Considering switching to UCD after 1st year of Current uni.

SneldonBBT

Hey, I’m thinking of dropping out of my course after I complete my first year and start new and fresh in UCD. I live in Northern Ireland and the reason that I decided to go down south and to UCD is because I hear a lot of good stories about it and the night life down there, you get all the good gigs :P and I love Dublin, well the part I have seen. The uni and course I am in at the moment (shall remain unnamed) bores me beyond belief because it’s so slow with no work at all and as a result it led me to making my own business with another venture on the way. There is no sense of community which I’m not used to coming out of a high school where everyone got on with one another. The courses I was thinking of doing are Engineering, Computer Science, Astronomy (I saw it in the course list and was amazed it’s there), Business and economics. I can’t think of anything else to say but thanks in advance to those who reply.
What are the fees? Is financial support available? I have an Irish passport already.

FockRoysh

The only fees I pay are the registration fees (which have steadily gone up year by year) and this year were about a grand I think. I presume its the same deal for you. None of the £3000 a year fees here!

Rent is expensive but the price of that is coming down. I'm paying 120euro a week and i live a 20 minute bus journey from the college.

Yeah nightlife is good, but like most things in college, its as good as you (and ur mates or whatever) make it.

I am friends with a lot of people who are from up North and they all love it in UCD.

If you're gona drop out of your course purely because you dont think there'll be any jobs at the end of it, I can safely say that most courses are gonna be like that.

I don't know what you're doing at the moment but things like engineering, computer science and astronomy are hardly more likely to find you employment. The business courses might be a bit different, although accountancy was thought to be the safe option for jobs and even that sector is getting cuts all over the shop at the minute.

SneldonBBT

"If you're gona drop out of your course purely because you dont think there'll be any jobs at the end of it, I can safely say that most courses are gonna be like that."

It's not really that, I picked a course which is about web design and development. The whole year up to now has been stuff I learned from just mucking about at home. It's something that I can do outside of uni because its a hobby of mine and all the notes are freely available online. So I thought I would be better off with a degree that will give me the skills to do something that is vital and transferable (Even though the economy is in shambles at the moment) I could always go back into the web design sector with knowledge of business and own my own design studio.

Im always up for a night out xD
Cheers for your speedy reply!

edit:yeah I didnt believe that at first, Free Fees? WTF xD Are UCD degrees respected? Not trying to put the school down or anything just wondering if Ireland degrees are better or the same than the UKs

Cheers again FockRoysh

FockRoysh

SneldonBBT wrote: »

It's not really that, I picked a course which is about web design and development. The whole year up to now has been stuff I learned from just mucking about at home. It's something that I can do outside of uni because its a hobby of mine and all the notes are freely available online. So I thought I would be better off with a degree that will give me the skills to do something that is vital and transferable (Even though the economy is in shambles at the moment) I could always go back into the web design sector with knowledge of business and own my own design studio.

Ah ok I see what u mean now! Thought u were just gona drop out for the sake of it. Makes sense now

Well we have 'free' fees now (since about mid 1990s) but now theres this bloody recession so the government is talking up reintroducing fees, which I'd say will come in sooner rather than later (but thats just my own personal opinion).

I suppose you could say UCD is one of the most highly regarded colleges in the country (probably up there with Trinity) but there is a lot of odd courses in there that are probably worth nothing. Some courses are fantastic and have worldwide accreditation. The business school is one of the top ones in Europe for example. I'm told the science degrees are better elsewhere. Engineering is well regarded too, although theres so many different types of it I'm not really sure which is better etc etc.

In terms of comparison to UK colleges... I really haven't got a clue. I do know though of a few people who didn't get good enough results in the leaving cert to get their first course course in Irish colleges but then got them in UK universities. I actually know one guy who when he got his results and didnt get pharmacy in Ireland, rang up a load of UK colleges (even though he didnt apply to UCAS at all) and he got 2 or 3 offers.

SneldonBBT

haha sounds good man. I emailed the school and enquired about it but I didnt do a maths alevel but I have 6 months to get up to speed anyways, thankfully im not totally clueless about maths ehh? xD

Business and Engineering are my favs and what you said just made it a whole lot better Thanks man much appreciated.

woop

FockRoysh wrote: »

I suppose you could say UCD is one of the most highly regarded colleges in the country (probably up there with Trinity) but there is a lot of odd courses in there that are probably worth nothing. Some courses are fantastic and have worldwide accreditation. The business school is one of the top ones in Europe for example. I'm told the science degrees are better elsewhere. Engineering is well regarded too, although theres so many different types of it I'm not really sure which is better etc etc.

I beg to differ, its generally ucd for sciences and trinity for arts

obviously depends on the person and the exact thing you go into

youll have to talk to ucd about youre situation because I dont know if you qualify for free fees

are you in queens or coleraine place?
and dit, dcu, trin and ucd are all respected,
dit maybe less so by some people as it was an IT and couldnt award level 8 degrees, but it really depends on who you talk to as they seem to get more hands on training and are more focused at jobs
dcu is a recent enough in comparrison to trin and ucd but offer some great courses

perhaps theyre mighnt be a lot jobs for the astronomy graduates but you have to remember that theres only 4 or 5 graduates out of it

Pride Fighter

You may be allowed dive into second year in computer science considering you complete year 1. UCD computer science does all the boring stuff first and then the good stuff after first year.
Anyway if you want to come to UCD here are the pro's
Courses, main degrees
Business and legal studies (called B&L in UCD) is a high demand course and considered an excellent course. The UCD law school and business faculty are considered excellent, 4 year degree
Commerce, something a lot of people do. Its a bit of everything business wise. You can take a language with it if you want. 3 year degree
Arts, what I do. In arts you have the choice of over 40 subjects. UCD has an excellent school of Classics, English, History, Philosophy. But undergraduate in the middle two are extremely cramped (500 to a class).You may think arts and think wasters (like some unenlightened folk do) but in arts you can do subjects like Mathematics, Economics, Geography, Archaeology, Irish folklore, French, Spanish, Music and many more.
Science, I dont know many Science students so I cannot commentate on it. It is supposed to be like arts, where there is a choice between many subjects like biology, physics, chemistry, botany, astronomy, genetics etc
Engineering, chemical, mechanical or electrical, you can do it all here.
Computer Science, in UCD it is not considered as good as other institutions. DIT have an excellent Computer science department.
Others, Medicine, Veterinary Sciences, Agricultural Science, Architecture, Social Sciences and other stuff as well.
Nightlife, UCD has a lot of this, loads of clubs and societies to join. Dublin city centre is also close by and there are loads of clubs there, stay away from Copper Face Jacks though.
Sport, UCD is brilliant for sport. It has the best sports facilities in Ireland for a University. A gym, loads of playing pitches, a climbing wall, tennis courts, shooting range, hockey pitch. The only thing it does not have is a swimming pool (they are building one soon).
There it is. UCD in a nutshell.

ghostchant

woop wrote: »

perhaps theyre mighnt be a lot jobs for the astronomy graduates but you have to remember that theres only 4 or 5 graduates out of it

The most senior group of astronomy ('physics with astronomy and space science' to give it its full title) students are only in 3rd year though, and judging by their numbers there will be more than 4 or 5 graduates. That being said it's a full physics degree and you can do as much with it as with a 'regular' physics degree. Seems as though further study is the route that most are headed toward.

SneldonBBT

Im ringing them up later and going to state my case xD I only have a BBC so I think itll be a hard bargain to get into it. I want to look at the business degrees but the points needed are alot higher lets just hope they have room for me and my regretful results.