PPES

Well, to be fair, that thread has nothing to do with the actual course. It seems to be more a debate over the validity of the Leaving Cert.

Anyway, I'm a first year PPES student. I had always thought of doing single honours Philosophy but changed my mind near the end of the year and so went for this, thinking that it would give me more time to decide what I want to do, which it most certainly has.

I think that we drop one subject a year and you can end up doing single honours subject by the end of your four years, OR, you can do a TSM by the end. Don't quote me on that though.

Now, about the course content. It's kinda meh. It's quite bland sometimes with the exception of Philosophy which I do love. I do think this is to do with what courses we are doing in the rest of the subjects. 'Introduction to Economics' , 'Introduction to Political Science' , 'Introduction to Sociology' and then 'Maths and Statistics' whereas in Philosophy we do 'Central Problems in Philosophy' and 'History of Philosophy'. I think that because they're all introduction courses they're bound to be a bit boring. Also to remember, there is quite a lot of Maths in Economics. It's not too hard though, just keep up with the homeworks and you should be fine.

Language wise, you can't do that through the course itself, but Trinity do offer night classes in languages, if you're thinking about doing these, apply ASAP. Literally, the day you get the form. My friend applied pretty much straight away and still didn't get it.

I'm not sure about Political Science. I hated it at first but started to love it as we spoke more about the Israel/Palestine conflict. It's quite dry as it's mostly theory but again, I reckon it'll really pick up in second year. Our lecturer brings in a huge amount of guest speakers which are usually very good and make the course a lot more worthwhile, for example, we had the Israeli Ambassador in a couple of weeks ago which brought about a lot of controversy. There were several bodyguards in the lecture hall!

Feel free to ask me any questions though. I know how annoying it is asking questions on boards and never getting a reply so hopefully I can be off help! Feel free to PM me too.

On a final note, I have found that a lot of people expected the course to be really involving. That they would wake up in the morning and WANT to get up for their daily lectures. I can't see this happening for anyone, in any course to be honest, regardless of how much they love it. People who came into college with this expectation seem to be very underwhelmed. This may happen for you, that you are that involved in the course and college but the chances are it won't. I don't want this to be all doom and gloom because this isn't necessarily a bad thing, some parts of every course you will find very very boring, but then certain parts will really interest you.

Hopefully I've been quite informative, again, any more questions feel free to ask me.

well i can't really add much to what Timans said just there, but i would second it. Im in 1st year Philosophy and Political Science, and chose it over PPES because i didn't want to take economics. However, one of the modules I'm required to take in 1st year is "Introduction to economic policy" and its not too bad. Its a different economics course to that which the PPES people take and is much more language based than theirs, so if maths isn't your cup of tea it's not a problem. I'm also taking Sociology as a module, the same as PPES, the only difference being we don't have the option to continue with it next year.
Definately agree with Timans on the Political Science front; it is quite dry. I chose the degree more so for the Political Science aspect moreso than Philosophy, but I'm finding the Philosophy the more stimulating and interesting of the two. Our lecturer for Political Science is brilliant though, but her lectures are evry theory based, which obviously is very important, but it is the many guest speakers which add the extra dimension of current affairs and opinions to the mix.
Philosophy is brilliant. We take two modules, as mentioned above, and get new lecturers for each every 8 weeks which keeps it fresh and interesting. I feel people underestimate the value of philosophy as a degree, including myself until I started it, but through it you touch so many aspects of life, from maths to God.
In Phil/Pol you study both subjects until 4th year and then you can study one, the other or both and I'm pretty sure you get a double degree anyway, no matter which you choose.

I think points for PPES last year were 505.

Yeah don't worry I'm not, I am ranking them based on what Uni I want to go to first, then after that what course I want to do. I really really want to do Law tbh, and after that anything which involves enough Law to get me into Law School without another diploma, then I have PPES.

Can you guys talk tell me about hours, workload and exams in PPES?

By that logic I would put down Law in every UNI in Ireland as my top 10 CAO choices.

Trinity
UCD
UL
NUI Gal
UCC
NUI Maynooth

Ect, ect, ect.

Sorry that logic doesn't work for me at all, and I am 100% sure that's not what you did. Not only that but your logic fails again, if I am in trinity I have 3 weeks to decide I don't like my course and change, but if I am in UCD I can't decide in the first 3 weeks I don't like my college.


Not only that, but atm I am picking a subject based on very little experience, a few open days and a few prospectus, I am picking a uni based on location, facilities, reputation, student body, what my friends are doing and more.