I am currently going through the application process of a study abroad program through my University. I will be moving either this upcoming fall, or late winter depending on the program I am accepted to. Both programs look amazing. The first is at University College Cork and is a one year program with a focus on studying Irish music, the second is a one semester program with University College Dublin and involves an internship with a member of the Irish Parliment. Currently I am in the financial planning stages of the trip. Mostly to determine if I can afford to be there an entire year, as I won’t be able to work much (if at all) once I am in Ireland.
My question is for people who have lived (or at least visited for a decent ammount of time) in both Ireland and America. I am trying to determine my cost of living. I know that it is more expensive to live in Ireland then in Minnesota, but how much more? Can anyone help me out?
Hi Seth.
Accommodation in Cork is pretty steep, but not as bad as Dublin. The absolute cheapest you can expect to pay would be around 50Euro per week; more realistic would be to expect around 80 - 90E per week. (If you’re paying that much, it will generally include things like clothes washing/drying facilities, heating, tv, stuff like that. Generally, but not always. And electricity is usually not included - or not entirely included (you pay an amount at the start of the year, and if/when your bills exceed that amount, you pay the difference). http://www.ucc.ie/services/asa/accommodation/base.html has more info, and they’re really good about queries.) Usually, you also pay for a (school) year of accomodation in one or two installments, which is a lot of money up front. On the other hand, you don’t need to worry about then until the next bill. Also, student accommodation usually is not rentable for the summer - and if you want to stay in it over the summer, it’s usually more expensive. Again, not always, but bear that in mind.
Food is probably about the same price as in the US (although it’s hard to compare directly). If anything, I’d say maybe it’s slightly cheaper in Ireland, but not by much.
College in Ireland is all about socialising, which gets really expensive really fast. Be warned. You can spend as much or as little as you want, but the more upmarket the pub/club, the more expensive it’s going to be.
Good luck!
Deirdre
The prices that Flutie quoted would be for physical accommodations that are “minimalist” by US standards. A little old. A little beat up. Expect the worst and you may even be pleasantly surprised.
Ireland is officially and by far the most expensive country to live in in the EU, especially living in Dublin. I don’t know how it would compare to US standards.
A data point: I spent 2-3 weeks in Cork about a year ago, and was told the same thing by our people there. However, I found both my hotel bill and the cost of eating out ran about the same (if not a bit less) than the cost of similar accomodations and quite a bit less for food compared to a similar stint in Cambridge, England, the year before.
Food seemed to run about the same as I’d expect to pay at home (SF Bay area of California). My hotel bill was considerably less than I’d have paid for similar accomodations in San Francisco or Boston. I’d guess if you figure it will cost as much as a similar period in Minneapolis (compared to a smaller town) you’d be close.
Though the relative cost of living may well be higher - I believe that Ireland has a lower per-capita income than most of the US.
Studies comparing the cost of living throughout the EU show the cost of living in Ireland is about 20 above the european average. The Irish system is genrally referred to as the Rip-off economy.
There may be, if you’re young and rough and ready,
cheaper options. Also universites here, and perhaps
in Ireland too, have housing offices with
listings, eg for a room in someone’s home
with access to a hot plate
or a fridge. I’d sure try to find a way to stay
for a year!
Actually, I don’t doubt you are correct - I believe Cambridge is one of the more expensive locations in the UK, and my US data points are also well above the average.
But if Seth’s reference point is the Minneapolis/Saint Paul area of Minnesota (the most urban, most expensive part of his state) he may find Cork, at least, not so much of a shock. (Dublin, from what I’ve heard, runs quite a bit higher - no direct experience there)
now will you all stop nagging about a loaf of bread and the weekly rent :roll:
dear old city by the lee what i wouldn’t give to be
roaming over your sunny hills and dells
listening to the merry chimes as we did in days gone by
when are hearts were full of liberty
montonette and st. lukes, they might attract your looks
fair lane, barrack street and evergreen
from the courthouse to the college, they’ve different sorts of knowledge
and yet the half of cork you haven’t seen
and so they say, there is a sweet coal-quay
where the restaurants are famous for pigs feet
where you get your feather bed and a fine feed of pigs head
and don’t forget to pay before you leave
and now for to finish, we’ll have a pint of beamish
but guinness and murphys are good too
we can never forget the oil that we drank with conny doyle
the night we won the free state championship
For comparison: Boston is one of the most expensive cities in the US, the average cost to rent a one bedroom apartment in the Boston area is around $1500-$1800 a month for something decent but not extravagent.
Cork is where my wonderful ancestors are from. (The O’Driscolls)…It is told to me that in early days, robbers, thieves, and general bad apples tried to take the women of O’Driscoll castle for slaves. They left instead with English dwellers as the O’Driscoll women proved them too much trouble to be slaves!!! My dear husband agrees with the lot!! Oh…to be in Cork…and to see that castle…where my fore-sisters gave a bad headache to those varmits!!!
I hail from Wisconsin…your neighbor…please go and have a Guiness or two for me…
Good luck with your studies!!
Nancy Mae…
From Baltimore (at least that is where my heart is…)
While it’s intended to calculate salary, it’s a good cost of living comparison. You would pick a U.S. city you’re familiar with, compare it to Cork or Dublin, base it on some minimal salary (if you aren’t currently making a salary to compare it to) and at least get some idea of how much more expensive it’s likely to be. I’ve never used the international calculator, but I’ve used the U.S. relo calculator often, and it’s usually pretty accurate.
I tried it just for fun, and it told me that, if I make $100,000 per year in San Jose (closest major city to me), I would have to make the equivalent of $106,000 in Cork or $117,000 in Dublin to have a comparable standard of living (which does, indeed, make them pretty expensive cities, as San Jose is fairly pricey itself). It apparently costs a little less to live in Cork than in San Francisco, but Dublin is still a bit higher.
Do they have something like residence clubs (or boarding houses) in larger cities in Ireland? I lived in a residence club when I lived in San Francisco, and it wasn’t a bad deal…I got a furnished room with a wash basin in it (toilet, bath and showers down the hall, laundry in the basement), and my choice of breakfast or lunch (minimalist, and the kitchen was questionable, but still…) for much less than I would have paid for an apartment (and it was kind of a fun place to live, truth to tell…we used to have weekly cockroach races in the hallways!).
i once played golf with a preist from cork. he told me that he taught school and that every year he had at least three boys named tom french (my name) in his class. this corroborates my great-great-etc-grandfather’s orally transmitted story that we hail from cork (the legend claims that he swam to the states, after circling ireland three times to say goodbye to all his friends).
at any rate, the priest also expounded on his theory of the origin of the name french. he said that french in gaelic is something like “francoch”. this is what the irish called the breton fisherman who would fish on their coast. apparently, they wold not only fish fish, but also the daughters of the cork fathers , who started to refer to them as francach (which also means “rat” in irish, the priest claimed). thus i know that i hail from daughter-snatching celts from france. to close the loop, i guess my french progenitors were lucky if they didn’t fish o’driscoll waters.
It does here. $100,000 a year would be a middle of the road income for a family with two working parents. It might be enough to finance a small house, if you’re very careful with finances, but it wouldn’t pay for much in the way of extras (no fancy cars, special vacations, private schools and designer clothes for the kiddies, etc.). It’s about the equivalent of a $65,000 income in most of the rest of the country.
It’s just the default number in any case…you could plug in any income. Say you know you can scrape together about $30,000 to live on for the year (and that’s got to cover everything other than transportation to the country and tuition). Figure out what standard of living that would get you in your home town, then plug it into the salary calculator to see how far off base it is for your projected town.
Going with smaller numbers, then, if you make $25,000 in Minneapolis, MN, you would need around $37,000 to have the same standard of living in Cork, or around $41,000 in Dublin (these latter numbers rounded up slighly).
According to the cost of living calculator, I’ll need about fifty percent more money then I do in Minnesota. Unfortunately for me, after searching through all the channels I can think of, I only have about half of what I need for the year long trip. So I guess I’ll be staying a bit longer then I’d hoped. I’ll be leaving in January now, instead of August, but at least I know I’ll have enough money for that trip.
