Two courses at once!

TowlieMcD

Ok some people may think i'm crazy but is it possible to do two courses at once?
like I really want to do a science course(medicine is now out the window due to hpat) but I also love Spanish and would love to be fluent
The two i'm thinking about are both in UL :
1/ Science with concurrent Teacher Education - Biological Sciences with Physics or Chemistry
2/ Applied Languages
(Both very different to medicine I know)
would i be better off to do the science and just learn spanish on the side or what?
any one have any ideas?

unknown13

Most universities have language modules which you can do on the side while you do your course.

pathway33

You could do one as a distance learning course e.g open university

TowlieMcD

unknown13 wrote: »

Most universities have language modules which you can do on the side while you do your course.

Really? That would be good! Do you know where I could find out more about this? Do you obtain a qualification from doing these modules?
Would you able to teach the language after that?
Any info appreciated

blubloblu

TowlieMcD wrote: »

Really? That would be good! Do you know where I could find out more about this? Do you obtain a qualification from doing these modules?
Would you able to teach the language after that?
Any info appreciated

Depends what college you're going to.

TowlieMcD

blubloblu wrote: »

Depends what college you're going to.

University of Limerick...probably

Fad

You wouldn't have the time.

Science is quite intense in terms of hours, and I'd say you'd have decent number with an applied language degree.

That and the cost and the fact that I really doubt and uni would let you take both on at the same time.....

TowlieMcD

Fad wrote: »

You wouldn't have the time.

Science is quite intense in terms of hours, and I'd say you'd have decent number with an applied language degree.

That and the cost and the fact that I really doubt and uni would let you take both on at the same time.....

Well maybe not THAT applied language degree but something that would allow you to learn Spanish on the side like what unkown13 has said above^^^. I understand there would be lots of hours but I was considering medicine! And i'm sure(I actually have no facts of any kind to base this on) that there would be plenty more hours in that than the science course. I would be willing to put in the work for it. Do you anything about the modules that unknown13 is referring to?

Fad

TowlieMcD wrote: »

Well maybe not THAT applied language degree but something that would allow you to learn Spanish on the side like what unkown13 has said above^^^. I understand there would be lots of hours but I was considering medicine! And i'm sure(I actually have no facts of any kind to base this on) that there would be plenty more hours in that than the science course. I would be willing to put in the work for it. Do you anything about the modules that unknown13 is referring to?

I go to UCD, so I know nothing about UL language electives. But in UCD you have 10 credits that oyu can do whatever you want to with, so you can do two spanish language modules if you wish.

I doubt the situation is AS flexible in UL, but I could be wrong.

Look at the UL website?

pathway33

http://www2.ul.ie/web/WWW/Faculties/Arts%2C_Humanities_%26_Social_Sciences/Departments_%26_Centres/Language_Centre/Other_Language_Programmes

TowlieMcD

pathway33 wrote: »

http://www2.ul.ie/web/WWW/Faculties/Arts%2C_Humanities_%26_Social_Sciences/Departments_%26_Centres/Language_Centre/Other_Language_Programmes

Thanks I was actually just looking at that.
It says "adult learner" but I assume that means students could do it too yeah?

And to Fad. In the horizons scheme I know that you can choose from a load of electives like Spanish,French etc but do you have to do a different one each semester or could you continually do spanish?(or whichever one you wanted)

pathway33

TowlieMcD wrote: »

Thanks I was actually just looking at that.
It says "adult learner" but I assume that means students could do it too yeah?

Yep. It mentions students somewhere there

'If you are an adult learner interested in learning a language or in improving your existing foreign language skills, the Language Opportunities Programme could be for you. Running since 1999, this programme offers evening language courses in a range of languages to University of Limerick students and members of staff as well as for members of the general public.

TowlieMcD

pathway33 wrote: »

Yep. It mentions students somewhere there

'If you are an adult learner interested in learning a language or in improving your existing foreign language skills, the Language Opportunities Programme could be for you. Running since 1999, this programme offers evening language courses in a range of languages to University of Limerick students and members of staff as well as for members of the general public.

Yeah thanks, I can be extremely blind at times.

pathway33

TowlieMcD wrote: »

Yeah thanks, I can be extremely blind at times.

Best of luck in the lab

Wolfe Tone

Wait, doing two courses would leave hardly any time for beer/drugs/sex

Fad

TowlieMcD wrote: »

And to Fad. In the horizons scheme I know that you can choose from a load of electives like Spanish,French etc but do you have to do a different one each semester or could you continually do spanish?(or whichever one you wanted)

You could just do the next module, so say if you do Spanish 1 in the first semester, you could do Spanish 2 in the the second one. (It's pretty much that simple).

eoins23456

ur going to end up like crazy cat woman in the simpsons

TowlieMcD

MUSSOLINI wrote: »

Wait, doing two courses would leave hardly any time for beer/drugs/sex

Oh there'll be time for that...there's always time for that...and if not...time will be made

TowlieMcD

Fad wrote: »

You could just do the next module, so say if you do Spanish 1 in the first semester, you could do Spanish 2 in the the second one. (It's pretty much that simple).

Ahh right nice one!
Is it only in UCD they do that though?(sorry for all the questions.Just a bit nervous about deciding on the CAO)

Fad

TowlieMcD wrote: »

Ahh right nice one!
Is it only in UCD they do that though?(sorry for all the questions.Just a bit nervous about deciding on the CAO)

No idea, I'm only really familiar with UCD and TCD's systems, never really looked beyond them for a course (Barring maybe DIT and DCU) for proactical reasons.

rainbowtrout

I did that degree in UL. You will have enough to do with Science and Education modules without trying to learn Spanish on top of it. Granted it was 1996 when I started, but I did 30 hours a week in first year. And that was just the timetabled stuff. When you are doing Biology, Chemistry and Physics all those lab hours add up. Not to mind the teaching aspect of it. If you do the degree you will be teaching primary school children from about the second or third week of the semester. You will have to prepare resources for the lesson. Not trying to scare you but you'll have plenty to keep you busy. It probably wouldn't fit into your timetable anyway. There are no free electives within the Science Education degree. Your only choice is to take physics or chemistry at the end of first year and the modules for each are already selected.

You also can't register with two separate colleges at the same time as far as I know. I would suggest that you pick one degree and maybe just take an evening class or a summer course in the other for the time being.

TowlieMcD

rainbowtrout wrote: »

I did that degree in UL. You will have enough to do with Science and Education modules without trying to learn Spanish on top of it. Granted it was 1996 when I started, but I did 30 hours a week in first year. And that was just the timetabled stuff. When you are doing Biology, Chemistry and Physics all those lab hours add up. Not to mind the teaching aspect of it. If you do the degree you will be teaching primary school children from about the second or third week of the semester. You will have to prepare resources for the lesson. Not trying to scare you but you'll have plenty to keep you busy.

Whats the course like? Do you have a job now after doing it? Is it easier to get a job as a science teacher in comparison to other types eg. english&history teaching? Are you able to teach maths after it?(I know it doesnt say you can but would the course prepare you for junior cert maths teaching at least?)

rainbowtrout

TowlieMcD wrote: »

Whats the course like? Do you have a job now after doing it? Is it easier to get a job as a science teacher in comparison to other types eg. english&history teaching? Are you able to teach maths after it?(I know it doesnt say you can but would the course prepare you for junior cert maths teaching at least?)

It's a good course. I did a postgrad for a year after it (computer programming) and I got a job straight away out of college. I was lucky. There are jobs in science but teaching jobs have been cut countrywide in the last few years. It's hard to say how things will go in the next few years. One of the good things about the course is that you will come out with 3 Leaving Cert subjects , Biology, Ag Science and Physics or Chemistry. Junior Science as well of course. So you are quite employable. Anyone that reads the ag science threads around here will be familiar with me. I teach Ag Science. You are not qualified to teach maths but you do study it for the first year and the reality is that a lot of science teachers end up with maths on their timetable at some stage or other. You would be well capable of JC maths and probably LC OL maths as well, although you are not qualified in them. I've taught LC no bother.

I couldn't compare it with trying to get a job in other subjects as I wouldn't be applying for other subjects and I'm in the same job since I left college. I can only give anecdotal experience. The physics and maths teacher has gone on maternity leave twice in the last few years in my school and we found it hard to get a replacement.

The course is good. Wide range of stuff given the subjects you will be covering and you have two blocks of teaching practice - second year and fourth year. Because the teaching/education aspect is there right throughout the four years, you really are geared to being a teacher as opposed to working in a lab.

TowlieMcD

rainbowtrout wrote: »

It's a good course. I did a postgrad for a year after it (computer programming) and I got a job straight away out of college. I was lucky. There are jobs in science but teaching jobs have been cut countrywide in the last few years. It's hard to say how things will go in the next few years. One of the good things about the course is that you will come out with 3 Leaving Cert subjects , Biology, Ag Science and Physics or Chemistry. Junior Science as well of course. So you are quite employable. Anyone that reads the ag science threads around here will be familiar with me. I teach Ag Science. You are not qualified to teach maths but you do study it for the first year and the reality is that a lot of science teachers end up with maths on their timetable at some stage or other. You would be well capable of JC maths and probably LC OL maths as well, although you are not qualified in them. I've taught LC no bother.

I couldn't compare it with trying to get a job in other subjects as I wouldn't be applying for other subjects and I'm in the same job since I left college. I can only give anecdotal experience. The physics and maths teacher has gone on maternity leave twice in the last few years in my school and we found it hard to get a replacement.

The course is good. Wide range of stuff given the subjects you will be covering and you have two blocks of teaching practice - second year and fourth year. Because the teaching/education aspect is there right throughout the four years, you really are geared to being a teacher as opposed to working in a lab.

Thanks a million. I think i'm going to do this course now. Would it be possible to do another year like a postgraduate to teach honours maths after you've this done? I'm doing honours biology,chemistry and maths for LC and i'd like to keep up the maths side of it.
Also whats the teaching placements in 2nd and 4th year like?I get kind of nervous already thinking about them.
And finally whats UL and Limerick like in general? I was at the open day and the place looks unbelievable. Good social life?

rainbowtrout

TowlieMcD wrote: »

Thanks a million. I think i'm going to do this course now. Would it be possible to do another year like a postgraduate to teach honours maths after you've this done? I'm doing honours biology,chemistry and maths for LC and i'd like to keep up the maths side of it.
Also whats the teaching placements in 2nd and 4th year like?I get kind of nervous already thinking about them.
And finally whats UL and Limerick like in general? I was at the open day and the place looks unbelievable. Good social life?

I'm currently doing a maths degree through Open University so I am qualified in Maths as well as the subjects above. Because I live in Roscommon I might as well live on a rock in the middle of Atlantic in terms of third level access to post grad courses. i.e. it's not possible to commute to evening courses for me. Sligo IT is the closest to me and there's nothing suitable there. I would say get through the degree, get a job and then start worrying about the maths.

Teaching practice is ok, but it's a heavy workload. It's 6 weeks the second semester of second year and 10 weeks the first semester of fourth year. The college will find you a school which is good (unless things have changed since I was there). You will live, breathe and eat, lesson plans, resources and schemes of work for those weeks. It's not a doss and it's a bit of a steep learning curve but like everything else you do all your real learning when doing the practical end of things.

i.e. The lectures we were given on discipline in the classroom were of the variety 'if you have enough work prepared and keep the students interested you won't have any discipline problems'. I'm sure you've all sat in a class where the teacher bends over backwards to make it interesting and there is still some knob sitting in the class causing trouble. That's theory v. reality so you have to learn to deal with it. Never smile at your classes. If that's all you take from this post it'll be enough. You are not their friend. Remember on your first teaching practice you will be 19ish teaching 15 year olds. That's not such a big age gap. Remember what is was like to be taught by the student teacher????

I'm not trying to scare you. I enjoyed it, I found 2nd year TP hard, but fourth year was great and I like what I do. UL has a good social life, lots of clubs and socs. It's outside the city, some say that's a disadvantage but at the same time it concentrate's all the students in one area so you do get to know a lot of people. I was there for five years and I loved it. I'm also from Limk City so probably a bit biased towards the college but Limk is not like it's made out on the news. You won't get stabbed in the city centre, you won't get involved in some gangland shooting. You should never have any reason to visit the dodgier parts of town but if you choose to do so, be it on your own head. Even those parts aren't so bad as people make out, it's a few families that cause all the trouble, like in a lot of other towns.

ironclaw

TowlieMcD wrote: »

Ok some people may think i'm crazy but is it possible to do two courses at once?
like I really want to do a science course(medicine is now out the window due to hpat) but I also love Spanish and would love to be fluent
The two i'm thinking about are both in UL :
1/ Science with concurrent Teacher Education - Biological Sciences with Physics or Chemistry
2/ Applied Languages
(Both very different to medicine I know)
would i be better off to do the science and just learn spanish on the side or what?
any one have any ideas?

Speaking as a University student you would be absolutely mad to do this. The cost alone would be staggering. College is not like school. Most people manage to do one course well. Imagine two finals? You would be sitting about 12 exams a semester. Twice the work load in the same amount of time.

Speaking from a UCD perspective, you can do Horizons. Basically you get to pick two subjects at will from every faculty in the college. So as an Engineer you could do Botany. As a Medicine study you could do a semester in Astro Physics. You only do them for a semester and they do count as credits (Normally 5) You don't get a qualification but you can CV them. UCD has excellent languages courses that will accredit you internationally at a level.

Take it from me, do not do two courses. If you really must, do a night course or similar.