Am I Mad?

Ryan100

I was just picking my courses there on my CAO form and I had intended to pick general science but recently I've become very interested in Physics and was thinking of putting down Physics with Biomedical Science in DCU.
Now the thing is, I'm not doing Physics for the Leaving Cert, I'm doing Ag Science, Biology and Chemistry at Higher and Ordinary Maths. I'm a repeat student and I got 450 last year with A1 in Bio, B1 in Chemistry and B1 in Ordinary Maths, new to Ag Science but hoping for an A this year. I always wanted to do physics but couldn't fit it in my timetable. Am I completely mad to be thinking about doing a degree with a large amount of physics?
Would like to hear if you think it would be manageable.
Thanks for your help!
I'm interested in other physics degrees too, that's why I didn't put this in the DCU forum. Better say that before this gets moved :P

ChemHickey

Hello Ryan,
Hahah I'm in a similar situation to you! I couldn't do physics for Leaving cert either :mad: but I did always enjoy it! I'm planning on doing Mathematical Science in NUIG and probably will end up focusing on App Maths (even though I haven't done it before!). But the thing is that you are not mad! If you do seem to have a genuine interest, then I'd say look into the course content and see if it interests you or if it doesn't, especially if it allows you to focus mainly on biomed or physics in the final years (as then if you did't realy like physics you still can focus on that!) And anyway, usually courses start from basic physics (vcatering for those who never have done it before) so don't worry with it not being manageable.
But, I'm doing what you're doing, one of my choices for CAO is Physics and Astrophysics (having never done physics before! :L )

Ryan100

ChemHickey wrote: »

Hello Ryan,
Hahah I'm in a similar situation to you! I couldn't do physics for Leaving cert either :mad: but I did always enjoy it! I'm planning on doing Mathematical Science in NUIG and probably will end up focusing on App Maths (even though I haven't done it before!). But the thing is that you are not mad! If you do seem to have a genuine interest, then I'd say look into the course content and see if it interests you or if it doesn't, especially if it allows you to focus mainly on biomed or physics in the final years (as then if you did't realy like physics you still can focus on that!) And anyway, usually courses start from basic physics (vcatering for those who never have done it before) so don't worry with it not being manageable.
But, I'm doing what you're doing, one of my choices for CAO is Physics and Astrophysics (having never done physics before! :L )

Haha, nice to know I'm not the only one who's thinking of taking the risk :P I'm extremely interested in Astronomy as well and might stick Physics and Astronomy in DCU on the CAO somewhere :P And thanks for the advice

bscm

It would be a challenge, but if you work at it you'll be fine.

Get a copy of a Leaving Cert Physics book and go over the course during the summer. The courses in college start from the "basics" but they quickly progress (I'm talking 2-3 lectures later) to harder/more in-depth subject matter.

It's not impossible, but do go over the course beforehand. Calculus gets added in fairly quickly and it helps to recognise formulae amongst the derivations and integrals

_Bella_

Ryan100 wrote: »

I was just picking my courses there on my CAO form and I had intended to pick general science but recently I've become very interested in Physics and was thinking of putting down Physics with Biomedical Science in DCU.
Now the thing is, I'm not doing Physics for the Leaving Cert, I'm doing Ag Science, Biology and Chemistry at Higher and Ordinary Maths. I'm a repeat student and I got 450 last year with A1 in Bio, B1 in Chemistry and B1 in Ordinary Maths, new to Ag Science but hoping for an A this year. I always wanted to do physics but couldn't fit it in my timetable. Am I completely mad to be thinking about doing a degree with a large amount of physics?
Would like to hear if you think it would be manageable.
Thanks for your help!
I'm interested in other physics degrees too, that's why I didn't put this in the DCU forum. Better say that before this gets moved :P

If you are sure Physics is the way to go, then go for it. But I would keep in mind that in a general science degree after two years you will be able to focus on Physics if you find you do love it, and it also means if it's not for you, you are able to do a different science subject.

cianserian

ryan, i would tread very cautiously here. i mean you don't even have higher level maths? and maths is such a fundamental part of physics..not to mention you don't have any physics under your belt either! :L i'd love to know where you got this notion of liking physics from haha but anyway you never know your instinct might be absolutely spot on when you get to college

Ryan100

cianserian wrote: »

ryan, i would tread very cautiously here. i mean you don't even have higher level maths? and maths is such a fundamental part of physics..not to mention you don't have any physics under your belt either! :L i'd love to know where you got this notion of liking physics from haha but anyway you never know your instinct might be absolutely spot on when you get to college

Well, I always enjoyed Physics at Junior Cert (Although, tbh, how much Physics is there really in the JC ) And then, like I said, I had intended to pick it up for LC but couldn't and I have an old text book and I've read most of it and it seems quite interesting and then since the main course I'm interested in is a mixture of Physics of Biomedical Science and I've always had an interest in Biomedical Science and going into the medical device industry (X Rays, MRIs, all that jazz) and I just thought I'd consider putting it down on my CAO. Then again, I don't have any proper classroom physics experience so I could hate it when the time comes so I definitely will think it over carefully as the level of Maths is the thing I'm most worried about. Thanks for your help.

Ryan100

_Bella_ wrote: »

If you are sure Physics is the way to go, then go for it. But I would keep in mind that in a general science degree after two years you will be able to focus on Physics if you find you do love it, and it also means if it's not for you, you are able to do a different science subject.

Yeah, that seems like the best thing to do. I'll be putting general science down so if I do love it or hate I have the option to opt in or out of it

ApeXaviour

Ryan100 wrote: »

I was just picking my courses there on my CAO form and I had intended to pick general science but recently I've become very interested in Physics and was thinking of putting down Physics with Biomedical Science in DCU.
Now the thing is, I'm not doing Physics for the Leaving Cert, I'm doing Ag Science, Biology and Chemistry at Higher and Ordinary Maths. I'm a repeat student and I got 450 last year with A1 in Bio, B1 in Chemistry and B1 in Ordinary Maths, new to Ag Science but hoping for an A this year. I always wanted to do physics but couldn't fit it in my timetable. Am I completely mad to be thinking about doing a degree with a large amount of physics?
Would like to hear if you think it would be manageable.
I'm interested in other physics degrees too, that's why I didn't put this in the DCU forum. Better say that before this gets moved :P

Often the only difference between entering a general science course and entering something like "physics with biomedical science" is that in the latter you have less choice. For example I did Science in TCD as an undergrad and my chosen subjects were physics, chemistry and maths. Those who did Nanoscience (used to be known as PCAM) sat in exactly the same classes as me bar none for the first two years. I had a choice in the first three years which subjects I wanted to pursue, they didn't (well without transferring at least). As someone else pointed out you tend to specialise half way through. My degree was a Bachelors in Physics, not science.

I would counsel choosing a general science course as it will allow you the flexibility to chop and change with none of the drawbacks. You may find that physics really isn't for you. Even though I didn't enter directly into a course labelled physics, I wasn't impeded and I'm currently completing my PhD in Physics (submitting next week fingers crossed).

Edit: just read your last post. Take my advice as bolstering your decision so.

Ryan100

ApeXaviour wrote: »

Often the only difference between entering a general science course and entering something like "physics with biomedical science" is that in the latter you have less choice. For example I did Science in TCD as an undergrad and my chosen subjects were physics, chemistry and maths. Those who did Nanoscience (used to be known as PCAM) sat in exactly the same classes as me bar none for the first two years. I had a choice in the first three years which subjects I wanted to pursue, they didn't (well without transferring at least). As someone else pointed out you tend to specialise half way through. My degree was a Bachelors in Physics, not science.

I would counsel choosing a general science course as it will allow you the flexibility to chop and change with none of the drawbacks. You may find that physics really isn't for you. Even though I didn't enter directly into a course labelled physics, I wasn't impeded and I'm currently completing my PhD in Physics (submitting next week fingers crossed).

Edit: just read your last post. Take my advice as bolstering your decision so.

Thanks for the good advice Much appreciated! And good luck with your PhD