UCD

One of the most beautiful campuses I have seen! It is very open, and GREEN! I like to workout so I take the 4 mile trail around and it is grand! The dirt trail runs along the perimeter of the campus.
There’s a lot of construction going on (at least during the summer). I believe they are expanding the campus, so you might see a lot work being done!

The campus is functional, but not pretty. Mostly large, grey, concrete buildings with some glass included. There’s a good sized pond in the center of campus, as well as great sports facilities and green spots. The school has a good reputation too, and there are a lot of good connections to be made. It’s a large university for Ireland, but depending on where you’re from it will feel pretty small very quickly. It’s a university, so you’re not checking Unilocal to find out where to attend most likely… so UCD offers its services pretty well. There is housing, food, sports, classes, and degrees here and all of them adequate or above average.

Like Dani I feel the need to defend UCD. yes yes people who don’t go to college here get lost when they visit… and it has the best stalinesque achitecture outside of the Soviet bloc (check out the concrete award winning Ag building!!) but there are pluses to UCD too. Once you get past the D4 drones there’s quite a diverse population of students, lots of clubs and societies, loads of sports facilities, fields, woods, lakes, swans… even some ducks
Importantly there’s also some stellar academic work that goes on here. And whiles there’s a lot that could be improved there’s plenty of reasons for people to study at UCD.
When you join some of the big courses in first year undergrad, they say «look left, look right… one of you won’t be here next year»… but the story they never tell is the 1% of people who are still here in 10 years… so maybe I’m just institutionalised!
Oh the beautiful concrete!

I spent a semester abroad at UCD, and it was the best semester of my whole college career – not that UCD, specifically, had a lot to do with that, but I still think it was a nice place.
So first, the bad. Simply put, the campus is ugly. It looks like it came straight out of the former Soviet Eastern Bloc. Nearly every building is a gigantic concrete square. However, things don’t look too bad from the inside. I felt that the administration was quite disorganized as it took ages to register for any classes. The classes themselves weren’t that bad though. I found some of my teachers quite interesting. Although, I do feel they could have done a bit better at highlighting what would be covered on the tests. UCD is only a short 10 — 15 minute bus ride into the city. The campus is quite large, so there are plenty of places to walk around and things to do. Perhaps UCD is not the greatest of universities (and certainly not of campuses), but I still found it quite easy to have a great time there.

Reading the previous reviews I feel like I have to defend my college. The campus is not the prettiest admittedly, because it was built to be riot-​proof hence the random pillars and steps. But it has nice features as well, such as the lake and the architecture buildings as well as Roebuck castle. UCD seems huge and unwelcoming at first, but once you have had a look around you’ll realize that there is method to the madness and the campus isn’t that bad. Plus the facilities, among them the sports centre and pitches, are great and there is a lot of cafes and bars on campus as well. All in all, it’s not pretty but it’s not meant to be pretty either.

UCD is perhaps my least favourite place in the world. It has a horrible, oppressive atmosphere and dull drab landscape reminiscent of a pogrom.
I would never advise someone to attend here unless they wanted to spend their entire third level education in a depressing South Dublin bubble of gloom.
But some things never change, and about sixty per cent of South Dublin school goers will go here regardless of how horrible the place is.
I’d give it no stars if I could.

My only experiences in UCD are sports related, which if you knew me, is pretty laughable.
I’ve only ever come up here to either watch a match friends were paying in, or to play tag rugby myself. In the first instance I don’t really tend to get involved, I stand around chatting to whoever else is on the sideline and making trips to the centra shop at frequent intervals, purely to keep myself entertained.
But in the latter instance, their astro pitches are pretty good. And not too painful to fall on, which I did have some concerns about!

The architecture of UCD captures a near soviet level of grim, crushing depression. Everything is grey and seemingly designed using blocks of leggo-​only without the extravagance of the little dots on top.
The main square, built with an eye to the social upheavals of the 60’s, is actually designed to prevent mass gatherings. You’d guess that, as it’s a thoroughly unwelcoming place.
And then onto the interior, and maybe another reference to children’s toys. The floor is color coded, different colored lines lead you to different parts of the campus. I’ll admit to feeling a bit conflicted about this system. It’s a bit patronizing. But, I don’t understand it and have been lost in UCD nearly every time I’ve entered. There are no labels explaining the system, it’s shaggin’useless.

I honestly don’t understand how in the world people make their way around this place on foot… I feel like I should have a wee golf cart at the very least. UCD is freain’ massive!
I can’t walk through without getting lost; my route consists of the walk from the 10 bus stop to the sports hall for annual Colours matches, and maybe a quick stop at the student bar (or, so I’m told, one of them). So maybe I am a Trinity snob, but I like to be able to figure out where the heck I am sometimes, you know?!
Lacking the historical beauty of its great rival, it does have enviable sports facilities, thanks to being located that little bit outside the city centre. It’s not the easiest place to get to in the world (those non-​drivers amongst us have to rely on buses rather than the LUAS or DART), and I wouldn’t recommend it for aesthetics. However, it is a university, not a tourist attraction — something that I’m always jealous of in May — in Trinity, cometh the tourist, cometh the exams. And leaveth good manners.