BComm International

bleach94

Can anyone give me their experience of this course, whatever year you're in? Parts you like/don't like, the year abroad (if you've done it), the language studies themselves etc, and your experience with UCC in general, it would be a great help.

Any commerce student really but if you're doing it with Italian or French then even better as i'll probably end up doing one of those two :P

moleary20

Hiya,

In 4th year of this course at the moment, I'm doing with Irish so can't answer much about that side of things except for what my friends have told me.

Basically in first year you get a taster for all the aspects of business doing modules in Accounting, economics, management, marketing, maths, government, information systems and law along with a few language modules. In first year you take most of your lectures with straight Commerce students but as you move on the group gets smaller as you're just with all the other Commerce International students.

In second year, you do modules in the above areas again except law and marketing is concentrated on food marketing. You also do more language modules. There is more choice of what modules to do during second year.

In third year, I completed work placement as I'm doing Irish but all the other students were on Erasmus! Most people have described it as a hugely positive experience!

Unlikely you're even thinking about it but Fourth year is great then because you can really concentrate on the subjects you like or mix it up completely if you prefer variety. You get a list of about 30 commerce modules of which to choose 7 and language modules where you choose 3 or 4 depending on department requirements!

Thinking very far ahead, what people do after this course varies hugely! Some choose to go into graduate positions with accountancy firms, others choose to go the marketing or management route, some focus on the language side of it and loads of students go on to do a masters.

I would say that if your strengths lie in the business side, be completely sure you want to do a language. It makes up a huge amount of your credits especially in fourth year which from a results point of view is the only year that counts. I personally find the commerce modules a lot more manageable than the language aspect and I know many others would agree!

Hope this helps, sorry its so long!

bleach94

moleary20 wrote: »

Hiya,

In 4th year of this course at the moment, I'm doing with Irish so can't answer much about that side of things except for what my friends have told me.

Basically in first year you get a taster for all the aspects of business doing modules in Accounting, economics, management, marketing, maths, government, information systems and law along with a few language modules. In first year you take most of your lectures with straight Commerce students but as you move on the group gets smaller as you're just with all the other Commerce International students.

In second year, you do modules in the above areas again except law and marketing is concentrated on food marketing. You also do more language modules. There is more choice of what modules to do during second year.

In third year, I completed work placement as I'm doing Irish but all the other students were on Erasmus! Most people have described it as a hugely positive experience!

Unlikely you're even thinking about it but Fourth year is great then because you can really concentrate on the subjects you like or mix it up completely if you prefer variety. You get a list of about 30 commerce modules of which to choose 7 and language modules where you choose 3 or 4 depending on department requirements!

Thinking very far ahead, what people do after this course varies hugely! Some choose to go into graduate positions with accountancy firms, others choose to go the marketing or management route, some focus on the language side of it and loads of students go on to do a masters.

I would say that if your strengths lie in the business side, be completely sure you want to do a language. It makes up a huge amount of your credits especially in fourth year which from a results point of view is the only year that counts. I personally find the commerce modules a lot more manageable than the language aspect and I know many others would agree!

Hope this helps, sorry its so long!

Thanks very much for the detailed reply, that's what I was looking for! I'm very unsure about commerce although it's on my CAO. I would like to do Law and French but not sure if I will get the points, if not commerce is my next choice. I'm not too sure if i'd enjoy it though aside from the marketing and management and possibly economics side, not too fond of maths in school and hated accounting when I did it in JC. I am definite I want to study something with a language, that's all I know. Might even end up doing arts or arts international!!

123 LC

as a ucc commerce student I have to say sometimes the course is a bit boring, and if you aren't quite sure about picking it then maybe you won't like it at all.

Solair

Unless this course has changed radically since the mid 00s, the language modules are absolutely huge and contained a lot of literature / history / cultural content too.

It was pretty much a slightly modified commerce degree with the arts course in a particular language bolted on.

I know a few people who did Commerce/French & Commerce/Spanish and found the language courses were basically the arts programme and not business-specific. There was a *lot* of time spent on literature and cultural stuff where as I think they were expecting it to be all language.

Maybe that's changed since then? Someone who did those courses more recently might be better able to give you info.

The one thing that was reported back as really worth while was the year abroad. Assuming you do it, you'll come back fluent if you make any bit of an effort at all and have an ear for languages.

Commerce has some maths in it, but if you're selecting subjects like management, marketing, government, law and even some aspects of economics you can avoid 'hard maths'. That being said though, you can't completely avoid it. There will inevitably be some module of mathematical stuff you'll have to get through, but I wouldn't really say there's anything that difficult.

There's quite a bit of maths in management accounting, aspects of economics and obviously subjects like business maths and stats.

Rachie21

I'm in final year comm and german and it's a good course.. filling out my cao, i knew i wanted to work in business but not which area, so i applied for comm and german and so glad i did. The year abroad was the best year of my life! I spent the year in Austria studying business modules through german which sounds tougher than it is! The year abroad is compulsory except for commerce and irish as moleary20 said. The year abroad really strengthens your language skills, not to mention independence, cultural awareness etc., sounds cheesy but it's true :P

The workload is fairly manageable.. sorry for repeating some of what moleary20 has said but yeah you do varied subjects in 1+2 year, ranging from marketing to maths which is grand, gives you a peek into the different areas.
I had no interest in half the modules in first and second year but glad i stuck with the course because in final year, you've a huge choice of modules and you don't have to major either. The four years absolutely flew, can't believe i'll never have another lecture in UCC. It's a great college and the comm international class is about 100 ish give or take whereas the language classes are about 20 average, with the exception of comm and italian which sees 6 students graduate this year.

My friend is in final year comm italian and she loves it, she started as a beginner and went to siena on erasmus.
As for my future as a comm and german grad? who knows, finding it tough to get a job, like everyone i suppose, so i'll probably do a masters. Career opps are varied, some of my class are going into the financial sector, marketing, education.

Comm international is a broad course, so if you are unsure which business area to specialise in, it may be for you!

sorry the post is all over the place!