Science at UCD

Lucas10101

I'm considering doing General Science at UCD and wondered that if you did a joint honours, does this affect your chances of doing a Doctorate, as you wouldn't have specialised in one subject?

It says you can test 6 science subjects in the first semester, personally I would like to be involved in Physics/Maths/Mathematical Physics/Chemistry/Biology/Pharmacology ( I would consider a denominated degree in pharmacology ), Apart from Pharmacology I have done all the others and really like doing them. How can a decision like this be cut down though to a few as has to be done?

Also, what are the science facilities there like, or does another University have better facilities and teaching or what overall in general?

As for the individual subjects, would you be able to tell me what's taught in them for first and second year if you do those ones. I know in other courses around Ireland, some courses claim to teach something but doesn't do it directly somehow which is quite disappointing.

Any other information regarding the course, coursework, and anything else in general would be quite helpful. I have searched in this forum for UCD Science so I have all the links and have read through the UCD website. Just looking for individual opinion on the course, subjects and other.

Thanks.

woop

hey, just finished my first year exams in science there, found that when I was looking for info on a bsc in ucd there was little info on things like subject choices and things like that, but on my first day I got a load of info that I just wished I had when choosing my cao options would have made it a lot easier!

right I know youve looked at the ucd website just wondering if you found this
https://sisweb.ucd.ie/usis/w_sm_web_inf_browser.show_program?p_term_code=200600&p_programme=EMPUG006&p_crumb=%23p1%23%3Fp_term_code%3D200600%26p_list_type%3DPROGRAMMES%22%3E%20UCD%20Programmes%3C%2FA%3E
it tells you the different modules you do(you do 12 per year) for whatever options you wish to pursue, generally everyone found that you could pick subjects thatd enable you to progress to a range degrees, sometimes with exceptions but geologists cant be avoided

you can test a lot more than six subjects,(ive done geology,programming,physics,maths,biology) especially in the first semester but you might find it difficult to qualify for all of them, the subjects you are thinking about all overlap so you would be able to qualify for them all, itd be a lot easier to explain if you had the subject choice booklet, you get the basics in most things, although I found chem quite hard to pick up as I didnt do it before however I quite like physics and didnt do that either

basically about facilities I cant advise you because I havent studied anywhere else, but there a good bit better than most LC labs;)

about the Phd question, the degree you do is generally speciallised when you finish anyway, and most of the denominated students are mixed in with the general Bsc students doing the same stuff just youre degree says that it was denominated at the end, you can gain access most of the subject areas through a general science degree except for a few like bio med, and astro physicsbut you can transfer into them with a bit of a push if you really want and provided the head allows you, I know someone who was going to transfer into astro and it was grand, and finally about the phd, you can do a degree chem and a phd in micro-biology if you want, many people do a phd in a unrelated area to which they studied at undergrad, some in arts do a business one etc

hope that fairly large:D post helped you, ucd is fairly hard to get info out of but ring the sci programme office for info, theyre helpful, youll find them on the website,

woop

jsut after spotting another thing thatd probably be helpful there is a pdf link if you can get into it, at the end of this document there are tables that should show you what I mean about overlap with options and modules

http://www.ucd.ie/science/science_at_ucd.pdf

tywy

From what I've heard, UCD is an easier place to make friends compared to Trinity. The labs in UCD are smaller, maybe 20-30 people whereas (again from what I hear) the labs in Trinity are massive. I'm a 3rd Engineer but we did Physics and Chemistry in 1st year so we had labs. I made a lot of my now friends in those labs. There was a good bit of banter all over the labs and good craic.

Lucas10101

Woop, what's Geology like, like I know it's the study of the Earth but what exactly is taught in first year and is it a lot of chemistry or physics or geography or what??

I didn't actually find that first link. I haven't actually done Physics for my LC but I did a paper months back and using that Marking scheme for OL I got 82% and Higher Level 56% without any study. So I think I should do it as it's taught at introductory level as well. Haven't done applied maths before though.

So you can test loads of different subjects in First Year First semester, but how many are you allowed to take with you for the second semester like 2 or 3 subjects??

I know their is a denominated degree in Theoretical Physics but can you take this in general science as a subject?? Is there much difference with the denominated version in terms of what you learn???

What's Stage 1 and Stage 2, 3 4..?? What times do they represent?? Just looking at your first link Woop and see a big list under the heading Stage 1??
Plus when you look at a subject they also give 2-3 options under the main heading...here's a link https://sisweb.ucd.ie/usis/w_sm_web_inf_browser.show_major?p_term_code=200600&p_major_code=PPC2&p_crumb=%23p1%23%3Fp_term_code%3D200600%26p_list_type%3DPROGRAMMES%22%3E%20UCD%20Programmes%3C%2FA%3E%23p3%23%3Fp_term_code%3D200600%26p_programme%3DEMPUG006%26p_crumb%3D%2523p1%2523%253Fp_term_code%253D200600%2526p_list_type%253DPROGRAMMES%2522%253E%2520UCD%2520Programmes%253C%252FA%253E%22%3E%20BSc%3C%2FA%3E
So do you have do to do these options or whats the story with them.

I just noticed, you said you complete 12 modules a year, but the Theoretical Physics thing shows 10 modules for that one subject, does this mean you have to choose the individual modules that you have to do??

Raphael

Theoretical Physics isn't really a seperate subject in 1st year, it's just that those specific modules are set. They're all available to everyone in 1st science, but TP students have to take them.

And there's 10 given because your last 2 are electves you can take from anywhere. You have to take all of the 10 it shows.

fatal

tywy wrote:

The labs in UCD are smaller, maybe 20-30 people whereas (again from what I hear)

make that 150+ in biology and chemistry labs

lizzyvera

I love it here! Lovely people, great facilities, continuous assessment and interesting subjects.

Doing a joint honours shouldn't be too hard if the subjects are similar enough because of modularisation etc- you always do 12 a year anyway.
If you get first class honours you have a good chance of getting straight into PhD without masters, especially in experimental sciences.

I'm going to do Pharmacology and Chemistry.

woop

geology crosses over into most things, there is three modules you must do in order to qualify to get into geology 2nd year, one in first semester(the one I did) and two in the 2nd, one is a field trip module, what I found is that geology for the first semester was hard work but tbh I found the whole of the first semester hard, just getting used to different types of work and that, eh geology......... hmm I found it helpful for biology as you do a lot of the history of the earth, links in with evolution especially micro biology, it also links in with chem when youre talking about the salinity of water and climate change, links it with physics with lava currents under the earth causing the earths magnetic field and you also cover the tsunami and yup its like geo wihout the political bits, my jc geography helped

in order to study a certain degree, you must in first year do a cetain number of modules in order to qualify to get into it, so you wont have a module singly in theoreticla physics youll have a number of different ones that constitute a basis in this area, enabling you to go further in this area, now these modules you do can overlap so you can also qualify for a degree in another area,

say I have to do 4 modules to qualify for the physics, then I can do another 3 to qualify for maths and am still left over with an excess amount of modules(5) to play around with to enable me to qualify for other areas

now the th physics is denominated, so in order to get into it you must go the denominated route on the cao, but you can get into some denominated degrees like comp sci and pharm through a general science degree,

stage 1 is 1st year, stage 2 2nd year, etc. the big list of names in my first link are the different degrees you can do out of a general degree,below them are the modules you must do for denominated subjects, the link you posted are modules you must do in second year in th physics and you get an option between the last two that are there, honestly look at the last link(the pdf one) I put up Itll help

emm and yes 12 module, 6 per semester or you can go 5 and 7, now as I said , you will have spare modules to fill this is what allows you to qualify for numerous diff degrees, but you can do a thing called an elective which can be from anywhere in the college like you can do a french module when dtudying gen sci,

just realising now how complicated this all can be

tywy

tywy wrote:

From what I've heard, UCD is an easier place to make friends compared to Trinity. The labs in UCD are smaller, maybe 20-30 people whereas (again from what I hear) the labs in Trinity are massive.

Meh, never found any problems with the size of the lab groups myself. I don't know what you're talking about in relation to the size of them... you'd be in a lab group which would be around 5 or 6 people (for Engineering anyways). Easily enough to start up a conversation and have a bit of banter with people.

When I was in Physics in Trinity, you were in a lab group of two or three, which would be even easier for a class of 35 so it was grand! Bit of a non-issue imo.

Le Rack

Just finished first year too, found it grand except having to do two math modules but the OP seems mathsie so should be fine, you'll do a joint set of subjects till the end of second year anyway, eg, I did a bit of everything this year but am going into zoology and geology next year and for third year probably geology, so you have plenty of time to decide on degrees and sort your decisions out.

the labs are good, biology has about 60ish people per lab with one demonstrator to about every 8 people, the chemistry labs have about 80 per lab with the demonstrators the same, geology has about 40 per lab and about 6 demonstrators flosting around throughout the prac. All labs are well equipped, just mind your spatula in chem cuz you don't get another one!

mloc

Just finished Pharmacology.

Overall, science in UCD was a great experience.

You will get to know people, even if it takes a little while. First year can often appear huge, but by the time your even a few weeks into second year, you'll lose track of all the people you've gotten to know. There really is a huge variety of people that do science, and huge variety of subjects within science to choose from. I don't think, in retrospect, I would have done any other course.

aequinoctium

the maths physics in ucd is great, probably the best in the country

Sarn

There is a lot of funding at the moment so going on to do a PhD shouldn't be a problem so long as you get a 2.1 or 1st (i.e. GPA 3 or higher). I'd wait until you do your degree before considering that route.

By the way there's no Pharmacology in first year. It starts in 2nd year and places are restricted with denominated entry courses taking up spaces so you'd have to compete if you go in as general science. Denominated entry Pharmacology only take Pharm modules from 2nd year on.

ghostchant

aequinoctium wrote:

the maths physics in ucd is great, probably the best in the country

yeah maths physics can be scary in the lectures but it's such an interesting subject, and to the OP: not having done applied maths isn't a big deal, it can be handy enough in maths physics but at least half the people doing the subject wouldn't have done it before either

Raphael

There's a semester one module, "Introduction to Mechanics" which covers the same material as Applied Maths - One of my second semester modules had the requirement of either that or a B1 in LC Applied Maths.