A few questions on various courses?

Messiah-19

Hey guys, just joined up now, and having just completed my CAO, i would like further info on some courses!

In particular, if anybody is doing either Pharmacy or Energy Engineering, or any engineering for that matter(Chemical, Civil) , could you please give me a few bits of info about these courses, class sizes, hours, lab based/lectures, and future positions available from these courses!! Cheers in advance

Messiah-19

Anyone....?

bleg

pharmacy is very very very tough. loads of hours (30+ a week) poor enough lecturers in some subjects and a staff that has some of the nastiest people i have ever come across. however we do have the best course in the country. class size will be 50-60 with the majority of them women which could get nasty.

yay_for_summer

I'm doing civil, have a fair few classes with energy and there're about 70 in civil and 20 in energy. Hours aren't too bad, we have a few half days every week but we do have a nine o'clock start every day this term...:(

As regards labs, lectures, etc tis probably easier to check the book of modules to see hours - laziness on my part but there're around 11 subjects! http://www.ucc.ie/modules/ that'll give you all you need.

I've a few friends in pharmacy and their hours aren't all that different to ours, this year anyway. They seem to have a lot of lectures, labs etc on their own which is good because there're only 70 (yeah, I know, only:rolleyes:) of them in lots of lectures so they all got to know each other pretty quickly, whereas we have up to 150 in some lectures so twas harder to get to know people. Nothing on arts and biochem that could have 400-odd in a lecture though!

Any questions, PM me.:)

Messiah-19

Much appreciated! Few more questions on each.Yeah, ive heard about the supposed increase in the male/female ratio..I presume its about 60/40 favouring women but could be wrong? Does Chemistry play a significant role throughout the course?? Is the biology element difficult to pick up on if im not currently doing it? And finally, I know you can work in a hospital or an industry setting, more appealing to me, so is it easy to get these?? Cheers

About the Engineering, What are your options like for specialising, I know you can Do Structural etc.. Is energy possible?? How difficult are the Maths throughout the course? Chemistry play any real part?? Thanks

bleg

in my year it's 3/4 women but i think it's less in the years below us. the course has changed since i started but we had chemistry every year, 15 credits in 1st year and second year then 10 in 3rd and 4th year (out of 60 credits).

biology was a definite help (a lot more than physics) but you won't be hindered if you didn't do biology, any relevant stuff in the LC course will be re taught. to be honest the biochemistry and physiology got so far beyond the scope of the LC biology course so quickly that not having it isn't a major issue.

you'd want to be in the top 20% of the class i'd say to get a hospital placement, they're the most competitive placements in the country as the majority of all the courses go for them. the dublin hospitals (where most of the placements are) tend to pick dublin graduates.

ucc has the best course geared towards industry in the country. there's as much pharmaceutics and pharmaceutical technology as there is chemistry so it's a big part of the course. ucc has a new building that's fully kitted out with exceptional labs and an aseptic suite. i'm going for a job in industry for 6 months of my pre registration year, 6 months has to be done in community or hospital. industry is a lot easier to get into, there are only 3 or 4 people in my class going for it and you get a chance to work in paris for 6 months with servier.

i'd definitely recommend doing a pharmacy degree instead of a process eng degree etc... as you have way better job opportunities and can always locum at evenings and weekends to earn a few more bob. ucc is fine but most of the staff are very very unpleasant.

yay_for_summer

As far as I know, there aren't specialising options in energy - which is fair enough I suppose since there are so few of them, but I could be wrong and it could change. In civil you can go into four streams I think, one of which is environmental so you could do that to get into energy and not narrow your options. The others are structural, something to do with pipes and water systems, and something else which I can't for the life of me remember.

Maths are hard enough - I know the official requirement is a HC3 but I honestly couldn't see anyone lasting if they were scraping that grade. It's do-able though, it's not disgustingly impossibly difficult:)

Chemistry does no harm and is quite handy - the first six weeks of the only chem module we have this year was leaving cert stuff and the people who didn't do it for the leaving were a bit stuck at times so yeah it's a help. Tech graphics would also be a massive help - the drawings last term took me aaaaages every week. Most people didn't have TG though and were fine really.

Pharmacy degree might open more doors than a proc eng one but that said, loads of eng graduates go into finance and stuff afterwards so you're not limited at all, and I would say do what interests you, no point paying attention to the job market cos it looks like there won't be many jobs in any area!:rolleyes:

Edit: pharmacy this year is roughly 60/40 girls to boys.

Messiah-19

Great Info provided here! thanks! Ill ask again here if I hav any more queries!

phoenix89

I don't think it's fair to say the staff are very very unpleasant in Pharm... OK, so we all know who the @$$holes are but there are some lovely people too.

The current first year has a nearly 50/50 gender split and I reckon its only getting closer to an even fight.

There are really exellent opportunities with a pharmacy degree, I hate to say it but engineering does not seem like the wisest choice in the current economic climate... then again, I also definitely think you should study what you are interested in.

Pharmacy is not that tough, if you have enough points to get in you'll definitely cope. I also disagree about it getting nasty with all the girls... then again, I went to girls schools both primary and secondary and I can see where that person is coming from. But in my opinion the increase in the number of males definitely improves the dynamic of the class