Computer science in UCC

Marina-anseo2

I am currently in 6th year and I want to study CS next year in UCC but I have one main worry about the course. What maths level is needed to do well in CS? I am in ordinary level maths but my aim is to get an A1 or A2 in it because I did higher level up until mid fifth year. Another thing, during the 3rd year there is a work placement opportunity I believe but I would like to know if you can take that placement abroad like france if french was studied for the 1st 2 yrs? I would very much appreciate some responses from CS students or past students before the cao change of mind application terminates. thank you

Ri_Nollaig

Hi Marina-anseo2,
Im in final year CS, (only 4 weeks left now...)
maths is not really an issue, A1 in ordinary is more then enough! and the type of maths covered in leaving wouldnt really count for much anyway.
It is very much programming oriented, inparticular Java, but other languages like php and C are covered aswell.
If you have any knowledge of programming you will fly throught first year and if not, just doing the assignments is enough to get going.

I never did a foreign language (was never a fan during seconadary school) but I do remember having an option to pick a language in 1st yr and continue it in 2nd.
You can do your work placement in a foreign country, as far as i know, but this would need to be arranged (well in advance) with the careers office, but this is something you wouldnt consider till the end of 2nd year/start of 3rd. However there are alot of big names in Ireland that would look very nice on the CV later, such as Microsoft, Intel, IBM and Google. Work placement can be 6 or 12 months too.

Overall it is a good degree, very few seem to be doing it these days (ie very low points), was 120 in my first year class, around 40 left (about 25 of those orginal 120). There is only around 50-60 in this years first year. But more importantly you should have no issue getting a job from it, im already employeed and im not even finished yet

they are building a new IT building, meant to be very nice but ill be gone before its done, so perhaps you will enjoy it.

deRanged

doing placement abroad shouldn't be a problem. I know it's been done in the past, and is very common in BIS for example. it wouldn't be conditional on a language btw.

Maths won't be a problem if you're willing to do a little work. You'll get any help you need, so if you put in any effort at all you'll be fine.

Ri_Nollaig wrote: »

they are building a new IT building, meant to be very nice

it should be very nice. the idea is to have 'identity' and keep students in the same building all the time - no more traipsing from end to end of the campus. the labs and rooms look to be a decent size. I was in there a couple of months ago and it looks like it'll be a nice airy building with plenty of natural light, so just the opposite of the kane building. The lecture theatres have a decent slope, and the acoustics seem like they'll be ok. I'll be in there again in a few months with my camera this time.

The course is due for an overhaul and will be changing in the next couple of years.

Marina-anseo2

Thank you for your help both of you! You have put me at ease now because I thought higher level maths was unofficially required. I don't need to change my cao now thank god. Good luck with your final exams Ri Nollaig! Thanks again :-D

sleepyescapade

PM'd you

Raskolnikov

Like the other posters have said, don't worry about the maths. There are a few subjects that being good at maths would help with (Theory of Computation and AI), but you can avoid those subjects if you feel you're not comfortable with them.

The only placements abroad when I was doing work experience were in London. If you want to go abroad, then you'll have to organise it yourself. It's academic anyway, because you can only cover 20 credits of French at very most and that'll only put you at a standard a little above the Leaving Cert.