civil engineering (BE civil) UCC

tommyddd

was just wondering does any one have information on this coure.If they did it or not

confusticated

I'm in final year, what do you want to know?

tommyddd

cheers,want to be a structural engineer,so would it worth my while going ucc or structural engineering degree in cit

confusticated

If you're dead set on structural, I'd probably go with CIT. I was considering it too but wasn't sure I wanted structural, so I went for UCC because you've a few more options (environmental, building services). I've ended up specialising in structural anyway and you do cover a fair bit of structural design. You've classes in structures from first year like, and I'd say the courses aren't too different in the end, but the CIT one is probably more in depth. On the other hand then you probably wouldn't study subjects like transport or fluids, which you would do in Civil.

tommyddd

Is the course recognised abroad because I know both are highly regarded in ireland ?

confusticated

No idea about the CIT one, UCC is accredited in most countries alright, definitely is in Canada because we had a talk on it a few weeks ago.
And it's accepted for masters abroad, don't know about every country but a lot of people are going/have gone to Edinburgh and London for postgrads from it.

tommyddd

Is the CIT master any good?Would they accept UCC students,London and Edinburgh seem pretty far.

confusticated

tommyddd wrote: »

Is the CIT master any good?Would they accept UCC students,London and Edinburgh seem pretty far.

Irish third level colleges will generally accept students for masters who did their undergrad in another Irish college, yes. It'd depend on your grades though, and the masters depends on what you're interested in - there's no point deciding that before you've even started your undergrad!

padraiggriffin

confusticated wrote: »

I'm in final year, what do you want to know?

i have the ordinary civil (3 year) degree in cit done,
i applied to UCC to transfer into 3rd year civil to finish the hons degree
but i also have 3rd year structural eng as an option.

i feel structural eng is harder- it has lots of hours and huge work load, the semester system also means you have class tests and reports and projects every 4 to 6 weeks and they usually fall in the same week and go wright up to the end of semester exams so they take up lots time where you could otherwise be studying for each semesters exams.

but on the other hand im familiar with the CIT system, its a lot of work but more hands on, can get a lot of help from lecturers in tutorials and in class you cover all the necessary material.

just wondering what UCC is like ?? how do you find the subjects and lecturers ?? are they good, do they go through examples and give help in tutorials if you need it or does it require you to do all the research on your own??
structural mechanics, and design are the main ones in concerned with.

also i have been out of collage for 2 years now (finished 3rd year in 2010) and im rusty so i dont want to pick the wrong one,
structural eng is intense but i dont want to go into UCC and find its all up to yourself to learn how to design the reinfored concrete - structural steel and timber isnt too bad, rebar sizing/spacing is where i need help.

any information you could give me would be greatly appreciated
thanks

confusticated

padraiggriffin wrote: »

i have the ordinary civil (3 year) degree in cit done,
i applied to UCC to transfer into 3rd year civil to finish the hons degree
but i also have 3rd year structural eng as an option.

i feel structural eng is harder- it has lots of hours and huge work load, the semester system also means you have class tests and reports and projects every 4 to 6 weeks and they usually fall in the same week and go wright up to the end of semester exams so they take up lots time where you could otherwise be studying for each semesters exams.

but on the other hand im familiar with the CIT system, its a lot of work but more hands on, can get a lot of help from lecturers in tutorials and in class you cover all the necessary material.

just wondering what UCC is like ?? how do you find the subjects and lecturers ?? are they good, do they go through examples and give help in tutorials if you need it or does it require you to do all the research on your own??
structural mechanics, and design are the main ones in concerned with.

also i have been out of collage for 2 years now (finished 3rd year in 2010) and im rusty so i dont want to pick the wrong one,
structural eng is intense but i dont want to go into UCC and find its all up to yourself to learn how to design the reinfored concrete - structural steel and timber isnt too bad, rebar sizing/spacing is where i need help.

any information you could give me would be greatly appreciated
thanks

I don't know what structural eng in CIT is like, because I didn't do it, so any comparison I'd make would be worthless, sorry!

One thing about UCC is you don't have any big Christmas exams, so at least projects you've due before Christmas are a bit easier to get finished, but then you could have 10 exams plus in May, which is fairly tiring by the time you get to the end of it.

CAD in fourth year is mainly reinforced concrete if you do the Structural stream. You can pick between that, Building Services and Environmental. If you're unsure of exactly which you'd prefer, UCC might be a better choice because you wouldn't have to go with structural if it turned out you didn't like it, but that depends on you and what you liked in the civil degree previously. I know the lads who came in from CIT were very well on in CAD and practical work, but maybe struggled a bit more with maths and the less hands-on stuff, so be prepared for a bit of a learning curve just in adapting to the different system.

We didn't really have tutorials in final year - 3rd year might have been different but I didn't do it in UCC so can't really say, but a lot of the classes were fairly small and the lecturers are generally available if you need to go see them if you have a problem. That's the main thing I'd say really that would be different - the help is there, but you have to go and ask for it like, if you don't say anything they'll assume you understand. The structural CAD lecturer was very nice, and approachable and would take the most basic of questions (I'd missed a lot of CAD because of 3rd year so he had to take a LOT of basic questions from me!) but his answers would often be a bit vague - I suppose because a lot of the time there isn't one right answer in design.

I'd say mostly be careful with how you pick your subjects too, in 3rd year less so but in 4th year there's a massive amount of choice, including management and language modules if you want, so if you're a bit rusty on the engineering side of things they might be an option just to break it up a bit.

Sorry for the massive post, if I've missed anything out or you've any other questions fire away!

padraiggriffin

confusticated wrote: »

I don't know what structural eng in CIT is like, because I didn't do it, so any comparison I'd make would be worthless, sorry!

One thing about UCC is you don't have any big Christmas exams, so at least projects you've due before Christmas are a bit easier to get finished, but then you could have 10 exams plus in May, which is fairly tiring by the time you get to the end of it.

CAD in fourth year is mainly reinforced concrete if you do the Structural stream. You can pick between that, Building Services and Environmental. If you're unsure of exactly which you'd prefer, UCC might be a better choice because you wouldn't have to go with structural if it turned out you didn't like it, but that depends on you and what you liked in the civil degree previously. I know the lads who came in from CIT were very well on in CAD and practical work, but maybe struggled a bit more with maths and the less hands-on stuff, so be prepared for a bit of a learning curve just in adapting to the different system.

We didn't really have tutorials in final year - 3rd year might have been different but I didn't do it in UCC so can't really say, but a lot of the classes were fairly small and the lecturers are generally available if you need to go see them if you have a problem. That's the main thing I'd say really that would be different - the help is there, but you have to go and ask for it like, if you don't say anything they'll assume you understand. The structural CAD lecturer was very nice, and approachable and would take the most basic of questions (I'd missed a lot of CAD because of 3rd year so he had to take a LOT of basic questions from me!) but his answers would often be a bit vague - I suppose because a lot of the time there isn't one right answer in design.

I'd say mostly be careful with how you pick your subjects too, in 3rd year less so but in 4th year there's a massive amount of choice, including management and language modules if you want, so if you're a bit rusty on the engineering side of things they might be an option just to break it up a bit.

Sorry for the massive post, if I've missed anything out or you've any other questions fire away!

thanks for the post.
i will have to start looking over design and structural mechanics anyways.
any chance you know whats involved in the environmental stream if you pick that in 4th yr.

confusticated

padraiggriffin wrote: »

thanks for the post.
i will have to start looking over design and structural mechanics anyways.
any chance you know whats involved in the environmental stream if you pick that in 4th yr.

Each stream has 2 compulsory subjects and its own design module. Afair the subjects for the environmental stream are Hydraulics and Water and Wastewater Treatment. The CAD is the design of a wastewater/sewage treatment plant but I think a fair bit of it is a report, not just the technical design specs. It's generally regarded as the easiest CAD by far, and most people in the year did it.

You can also pick subjects that are in other streams as option subjects to make up the 60 credits if you want, so you can still study eg. Structures even if you're doing the environmental stream.