MSC Business Analytics - Smurfit

ShoulderChip

Three of my friends just applied last week,
does anyone have any educated guesses or preferably insight into how likel they are to get an offer at this point?

ucdperson

does anyone have any educated guesses or preferably insight into how likel they are to get an offer at this point?

Although filling quickly, the programme is not yet full. It takes a few weeks to process applications as people are busy with exams and the like, if they are qualified they should hear something around the end of the month or so.

ShoulderChip

What is the story with regard to attendance?
I think I might have to miss a lot of classes in the first few weeks due to an internship.

I had to take the internship due to the fact that I feel this experience may be just as important for my career as the masters itself.

I have studied acourse in college very similar to this masters and am not wooried at all about missing some lectures from a keeping up point of view
(I will be able to go to most of the evening classes, and may even be able to take each wednesday (the only day where classes start before 5 I think) off by saving up holidays)

I was just wondering from a college point of view, how strictly do they view not turning up for class?
my hope is that they are not concerned at all as it is a masters course, but I am worried that as the class is so small it may become an issue?

I have a friend doing the course so will be able to get any notes/info from classes I miss off him, if they are not available online

graduate

I was just wondering from a college point of view, how strictly do they view not turning up for class?
my hope is that they are not concerned at all as it is a masters course, but I am worried that as the class is so small it may become an issue?

Most courses are not ambivalent about people not coming along, a lot of Smurfit courses have class participation marks and the like. If you are doing something worthwhile, rather than just staying in bed, I'd be up front about this and explain the situation.

There is page about this MSc in the Irish Times innovation supplement today.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/innovation/2009/0706/1224250001304.html

ixus

I note the fees have gone up for this course to 3K per annum even though the HEA clearly state the fees are 2K for this year.

What's going on here? That's an increase of 50%. Is this legal? Has the HEA decreased the grant?

I note UCC listed their course at the end of May and confirmed they were 2K.

Mahns

Course in NUIG has remained the same also. GYC24 LINK

ucdperson

This is just a website snafu rather than any fee increase. Normal service will be resumed shortly.

I think the €3,000 amount was confused (somehow!!) with the €3,000 value of the Distinct Scholarship for people on this programme.

ShoulderChip

balls, I thought the distinct scholarship was worth 5k

blucey

graduate wrote: »

Most courses are not ambivalent about people not coming along, a lot of Smurfit courses have class participation marks and the like. If you are doing something worthwhile, rather than just staying in bed, I'd be up front about this and explain the situation.

There is page about this MSc in the Irish Times innovation supplement today.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/innovation/2009/0706/1224250001304.html

I think you'll find its an ADVERTISEMENT....

ShoulderChip

blucey wrote: »

I think you'll find its an ADVERTISEMENT....

Are we bitter blucey?

do you think they paid? or had contacts with the paper?

From my point of view, it was good to see as it shows they still want to promote it, despite people queuing up to do it.

blucey

ShoulderChip wrote: »

Are we bitter blucey?

do you think they paid? or had contacts with the paper?

From my point of view, it was good to see as it shows they still want to promote it, despite people queuing up to do it.

bitter? Moi? Not a bit(ter) of it. just want the facts to be known.
BTW - its a good course. just wonder why, if "people are queuing up" do they need to spend time/money promoting same.
BTW2 - most courses in most areas of business in most unis are well up in demand. Anticyclical it is....

ucdperson

This page was a "Commercial Profile" as it says at the top of the page. I am not quite sure how it works, I think you put in a certain number of paid ads during the year and you get this as a bonus. This resulted from the annual plan rather than any immediate need for promotion for this programme.

As BLucey said business school programmes are somewhat countercyclical in a recession, so demand has increased for the MSc in Business Analytics, especially among full time students. This results from a higher proportion of people who thought about doing the MSc actually deciding to do it, as they can't get a job or whatever.

But the main problem with a programme like Analytics is not so much persuading people who know about it to do it, as putting it on the radar for the type of non business graduate for whom it might be suitable. Everyone knows that a business school does marketing, finance, accounting and the like. Not everyone knows that a business school does Analytics or what exactly is involved or what your career prospects might be. There remain a significant number of non business graduates in Ireland who might like to consider the programme, but who haven't ever heard of it and who don't even think to look for it (even if the UCD website made it anyway easy to find it).

In general it isn't easy for people looking for postgrad programmes to track down the full set of programmes that might suit them where they are looking for something other than a straight continuation of their undergrad.

HappyWeeks

Hmm interesting - can anyone else confirm this? Seems a bit surprising as I had heard good things about the courses though some had a high workload. How much control does Smurfit have? It always seems that university lecturers have carte blanche over what/how they teach and sometimes you wonder what controls there are.

BTW the rise to €2500 isn't a UCD choice - the HEA subsidises several MSc's across Irish universities and due to Govt cuts it reduced the subsidy so students have to pay €2500 instead of €2000 :-(
The hugely reduced fee (down from 8 or 9000 a few years back) was a big attraction for this MSc so I doubt they would change it unless they had to!

MIN2511

Has anyone been accepted to this course for 10/11 academic yr?

Roro4Brit

MIN2511 wrote: »

Has anyone been accepted to this course for 10/11 academic yr?

It says online that the closing date is the 30th July so I don't think they'll be accepting people until the closing date has passed surely? Can anyone shed any light on the level of computer programming experience needed?

ucdperson

the HEA subsidises several MSc's across Irish universities and due to Govt cuts it reduced the subsidy so students have to pay €2500 instead of €2000

The fee the student pays is indeed set by the government for programmes in the Graduate Skills Conversion Programme, this is fraction of the cost of the programme, the remainder of the fee is paid by the government. I imagine the fee payable by students was increased by the HEA because the country is in some financial difficulty. The MSc in Business Analytics and the MSc in iBusiness are the only Smurfit school programmes in the scheme and so the fee payable by the student for these programmes is less than other Smurfit programmes.

It says online that the closing date is the 30th July so I don't think they'll be accepting people until the closing date has passed surely?

Suitably qualified students are being accepted as they apply. Some places remain, for those interested. The closing date may be extended but only those applications completed in July will be considered for the Distinct Scholarship

Can anyone shed any light on the level of computer programming experience needed?

You are expected to have completed a course in programming e.g. one course for one semester, and to have done well in this. The issue is not so much the amount of programming that you have done, rather whether you are good at it and would like to do more of it. If you haven't attended a formal course we will set you a test, if required.

Basically this is programme for mathematical people who are willing to do a bit of programming when required.

MIN2511

Thanks for the update, I finally applied 2weeks ago... If i want to apply for the MSc in iBusiness do i have to fill another application form?

ucdperson

If i want to apply for the MSc in iBusiness do i have to fill another application form?

If you want to be also considered for the MSc in iBusiness then contact UCD Smurfit School Admissions (01) 7168885/4302/8058.

People in Analytics may be interested in the new Analytics Institute which will have an important role in linking government, industry and academia in Ireland to advance analytics.

We are working closely with the Analytics Institute and currently have projects with them and likes of the Revenue Commissioners and the CSO.

Wonky Knees

ucdperson wrote: »

If you want to be also considered for the MSc in iBusiness then contact UCD Smurfit School Admissions (01) 7168885/4302/8058.

People in Analytics may be interested in the new Analytics Institute which will have an important role in linking government, industry and academia in Ireland to advance analytics.

We are working closely with the Analytics Institute and currently have projects with them and likes of the Revenue Commissioners and the CSO.

Looking at the website I can see that the MSc in iBusiness is an updated version of the MBS in eCommerce which later progressed into the MBS in eBusiness. The MSc in iBusiness attempts to bring together all the important strands concerning ICT and Innovation taking into consideration the developments of the previous years. Both the MSc in Business Analytics and the MSc in iBusiness are organised through the MIS department (Management Information Systems) at UCD. As UCD person has pointed out, the Business Analytics people have a thing called the Analytics Institute which appears very interesting and the other half of the MIS department who deliver the iBusiness programme have a research centre called CITO (see: http://mis.ucd.ie) which gives a 'limited' indication of the kind of things they are interested in. On the site are email addresses which you can contact for more information.

Red Alert

I have deleted a post above. The reason for this is that the poster's name suggests information that may be not be legally OK. I am going to consult with the admins and if the post was OK I will have it reinstated.