Affordable Accommodation, Great Craic and Don McClean: A Coleraine story
Hi there! I’m Ben Finnerty, a first year pharmacy student at Ulster University’s Coleraine campus along the Causeway Coast. I’m from Roscommon and I just sat my Leaving cert in June of 2021. If you’re reading this then you’re probably in the midst of making your own decision on where to study right now, as I was last year. In this short blog, I hope to make your decision to #GoNorth for university much easier, by telling you why it was the right choice for me.
Guaranteed Accommodation. Simples.
One of the biggest things I considered when deciding where I wanted to study was accommodation. While I was researching my options through CAO, I found that most schools allocated their available on campus accommodation through a lottery system, which would leave me paying extortionate rates to live in a shoebox half an hour across the city. This uncertainty is one thing that brought me to Ulster University. Because UU offers guaranteed and affordable on-campus accommodation, I didn’t have to worry about where I might be living (or not living), and instead was able to look forward to enjoying my student life on campus.
Forget about Fees!
What really put me off studying at a CAO college, was the fact that every student has to pay €3000 “student contribution” fee up front, which can be prohibitively expensive for many. Whilst there are grants like SUSI, HEAR/DARE that can partially or fully cover this charge, they are all means-tested, which means not everyone will be able to avail of this assistance.
Up north, everyone is eligible for a Student Loan, including southern students, which covers the full cost of college fees and means you don’t have to pay a cent before you study. The student loan isn’t as scary as you think. It’s a simple application and means you don’t have to worry every year about how you’re going to find €3,000 plus student levy fees!
Nordies, they’re some craic!
For many southern students going north for college, we often do so not knowing many (or any) other leaving cert students doing the same. And sometimes, with slight hesitation, considering the history.
This was certainly my experience. I moved into student accommodation not knowing a soul up here. All I heard were Derry, Belfast and the odd Donegal accent. But as I attend some of the orientation events organised by the ResLife team, within no more than 4 hours of moving in I made a pile of new friends who I have quickly become very close with.
One of the first things I did when I moved here was join the rugby club. Before my first away game in September I was informed of a welcoming tradition for the debutants, sort of like an initiation...of sorts.
I was eagerly informed by teammates that I had to stand up and sing a song in front of the whole team. I chose to sing ‘American Pie’ by Don Mclean, and with every chorus all these northern lads from Coleraine, Ballykelly, Limavady and beyond, who I had only just met, were joining me in belting out (very badly I might add) about those old boys drinking their whiskey and rye, as if we had all been friends for years. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so welcomed so quickly as I have here at UU.
So what’re ye waiting for? Get yourself over to Go North and see what all the hoo-ha is about.
#WeAreUU | #TaímidUU
Ben Finnerty
MPharm (Hons) Pharmacy student