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Are you happy with what you're studying?
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In 5th year at the moment and don't know what I want to do
.. Every so often I change my mind.. Somedays I think I'd love primary teaching but the odds of getting a job after are slim and I dunno if I have the confidence for it .. Wouldn't mind doing music through arts either or psychology. I like business too so maybe business studies in UL. God help me this time next year when I have to decide :rolleyes:
At school I love music
.. Like the rest of my subjects except english and maths 0 -
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I did a year of Medicine, was really unhappy for the entire year (although I'll never be 100% sure how much of that was me disliking the course, and how much was my mental well-being at the time), dropped out because I wasn't enjoying it enough. I felt there were other courses that I'd enjoy at least as much, if not more, and I think that with Medicine you need to know that it's the course for you. With that said, I know that pretty much every med student has gone through some form of huge doubts about their course - so who knows!
Anyway, I took a year out and worked for the full year. I started Theoretical Physics in 2009 in Trinity and am in second year now. I'm now a Maths student (transferring into either Maths or Physics from TP is very, very common!) because I felt that it would make me a better theoretical physicist than the TP course (strange but true!) and that it would also open up a lot of other options for me. It's amazing, I can go into so many things from this course. Teaching is the obvious, finance (and there's so many areas in that - actuarial maths, quants, trading, etc), pure mathematics research and theoretical physics research - not to mention all the careers that like it as a "general" degree.
It seems like I'm talking a lot about career options here.. Frankly, I don't really care what I earn or what I'm doing once I'm happy. Studying Maths (weirdly enough) makes me happy, and that's a damn sight more important than the paragraph above. I wasn't happy studying med, but I love my course now, and the fact that I don't have a set life-plan now.
EuropeanSon wrote: »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).
You can do a lot of CS modules in the Sophister years so don't worry about that. There's a lot of very cool courses you can take!Wolfe Tone wrote: »The last case I read was R. v. Brown
Ah! The case where giving consent doesn't count for much.. Good times.. Fish-hooks and candlewax if I remember the story correctly. Ew. >_<0 -
Anybody who reads my "ARGH"s could see I pretty much hate my course. I'm doing Spanish with ancient history and archaeology (TSM) in Trinity but I'm currently on erasmus in Spain.
I never even knew you went to Trinity! Is the TSM program three or four years long? If it's only three, you've only got another two left in it.
But yeah to make my own post more broad (I kinda rushed it at the end of the opening..).
I'm hoping to do Business in UL (It seems fairly achievable, so hopefully.) and I don't really know what specific area I'd like to go in to. I love marketing, like I adore it, everyone in my family just presumes I'm going to go into it because my personality is suited to it. It's really the area I'm most interested in right now, along with Human Relations (But with the current economy, jobs are extremely scarce in both!). I had B.I.S number one on my CAO but I decided specifying into such a rigid area of Business straight off from first year would just be a bad idea. I know some people see Business courses as just an alternative to Arts, but to be fair the Business course in UL is one of the best in the country. Especially with the Co-Op, it makes it easier to find a potential job for when you've finished the course.
So yeah, on that note what do you all think of your colleges? I've only been to WIT, UCC and UL, and UL was by far the most impressive. The campus is just wow!0 -
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Well, I doubt it's a secret to anyone here that I hated college. I did a year and a half of arts in UCD, Sociology and Psychology. I enjoyed parts of psychology but hated sociology, which seeing as it was my major wasn't the best. I did well in first year, I had gotten good grades.
Then second year came, I was really hoping things would be better. I hadn't gotten to know anyone in my course in first year, as I'm quite shy and there was 500 people in all of my lectures. Then by second year, everyone had already made friends, my other friends from school in UCD had their own college friends, so I was constantly by myself. With arts, that's a lot of time spent sitting around for 3-4 hour gaps between lectures. It began making me pretty depressed, I was incredibly lonely, hated what I was doing and hated UCD. I think there was a month where I didn't go to lectures.
I had a long hard think about things over christmas holidays and decided enough was enough, I couldn't do it any more. I talked to my parents about everything, about how down it was getting me, how even if I finished, I'd be starting something else from scratch. I told them, that even if they wouldn't help me money wise I was still dropping out. They took it a lot better than I thought, they weren't surprised to be honest. They agreed to pay my tuition fees when I go back next year, as long as I support myself.
So I'm going back next year to do culinary arts. I'm so excited to do it, I can't wait to be finally be doing something I like. It's going to be tough, I'm saving every penny I earn at the moment and it can get quite boring with most of my friends in college. But I don't regret anything. I'd do it again in a heartbeat. That course had me in a bad place, it was never what I wanted to do, it was my 5th choice on my CAO so it wasn't remotely what I wanted to do. Only 7 months left 0 -
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I'm in LC at the moment.
I think deciding my career path at 17 is a bit of a ballbuster tbh.
Man, this is so true for me right now :P, I'm completely unsure as to what I want to do next year. My problem is I genuinely like every subject I'm doing in school, and well, they are pretty wide ranging. I guess I'll just have to eventually make a decision and if I like the course I like it, and if I don't I don't.Anyway, I took a year out and worked for the full year. I started Theoretical Physics in 2009 in Trinity and am in second year now. I'm now a Maths student (transferring into either Maths or Physics from TP is very, very common!) because I felt that it would make me a better theoretical physicist than the TP course (strange but true!) and that it would also open up a lot of other options for me. It's amazing, I can go into so many things from this course. Teaching is the obvious, finance (and there's so many areas in that - actuarial maths, quants, trading, etc), pure mathematics research and theoretical physics research - not to mention all the careers that like it as a "general" degree.
It seems like I'm talking a lot about career options here.. Frankly, I don't really care what I earn or what I'm doing once I'm happy. Studying Maths (weirdly enough) makes me happy, and that's a damn sight more important than the paragraph above. I wasn't happy studying med, but I love my course now, and the fact that I don't have a set life-plan now.
>_<
Thanks a lot for this! I have TP down on my CAO right now, and it's reassuring to hear the possible pathways which come from it (ie. the opportunity to change to maths). It may well change come July, but right now it's number 1 on my CAO, the Open Day stuff relating to it was quite cool - and seemed genuinely interesting.0 -
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Bottleopener wrote: »Thanks a lot for this! I have TP down on my CAO right now, and it's reassuring to hear the possible pathways which come from it (ie. the opportunity to change to maths). It may well change come July, but right now it's number 1 on my CAO, the Open Day stuff relating to it was quite cool - and seemed genuinely interesting.
No problem! I decided to put TP first on my CAO as I was interested in both maths and physics, and I knew there would be opportunities to transfer either way should I so wish later on, whereas if I'd started out in pure Maths, or in Physics through Science, it would have been a lot more difficult to get into TP. It did turn out that I enjoyed maths more, but I'm totally happy with my decision. If you have any questions about the course, feel free to PM me and I can tell you plenty about it at this point! 0 -
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I do Law in UCD, and... mostly I love it. I think.
Not gonna pretend it's not boring at times, it is. Some areas of law are very, very dull. Others I've found very dull in class, but then wished I'd actually spent a bit of time on them as I'm frantically trying to cram it all in the night before the exam (because let's face it, if I didn't read for tutorials, I'm not gonna read it when I'm not doing the module >_>). For the most part though, it's extremely interesting.
I particularly like that we operate a system of precedent. Despite the fact that I have read one and a half cases in my two years in UCD (The one about David Norris wanting to get the ride, and one about snails in ginger ale), I like people's stories, and it makes it really easy to see the reasoning behind decisions. I learn well that way, and it just generally makes things more interesting I took a module with almost no cases (I had over 200 cases to learn for a single 5 credit module last year so having none was very odd) and it really made me realise that I love my cases. Not gonna read them though. They're like freaking novels. There isn't enough time in the world. But I like hearing case facts! Stories make me happy.
To echo almostnever though, it is pretty competitive, and seems to attract a lot of a certain kind of people who I just can't deal with. There are good, good people too, but generally there's a little too much sneaky, competitive, social-climbing-y **** and those are the people who make us all seem like soulless cúnts. We're not, swearz!
Despite all the things I do like about it, I probably won't end up doing anything law-related once I'm done though. There are certain subjects you have to take to be able to go to the bar/join the Law Society (essentially, become a barrister/solicitor) and I'm taking everything I need to qualify for things, to keep my options open (because frankly, doing a law degree without doing the necessary subjects is a bit retarded) but I'd much prefer to write for a living. This is probably a better way of going about it than a journalism degree anyway (though really, I'm not even sure I wanna be a journalist) and I couldn't really see myself doing any other degree! I love Law, and there really isn't anything else I can think of that I'd want to put on a theoretical CAO form.almostnever wrote: »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.
You're not strange! Torts is heartbreaking (Nervous Shock and Medical Negligence made me so very angry
) but so, so interesting. Can be dealing without the entire first half of the constitution, but Constitutional Rights is awesome! I'm taking ECHR Rights this semester and I love it (you gotta do it if you ever wanna practice in the UK, so you should probably take it at some point anyway, but it's similar to Cons Rights, only bigger, and with stranger case names (woo, that'll be fun come exam time. DIE CASE NAMES DIE)). Do you do Criminal in first year? I don't find it half as interesting as most people think it will be (we do all of criminal in second year!)....My favourite part of college though is the people. I put myself in the position where I got myself involved in various societies and I love doing that kind of stuff. I am meeting new people on a very regular basis. I also know the vast majority of my course aswell.
Noel; I would say this to you: There is alot more to college than the course, if you get yourself involved. You will most likely enjoy college and probably have no regrets when you leave college.
Firstly, you my dear chose the wrong half of constitutional! :P Also, to any future UCDers wishing to sample Law, choose a McDermott module. Ask MavisDavis, I'm almost certain she'll back me up. They are 
. So much .
Secondly, I agree with the whole point about college being more than the course. Last year I didn't get involved in anything because I was still finding my feet in the first semester and then just didn't know how in the second. At the start of this year I got involved in a million things, to the point where it got ridiculous and I had no time to like, breathe. I've stopped doing so many things now and I'm left with stuff I really, really love. I'm part of the Welfare Crew, through which I've met awesome, awesome people, and it generally makes me happy; I write for the paper every week, and I'm on the comedy soc committee (which, tbh, mostly constitutes turning up to things and laughing. It's not particularly challenging :P). I enjoy college so much more this year, and there are days when they only reason I turn up to college is extra-curricular stuff. Making friends outside your own faculty is pretty nice too Sending emails to say I wanted to be involved in stuff was probably the best decision I've made about college, ever.
ALL THE WORDS. To summarise; I love Law, for the mostpart, but will probably be done with it after college. Also, everybody sign up for stuff and actually do get involved. It will make college a billion times better 0 -
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I knew that most people from C&H studied in Dublin, but I didn't expect this many. Do any of you study anywhere except Dublin?
Also @Sarcastic Fairy, great post! took me ages to read it, so it must have took you a lot of time to write it! 0 -
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Did a year in DCU of Quantitative Finance. Actually passed a few of my exams despite going in less than 50% of the time before Christmas and probably 10-20% of the time after Christmas and no other effort. I love maths but for whatever reason couldn't get into the course at all. It was a small group and none of us seemed all that bothered with getting to know each other. Combined with a campus I didn't like and some personal stuff and drugs and a 50 mile commute it just wasn't for me.
Took a year out and was hoping to do medicine. Kicked ass in the HPAT but didn't do anything at all for the LC so settled on Science in TCD instead. Love the campus and despite finding certain things about the place unpleasant and not having bothered to try to make any friends I don't dislike sitting around doing fcuk all all day. :pac: Tried to use the library once in first year and failed. :P Still haven't been in the library where the sciencey books are so I still haven't really gotten into the groove. Still though, scraped into 2nd year and getting decent marks for most of what I've handed up so far this year, still passing my worst subject as far as I know.
Not a clue what I'm going to do when I'm finished tbh. Don't think I like the idea of research and all that. Would quite like to do something in maths though, however useless that may be. :P Also if I stay as lazy this year there's a chance I'll end up doing Geography, so I'd end up with a BA in Geography, not what I was aiming for. :pac:
The course is fine, handy enough, though a lot of stuff has fallen together to be due this week and as a last-minute kinda person the next few days are going to be horrible.
I regret that I screwed up my first attempt at college, having to pay the fees for first year means I'm pretty broke for the foreseeable future and have to keep commuting until my last year at least. Still, it's worked out fairly well. 0 -
I never even knew you went to Trinity! Is the TSM program three or four years long? If it's only three, you've only got another two left in it.
TSM is 4 years but I only have to do one subject in 4th year so Spanish it is!
I absolutely adore Trinity though. I've never gotten too much of the "Oh la dee dah" sort of stuff although it is kind of annoying when people say that my parents must be proud of me as though they wouldn't be if I was studying somewhere else.
The only thing I would say about doing a general art (or presumable science) degree is that it is harder to make friends because you don't have the same classes with the same crowd all the time and your timetables probably won't match. My friends doing law or pharmacy etc. all have a much tighter group of college friends because they stick together much more. Not that that's a reason to choose or not choose a course but it is something to think about.0 -
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First of all, this was a great thread to start Noel. It's been a really interesting read.
So me then.....oh Jaysus. Physics & Maths at UCC.....I don't know how the hell I manage to love and loathe a course so much in equal measures, but I somehow manage it.
At this stage I've realised that I really like and enjoy Maths, but cannot stand Physics. If I could do my CAO again, I would definitely enter through Math Science instead of through Physics. I would have gotten to study more things that I enjoy and am actually semi-decent at. Aswell as growing to despise physics, I am fúcking useless at it. The most basic concepts have flown out of my head by now because I just can't make myself care about them anymore. Physics is a fascinating subject to read about in a popular science way, but studying it makes me lose the will to live.
Electromagnetism + Classical Mechanics + Thermodynamics = HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE, EVIL, GO AWAY, RAAAAARGHHH, DO NOT WANT!!!!
Whereas Calculus + Functional Analysis + Linear Algebra = ZOMG <333333333333333333!!!!
I'm not sure how much my hatred for my course has to do with the course itself and how much of it has to do with the constant horrible personal problems I've been having. But shur fúck it, I'm hoping to continue with Maths. I'm looking at doing a Masters in UCD. Shur it'll be graaaaaand!
^ This is another reason I regret not doing Math Science. My course has had zero programming at all in it, and I'll definitely be at a disadvantage when it comes to applying for jobs. I have basic knowledge of Mathematica and LaTeX, but nothing beyond that. I never did C or C++ programming.EuropeanSon wrote: »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). That's probably gonna come back and bite me in the ass some time.
Massive +1.Wolfe Tone wrote: »I would advise everyone if it is possible dont commute from home, go live on campus or nearby. I live with my grandfather near DCU, but I would love to live with a group of students.
I commuted when I was in first year. Never again.
You just don't get the proper "student experience" when you live at home. And I'm a firm believer that you need to have a decent social life/student experience or else you won't really enjoy your course. I'm not sure everyone will agree with this though.....
Wait WHAT? You do computer science?I enjoy CS immensely
How did I never know that?0 -
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 don't think I've even full passed through that phase yet...KnifeWRENCH wrote: »At this stage I've realised that I really like and enjoy Maths, but cannot stand Physics. If I could do my CAO again, I would definitely enter through Math Science instead of through Physics. I would have gotten to study more things that I enjoy and am actually semi-decent at. Aswell as growing to despise physics, I am fúcking useless at it. The most basic concepts have flown out of my head by now because I just can't make myself care about them anymore. Physics is a fascinating subject to read about in a popular science way, but studying it makes me lose the will to live.
That's exactly how I feel. I never cared about it. I just found it deathly boring, day in day out...^ This is another reason I regret not doing Math Science. My course has had zero programming at all in it, and I'll definitely be at a disadvantage when it comes to applying for jobs. I have basic knowledge of Mathematica and LaTeX, but nothing beyond that. I never did C or C++ programming. That's probably gonna come back and bite me in the ass some time.
Actually, they changed the Physics course so they do all that programming stuff. It's almost the same as doing Maths Science.
Anyhoo, I'm doing Maths Science in UCC, repeating first year like a fool. The course itself is really good, the modules are a great mixture of being challenging and really interesting. Aside from the electives, which last year were two physics modules. I failed one of them and picked Economics instead, which is kinda alright. It's not fantastically interesting, but it's a bazillion times better than Physics II anyway.
The Maths modules themselves are pretty sweet though. I loved Abstract Algebra, Linear Algebra and Math Modelling when I did them last year. It was real maths, unlike the stuff we did in school. They were tough though, but rewarding. Calculus is good as well. It's similarish in content to Leaving Cert, but it looks at it in a very different way, with emphasis on proofs.
And next year, the modules look freaking FANTASTIC. With names like C/C++ Programming, Mathematical Experimentationn and Chaos, Discrete Mathematics, and more, what's not to love?! Just this year, I'm in a bit of a rut. I've only 7 hours a week of college, so I'm seriously bored all the time. I'd love to do some real maths!
Long story short, I am pretty happy with my course, though obviously not happy with the fact I'm in first year again!0 -
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