UCD CivEng is ****...

snack_ie

I feel like a rant about engineering...
Currently on exchange in Melbourne studying Civil Eng here and compared to back at UCD it pisses all over it... UCD engineering in general is a f**king joke compared to here and people from else where I have meet... especially after this semesterisation stuff... have to wonder what the quality of my degree is worth... I did about a weeks work for all my previous exams and still did really well. Compared to here you have to do f***en loads of work just to be average... what is this all about... And I mean in terms of quality, hours - lectures n labs, coursework, what they teach you, lecturers... i had like 18hrs in first year... piece of piss...

There rant over... that is off my chest...

Timmaay

OMG, someone complaining that the hours in engineering are too short:eek::rolleyes:

Fair enough, semesterisation is a bit of a joke in ucd, thankfully I missed it by a year, but hours are not everything, If ya wanted more hours you should have done mech or elec! What year are ya in? When 4th year comes, sh*t hits the fan and you'll be working from 9 in the morning till 10 at night, ya should be glad you have low hours at the moment!

Could you go into detail about the differences between the two engineering courses, other than just mentioning how it's ****? I'm assuming there'll be an influx of CivEng UCD'Dians to defend their college, so I'm keeping a close eye on this thread.

godtabh

I've only studied in ireland but have worked abroad and my employers were more keen for me to to the job than the locals because of my degree.

I know alot of people who worked in Oz and they had no bother with their Irish engineering degrees.

PS Myth when did you become an engineering mod?

Time Magazine

kearnsr wrote: »

PS Myth when did you become an engineering mod?

There was a great love-in on the Mod forum. Plenty of changes.

godtabh

Ibid wrote: »

There was a great love-in on the Mod forum. Plenty of changes.

Ah I want in. Maybe some day soon!

kearnsr

kearnsr wrote: »

PS Myth when did you become an engineering mod?

Yeah, 'twas yesterday when I was added to it. Have been busy so I didn't get the chance to do the customary HELLO FROM YOUR NEW MOD thread before, um, warning posters.

Now, back on topic

breadmonkey

Yeah I've come to loath the department but for different reasons. I'm in the unfortunate position of being the guinea pig 4th year and I can tell you that it's going to be extremely difficult for anyone to do well. It's quite shocking just how comprehensively they have fcuked up the transition to a semesterised calendar. I could quite literally write for hours on the subject but it's late and I have to be up to spend 10 hours in there tomorrow again

snack_ie

Hey,

Yep we'll just saying what I think... I may get into more detail but have to head off till library now from around 7pm till 3am just to cover the basics for the last of my finals on friday down here...
Just saw eng forum so I thought that I would vent my anger/frustration with my degree...
Just dont like mediocrity! Is that how you spell it? Ironic if it isnt

fits

breadmonkey wrote: »

It's quite shocking just how comprehensively they have fcuked up the transition to a semesterised calendar. )

Thats not just a UCD Eng problem in fairness... The changes were brought in way too quickly and staff couldnt keep up.

I know people who studied abroad for a year of their eng degree and they thought the same as OP. Seems to be much more hands-on intensive teaching and assignments elsewhere, whereas UCD (used to) adopt a distant 'make-your-own-way' approach.

UrbanFox

NO NAMES PLEASE, but what is the quality of the lecturers in civil like ?

breadmonkey

Some great, some bad, some retarded

A Primal Nut

Most Engineering courses are ****e. I'm doing Electronic & Electrical Engineering now in 4th year. They don't explain anything - instead they just throw millions of equations at ya. For example, you will know about 10 equations relating to Synchronous Machines but not what a synchronous machine actually is. Then you'll go to the lab and prove those equations are true. I like Maths but I'm doing an Engineering Course! The Field Theory module in particular was utter ****e. All the exam questions were big long proofs of formulas nobody knew the significance of.

I was reading www.howstuffworks.com lately and learnt more in three hours reading that website about electricity than in three years of my course. Can't wait to just leave college and start doing something useful.

breadmonkey

UrbanFox wrote: »

NO NAMES PLEASE, but what is the quality of the lecturers in civil like ?

Why no names? I like names:)

Nah, leave the names out. If you're so inclined to comment on individual lecturers there's ratemyprof or lecturer or whathaveyou.

fits

A Primal Nut wrote: »

Most Engineering courses are ****e. I'm doing Electronic & Electrical Engineering now in 4th year. They don't explain anything - instead they just throw millions of equations at ya. For example, you will know about 10 equations relating to Synchronous Machines but not what a synchronous machine actually is. Then you'll go to the lab and prove those equations are true. I like Maths but I'm doing an Engineering Course! The Field Theory module in particular was utter ****e. All the exam questions were big long proofs of formulas nobody knew the significance of.

I was reading www.howstuffworks.com lately and learnt more in three hours reading that website about electricity than in three years of my course. Can't wait to just leave college and start doing something useful.

I think UCD Engineering is a very theoretical rather than practical course... You learn some really detailed mathematics (particularly in E&E) but not its real-life application. I think this has good and bad points, you become excellent at problem solving and logical thinking, but still cant tell one end of a machine from another.

I've been dealing with differential equations recently (a lot) and I really wish that I'd understood their practical applications better when I was an undergrad.... I've been thrown from one extreme to another.

Theres definitely a place for such theoretical courses, but I think it should perhaps be better specified when applying for courses.

bowsie casey

I did Civil Eng in UCD, graduated 10 yrs ago. Since then I have worked almost exclusively abroad with engineers from all over the world, and I can tell you that I was not at any disadvantage. I would recommended UCD Eng to anyone.

A Primal Nut

fits wrote: »

I think UCD Engineering is a very theoretical rather than practical course... You learn some really detailed mathematics (particularly in E&E) but not its real-life application. I think this has good and bad points, you become excellent at problem solving and logical thinking, but still cant tell one end of a machine from another.

I've been dealing with differential equations recently (a lot) and I really wish that I'd understood their practical applications better when I was an undergrad.... I've been thrown from one extreme to another.

Theres definitely a place for such theoretical courses, but I think it should perhaps be better specified when applying for courses.

I sound so angry in that above post, must have been a bad day, course isn't that bad, although its not UCD by the way. Thing is, I always associate theory with science, if there was such a thing as an electrical science degree, then I would expect to be doing what I'm doing in this course. I totally knew and understood that Maths would be an essential part of Engineering, but in my course its almost everything! Surely its just as important to understand how a certain machine works as a the 10 formulas relating to it. Some lecturers aren't so bad, and while it takes a lot more work to understand the descriptive analysis as well as the Mathematical analysis, at least it makes it more interesting and the Mathematical analysis makes more sense in that context. I accept that training engineers to solve problems is important, but I think there comes a stage where you've proven your mathematical skills and its time to move on. In fairness, the stuff we are doing now in 4th year probably makes a little more sense than in previous years.