A substantial body of research exists which seeks to examine the individual, social and institutional factors that impact on third level student performance and retention. (Tinto, 1975; Bean, 1980; Astin, 1984; Pascarella and Terenzini, 1991; Tinto, 1993; Nora, Cabrera et al., 1996; Ozga and Sukhnandan, 1998). These and other publications suggest that there are a large number of interacting variables both personal, social and academic which have an impact on student success and persistence. The aims of this study are: " To examine the educational, socio-economic and demographic background of students attending First Year Computing Courses at designated Institutes of Technology; " To examine relationships between students' background characteristics on entry and their " adaptation to the course; " To chart students' academic progress, their study habits, their involvement in sports, recreational interests and their home and school computing background; " Based on this information, to seek to establish the possibility of identifying particular profiles of students and their likelihood of success. The study is longitudinal with interlinking qualitative and quantitative elements. It will span the four years of the students' academic life. The purpose of this paper is to present a profile of the student cohort based on the questionnaire administered to them on entry to their first year course and to present key findings based on students' responses to these questions. Relationships between objective variables such as students' demographic, academic and socio-economic background are presented and patterns of association within the data are outlined. This student group of 578 were enrolled in First Year Computing Courses at seven Institutes of Technology at the commencement of the academic year 2001/02. A profile of these students is presented under the following headings: Demographic Details; Socio-economic Background and Working and Living Conditions. Findings The analysis reported in this paper highlights a number of salient points. Firstly, while the representation of students from the different socio-economic categories in the student cohort (students being studied) is broadly similar to that found by Clancy (2001) and Ryan (2001) for students entering the Institute of Technology sector as a whole, there are some variations. In general it appears that entrants to computing studies in the Institute of Technology sector in 2001 are significantly more representative of the middle to lower socio-economic groups in society. It seems therefore that this student group reflects the contribution that the Institutes of Technology have made to in addressing the issue of inequality of access in the higher education sector. The superior academic performance of females at Leaving Certificate level is apparent in this study with females outperforming males in terms of points and honours scored. . As expected, university entrants present with much higher average scores in their Leaving Certificate than their Institute of Technology counterparts. A disturbing feature of the demographic profile of the computing students surveyed is the low representation of females entering these courses. This is an issue that has been highlighted in a number of national (Mc. Quillan and Bradley, 1999) and international reports (Fisher, Margolis et al. 1997; Bjorkman, Christoff et al. 1998; Carter and Jenkins 2001). A further point of interest concerning the demographic profile of this computing student cohort is their age distribution. There is a much higher proportion of students over twenty years of age (17.1%) commencing these computing courses than in the Institute of Technology as a whole in 1998 (9.6%). The perception of the 'traditional' third level student is changing and this computing student cohort is reflecting this trend. References Astin, A. W. (1984). "Student Involvement: A Developmental Theory for Higher Education." Journal of College Student Personnel 25: 297-308. Astin, A. W. and R. J. Panos (1969). The Educational and Vocational Development of College Students. Washington, American Council on Education. Bean, J. P. (1980). "Drpoouts and Turnover. The synthesis and Test of a Causal Model of Student Attrition." 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