cao points drop for ucc

mahad086

hey I'm thinking of either doing b.com, accounting or fiancee at ucc.
what are the chances that the points would drop in UCC.

IHeartChemistry

Nobody can tell you if the points are gonna drop or rise, because as you should know, points cannot be predicted until this years Leaving Cert results come out and the number of applicants going for any of these courses in UCC.

Good luck and I hope you end up getting the course you want next year!

mahad086

ya but as it also depends the amount of people take those courses what is your say on the amount of people that might take the business courses.

IHeartChemistry

http://www2.cao.ie/app_stats/pdf/AppStats01Feb2012.pdf

Robbed that off the CAO site. I dunno about the Business courses! I only have info on Arts or Science! I recon applicants for all of these would be high enough though. Really, you'd just be better waiting until August and the points because you cannot predict any of this no matter how hard you try!

Patriciamc93

IHeartChemistry wrote: »

http://www2.cao.ie/app_stats/pdf/AppStats01Feb2012.pdf

Robbed that off the CAO site. I dunno about the Business courses! I only have info on Arts or Science! I recon applicants for all of these would be high enough though. Really, you'd just be better waiting until August and the points because you cannot predict any of this no matter how hard you try!

Well I am doing 1st finance ..... I think it went up 5 or something last year but I can't really see it changing to much! Accounting drop something like 90 last year so that shows you can never predict what's gonna happen!


If you want to know anything bout finance or accounting let me know I might be able to help

mahad086

hey so i am pretty interested in both accounting and finance. but i put b.com as my first choice on CAO. could you tl me the difference between the accounting course and finance course and what i might be learning.

Salty

The points drop for Accounting was fairly unexpected last year so if you were interested in pursuing that course, I'd recommend you study for it as if it's gonna jump by 50 as it could happen! It dropped by 50 last year and the low points could make it more attractive to people interested in a business degree.

I don't actually study Accounting but my bf does so I can't comment on the content of the course itself. I do know that Accounting and Finance seem to take a lot of lectures together. Commerce is a good choice if you're unsure of what you want to do, but know you're interested in business. It's like the Arts of the business courses and allows you more time to decide what you want to do!

mahad086

Ya but how are cao points acctually lowered for a course

JohnMearsheimer

It's supply and demand. A course has a certain number of places. If there are more applicants with high points than there are places available, points will remain high. If a course is struggling to fill its places, points will drop. The likelihood of points dropping for a course depends on how many applicants a course receives and how well all the applicants go on to do in their Leaving Certs. For Commerce, Accounting and Finance I would be aiming for 450-460 points to be safe.

Meglamonia

Have accountancy as No.1on my CAO surely it won't jump 50 points like it dropped 50last year?

mahad086

u think it will drop more

Salty

Meglamonia wrote: »

Have accountancy as No.1on my CAO surely it won't jump 50 points like it dropped 50last year?

It absolutely could! If it can drop so extensively there's no reason why it couldn't go the other way! Just be careful!:P

Patriciamc93

mahad086 wrote: »

hey so i am pretty interested in both accounting and finance. but i put b.com as my first choice on CAO. could you tl me the difference between the accounting course and finance course and what i might be learning.

Sorry I'm late getting back to you ....... exams and all that fun stuff!

Am well there are a few things that are different.

1) Accounting exemptions: Well in accounting you get all exams for you CAP1 exams but in finance you get all but one. However at the start of this year the head of the course said that in finance they do that one exam for those who are interested. So there really is no difference.
Of course this would only apply to your decision if you knew that accounting is what you wanted to do.

2) Placement in third year: In accounting you are restricted to doing a placement in financial or management accounting or with investments. In finance you can do the above or placements in economics, banking etc.

3) Subjects: I can only tell you about first year but the finance subjects are 3 accounting (financial, management and corporate finance) and 3 economics (economics, statistic in economics and maths for economics).
Accounting subjects 3 accounting (financial, management and corporate finance) business statistics, introduction to business systems and two economics subjects.
If your interested in economics and accounting I would lean towards finance.

4) Craic: might be a bit biased but it's much better in finance!

I would put finance before accounting unless you know you want to do accounting in the future

barbarians

Hi Patriciamc93,

I'm currently in Leaving Cert. and want to study Finance in U.C.C. next year so I'd love you if answered a few questions for me please

1) I know there's a lot of maths involved in Finance but do you think that it is manageable or difficult ? I'm doing Higher Level Maths and will hopefully get a C do you think this will be enough to handle the maths or would I struggle ? Also, would the maths be mostly based on formulas and problem solving or what ?

2) I'm doing Economics and Accounting for the L.C. how much of help are these for Finance ? Also I hear the Economics in university is quite different to L.C. Economics is this right and how ? (This is presuming you studied Economics for your Leaving :P)

3) Obviously since you're in 1st Year you haven't done the work placement yet but by any chance do you know where most people go on their placement ? Do they stay in Ireland or go to the U.K./U.S. ?

4) What's the workload like ? Is it very heavy or is it manageable ?

And finally, what's the craic like ?


Thanks for any help

P.S. Good luck with your exams btw :P

Patriciamc93

barbarians wrote: »

Hi Patriciamc93,

I'm currently in Leaving Cert. and want to study Finance in U.C.C. next year so I'd love you if answered a few questions for me please

1) I know there's a lot of maths involved in Finance but do you think that it is manageable or difficult ? I'm doing Higher Level Maths and will hopefully get a C do you think this will be enough to handle the maths or would I struggle ? Also, would the maths be mostly based on formulas and problem solving or what ?

You should be able to manage fine. there are two subjects with maths
1) corporate finance....... just multipying etc but you have to learn off formulas. Everybody tends to hate this subject but thats cause of it been so daunting. Do the exam papers and you will be fine.

2) Quantitative techniques for economics....... lovely subject if you enjoy maths. very much based on my leaving cert course ..... as in i don't know how project maths will effect you in what you will or won't know.

barbarians wrote: »

2) I'm doing Economics and Accounting for the L.C. how much of help are these for Finance ? Also I hear the Economics in university is quite different to L.C. Economics is this right and how ? (This is presuming you studied Economics for your Leaving :P)

It is a great help to have both! Don't throw out your leaving cert accounting notes. The lecturer we had for Financial accounting this year was boring, and not great. When it came to the exam we all felt we were screwed but he changed it to 60% mcq's so it wasn't to bad in the end.
the only subject I found economics useful for this year was principles of economics. But it was a great help to have a foundation all ready there. In college its very much if you don't know something look it up yourself. The tutorial for this class is excellent. Go to it as much as you can cause its really good for the exams.

barbarians wrote: »

3) Obviously since you're in 1st Year you haven't done the work placement yet but by any chance do you know where most people go on their placement ? Do they stay in Ireland or go to the U.K./U.S. ?

we did have a talk on this during the year. Most people stay in Ireland for the big four. But if your willing to travel you can. Everybody now seems to be well interested in investment banking. There is a thing that if you get the highest in your class in corporate finance you can get in to investment banking in London. I would highly recommend that you work in that subject from the start so that you won't regret it. I wish i knew about this at the start of the year.

And also note that your first year results while not too important might help get you a placement if you are in the July to December half of the year because when going for interviews for this half you wont yet have 2nd year results. So put the work in.

barbarians wrote: »

4) What's the workload like ? Is it very heavy or is it manageable ?

TBH the workload is extremely manageable. If you stay up to date on your work you will be fine. You have 12 hours lectures a week plus tutorials which is about 2/3 hours a week.

At the start I found management accounting really hard and gave up on it..... I hated the topics at the start and so didn't bother studying it. Not till last week did I realize apart from the things at the start the rest of the course is quite nice. And this is a subject that If you do the questions in your will fly it.

Also make your own notes as you go..... I didn't and had no notes that I could actually use during study month (well more like week but sure)!

barbarians wrote: »

And finally, what's the craic like ?

ah this question...... It is the best course for craic mostly I think because you can strike an easy balance between college and socializing. First year finance is very groupy........ I have really good friends now. But there is not much interaction between others. Am that's all supposed to change next year though cause we have group projects.

I really would recommend making sure you have a class rep and entertainments rep before November if you can. If that means sending an email to the students union do....... you'll have more class parties that way and get to know each other better.


Thanks for any help

barbarians wrote: »

P.S. Good luck with your exams btw :P

Thanks

Any other question let me know......... I have plenty of time for procrastination.

Meglamonia

Hey,I have Accounting as my No.1 but would consider Finance except i'm only a B student in pass maths...would that be a problem?

Patriciamc93

Meglamonia wrote: »

Hey,I have Accounting as my No.1 but would consider Finance except i'm only a B student in pass maths...would that be a problem?

Nope that wouldn't be a problem the main subject higher level maths was useful for was maths for economics and we got really got notes for that subject. Baring in mind lecturers do change for that subject yearly but if you were having trouble you could contact me and get my notes from this year or ask me questions if you want.

Of course you'll have to put a bit more work in but if you do that you'll be ahead of all those who leave it till the last minute. So it would be a positive.

Touche

I finished the accounting course in ucc last year.

Overall accounting and finance share a lot of the same modules throughout the 4 years. About half of the course is identical with each other.

For the other half accounting had a lot more choice in 2nd year (you could do commercial law, statistical maths, micro and macro economics courses and some other kind of wishy washy theoretical management subjects) whereas finance seemed more focused on economics modules and probably more focussed on the money markets and fiscal policies (basically buying and selling bonds and options etc on the markets and investment banking type stuff)

After that there was less choice but the focus of accounting remained closer to the kind of work you do in practice (ie the main audit firms and accounting practices) while finance was probably more geared towards investment banking.

Placement was almost entirely in Ireland. Most people in accounting went to Kpmg with a few going to fund accounting, industry companies (like apple and Pepsi) and some other places. While finance mainly went to aib capital markets, citibank, Sig etc.

After college most people in accounting walked into jobs with the big4 accounting firms. We were snapped up and most people had multiple offers to choose between. Finance struggled more getting jobs. They could get jobs in big4 too if they wanted probably but they were more looking for jobs in what they had studied (investment banking) and most struggled to get that a lot of them went and did masters courses and are now looking for jobs again.

So there are pros and cons to both. accounting is definitely more focussed on going down the big4 route. While finance probably has more of an investment banking outlook. However there are definitely more jobs in the big4 route every year.