english in maynooth?

phic

i'm considering putting english as my first choice, and was just wondering if anyone already on the course could give me some advice?
got pretty basic questions really , is the course any good, how many hours a week is it, how are the hours broken down, are the lecturers helpful?
also would commuting from dublin be viable or would i really have to move to maynooth?
any general advice/comments would be much appreciated!
thanks!

golden gal

Hi there,
Ok well first off, English is completely different from what you did in school. There is very little creative writing. In first year you begin to learn about different types of criticism and ways of looking at texts. There is a greater emphasis on a wider knowledge of topics outside of English such as history. I do history also and I have found a great deal of overlapping of the two. Not that you will have to learn lots of history but you look at texts in a different way to that of secondary school.
In terms of hours I think it is about six hours per week of lectures and then moodle work. I have found all of the lecturers to be very helpful and it is important to know that they all aim to help you as much as possible.
Hope that helps!

allandanyways

I'm in Second Year doing the second year of the new course, but I did first year of the old course if that makes sense.

The #1 tip/advice I would give to you if you're considering studying English is that you have to be prepared to read and read and read. Just do it, don't bother working out if you could pass the year without reading the key texts at least- it's an absolute b1tch come exam time, did it second semester last year and nearly had a breakdown trying to get stuff read on time...

The lecturers are great, some are quite young and very "down with the kids", have the banter before lectures and all, and some are just in and out but give a great lecture in between. I've never had a problem asking lecturers and TA's for help and I find that most of them will promptly and helpfully answer any qs you might have or otherwise re-direct you...

I love English at NUIM. Tbh, I have absolutley no idea what the First Year of the course is like, but I really like the new Second Year course so if that's anything to go by...

linky to First Year course outline: http://english.nuim.ie/firstyearinformation.shtml

as for commuting, how far away do you live? are you near the rail line that goes to Maynooth/the 66/67a bus routes? Although the 67a's a joke, AFAIK the others seem to run fairly ok for commuters..

winnie the poo

Get ready to be on the dole in three years..

meganj

I'm just finishing up my final year in Maynooth (sob) after doing History and English. I did the old course in First Year but I thought it was brilliant. It's tough going and if your good at English in hte leaving cert it doesn't neccessarily mean that you'll be good at college level.

The hours are good, you only have either 4/5 lectures a week and you'e got Friday's off (as i recall). Communiting is possible, but if you want to have a proper maynooth experience you should consider moing down, but i understand all sorts of things could prevent this and you could enjoy your Maynooth experience fully by commuting!

phic

thanks for all the help guys you've definitly proved what i've heard about how friendly maynooth is! i'm not actually a huge fan of the LC English course, more just reading/writing in general so the news english isn't like the LC at college is great! little confused though, in the prospectus creative writing is a module in all 3 years, but on the English dept. site it only seems to be in first year? could anyone clear that up for me because the inclusion of creative writing is what i really liked about the Maynooth course!

phic

winnie the poo wrote: »

Get ready to be on the dole in three years..

my first put down for wanting to do an arts degree! how exciting!
pray tell, what unemployment proof degree are you doing?

phic

meganj wrote: »

Communiting is possible, but if you want to have a proper maynooth experience you should consider moing down, but i understand all sorts of things could prevent this and you could enjoy your Maynooth experience fully by commuting!

allandanyways wrote: »

as for commuting, how far away do you live? are you near the rail line that goes to Maynooth/the 66/67a bus routes? Although the 67a's a joke, AFAIK the others seem to run fairly ok for commuters..

If I go to Maynooth, I probably will move down at some point but I think for first year at least it won't really be an option! do people usually go into Maynooth and not Dublin for nights out yeah? I'm in South Dublin suburbs so I could get a bus to a train station in town fairly easily! once there's not too mant early lectures I should be grand!

klasskrista

Im in Final Year too and I found it really tough going this year but saying that, it was grand in first year and second year!The old course was still going when I was a wee first year but the new course is pretty good aswell. It is definitely different than the LC but its interesting. The lecturers are lovely if you need help just ask them or you'll get teaching assistants for each module of the course (I think you do three in first year) and they'll be more than happy to help you out. I'd definitely pick it because I thought it was a really good course and I'm planning to do a Masters next year in English.

Smudge_pot

Hi! Make sure you know what you're doing with course codes. MH101 is Arts English. You may be looking at the MH114 English course, which is what I'm doing. It's a new course this year, and there is a creative writing module, and there's another one next year. It's a really great course!

louliewan

golden gal wrote: »

Hi there,
Ok well first off, English is completely different from what you did in school. There is very little creative writing. In first year you begin to learn about different types of criticism and ways of looking at texts. There is a greater emphasis on a wider knowledge of topics outside of English such as history. I do history also and I have found a great deal of overlapping of the two. Not that you will have to learn lots of history but you look at texts in a different way to that of secondary school.
In terms of hours I think it is about six hours per week of lectures and then moodle work. I have found all of the lecturers to be very helpful and it is important to know that they all aim to help you as much as possible.
Hope that helps!

Hi, I am a mature student who has been offered a place on the English course(mh114)) in Maynooth, I am so happy as I really wanted this and History. I noticed that this was your choice too and would love if you could give me advice on reading material to look into over the summer.I would appreciate any advice you could offer

Lord TSC

In terms of advanced reading, your best bet is to keep an eye on the NUIM sites for the departments and seeing if they post any reading lists. From what I've gathered, the reading list can change every year. I know my brother did first year English this year and it was, quite literally, a completly different course than the one I did three years ago. What one person does this year might not even be on the course next year.

The lecturer should post reading lists some time over the summer though for those eager enough to get started early.

mickstupp

I've just finished first year of the new course... and I would say no. I wouldn't recommend the English course to anyone. But I'm not going to go on a massive seven page rant about it because I've other things to study for.

However, you might love it. At the start of the year you can go check it out for a few weeks and see what you think before deciding. What I will say is... despite hating the majority of the course (mainly due to the department rather than the content) I went to every single class, took good notes, read the texts, and as a result did very well overall. A little consistent effort goes a very long way.

There's four lectures a week. This year there were also 3 'workshops' per semester, but they didn't do so well and I think they're changing the setup for next year. (They'd want to). Lecturers are very helpful. At least the ones I talked to. Don't be afraid to call in and ask a question during their office hours. Same for the other departments.

Commuting from Dublin shouldn't be a problem. I commute an hour and a half each way... plenty of time to do reading for class, look over notes etc. But use your time. It helps in the long run.

Whether you go for it or not... don't assume that it'll be easy.

Oh, on the reading list thing... this year the English department organised a book pack containing most of what we needed for the year, at a reduced price. I'm saying don't necessarily go off buying books left, right and center. And what's listed on the department website may be changed quite significantly next year. Besides that... in my experience the bookshop in Maynooth charges at least five quid more per book than the Book Depository. Bear that in mind. Amazon's also generally grand for second hand books.

Lord TSC

This year there were also 3 'workshops' per semester, but they didn't do so well and I think they're changing the setup for next year. (They'd want to).

Ugh, I heard about them. My brother apparently had a girl who could barely speak English "teaching" them. I took a look over her notes, and someone of them were cringe worthy. Basic things, such as grammer and punctuation, were all over the place. I really expect more from someone who presumably is doing their PhD in English. And this is coming from someone who is fully aware how bad my grammer and spelling are, even after doing my MA in English.

I think they brought in the workshops after a load of us kicked up a fuss last summer. They changed the course when I was starting third year. Prior to that, they had tutorials once a week like most other departments, but then they decided to get rid of them completly. We were told we should use the moodle site and not worry about tutorials or things of that sort. At the end of the year, a load of us started complaining that having 250+ students using a moddle site was not the same as having human contact in the form of tutorials. Even recollecting essays was a nightmare since it was impossible to get someone to actually detail where you went wrong. That really esculated when one lecturer put "notes" on the back of our essays to explain our mark. He typed them out and stapled a sheet onto our essays. Thing was, when we all went and started comparing notes and marks, most people found out that they had got the exact same comments, word for word.

So I think they implemented the workshops as some sort of compramise. You're given someone to talk to if you need to ask questions, but they don't need to worry about setting up weekly meetings to much.

Its a shame you seemed to have such a bad first year though, but I would say I think most departments deliberatly make first year tough in order to "weed out", so to speak, those who drifted into the course. It does get a lot better, especially in third year. The lecturers are all awesome (Especially Conrad Brunstrom :P), and for the most part, they try to keep things interesting. I think they are hindered by a dodgy course layout, but then I also get the feeling they are trying to sort that out with every year that goes by to try and find the perfect course.