Recently, I was asked to share my TUS story with fellow international students, so they know what it feels like to study in Ireland as an international student. Well first off, I chose Ireland to study in because of Ireland being an English-speaking country and affordable living costs. As for my choice of TUS, I made the decision because of the affordable tuition fees for international students and plenty of choices for courses that I was interested in.
I’ve been studying in TUS, Ireland since 2023. As an international student studying for around a year, my experience has been great overall. The people in Ireland are so friendly and approachable for the introverted me! They’re so helpful and the environment gradually got me over my fear of starting conversations with strangers.
TUS is a great campus, my favorite place of them all has to be the engineering building. It has such a chill and cozy environment and plenty of empty labs available to use if I ever need to use a desktop to work on last minute assignments or projects.
Additionally, my favorite thing about TUS is they work very hard to ensure us international students don’t get homesick. For example, as a Chinese, I’m surprised the mooncake festival is celebrated in TUS. In fact, they were even handing out mooncakes in the Student Union! Color me surprised by that. Furthermore, they always held trips for international students every few weeks. As an illustration, TUS organized a trip to the famous Cliff of Moher for only 5 euros! It even included a small stop in a beautiful beach and the famous Cliff of Moher did meet my expectations.
During my studies in TUS, I’ve had several memorable moments. But the most memorable of them all has to be celebrating Chinese New Year in the Student Union with fellow international students in the evening. There were so many events, and several “New Year” snacks made by other international students too! Moreover, the “Lao Shen” was not forgotten by them!
Enough about TUS, let me share more about Ireland now. Ireland truly is a beautiful country; it is packed with culture and nature. To elaborate more, there’s several attractions across the country and each of them has their distinctive features. Especially the cathedrals, surprised is not enough to emphasize the feeling I’ve had when I visited the Galway cathedral.
As an international student, I’ve experienced some cultural shocks in Ireland as well. For illustration, I was very surprised most of the shops close around 8pm or so. My friend told me that apparently its because the people in Ireland are catholic, so they end the day quite early. The same can’t be applied to the bars though, it’s a fun experience going there when all the other shops and malls are closed for the day.
That is all from me sharing my experience studying in TUS, Ireland. Along with studying, I’ve been having fun and socializing with people from all over the world too! I’ve been here for more than a year and I can say with confidence that I don’t regret my decision to study here.
Roy is in Year 2 studying for a Bachelor of Science(Honors) in Software Design with Artificial Intelligence for Cloud Computing at the TUS Athlone Campus.