Chemical Engineering in UCC!

the_new_guy

Hi guys!

I moved into Ireland about a month ago. I am 17 and doing my second year of A Levels (A2). Exams are in up-coming may/june session 2014 at Dublin Tutorial Center. I am currently living in cork city with my dad who is an Irish National. Last year, I graduated high school from US as a foreign exchange student. I have applied though CAO to UCC and CIT as my first and second preference respectively. I am planning to study in chemical engineering. I am pretty confident to get at least 4A in my GCE A levels which equates to (135*4 + 25 ) = 565 CAO points.

Right now, I am a little puzzled about CIT VS UCC ( Chemical & Biopharmacaeutical Engineering VS Process and Chemical Engineering). I went through the modules and found CIT being more practical based as opposed to UCC being rather theoretical. ( not sure which would serve my purpose )

Any Pros and Cons would be greatly appreciated as far as job is concerned, University Life, Classroom ,degree (internationally speaking), resources and most importantly scholarships (e.g. entrance scholarships).

Thank You! :-)

Bpmull

I'm in second year process and chemical engineering in Ucc. I love the course it is quite theoretical although there is a good few labs every year. We do a lot on pharmaceutical as much as cit. I don't know much about the cit course tbh. I personally think the Ucc course is a more recognised course with better job prospects but I'm going to say that anyway in not trying to say that cits course is bad either. Any question in particular just ask and I'll try to help you out.

the_new_guy

Bpmull wrote: »

I'm in second year process and chemical engineering in Ucc. I love the course it is quite theoretical although there is a good few labs every year. We do a lot on pharmaceutical as much as cit. I don't know much about the cit course tbh. I personally think the Ucc course is a more recognised course with better job prospects but I'm going to say that anyway in not trying to say that cits course is bad either. Any question in particular just ask and I'll try to help you out.

Thank you very much for your response.

I have a couple of questions regarding ChemE in UCC...it would help a lot if you could answer. :-)

Do you have ideas in terms of scholarship opportunities, like entrance scholarships for good grades in A levels/ Leaving Cert and other good scholarships in the chemical engineering field?
I assume the degree allows a 6 month work placement, am i right?
How is the classroom like? Are the lecturers interactive with students?
How many students are there in a typical ChemE classroom in UCC?

again, Thanks a million :-)

Bpmull

the_new_guy wrote: »

Thank you very much for your response.

I have a couple of questions regarding ChemE in UCC...it would help a lot if you could answer. :-)

Do you have ideas in terms of scholarship opportunities, like entrance scholarships for good grades in A levels/ Leaving Cert and other good scholarships in the chemical engineering field?
I assume the degree allows a 6 month work placement, am i right?
How is the classroom like? Are the lecturers interactive with students?
How many students are there in a typical ChemE classroom in UCC?

again, Thanks a million :-)

It think the points cut off for an entrance scholarship 560 points. If you get that then you automatically get about 2000 euro. The college does other more specialised scholarships to so you have to enquire about them.

In 3rd year the course has 6 months paid work placement; the types of companies you can get into vary there is alot of pharmaceutical companies which take students such as Eli lily, Pfizer, msd etc etc.

The classrooms are generally quite good. They vary in size in second year they get smaller whereas in first year your in bigger lecture halls. In first year you do very little on process engineering only one module everything else is broad such as calculus, 2 physics modules, 2 applied maths modules, chemistry, programming etc. for first year all engineers are together so class size is about 130 students.

In second year specially from second semester you start doing all process and chemical modules. The class size drops. There is 20 doing process and chemical in my year. However demand surged last year and there is over 40 in first. I have always found the lectures quite good. The process and chemical engineering lecturers take a lot of interest in their students from second year on so they are very willing to chat to you or help you with problems.

It is definitely a difficult course to do I'm not going to talk in down. There is over a fifty percent fail rate in first year calculus. So it does take a good bit of time to settle into the work load and first year is difficult even the 600 point students struggled it's just so much more difficult than the leaving cert but once you are willing to work and under no allusions you will be find. Second year does seem easier even though the content is harder at that stage you are use to the work load and settled into the college. I have no regrets after picking process and chemical engineering if I was back in 6th year again I'd pick the same course in the same college.

the_new_guy

Thank you so much. Your response really helped a lot! :-)

After completion of the Bachelor Degree on ChemE in UCC or CIT, can one go for a Masters degree in a different University, say Imperial in UK. Would one meet their standards?

Again, Thanks a million. :-)

Bpmull

the_new_guy wrote: »

Thank you so much. Your response really helped a lot! :-)

After completion of the Bachelor Degree on ChemE in UCC or CIT, can one go for a Masters degree in a different University, say Imperial in UK. Would one meet their standards?

Again, Thanks a million. :-)

I'd imagine they would but to be sure just email the universities most are very helpful including Ucc. They will normally answer your question also look out for the college open days the lecture will have a chemical and process engineering stand.

Beargrylls01

Hello, I am sorry for creeping the UCC boards and am not really here to slag, just to give the opinion of our chem eng lecturers in UL, they have said many times that CIT is the best place in the country to do it even if they are not the most recognised, they all land jobs pretty quick! We had interviews with the head of process engineering from Eli Lilly who went to CIT and he spoke really really high of it.

jdawson

Bpmull wrote: »

I'm in second year process and chemical engineering in Ucc. I love the course it is quite theoretical although there is a good few labs every year. We do a lot on pharmaceutical as much as cit. I don't know much about the cit course tbh. I personally think the Ucc course is a more recognised course with better job prospects but I'm going to say that anyway in not trying to say that cits course is bad either. Any question in particular just ask and I'll try to help you out.

I don't mean to burst your bubble but CIT has an excellent reputation for chemical engineering, it has been the place to study to get jobs in the industry going back decades. Their BEng (Hons) course was accredited by IChemE at MEng level long before UCC managed to achieve that.

the_new_guy wrote: »

Thank you so much. Your response really helped a lot! :-)

After completion of the Bachelor Degree on ChemE in UCC or CIT, can one go for a Masters degree in a different University, say Imperial in UK. Would one meet their standards?

Again, Thanks a million. :-)

If you get a good degree from either college you can go anywhere to do a Masters.

runitfaster

Bpmull wrote: »

I'm in second year process and chemical engineering in Ucc. I love the course it is quite theoretical although there is a good few labs every year. We do a lot on pharmaceutical as much as cit. I don't know much about the cit course tbh. I personally think the Ucc course is a more recognised course with better job prospects but I'm going to say that anyway in not trying to say that cits course is bad either. Any question in particular just ask and I'll try to help you out.

I know you've probably picked your course by now just thought I'd give you my 2 cents having studied chemical engineering in UCC for 4 year.

Basically there is absolutely no difference between UCC and CIT. I have worked alongside CIT graduates and they have the exact same capabilities. Both courses are on par to be honest as both are level 8 degrees and are equally recognised by employers and by universities in which you would be applying for a masters in.

The question you need to ask yourself after this is which college you would like to go to regarding social aspects. Are there clubs or societies in CIT that you would like to join that aren't in UCC and vice versa. At the end of the day the college life is just as important as the degree you are studying for. Try and make the most of our time in college!

If you have any questions at all don't hesitate to contact me and I wish you all the best in your exams!

runitfaster

Beargrylls01 wrote: »

Hello, I am sorry for creeping the UCC boards and am not really here to slag, just to give the opinion of our chem eng lecturers in UL, they have said many times that CIT is the best place in the country to do it even if they are not the most recognised, they all land jobs pretty quick! We had interviews with the head of process engineering from Eli Lilly who went to CIT and he spoke really really high of it.

Just to explain this the reason most lecturers are of this opinion is because the CIT "chemical engineering" course has been around for longer than the UCC "chemical engineering course" which was originally called "Food processing Engineering". This explains why so many heads of Eli Lilly etc are graduates of CIT. If you look at the process engineering page from UCC you can see that the graduates from CIT have been equally successful in the short lifetime of the "chemical engineering " degree