Many Leaving Cert students believe they have "made it" once they enter college.
No more exam stress. Just a few years of intellectual nourishment - and plenty of craic. But there is also a real downside.
Dropping out
The high numbers who fail their exams or drop out. In some colleges, the drop-out rate can be over 25 per cent. An average drop-out rate of 15 per cent is common across most universities and institutes of technology.
Last year more than than one in four UCD students either failed their first-year science exams or dropped out of the course.
Failing your exams
The following are the failure rates from UCD last year, which are broadly typical across the sector.
Arts 9%
Agriculture 9%
Veterinary 3%
Social science 10%
Nursing and related 6%
Law 0.8%
Architecture 1.8%
Engineering 1%
Medicine 2%
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