Personal Development
I gained a lot personally from my experience. I have made lifelong friends and got to travel all throughout Europe. The experience made me become very independent and taught me a lot of skills to handle situations, especially when things go wrong.
Academic Development
It was very interesting to study at another university and how differently classes can be run. The workload and the level of difficulty was definitely way less than at UQ. However, the assessment types are quite different to what we are typically required to do at UQ which took a bit of adjusting. Trinity especially loves presentations which in the subject areas I typically study at UQ, they are not a usual type of assessment.
Professional Development
Definitely being able to take initiative and also effectively communicating with people. You are forced to make new friends and do a lot of things by yourself which I think will help with future employability as I was constantly networking with people as well as not relying on others to create opportunities for me.
Budget
I gave myself a weekly budget for the day-to-day expenses such as groceries and then any travel etc. would come out of my separate savings account. I likely spent approximately $20,000 overall but that included travel after the semester finished as well as travel throughout the semester. Accommodation on campus at Trinity cost around $8,000 (however, I was unfortunately allocated the most expensive type of room you can get). As I lived on campus and right in the middle of the city, I spent very little on transport. Unfortunately Dublin is quite expensive so eating out is costly but groceries were equivalent prices to Australia so I definitely saved a lot by eating in for most meals.
Advice
Put yourself out there with events/going out right at the beginning and try not to stress all of the small stuff.
