Nine of the 10 schools that send the greatest number of students to University College Dublin are fee-paying, according to figures published today.
The UCD feeder-school list is dominated by Dublin fee-paying schools, most charging well over €2,000 per year. The top 10 includes some of the best-known schools in Dublin, such as Gonzaga College in Ranelagh, Dublin 6, where 68 per cent of students go on to UCD; St Andrew's College in Blackrock, Co Dublin; Loreto High School, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14; and Belvedere College in Dublin 1.
The only non-fee paying school in the top 10 is the Dominican Convent, Muckcross Park, in Donnybrook, Dublin 4. Another school which features strongly is the non-fee-paying St Laurence's College, Loughlinstown, Co Dublin.
From 64 Leaving Cert students this year, 40 are now in UCD, 63 per cent of the total.
A total of 259 students from the State's largest grind school, the Institute of Education, registered as first years in UCD this autumn. This compares with 99 students from the second school on the list, Blackrock College, and 53 from Gonzaga in third place.
About one in 15 of all UCD first years from the State have attended the institute.
The table for UCD is the first of its kind to credit schools where students repeated the Leaving Cert exam or sat only one subject in the exam.
Other grind schools featuring on the list include Ashfield College, Templeogue, Dublin, which sent 32 students to UCD this year, and Bruce College, which sent 18.
Earlier this year, Bruce in Dublin was acquired by the Institute of Education in a multi-million euro deal.
The exact percentage of students from the institute going to UCD is difficult to establish, as the numbers sitting the Leaving Cert are not compiled by the State Examinations Commission. The institute says about 750 students sat the Leaving Cert at its Leeson Street grind school last June. By comparison, only 78 students sat the Leaving Cert at Gonzaga, but no less than 53 of these went on to UCD.
By most estimates, the percentage of Leaving Cert students from the institute going on to UCD is broadly similar to many fee-paying and non-fee paying schools in the top 25.
Several other non-fee paying schools feature strongly in UCD's intake.