909 students have registered to sit this year’s Foundation Scholarship exams, more commonly known as “Schols”, which took place this past week.
This marks a significant decrease from the 2024 numbers, when 949 students signed up to sit the exams.
However, these figures only indicate the number of students who have registered to sit the exams, with the actual number of students to have actually sat the exams likely much lower.
Biological and Biomedical Sciences remains the most popular course from which students sit the exams, with 88 students signing up for Schols, a slight increase from the 83 in 2024.
The second and third most popular courses were Medicine and Computer Science respectively.
While still the second most popular course from which to sit the exams, the statistics for Medicine show a significant drop from the 73 students that signed up to sit Schols in 2024, to 60 students in 2025.
Conversely, Computer Science registrees showed a jump to 50 students in this year’s exams, compared to 41 students in 2024.
Rounding out the top five most popular courses in which to sit the exams, were Engineering and Law, with 47 students signed up from Engineering, followed by 45 from Law.
The remaining top ten most popular courses were as follows: Nursing (38), Business, Economic and Social Studies (BESS) (37), English Studies (34), Philosophy, Political Science, Economics and Sociology (32), and Pharmacy (25).
Of the 909 students to register for the exams, 179 were enrolled in Joint Honours programmes.
Of these, the most popular course from which to sit the Schols exams was English Literature and History, where 15 students signed up.
Following on from this, 12 students signed up from both Political Science and Social Policy, and Computer Science and Business.
The Foundation Scholarship Exams are sat by Senior Freshman students in January of every year, in the hopes of availing of the significant awards granted to those who succeed in the exams.
The benefits of being named a scholar include five years of free college fees, free accommodation provided by the college for up to nine months of the year, and daily meals throughout the year, referred to as Commons.
73 new scholars were named in 2024.
Commenting on this week’s Schols exams, Trinity College Dublin Student’s Union (TCDSU) President Jenny Maguire said “TCDSU/AMLCT would like to wish the best of luck to all students doing their Schols exams”.
“We also offer luck to the hundreds of Medicine and Engineering students who also have exams this week. Your union is here for you when college often isn’t. Reach out to our welfare officer, Hamza Bana, at [email protected] with any concerns or questions you may have.”
Adding to this, Maguire said “It is an enormous achievement to even put yourself forward for Schols. For many, it is an opportunity to show off your academic prowess and join in on one of the most unique opportunities offered by Trinity”.
“However, for many more, it can often dictate your ability to engage with your studies at all. More students than ever are commuting long distances, paying extortionate rent prices, and scraping by on the minimal amount of food possible.”
“Schols offers a lifeline – but only for the few”, Maguire said.
“College has the resources to support its students who are suffering the most, and instead spends millions on capital projects without as much as a microwave inside. This university creates hardship, but it doesn’t have to.”
“We celebrate the opportunity Schols offers in TCDSU/AMLCT. At the same time, we continue to call on the university to offer affordable accommodation at 30% of the minimum wage, and to offer food prices on campus that cater to students and researchers – instead of throwing a few grand to the hardship fund here and there.”
The merits of the Foundation Scholarship were thrashed out earlier this year at a debate organised by the Hist.
The motion at play was “This House Would Abolish Schols”, but was comfortably defeated by the opposition.
The results of the Schols examinations will be announced on Trinity Monday, on April 28, 2025.
