Are you happy with what you're studying?

Grindylow

So yeah, over the past while I've noticed a lot of people complaining about what they're studying in college and how they dislike it and stuff, so I said I'd start a thread to see what people think of what they're doing at the moment..

Are you happy with what you're studying?
If you had the choice.. Would you start something else?

As for the people like me who haven't started college yet, what do ye want to do? Sorry if something like this has been done before, it just seems appropriate for here seen as most people posting in here are either in college or else in the senior cycle of secondary school.

Well as for me, I'm in 6th year and I really don't have a clue what I want to do, I know I'd like to do something Business related, so I've Business in UL as the first choice on my CAO. Hopefully I'll be happy with it anyway!

Wolfe Tone

Im studying Law in DCU, Im satisfied with it, its quite difficult and monotonous rather than challenging which is annoying. Only thing I would change it for would be history, and seen as I dont want to be a teacher and would like to be a barrister thats kinda pointless

Asphyxia

I like what I am studying but It's not what I want to do in the future.. I am hoping to start a three year long course in September that will full qualify me in beauty therapy from there I want to open my own salon so a business course might be the next step after it. I have it all planned out in my head I just need for it to happen

Slow Show

I'm still in school and to be quite honest, I have no idea what I want to do after school anymore, it changes every so often. I used to think I wanted to do medicine, but I think that was just a passing thing that quite a lot of people get but I just don't think that's for me.

I think I'd love to do History in college though, but the career prospects don't look particularly amazing if teaching isn't your calling (and I don't think it's mine). I'd like to do English too if I didn't love it so much to not want to ruin it by studying it in such detail.

But anyways, there's lots of stuff I still might be interested in that I just need to research more and go to open days and that sorta thing - Law, Psychology, check out History and English anyway and maybe even something Science-y for the look. It's a bit odd that I'm planning on doing two sciences for the Leaving Cert yet I don't really see myself doing anything like that after school.

Well that was a nice ramble. Tl;dr, I'm not sure but I'm sure when I decide it'll be something I like and it'll be great. Well, I hope so anyway.

Grindylow

Slow Show wrote: »

I'm still in school and to be quite honest, I have no idea what I want to do after school anymore, it changes every so often. I used to think I wanted to do medicine, but I think that was just a passing thing that quite a lot of people get but I just don't think that's for me.

I think I'd love to do History in college though, but the career prospects don't look particularly amazing if teaching isn't your calling (and I don't think it's mine). I'd like to do English too if I didn't love it so much to not want to ruin it by studying it in such detail.

But anyways, there's lots of stuff I still might be interested in that I just need to research more and go to open days and that sorta thing - Law, Psychology, check out History and English anyway and maybe even something Science-y for the look. It's a bit odd that I'm planning on doing two sciences for the Leaving Cert yet I don't really see myself doing anything like that after school.

Well that was a nice ramble. Tl;dr, I'm not sure but I'm sure when I decide it'll be something I like and it'll be great. Well, I hope so anyway.

Ah yeah I know what you mean too! I went through a stage of wanting to study Occupational Therapy but I realised it's just not for me.. I'm still not even sure if Business is for me, but I have until July to fully decide anyway. I know the opportunity to drop out won't be available to me (Couldn't afford the fees) so like whatever I pick I'll have to stick it out anyway.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

Wolfe Tone wrote: »

Im studying Law in DCU, Im satisfied with it, its quite difficult and monotonous rather than challenging which is annoying. Only thing I would change it for would be history, and seen as I dont want to be a teacher and would like to be a barrister thats kinda pointless

My question is how'd such a good username go untaken until March of last year :eek::eek:

Wolfe Tone

Duffy the Vampire Slayer wrote: »

My question is how'd such a good username go untaken until March of last year :eek::eek:

I only got this username last month! Had a different one before

bythewoods

I'm sure most of you know I do Medicine in Trinity.

I've contemplated dropping out quite a few times. I even reapplied through the CAO last year to do something else, but didn't accept my offer.

I'm horribly fickle. I go through cycles of thinking I'd like to do Engineering, Art or English. Or possibly Philosophy, Politics and a whole range of other Arts-y things. I even started up a portfolio a while back. But the Art idea is definitely gone again, I'm keeping it as a hobby only.
I also wonder if I did the right thing coming to Trinity, and that perhaps I'd have been better off staying in UCD. But I'm sure I'd have wished I'd dropped out if I hadn't. Trinity is wonderful, although of course if asked where I'm in college I usually say "Dublin" and hope that I'm not asked to specify where exactly. Wanker stereotype cringe.

I definitely do like Medicine. I do. It's wonderfully interesting, and I'm a big people person so the clinical aspect of it is perfect for me. I've gotten some really nice compliments from patients and Doctors alike, and from past jobs as a care-assistant I know I'm definitely cut out for it.
I was very "meh" about it last year, but now I'm much more interested in it and that's motivating me to study, and driving my grades up. Which is nice positive feedback to study more and so forth.

My issue is really that I feel it's very closed off. I mean, in Arts subjects you go to college and get a mind-broadening experience. You learn to think for yourself, see a broader picture of the world, and so on. In Engineering or Maths, there's the glorious figuring out side of things.
In Medicine, it's moreso about learning reams of information, rote-learning to an extent, at least in 1st/2nd year, all the while aiming towards a very fixed job/ service. It's also very intense, so unless you're really quite dedicated to it, your grades will suffer. Night before cramming doesn't work, in my experience at least.
Also, the money incentive doesn't wash with me at all, as it does with a lot of people. I couldn't honestly care less about it, but it's something that's always brought up. Doing Medicine "for the money" would kill me. I don't understand how people could struggle through college with that as their motivation tbh. I mean, paying off my student loan is going to be sa-weeeeet, as is paying for my own car insurance etc, and not having to bum off my parents for everything. Lovely. But I don't care if I never own a mansion and a sports car.

At this point I know I'm going to stick with it, although I do plan to take a year out at the end of next year to do an Intercalated Masters (if my grades will allow me to), possibly in Bioengineering. I hate to sound ungrateful, or as though I hate my course, because I don't! I'm glad I chose it, I'm glad I stuck with it, and I think it's definitely a good fit for me.

It's hard to know when you're choosing your career path what's for you I guess. I was 16 filling out my first CAO, and I never even allowed myself to consider doing something like English, thinking it was too Artsy and for people who wanted to go into teaching or something. I wonder if I was back in school now, with my current mindset, where would I end up?

Woah massive rant.
TLDR: There's more to life than study, unless you do Medicine. Then it's all about studying. And there's more to me than study, so obviously we've a bit of a conflict of interests. Sigh.

TrustedApple

Will I was doing BIS in Cork IT and hated every min of it I was getting over 90% in all the tests I was doing and getting over 20% more in tests then the class

But it was so boring all it was. Was doing MS excel on Monday's then programming and management and maths and that was it it was like doing 2nd lv school business but full time and if I missed a class I was not missing anything

But I like business that's the thing but when the guy you have for business tec has know idea what a HDMI cable is you wonder how must of the class know more then him

Also the people in class some where who do you put it dick.s to me because I dressed up every day for college And keep on saying you speak very posh which I do not. I just didn't mix well with the class bar 2 or 3 lads who are sound out. Then givein out to me for not drinking it just gos on

But if my interview gos well for multimedia I will be doing that next year but I have still no idea what I like to do

Sorry lads for the spelling I will fix them when I get home

I like to get into TV or something with music really but I think multimedia is my best bet to do something like that and still have programing to fall back on

Fad

I enjoy CS immensely, I'll probably like it a lot more when what we're studying becomes a bit more theoretical.practical (A bit less arbitrary, we're learning data structures that have no simple real world application atm, have to do a lot of maths this year that is essentially useless to CS as well).

I dunno, I enjoy programming, despite not being very good at it, I enjoy maths, despite being kinda awful at it, and I can see myself being involved in CS in some form later on in life, but at the moment, I have a new course crisis every other week.

I continually regret not doing arts/biology/engineering (Especially electronic Eng)/whatever the fúck, and I want to drop out a lot, but I dunno, I suppose if I really want to, there's probably a route I could get into one of them in some way (Evening BA/MSc in Bioinformatics/going back and doing a few modules in electronics after my degree and doing an MSc in Computer Engineering).

Meh, I'm happy in college, I write for the paper a bit, so I get to do the whole writing thing I missed a lot when I was in first year.

I suppose computer science is a good degree to have, and will open a lot of doors to me in later years (Provided I get at least a 2.1), but I'll always doubt it a bit.

Arcade Panda

I was really unhappy in college last year so I dropped out of my coarse, did a portfolio and now I'm in first year of art college.

I love it!:)

I have to say though sometimes I do worry about the whole job thing when I graduate... and also the standard in my college is pretty high. It's pretty unnerving sometimes. You basically get judged on your talent everyday which is really **** and although I was best in my year at art in secondary school, I'm by no means best in my year now! My ego did take a bashing. Which maybe wasn't such a bad thing....

Also, in first year, we don't get the glorious gift that are repeats.

You fail. You leave.

Other then that I love it. To the very marrow of my bones. It's just a wonderful environment to be in and it something I've always had a passionate interest in. Fingers crossed I get a job out of it!:pac:

degausserxo

I did Irish and German in Trinity a coupla years ago for a few months, ended up dropping out for a number of reasons. It was never my first choice, as I'd always wanted to do veterinary medicine, so I never saw dropping out as a bad thing, more of a chance to actually go and do what I wanna do. Hopefully going back to school to do the LC again this September.

cheesefiend

I'm doing Psychology and I love it. It's so interesting and not too hard. There are two modules unrelated to Psychology that I have to do this year which I find really boring and so don't work for them at all. It kind of puts a dampner on the whole thing but aside from that the course is great. I'm already obsessed with looking up masters and I haven't even got first year over with. If anyone wants to know more about doing Psychology just give me a PM and I'll be happy to answer any questions you have.

Wolfe Tone

cheesefiend wrote: »

I'm doing Psychology and I love it. It's so interesting and not too hard. There are two modules unrelated to Psychology that I have to do this year which I find really boring and so don't work for them at all. It kind of puts a dampner on the whole thing but aside from that the course is great. I'm already obsessed with looking up masters and I haven't even got first year over with. If anyone wants to know more about doing Psychology just give me a PM and I'll be happy to answer any questions you have.

I say that was serious points

cheesefiend

Wolfe Tone wrote: »

I say that was serious points

It wasn't at all. I'm doing it in IADT so it was 400. It's still level 8 and PSI accredited so it's worth the same as any of the courses with higher points. The difference is that it's Applied Psychology so in first year we do an ICT module and a Multimedia module. Then in second year the course is split into two strands. One is an applied where you do more computer modules and the other is a practical strand which is just the same as other courses. The other difference is that we have a Cyberpsychology module which as far as I know other courses don't have. It's such an interesting module, probably my favourite. You probably weren't looking for that much information but there ye go

EuropeanSon

I'm studying Mathematics in Trinity, and I love it. I'm very fond of the programming side of it especially so far, though there isn't going to be a great deal more of that after this year (there's none in 2nd year AFAIK).

jumpguy

I'm in LC at the moment.

I think deciding my career path at 17 is a bit of a ballbuster tbh. I was pretty sure for the last like...year and a half I wanted to do medicine. But now I'm not so much sure do I just want the challenge of getting into medicine (I'm weird like that, you see), or do I genuinely want to be a doctor etc. I'm always swaying one way or another now, "WILL I DO IT?!" "NO" "YES". I'd really LOVE to take a year out and get some work to just think it through and gain so more life experience (as well as money so I won't be completely dependent on my parents...for first year at least), but if I get medicine I can't defer it (there's also the matter of getting said job).

I'd like to do something quite broad, but general science degrees have fairly ":-/" job prospects and I'd have to do a postgrad to really get into something. That costs money. Money isn't plentiful anymore. I really want a good job on graduation, not to be on the dole for ages looking. I'm not too keen on emigrating on graduation either, but if I have to, I will.

Then again, medicine IS quite broad. If I don't wanna be a GP or whatever, I can be a consultant (through years of grovelling and hard-work, sure) or I can work in labs, although that's far less cool. As long as I'm happy. I could even be a medical entrepreneur, inventing shít, which is always what I've kinda wanted to do. Or I could find inspiration on the course. I dunno.

If I don't get medicine, I doubt I'll repeat unless I've made an absolute balls of the LC. If I do get medicine, I'll take it. I don't think anybody knows exactly what they'd like to do at 17/18, but fúckit, I can only pick one path, for better or for worse. I'll see how it goes.

(Wait, this thread is about study? Oh right...biology, chemistry, physics, maths, English, German = cool, Irish = WHYYYY?! )

flyswatter

Doing Computing/Software Development.

Not really happy with what I'm studying , no.

There will more than likely be a job at the end of it and that's really the only reason I'm sticking with it.

The thought of working in this field really doesn't appeal to me and my patience is running out fast.

Wolfe Tone

cheesefiend wrote: »

It wasn't at all. I'm doing it in IADT so it was 400. It's still level 8 and PSI accredited so it's worth the same as any of the courses with higher points. The difference is that it's Applied Psychology so in first year we do an ICT module and a Multimedia module. Then in second year the course is split into two strands. One is an applied where you do more computer modules and the other is a practical strand which is just the same as other courses. The other difference is that we have a Cyberpsychology module which as far as I know other courses don't have. It's such an interesting module, probably my favourite. You probably weren't looking for that much information but there ye go

That sounds cool all right

Paul.M92

I'm doing the LC this year and I had Commerce in NUI down on my CAO. But now I want to do nursing which I will have to go through a PLC course for as I don't have the right subjects and once I qualify I will spend a few years at it and then move on to medicine...

phasers

Did a year of media studies, didn't like the course, there was way too much theory and pretty much no practical. I figured that second year would be better, but then they stuck me in a major I didn't want so I dropped out.

I don't really have a direction for the future, I'm hoping I can go do media in a different college within the next year or two where you actually get to film things and get work experience.

Either that or teaching, which I've always been weirdly drawn to even though I don't like kids that much. They always seem to like me and I love explaining stuff to people. since there's no work in either field it's sort of a toss-up :pac:

In summation: DON'T DO COMMUNICATION STUDIES IN DCU

almostnever

I do Law in Trinity and I absolutely fúcking adore it.

Something I've noticed though: there are always going to be things about it I don't like. It's so strange to specialise to such an extent, especially after being " a good all rounder" in school. I miss science and English and my languages and stuff. I also dislike a lot of the people in my course and how horribly competitive it is.

But I do love it. I really do. I find it extremely interesting, stimulating and challenging. I wanna be a barrister and/or a lecturer and it's totally possible. I love how many options I have, how many different things I can do with it. I kinda sorta have a mentor in the form of a PhD student and he went through a lot of the same problems that I have since I started, I guess. So he gives me tips and stuff and helps me through the tougher times a bit. Like....the thing about college is that you go (well, I personally went...) from constantly getting 90%+ in exams to feeling really silly and incompetent most of the time and it can be a hard adjustment to make. Plus I miss English and French and chemistry and as a hopeless flake and the most indecisive person in the whole world ever, whenever I have a slightly bad day I always think I should have done science/Irish/pharmacy/insert random course here. I make this sound like I hate my course when I really don't, I actually love it. But especially for those of you who aren't in college yet, it's important to know that it's okay to feel overwhelmed by it all or to feel like you made the wrong decision every once in a while.

I can't ever actually see myself doing anything different. I love Law. I love legal writing and mooting and court visits (except the criminal courts, but I'm a strange torts and constitutional girl at heart!) and I am so unbelievably happy and lucky to be where I am now.

Wolfe Tone

almostnever wrote: »

I do Law in Trinity and I absolutely fúcking adore it.

Something I've noticed though: there are always going to be things about it I don't like. It's so strange to specialise to such an extent, especially after being " a good all rounder" in school. I miss science and English and my languages and stuff. I also dislike a lot of the people in my course and how horribly competitive it is.

But I do love it. I really do. I find it extremely interesting, stimulating and challenging. I wanna be a barrister and/or a lecturer and it's totally possible. I love how many options I have, how many different things I can do with it. I kinda sorta have a mentor in the form of a PhD student and he went through a lot of the same problems that I have since I started, I guess. So he gives me tips and stuff and helps me through the tougher times a bit. Like....the thing about college is that you go (well, I personally went...) from constantly getting 90%+ in exams to feeling really silly and incompetent most of the time and it can be a hard adjustment to make. Plus I miss English and French and chemistry and as a hopeless flake and the most indecisive person in the whole world ever, whenever I have a slightly bad day I always think I should have done science/Irish/pharmacy/insert random course here. I make this sound like I hate my course when I really don't, I actually love it. But especially for those of you who aren't in college yet, it's important to know that it's okay to feel overwhelmed by it all or to feel like you made the wrong decision every once in a while.

I can't ever actually see myself doing anything different. I love Law. I love legal writing and mooting and court visits (except the criminal courts, but I'm a strange torts and constitutional girl at heart!) and I am so unbelievably happy and lucky to be where I am now.

Thats cool, do you not find reading cases and the like very monotonous? Westlaw is the bane of my life

jubella

I did a year of Arts in UCD (Maths & French) and absolutely hated it for a number of reasons. I ended up failing French and decided not to repeat but to drop out.
So I took a year out, and now I'm in Maynooth studying business & accounting, and I absolutely looooove it I'm kicking myself that I didn't do that course in the first place, because I always had accountancy in the back of my mind.
There's really no point studying something that you don't enjoy, because I definitely didn't put in as much effort as I should have first time round!

almostnever

Wolfe Tone wrote: »

Thats cool, do you not find reading cases and the like very monotonous? Westlaw is the bane of my life

It depends. I tend to only read the actual cases if they're really important/leading or intrinsically interesting or funny. Any of Henchy J's judgments are just amazing, that guy. Some of them make me want to cry though, have you ever actually tried to read Crotty!? Ugh. Six attempts later and I still haven't gotten through it. Generally speaking though I don't find them overly monotonous. And I love articles, don't have a problem with them at all.

Carl Sagan

I'm doing Science. More specifically Chemistry, Biology and Geography. I love it but I've no idea how well I'm doing, but can tell I need a lot of study. Have only showed up for a few Geography lectures so I'm not really sure how well that'll go

Wolfe Tone

almostnever wrote: »

It depends. I tend to only read the actual cases if they're really important/leading or intrinsically interesting or funny. Any of Henchy J's judgments are just amazing, that guy. Some of them make me want to cry though, have you ever actually tried to read Crotty!? Ugh. Six attempts later and I still haven't gotten through it. Generally speaking though I don't find them overly monotonous. And I love articles, don't have a problem with them at all.

I wish I could get my hands on the printed editions of articles and cases, DCU library sucks. I find it hard to read off the PC screen.


The last case I read was R. v. Brown [1993] 2 All ER 75(the one with the gay lads cutting each other), thats scared me for a while, some messed up cases out there. Are you first or second year?

almostnever

Wolfe Tone wrote: »

I wish I could get my hands on the printed editions of articles and cases, DCU library sucks. I find it hard to read off the PC screen.


The last case I read was R. v. Brown [1993] 2 All ER 75(the one with the gay lads cutting each other), thats scared me for a while, some messed up cases out there. Are you first or second year?

Same here actually, I much prefer having the hard copies than reading off a screen but the Trinity library can be crap for them too. Especially when you find a journal after half an hour of searching and the relevant article is torn out...soul destroying stuff.

Ahhh, I can't read criminal cases. I read R v Stone and Dobbinson and cried my eyes out (and had two nightmares as a result), so yeah, way too overemotional for them. And then there are the cases that destroy your faith in humanity... so when it comes to criminal I get the facts from a book, find the relevant law and will attempt to scrape the pass and be done with it. I'm in first year, you?

Nemanja91

Currently studying Construction management and pretty happy with it, If I am not happy with my career and can apply to study to become a solicitor or barrister through my course although I can see myself working in construction industry for my life. I plan on moving to Australia, US or Canada when I finish though.

jefreywithonef

Not quite. I'm in the stereotypical Arts situation, doing a degree without really knowing what to do afterwards. That wouldn't be so bad if I enjoyed the subjects and what they entail but I'm mostly indifferent to it all. Too late to change course, not that I haven't spent almost a year deliberating over doing just that, but then again I haven't a clue what else to do. Bad buzz.

**Timbuk2**

Doing Actuarial Science in UCD and love it! I'm only in first year, so hopefully my opinions don't change - I hear that it increases in difficulty significantly from 2nd year onwards.

I really love all the subjects I'm doing - Maths, Stats, Accounting, Programming and Economics (not too taken with the economics modules, but the rest is great - especially stats).

I've always been insecure (or something?) about not being good enough to do it. This wasn't helped at all by literally scraping my way (pointwise) into the course. Having got the minimum points for the course, I felt I would be the worst of the whole group (there's 40 of us!).

I don't think that's actually the case though - it can be daunting sitting in a maths tutorial and seeing people working out complex problems that I haven't figured out how to start yet, but I'm keeping up with the workflow (I probably have to work harder than people with more natural ability), and was extremely happy with my exam results at Christmas!