Bachelor of Arts graduate... Postgraduate options open to me?

PC09

Hi,

As the title suggests, I studied German and Politics in UCD and am looking to do a postgraduate. Just wondering what my options are and how far I can stray from my original degree subjects - or not!

Any advice appreciated, thanks.

sparky12345678

same kind of question
im thining about studying abroad too but ye....

Im doing at irish and history in UCd and im finishing this uear and trying to fig out what i should/want do.

thirtythirty

You can stray as far as you want. German and Politics don't exactly line you up for any particular jobs or industry. That's not the point of an Arts degree however, the point is (hopefully!) to teach you new ways of thinking, logic, understanding, and provide you with proof that you are now further educated than someone straight out of the LC.

So where does that leave you? It leaves you with a solid base degree that you can place a more specialised masters on, specialising in anything you can get into.

For example 1 of my mates did Arts in UCD (history and politics), then did a law postgrade in DIT, then did the FE1 exams, and will be starting life as a solicitor next year.
Another of my mates did Arts also in UCD, then a masters (can't remember in what or where!) and is heading into the medical profession (following gamsats).

Of course you can just go for a general business-y masters and build on the Arts idea of being well-rounded and further educated. Unless you have a specific industry or career path in mind, a lot of jobs wont care what modules etc were in the masters, just that you have one.

My personal route was BA computer science in UCD (Arts with a 4th year of computers) -> eCommerce masters in DCU (to add some business to the computers) -> management consulting (1yr in and it's an excellent job).

Oh, and dont get glamourised by the Smurfit name. You're paying for the name there, not the education. A lot of the courses there are child's play (of course that could be what you're looking for in which case go for it!)

Roro4Brit

Dont think of it like that. Think of what it is you are really interested in and want to succeed in, then look to see what courses are available. These days there are ways into any course you want if you're determined enought. As a fellow arts graduate of Maths and Sociology I went on to do an MSc in Marketing and now I'm doing a PhD in Marketing in DIT.

Find what excitesd you and then study it! After doing arts the last thing you should do is a post-grad in something that isn't featuring in your long term plans! 3 years of that is enough

thirtythirty

Roro4Brit wrote: »

Dont think of it like that. Think of what it is you are really interested in and want to succeed in, then look to see what courses are available. These days there are ways into any course you want if you're determined enought. As a fellow arts graduate of Maths and Sociology I went on to do an MSc in Marketing and now I'm doing a PhD in Marketing in DIT.

Find what excitesd you and then study it! After doing arts the last thing you should do is a post-grad in something that isn't featuring in your long term plans! 3 years of that is enough

By "specialising in anything you can get into" I meant exactly what you said here.
My point was that he can stray as far from Arts as he wants and specialise in anything he has an interest in, as long as he can get into the course itself (places/prerequisites/prices etc).

OP, Roro is right about thinking about what excites you. With normal college there's always a bit of "id like to go to UCD, what courses are offered there?" (well for me there was anyway), but with a masters you should be prepared to go anywhere. Try not to think about it job-wise e.g. "i think i would like to be an x", you should have an interest in the industry/sector as a whole e.g. energy, media, or finance. A job title will follow, but you need to really like the entire space you are working in.

Roro4Brit

sorry spotty,

I do agree with your posts, I hit quick reply to your post instead of the OP. So when I said 'dont think of it like that' I was trying to say to the OP not to think of it like 'oh what can I move onto next' type thing!

Arts was for me, as it was with a lot of my friends, a 'lets see whats out there' choice so afterwards I worked for a bit to make sure I knew exactly what I wanted to study at postgrad level!

Tom Dunne

You can do the likes of a Higher Diploma which act as a conversion of sorts from one discipline to another.

For example, I used to lecture on a Higher Diploma in Computing at IT Blanchardstown. None of the students had a computing background, yet all had a Bachelors degree of some sort.

So you can further specialise, or you can go in a completely different direction.