accommodations Office will kindly allow you to stay there for the duration of your exams provided that you have given them notice of this and pay before May 1st. You must be out before noon the day after you have finished your exams. Staying on does cost you though - you will pay up to €25.06 per day.
The cream of the campus crop is Botany Bay. The rooms are self-contained apartments with two or three generous single bedrooms, a fully equipped kitchen/living room and a small but perfectly formed bathroom. The beds are big and comfy (some are doubles), there are big desks in each room with shelves and desk lights, and there is swipe card access with an intercom. You can apply for these rooms with friends.