Difference between Comp Sci BA & BSc

Fad

(Apologies if this has been answered before)


What exactly is the difference in how qualified you are at the end of each of these?

Like do essentially do the same degree but BSc has more options instead of faffing around with an Arts subject? or what?

rainbow kirby

On the BA course, your first 3 years will be the same as one who is doing an arts degree, but with CS as one of the subjects they take (it could be CS and Economics etc), but your 4th year will be purely CS.

On the BSc course you'll take a lot more in the way of maths courses in first and second year, and your third year and fourth year will be purely CS.

It really depends on what you're interested in - I came to CS having dropped out of a maths degree in third year so my exemptions meant I could hop straight into the 2nd year of the BSc course with all the maths courses completed. I'm in 4th year now, if you have any questions about specific modules.

dhaddock

if you do the BA you can also switch to a single major in CS after 1st year (thats what i did) and you will do all the CS modules the BSc dudes do except the maths modules.

Dave!

rainbow kirby -- do you remember doing Henry McLoughlin's Program Construction I module in 3rd year? Do you recall doing an oral exam for it? Remember what it entails?

From what I gather he just wants you to do one of the problems on the whiteboard in his office.

Does he just choose a basic one or is it difficult?

Cheers

ProjectColossus

I did that course two years ago, yes there is an oral exam.

He has pre-selected about 6 of the proofs and 6 of the problems, you pick randomly one of each (lucky dip) and work them out on the white board in his office, taking about 15-20 minutes overall.

Since he chooses (about) six problems/proofs, some of them are tougher than others, but I think they are all from the latter end of the course. If you are scheduled later than others, you can find out some of them from people who go first and try to make sure you know them.

Personally, I screwed up in the exam (didn't know the stuff as well as I should have, panicked, whatever) and did very poorly overall, but I know plenty of people who got very respectable marks.

rainbow kirby

Dave - yeah I did it. You pick out an envelope from a selection of about 6, and work it out on the white board. You'll need to explain it somewhat as you go along.

I'm going to disagree with what ProjectColossus said about them all being from the latter end of the course, the one that I selected was from the second week. That's something I'm thankful for - but I did actually know the others fairly well. I got my best grade of any course in third year in Program Construction (I got 76% overall), and I'm going to put that down mostly to my having a rather mathematical mind.

ProjectColossus

I could be dead wrong about the problems being the later ones when I did the course, so I'll happily concede that it's not the case now. Also, we definetaly had two problems two years ago, has he changed the format to just one thing to work out on the board? That's probably a good thing.

I might add, there is possibly a little room for bull**** if you are a creative thinker. There was one guy who never turned up to the lectures/tutorials and had very little study done, and he ended up doing his proof in a way that Henry had never seen before and Henry said to the class that he was going to reference this student and new proof in some book he was working on. Pretty crazy actually, and almost certainly a massive fluke. But still...

Dave!

hah that's class!!! I'm struggling quite a bit with this course, so not looking forward to the oral exam... I've spent the last couple of weeks intermittently (between assignments and work ) studying the notes he has online, and it's becoming a bit more clear, but I'm still not nearly ready for an exam on it. It's been mainly my own doing because I've not gone to the tutorials, but I grew disheartened pretty soon after I got lost! It doesn't help that Henry whispers most of the time , and also that there is literally NO information available for the course, outside his own notes. He uses terms and methods for the problems that I can't even find reference to online... Pretty sure he just makes it up

I'm still making my way through the notes, then I'll go back to him (when I went to him for help 3 times, he was too busy! Then he sent me off to look at the notes, which I am currently doing) and hopefully he'll clear some stuff up. I shall also probably drop into that new support centre in the CSc building.

Any more help/advice on this? Cheers

btw, I think Henry's great, so don't take it as me being critical of him... I'm just frustrated really.

rainbow kirby

I went to all the tutorials for this course when I was in third year, and they really were helpful. Probably not much use to you to hear that now though! Same thing with Foundations of Computing, I went to almost no lectures (**** 9ams), but went to all the tutorials, and got a grade in the 60s.

Fad

Well I'm in 6th Year now, so I have a while to finalise my decision (But Im trying to get a feel for courses I like, BEFORE open days) but I come with one potentially major snag. Im doing OL maths, to be fair im a pretty good OL student, I'll more than likely get an A but still its not HL.

From your responses I get that BSc has a more Maths orientated 2 years than the BA version, but would the BSc option be managable for someone who isn't really strong at maths? (if I worked a bit at it id say I could have managed HL but its how things turned out).

Is the maths components you do in the first 2 years particularly helpful in the next 2 years?

(I had something else to ask, but i forgot it )

rainbow kirby

I would say that the deeper maths background is quite useful to have - particularly for certain courses such as Computer Graphics or Machine Learning. That's not to say that BA students will have more trouble with them, but it can be a bit of a shock to the system to have to suddenly use linear algebra or statistics after having been away from the study of maths for a few years.

Then again - I'm speaking from the perspective of someone who got an A1 at higher level maths at LC, so feel free to disregard.

Fad

Remembered it!

If I go through Omnibus entry, what modules would i have to take to get a Comp Sci degree, in the first year. And would i be able to take enough modules to get a Chem degree if i changed my mind about Comp Sci (As Chem is nest main interest atm after Comp Sci)

rainbow kirby

https://myucd.ucd.ie/programme_info/first_science.ezc

First year modules listed - there are only 6 compulsory modules listed through the DN008 route, so you would be able to fit in chemistry there too. There are 4 compulsory modules required for chemistry, but there is some overlap in the maths requirements.

Fad

rainbow kirby wrote: »

https://myucd.ucd.ie/programme_info/first_science.ezc

First year modules listed - there are only 6 compulsory modules listed through the DN008 route, so you would be able to fit in chemistry there too. There are 4 compulsory modules required for chemistry, but there is some overlap in the maths requirements.

Oh cool thanks, that'll help.

Going to an information evening, on the 11th on UCD, shall I just wait till then? and bother you all after that?

rainbow kirby

Get as much information as you can, either way.