Business & Law Course - UCD

LC2011

Hi,

Currently in 6th Year and thinking of doing Business & Law in UCD next year. Just wondering if anyone currently doing this course or who has done it could give me their thoughts on it and if it is as good as the Law BCL or BComm on its own? Is the BBL a good qualification? Would Business and Law mean twice the work??

Thanks.

Also

Currently in 6th Year and thinking of doing Business & Law in UCD next year. Just wondering if anyone currently doing this course or who has done it could give me their thoughts on it and if it is as good as the Law BCL or BComm on its own? Is the BBL a good qualification? Would Business and Law mean twice the work??


Hey yeah I'm doing it atm. Basically pure law students take 5 law modules this semester, and then they take part in Horizons so choose to do an extra random module like French or whatever. So that's 6 modules.
Whereas with BBL we don't do horizons as we already are assigned 6 modules.
So we do three law subjects, and three business subjects per semester.
It's pretty good so far, although the business side of things is a bit different to what I expected, I think I expected management type things rather than economics and maths in business, but we do everything over the years.
Also, the days are full of gaps of 2,3 or 4 hours, more so than other degrees imo, which is a bit annoying but sure!
I don't know how it's regarded by employers but I'm guessing that having experience in bus and law can't be a bad thing, and I liked that I can experience both bus and law and then decide which route I want to go down.
Although I did also pick it so I wouldn't get bored with pure law, but I didn't realize that even with pure law you can do other modules like politics, french etc to switch it up. Depends what you like really!

LC2011

Thanks. What are the maths modules like? Are they hard compared to LC maths?

Also

Nah maths is alright it's maths for business so it's easier than the maths that say engineers and science students would be doing. Some weeks it's harder than others, but a good bit of it is lc stuff, and we have tutorials where u can ask qs if you're confused

Rothmans

Also wrote: »

Nah maths is alright it's maths for business so it's easier than the maths that say engineers and science students would be doing. Some weeks it's harder than others, but a good bit of it is lc stuff, and we have tutorials where u can ask qs if you're confused

Maths for Business is p!ss easy if you did higher maths for the LC. I stopped going to alot of lectures for it and studied about half of the questions the night before and managed to get a B+ in it.
However, if you're doing it, having not done Higher level, I hear it can be quite difficult. I know a fella who did ordinary level for the LC and he's after failing it twice.
Another business subject, MIS, which is about computers and things like that, seems very daunting at first, but the final exam is quite reasonable. You do weekly mcqs which are easy enough which will contribute well towards your final grade.
Other subjects from the business end include Business Management, which is very wishy washy. Micro and macro economics which aren't too bad as the final exam is an mcq. Financial Accounting 1 is straightforward enough. There is a good lecturer for it and you're guarantedd at least 10% before you go into the final exam if you complete all of your biweekly mcqs. You can do as many mcqs as you want until you get the full 10%. There is also a nice midterm exam woth 20%. I managed to get an A+ in the exam having never even done accounting before college. However, you will go on to do Accounting 2 in second year ( which I'm doing now) which is very difficult, especially if you haven't done it for the LC.

I find the law subjects more interesting - In 1st year they include Constitutional law. This is the study of how the constitutional is the most important factor when applying domestic(if EU Lawb isn't applicable of course) law. You also do contract law - Probably the most technical and straight-forward subject. Finally, you will study Tort. This is a very messy one IMO but most people seem to like it as they view it as being quite interesting.
That's about it in 1st year. Second year is a big step up from first year though.
Do you do any business subjects in school? These will definitely help you in the business part. Unfortunately I didn't, but that wasn't to much of a disadvantage.

Finally, here's a link with a description of the various modules-
http://www.ucd.ie/students/course_search.htm

LC2011

Thanks. What are the hours like? Is there more work invloved in Business & Law than the BComm or BCL or their own?

_Bella_

Just a quick question, in law are you ever graded on mooting or presentations?

errlloyd

LC2011 wrote: »

Thanks. What are the hours like? Is there more work invloved in Business & Law than the BComm or BCL or their own?

The workload is a little bigger then both the BComm and the BCL but seems a lot bigger due to the joint nature of the degree. I do BCL and find I have a much smaller workload that I can get through a lot quicker then most of my friends in BBL.

Rothmans

LC2011 wrote: »

Thanks. What are the hours like? Is there more work invloved in Business & Law than the BComm or BCL or their own?

Sorry for not getting back sooner. Completely forgot about this thread. Yeah, the hours aren't all that much. Between 16-18 hours a per week, depending on tutorials. Unfortunately though, as it combines the core elements from commerce with those of the BCL, the hours often tend to be distributed awkwardly. For example, You may have Accounting from 9 to 11, then nothing till 1 o'clock ( eg law tutorial from1-2), then have nothing again until 4-6 (eg company law. So there may be a lot of hanging around. The earliest we were finished last semester was 3 o'clock IIRC. Its a bit better this semester however as we finish one o'clock having only had one lecture on a monday ( Intermediate Micro).

errlloyd wrote: »

The workload is a little bigger then both the BComm and the BCL but seems a lot bigger due to the joint nature of the degree. I do BCL and find I have a much smaller workload that I can get through a lot quicker then most of my friends in BBL.

Yup, I think this sums it up pretty well. For one thing we unfortunately don't get to choose electives as we have 6 core modules per semester, and due to the fact that we do only core modules out of BCL and BComm, it tends to be a little more intense than either BCL or BComm, but there is not by any stretch of the imagination, a big gap between the three degrees.

_Bella_ wrote: »

Just a quick question, in law are you ever graded on mooting or presentations?

Well, I'm in 2nd year now. The BBL people do mooting in criminal law. They are recorded and put up on blackboard. However, we are not graded on the mooting in itself, just the attendance. The BCL people, on the other hand do not moot. In law we do not have to do presentations, we just write essays. In the business subjects we have done presentations though, and were graded on them.

This is our Sem1 time table
Mon: 1500-1700- Quantitative analysis

Tues:900-1100 Criminal Law, 1200-1300 Eu Law Tutorial,1500-1600 Accounting Tutorial

Wed:900-1100 Accounting, 1200-1300 Quants Tut, 1400-1500 Criminal Law Tutorial, 1600-1800 Company Law.

Thurs:1100-1200 Comp Law Tut, 1400-1600 Organisational Behaviour

Fri:1300-1500 EU Law.

As you can see from the timetable, it is quite dispersed. Semester 2 is going to be alot better though.

Pandoras Twist

I'm a 3rd Year B.Comm but we do the same Business subjects as B&L do

I failed Higher level maths in the LC (I'm just not good with triangles haha) and got an A+ in Maths for Business

Also, Financial Accounting 2 has an excellent lecturer, and it's pretty easy once you do all the questions because all she does is change the names and a few figures and puts them into the exam paper.

I didn't do accounting or economics for the leaving cert and I found both the subjects fine once you just stay on top of them. You're also told when you get in that doing acc and econ for the leaving cert doesnt give you much of an advantage as we go into a lot more detail and a lot is different, and sometimes it can be a disadvantage as people get complacent and think they've done it all already

Most of Commerce and a lot of B&L tend to specialise in accountancy, and although I had no intention of doing that when I started my degree it's the option that gives the most career opportunities so I went with it. From what I can gather in this case B&L students are looked at as the same as Commerce students. They look at your grades and your experience and consider the degrees to be of the same level (open to correction on this, but from my interviews thats the impression that I got)

As far as I know B&L is a 4 year course, while commerce is 3, so if you see yourself going down a business route rather than a legal route, personally I would go for commerce and save yourself the year in college, especially as you may end up doing a masters after (a common choice if you're doing accountancy, and now in other disciplines because of the recession).

Eager_Beaver

Pandoras Twist wrote: »

I'm a 3rd Year B.Comm but we do the same Business subjects as B&L do

I failed Higher level maths in the LC (I'm just not good with triangles haha) and got an A+ in Maths for Business

Just wondering,how did you get into commerce if you failed maths???

Rothmans

Pandoras Twist wrote: »

Also, Financial Accounting 2 has an excellent lecturer, and it's pretty easy once you do all the questions because all she does is change the names and a few figures and puts them into the exam paper.

She is a very good lecturer all right but to anybody considering doing BBL or BComm I'd advise you not to focus solely on the past papers as the formats of the exams can change.
That's the mistake I made with accounting, I focused a bit too much on the past papers as I saw that the same questions generally tended to repeat themselves to a certain extent. Unfortunately the format of the exam changed this year and it really tripped me up. Luckily, all the business subjects focus greatly on continuous assessment. For example, I had 27/40% going into the accounting exam. Therefore, although I know I didn't do to well in the exam itself, I know that I didn't fail the module unless I performed disastrously in the final exam. In the business subjects, continuous assessment generally counts for about 30-40% so the chances of failing are slim unless you don't attend classes! The law modules on the other hand, tend to be 100% final exams so they tend to be a bit more pressurised. But its not too difficult if you attend all your lectures/tutorials and put the work in.

EDIT: (Regarding the law modules) Alternatively, you come cram 3-4 weeks prior to the exam, but that IS NOT recommended

Pandoras Twist

Eager_Beaver wrote: »

Just wondering,how did you get into commerce if you failed maths???

I repeated maths, but did lower level instead

Rothmans wrote: »

She is a very good lecturer all right but to anybody considering doing BBL or BComm I'd advise you not to focus solely on the past papers as the formats of the exams can change.
That's the mistake I made with accounting, I focused a bit too much on the past papers as I saw that the same questions generally tended to repeat themselves to a certain extent. Unfortunately the format of the exam changed this year and it really tripped me up.

Did she not give you any warning? She used to slag herself in lectures saying she was too lazy to change around the questions.

To be honest though, financial accounting (1 and 2) are some of the easier accounting subjects because there is an exact formula to the way you tackle the questions. You see a question and you know how to do it. With Cost Management and Management Accounting he likes to put in these little tricks, so even if you can do every question and know how to do them, you can still get caught out by the way he's phrased things.

_Bella_

just wondering how much from each year goes towards your final degree score?

valor

The final 2 years are 50/50

Pandoras Twist

Commerce is 2nd Year - 30% 3rd Year - 70%

_Bella_

Thank you guys so much for your help. Final question what year is the international exchange in and how many places are there?

Rothmans

valor wrote: »

The final 2 years are 50/50

You sure? I was under the impression that it was 30/70 like below. I'll email the coordinator woman to see if I can find out. Maybe its different for different years. What year are you in?

Pandoras Twist wrote: »

Commerce is 2nd Year - 30% 3rd Year - 70%

_Bella_ wrote: »

Thank you guys so much for your help. Final question what year is the international exchange in and how many places are there?

3rd year. For us there were only 4 places I think. They were all in Australia, between two colleges. The reason for this is that our international exchanges were being shared with the current 3rd years and they got far more places than were alloted to us. They got the US and Canada. This was only a once off though due to the fact that they are now integrating the int exchange into the course this year so that those who do int exchange can do their degree in 4 years instead of 5, as was the case before.

However, there are also ERASMUS opportunities.

Rothmans

I emailed the course coordinator and found out its calculated 50/50 based on the final two years.
Must have gotten mixed up with BComm.

valor

Not 100% sure actually, I know thats how it was in 07/08. I'm in final year now, having taken 3 years off

valor

Lol, I'm dumb, I slightly panicked when you said it might be 30/70, and emailed Claire Cahill myself, and then I read the next post and realised you had already done it, so now she'll have received 2 identical emails and I look like a retard

Cool as a cucumber

What would the standard of English required be? What choices do you get to make going into first year, if any? Is the course very demanding of your time, can you get heavily involved in societies and clubs or does the course zap your time. I am slightly worried my English isn't up to scratch to take on the law