DCU Economics Politics and Law EPL

beccaroisinxo

Of course it's CAO time and since 5th year I've been looking at the EPL because it certainly looks interesting to me. I do economics in schooI. I would enjoy the macroeconomics side but I'd be worried about microeconomics and the maths side of things. I have always been chronically atrocious at maths and would be happy if I came out with my D for entry requirements in the leaving. I was even considering foundation in 5th year because I was failing so many tests So could any EPL or economics students give a judgement? Would I be really able to handle the maths bit? And oh yes is the law end of it difficult as in how many pages do you have to read a week? Is the work load heavy? Thanks lads

Bassfacewhy

Gonna add two questions of mine to this post - Is the political side hard/boring?? and what are the career prospects? - further study?

beccaroisinxo

Bassfacewhy wrote: »

Gonna add two questions of mine to this post - Is the political side hard/boring?? and what are the career prospects? - further study?

I don't know about the postgrad prospects that's why I was advised against a pure law degree because I don't want to end up studying for a prolonged amount of time.I like the whole political side so maybe I'd apply for the administrive officer in the civil service after graduation or a third secretary in department of forreign affairs even better because you get to travel

PenguinMan

Final year EPL student here. Hope I can help!

The way the course is set up is that in first and second year, you have no choice in your modules. So you'll be given a set of modules and you have to do them. When you get to 3rd year though, you only have 3 compulsory modules (1 in semester one, and 2 in semester two as things currently stand). You can choose the rest yourself, and most people end up choosing 9. That's not too important, but just wanted to give you a background to the way the course is set up.

beccaroisinxo wrote: »

Of course it's CAO time and since 5th year I've been looking at the EPL because it certainly looks interesting to me. I do economics in schooI. I would enjoy the macroeconomics side but I'd be worried about microeconomics and the maths side of things. I have always been chronically atrocious at maths and would be happy if I came out with my D for entry requirements in the leaving. I was even considering foundation in 5th year because I was failing so many tests So could any EPL or economics students give a judgement? Would I be really able to handle the maths bit? And oh yes is the law end of it difficult as in how many pages do you have to read a week? Is the work load heavy? Thanks lads

In first year, there are two modules containing maths. One is Business Maths and the other is Intro to Economics. The Intro to Economics module runs year long, which means you'll have it in both semesters with an MCQ before Christmas and the final exam in May. If you're doing LC economics, you'll have a decent foundation for this - you won't have covered everything, but the course assumes no prior knowledge for those who didn't take economics. The maths element of the module isn't huge, but it's there. It's mainly calculating the likes of (price/supply) elasticity of demand, working out changes in quantities demanded if price changes, etc.

Business maths consists of a lot more maths. It starts off with things you'll have done in school like fractions, but there is a lot going on after that. The likes of calculating tax, interest when given interest rates, economics demand/supply functions, derivatives, partial-derivatives. It is quite maths based, but there is a good deal of support available. There are weekly tutorials and there's what's called the MLC (maths learning centre) where you can go and ask for help with any maths based module.

Second year also has two maths based modules: intermediate microeconomics and public finance. The latter is easier and if you're okay with differentiation by this point, you should be able to get through the module with that and learning the rest which is mostly theory with diagrams to explain what's going on. Intermediate microeconomics has two sides to it: maths and theory. The maths side can be heavy, but a lot of it comes back to certain key economic concepts (differentiation being a big part of the module). It's not the easiest, I won't lie, but again there are supports there. It does take time, and effort and it's definitely the type of module where you HAVE to keep up-to-date on the work and go to the lectures and tutorials.

I hope that doesn't sound overly negative, it's not meant to. Just trying to provide a balanced overview. In short: the maths bit is definitely there, and it's something everyone needs to work at but the supports are there. If you'd like more specific info, I can root out my old notes and send you on a sample to show you what you'd be looking at?

Law part is quite manageable if you keep up to date with the work, also. Attending all the lectures and taking notes is a very good start, you'll have the main cases for each law topic and you'll be able to take down the main info from the cases in your notes. This will mean you won't have to read a whole bunch of cases before the exams, you can just use your notes. You will have to do some reading, chapters in relevant books and case reports on big cases. If you do it week-by-week, it's not so bad. If you leave it all until the week before an exam, you might find it's harder.

Speaking for myself, I found the law bit a little daunting at the start. It's a whole new world, and it's a completely different set up compared with LC. It just takes a little to get the hang of, and realise that it isn't just about learning off the facts of every case and writing them back in an exam. It's more about understanding the law and being able to discuss it generally or apply it to a made-up scenario.

Bassfacewhy wrote: »

Gonna add two questions of mine to this post - Is the political side hard/boring?? and what are the career prospects? - further study?

I think it depends on what you find interesting. You will have a module where you find it less interesting than others. Or maybe you'll have a general knowledge of the topic already (perhaps EU integration, i.e. all about EU institutions, law making procedures, EU set-up) and you might find it less interesting for that reason. Either which way, I'd say the politics side is manageable. But, for any module, you have to do the work. If you're willing to read the books, study the notes and go to and listen in class, you will be fine in politics.

If either of you, or anybody else, have any more questions feel free to ask me here or to PM me .

Hope this helped!

beccaroisinxo

PenguinMan wrote: »

Final year EPL student here. Hope I can help!

The way the course is set up is that in first and second year, you have no choice in your modules. So you'll be given a set of modules and you have to do them. When you get to 3rd year though, you only have 3 compulsory modules (1 in semester one, and 2 in semester two as things currently stand). You can choose the rest yourself, and most people end up choosing 9. That's not too important, but just wanted to give you a background to the way the course is set up.



In first year, there are two modules containing maths. One is Business Maths and the other is Intro to Economics. The Intro to Economics module runs year long, which means you'll have it in both semesters with an MCQ before Christmas and the final exam in May. If you're doing LC economics, you'll have a decent foundation for this - you won't have covered everything, but the course assumes no prior knowledge for those who didn't take economics. The maths element of the module isn't huge, but it's there. It's mainly calculating the likes of (price/supply) elasticity of demand, working out changes in quantities demanded if price changes, etc.

Business maths consists of a lot more maths. It starts off with things you'll have done in school like fractions, but there is a lot going on after that. The likes of calculating tax, interest when given interest rates, economics demand/supply functions, derivatives, partial-derivatives. It is quite maths based, but there is a good deal of support available. There are weekly tutorials and there's what's called the MLC (maths learning centre) where you can go and ask for help with any maths based module.

Second year also has two maths based modules: intermediate microeconomics and public finance. The latter is easier and if you're okay with differentiation by this point, you should be able to get through the module with that and learning the rest which is mostly theory with diagrams to explain what's going on. Intermediate microeconomics has two sides to it: maths and theory. The maths side can be heavy, but a lot of it comes back to certain key economic concepts (differentiation being a big part of the module). It's not the easiest, I won't lie, but again there are supports there. It does take time, and effort and it's definitely the type of module where you HAVE to keep up-to-date on the work and go to the lectures and tutorials.

I hope that doesn't sound overly negative, it's not meant to. Just trying to provide a balanced overview. In short: the maths bit is definitely there, and it's something everyone needs to work at but the supports are there. If you'd like more specific info, I can root out my old notes and send you on a sample to show you what you'd be looking at?

Law part is quite manageable if you keep up to date with the work, also. Attending all the lectures and taking notes is a very good start, you'll have the main cases for each law topic and you'll be able to take down the main info from the cases in your notes. This will mean you won't have to read a whole bunch of cases before the exams, you can just use your notes. You will have to do some reading, chapters in relevant books and case reports on big cases. If you do it week-by-week, it's not so bad. If you leave it all until the week before an exam, you might find it's harder.

Speaking for myself, I found the law bit a little daunting at the start. It's a whole new world, and it's a completely different set up compared with LC. It just takes a little to get the hang of, and realise that it isn't just about learning off the facts of every case and writing them back in an exam. It's more about understanding the law and being able to discuss it generally or apply it to a made-up scenario.


I think it depends on what you find interesting. You will have a module where you find it less interesting than others. Or maybe you'll have a general knowledge of the topic already (perhaps EU integration, i.e. all about EU institutions, law making procedures, EU set-up) and you might find it less interesting for that reason. Either which way, I'd say the politics side is manageable. But, for any module, you have to do the work. If you're willing to read the books, study the notes and go to and listen in class, you will be fine in politics.

If either of you, or anybody else, have any more questions feel free to ask me here or to PM me .

Hope this helped!

Thanks! This was so helpful! I'm familiar with almost all the economics topics you mentioned there so I'm sure I will have a good basis to start off! Do they give you different cases as example with law so you can make what you learn transferable? Still very skeptical about the maths part though Would be great if you could PM some of your old notes just to give me an idea, thanks again

PenguinMan

Just realised I missed the question about further studies, sorry. Postgrad opportunities are aplenty. Exactly what you could do would depend on which modules you take in final year. For example, if you choose all politics modules for your options in final year, you're likely looking at a postgrad in some area of politics as opposed to economics/law.

beccaroisinxo wrote: »

Thanks! This was so helpful! I'm familiar with almost all the economics topics you mentioned there so I'm sure I will have a good basis to start off! Do they give you different cases as example with law so you can make what you learn transferable? Still very skeptical about the maths part though Would be great if you could PM some of your old notes just to give me an idea, thanks again

With regards to the law modules, you'll find that they'll be structured in such a way as to give you the relevant acts/statutes/laws/regulations. As well as that, lecturers tend to fully detail the most important cases. For the other cases, they'll tend to give a brief overview of the main facts and the resulting outcome. All that said, each lecturer will have their own style and some might except you to do more independent learning (e.g. "Here's a case name, you should go and read this").

By transferable, do you mean to real life? If so, yeah, you'll be able to see how certain cases have been decided and you could try and apply it to a real life scenario. There's a lot in law, each case is different as I'm sure you can appreciate, but you'll definitely learn parts of the law and, perhaps more importantly, the skills to find the law and interpret it as it progresses and changes.

I'll PM you with those ASAP .

beccaroisinxo

PenguinMan wrote: »

Just realised I missed the question about further studies, sorry. Postgrad opportunities are aplenty. Exactly what you could do would depend on which modules you take in final year. For example, if you choose all politics modules for your options in final year, you're likely looking at a postgrad in some area of politics as opposed to economics/law.



With regards to the law modules, you'll find that they'll be structured in such a way as to give you the relevant acts/statutes/laws/regulations. As well as that, lecturers tend to fully detail the most important cases. For the other cases, they'll tend to give a brief overview of the main facts and the resulting outcome. All that said, each lecturer will have their own style and some might except you to do more independent learning (e.g. "Here's a case name, you should go and read this").

By transferable, do you mean to real life? If so, yeah, you'll be able to see how certain cases have been decided and you could try and apply it to a real life scenario. There's a lot in law, each case is different as I'm sure you can appreciate, but you'll definitely learn parts of the law and, perhaps more importantly, the skills to find the law and interpret it as it progresses and changes.

I'll PM you with those ASAP .

Yep I think the EPL is the one for me Just as soon as I get a look at the maths :P It's third on my CAO after a similar course in trinity and maynooth. I may or may not get maynooth but it's safe to say I won't be getting that in trinity so DCU here I come Still like to see the maths though :P Take your time when finding them for me, I take ages to reply anyway. Ah 6th year:'), a joy

Breifne72

Hi, I done EPL for a year and then dropped out. It's an interesting course, but you have to really love what you're doing.
There's only 10-15 hours a week so its kinda like an arts course, but you need to make up the hours yourself by studying in the library loads.
No point in sugarcoating it, there was only about 10(probably less) people on my course who made it the year without having to do any repeats.
The business maths we were told is the equivalent of leaving cert honors, difficult but manageable. Again you have to put in the work each week to ensure you pass the exams at Christmas.
I don't want to scare you off, if you think you'd be interested in the course then give it a go, do not underestimate the amount of work you will have to do, or how difficult the work will be. I have friends who are in second year now and they say the work is really hard and they're doing exams at the minute and are freaking out!
Go for it if you really think its what you'll be interested in, but consider all aspects of the course would be my advice!

beccaroisinxo

Breifne72 wrote: »

Hi, I done EPL for a year and then dropped out. It's an interesting course, but you have to really love what you're doing.
There's only 10-15 hours a week so its kinda like an arts course, but you need to make up the hours yourself by studying in the library loads.
No point in sugarcoating it, there was only about 10(probably less) people on my course who made it the year without having to do any repeats.
The business maths we were told is the equivalent of leaving cert honors, difficult but manageable. Again you have to put in the work each week to ensure you pass the exams at Christmas.
I don't want to scare you off, if you think you'd be interested in the course then give it a go, do not underestimate the amount of work you will have to do, or how difficult the work will be. I have friends who are in second year now and they say the work is really hard and they're doing exams at the minute and are freaking out!
Go for it if you really think its what you'll be interested in, but consider all aspects of the course would be my advice!

After considering everything and weighing up all the different modules on the course I realized that this course isn't for me. I'm considering changing my cao to the law and society course or the arts law and politics Disappointed now cause I enjoy economics in school so much But I can hardly manage ordinary maths in school as it is so it's very safe to say I won't be able to handle the EPL maths

Breifne72

Definitely consider arts, thats what im doing now and its so good! Dont let maths be the reason you don't follow through with EPL though. There is a maths centre in DCU dedicated to helping students who are struggling. If you really want to do the course you'll just have to push yourself to do all the extra work. I feel like such a bitch now hahah just didnt want you going in blind to the course, which is what happened to me!

beccaroisinxo

Breifne72 wrote: »

Definitely consider arts, thats what im doing now and its so good! Dont let maths be the reason you don't follow through with EPL though. There is a maths centre in DCU dedicated to helping students who are struggling. If you really want to do the course you'll just have to push yourself to do all the extra work. I feel like such a bitch now hahah just didnt want you going in blind to the course, which is what happened to me!

Hahah nahh I'm glad you commented on this! 👌 Only for you I would of made a balls of first year of college! You helped me make up my mind Maths really is enough to turn me off because I'm soo bad at it! Arts seems to be the best option Oh yeah and do they still offer the intra work experience if you're doing law through the arts course?

Nick_1494

Presuming it's okay to resurrect this thread instead of starting a new one? I was hoping someone could give me a list of the books needed for this course in year one? Or at least a guide line on the best books for it? I'm taking a year out and I want to get a feel for the three subjects this year before completely committing myself