Opinion on Business Courses

nick23

Sorry to butt in on a UCD thread but i really need some help.
Im in my leaving cert year and im thinking about possibly doing Commerce or Business with Law next year in UCD. I was hoping that anyone who has done either of these courses (or is in the process of doing them) or even if anyone knows someone who is attending these courses could give me a rough idea of what the course is like in terms of difficulty, satisfaction, work etc.

Any help at all would be great because i really have no idea what i want to do next year!

Font22

if by business with law u mean B+L, DO IT!!! i'm going into fourth year and it has exceeded all my expectations. such a good course, have made friends i will have for life, and generally had an amazing time!

the evil lime

I'm in second year commerce. I think it's great. Not to try to talk you out of B&L, it's a great course and a number of my friends are doing it (it was my first preference actually), but commerce strikes me as more fun. I'm glad now I didn't get B&L, as I know that I'd have just changed into commerce.

The two degrees have both got good career prospects, Law from the B&L, Accountancy, Banking & Finance etc. from Commerce. There is a Business Law module so you do get some grounding in Law. You can also take Law electives (I took BCL Contract I&II). Commerce does most of its research over the internet, where as (and I'm open to correction here) I think B&L do most of theirs in the library. Here endeth the comparason.

The structure of commerce has changed a little this year, but I'm just going to explain the version I went through. As regards dificulty, there is challange in the degree, but not so much that it will consume your social time unduly. Some of the statistics can be a bit trickey, as are some of the eccononmics and accountancy if you haven't seen them before.

You are devided into small groups for the most part, and you tend to get to know your group to the point where you sit together even in the larger lectures (200+ students).

The modules contained in this years version of the degree, and probably the one you'll be getting if you take it can be found here. Basically there are modules linked to most of the final year specialisms like Managment Information Systems, Accountancy, Economics, Banking & Finance etc.

The course isn't really too hard, and as regards staisfaction, I've enjoyed the group projects, where you get to see everyone's efforts come together and such.

Commerce is a broad degree that gives you two years to decide which area to specialise in. Furthermore, as it's only a three year degree, you still have time to do a masters degree afterwards.

If you have any other questions, just ask.

Anyhow, best of luck with your leaving, and I hope to see you here next year, whatever course you decide to do.

Umaro

I'm 2nd Commerce too and I can pretty much agree with everything the honourable Mr. Evil Lime has said.

difficulty, satisfaction, work etc.

difficulty - I found 1st Year pretty easy, a lot of the stuff you'll be doing in stuff like maths, economics and accounting is similar to what you'll have done for the leaving cert. I hadn't done accounting since the junior cert but I found it pretty easy to pick up where I'd left off. Other people who said they'd done LC economics found that pretty easy going too.

and thanks to continuous assessment its very easy to pass a class. Going into end-of-semester exams in many subjects there were plenty of people who knew they were guaranteed a pass because they'd put in the work earlier in the year.

satisfaction - The main source of satisfaction you'll get is probably from group projects, but these can also be a huge source of frustration dependent on whether you've been placed with a bunch of asshats or not. Overall, the course is easy, but can be extremely boring at times.. 3 hour long lectures in management and quantitative analyses - I've never seen a roomful of teenagers look so suicidal.

work - well, like all other college courses the amount of work you do is dependent purely on whether or not you want to do it. if you keep up with everything and attend your lectures like you're supposed to then you'll have a nice lil GPA at the end of the year. alternatively, you can be they person who does feck all in the group projects, disliked by everyone you're paired with and rarely show up for lectures - look forward to doing some repeats!

Theres also plenty of opportunities that come with the course, we're able to go abroad for the 2nd semester of 2nd year (I'm not sure if this option is for B+L as well?) and you can get jobs interning during the summer as accountancy/boring/consultancy firms will come to Quinn to suck the youthful happiness out of the students by putting them into low-pay internships. That sound bad, but office experience is valuable!

Font22

regarding research i have found i do most of it on the net. but the odd time i do look atbooks. for instance i was writing an essay for a law subject in May and i got everything i needed from the net! commerce is also an excellent course. one of my friends did it and loved. whatever u choose you will receive an excellent education!