College Timetable?

SeawKiller

Hi. Sorry if this is kinda a ridiculous question, but I will hopefully be starting college next September (Provided I get offered a place) and there's something that's really bothering me. Will the timetable be the same or similar to Secondary school?
When do classes/lectures usually start and end and how much free time or days off do you usually have? I'm inclined to think that it would be a bit less than Secondary and am aware that it would be slightly different for each college. All the open days I've went to went on from about 9 in the morning to 3 in the evening, and I'm wondering if that reflects a typical day.
I'd really like to know to get an idea about when I'd be able to work part-time or for travelling, study and the like. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

sullivlo

SeawKiller wrote: »

Hi. Sorry if this is kinda a ridiculous question, but I will hopefully be starting college next September (Provided I get offered a place) and there's something that's really bothering me. Will the timetable be the same or similar to Secondary school?
When do classes/lectures usually start and end and how much free time or days off do you usually have? I'm inclined to think that it would be a bit less than Secondary and am aware that it would be slightly different for each college. All the open days I've went to went on from about 9 in the morning to 3 in the evening, and I'm wondering if that reflects a typical day.
I'd really like to know to get an idea about when I'd be able to work part-time or for travelling, study and the like. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

It depends on your course as to what your workload will be.

Lectures typically run from 9 until 6, and they tend to last 50-55 minutes. Your lectures are spread across those hours, so you could potentially have a lecture at 9am and then not another until 3. You’ll have a mixture of lectures and tutorials.

Humanities tend to have ~15 hours a week, business has ~ 20 and science/engineering have ~30. That is obviously a ballpark figure.

Tom Dunne

It all depends on the college, the course and the level.

Aim to be in from 9 to 5, but with the understanding that you might have two hours here, two hours there, one hour after. It would be very unusual to have a full day, straight through, without any gaps in the timetable. And some courses may in fact have one day a week with no classes.

andyd12

SeawKiller wrote: »

Hi. Sorry if this is kinda a ridiculous question, but I will hopefully be starting college next September (Provided I get offered a place) and there's something that's really bothering me. Will the timetable be the same or similar to Secondary school?
When do classes/lectures usually start and end and how much free time or days off do you usually have? I'm inclined to think that it would be a bit less than Secondary and am aware that it would be slightly different for each college. All the open days I've went to went on from about 9 in the morning to 3 in the evening, and I'm wondering if that reflects a typical day.
I'd really like to know to get an idea about when I'd be able to work part-time or for travelling, study and the like. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

It all really depends on the course you do tbh.
Most classes start on the hour and last for between 40-50 minutes. Usually break at 1.
You might have a bunch of classes back to back or they could scattered throughout the day, depends on the course really.
In my opinion, it's a real pain if they are scattered as you are just hanging around waiting for the next one and likely to just go home or skip it etc.
I study engineering and am in pretty much 9-6 Monday to Thursday and off Friday. With 2 hrs free in that week
What are you hoping to study?

DontThankMe

As the poster mentioned above it depends entirely upon the course you are doing. I'm doing a business course so I have less than 20 hours a week. You could potentially check the timetable for your course online through the college's website. While the timetable is only for this year's academic year they don't change dramatically from year to year so it should give you a good idea of what your timetable would be for your course next year.

SeawKiller

I'm hoping to do Science. If I don't get that then its a mixture of History and Irish. I suppose I could give my employer my timetable and hope that they can work around it. I want to make sure that I can have a balance between classes, study/assignments and work while still earning enough to sustain travelling up and down everyday and paying the Student Contribution fee, because I likely won't be eligible for the SUSI grant.

Exiled1

SeawKiller wrote: »

I'm hoping to do Science. If I don't get that then its a mixture of History and Irish. I suppose I could give my employer my timetable and hope that they can work around it. I want to make sure that I can have a balance between classes, study/assignments and work while still earning enough to sustain travelling up and down everyday and paying the Student Contribution fee, because I likely won't be eligible for the SUSI grant.

Never an easy one in that case. Only bit of advice I can suggest is to make sure you get your qualification even if you have to work fewer hours/take a financial hit etc.
Be sure to do a course that you like and are suited to.....that should be priority.
I can only admire your ambition and very best of luck with it all.

Tom Dunne

SeawKiller wrote: »

I'm hoping to do Science. If I don't get that then its a mixture of History and Irish. I suppose I could give my employer my timetable and hope that they can work around it. I want to make sure that I can have a balance between classes, study/assignments and work while still earning enough to sustain travelling up and down everyday and paying the Student Contribution fee, because I likely won't be eligible for the SUSI grant.

Go to the institute website and look at the current timetables, they are usually online.

And I have to ask - have you really thought about taking history and Irish? Particularly in terms of your employability?

SeawKiller

Thanks a lot for the help, much appreciated.

Tom Dunne wrote: »

Go to the institute website and look at the current timetables, they are usually online.

And I have to ask - have you really thought about taking history and Irish? Particularly in terms of your employability?

Well I've been told by a few people that the skills you learn in a course is much more important than the actual course content itself to many employers, so I have no problem doing history since I find it very interesting.
As for Irish, I was under the impression that there is a very high demand for Irish teachers and translators. Other than that, it's the same as history, I find it interesting and enjoyable.

granturismo

SeawKiller wrote: »

Thanks a lot for the help, much appreciated.



Well I've been told by a few people that the skills you learn in a course is much more important than the actual course content itself to many employers, ....

Who told you this? Just be aware that third level colleges are all competing against each other for your fees but more importantly the capitation grant they get from the government for each student - I think its about €20,000. Any talks you attended on open days are sales pitches, nothing else, departments within institutions are also competing against each other for the same pool of applicants.

If you go to open days try to talk to students and see what their plans are after graduating, are they planning on doing a post grad course. Ask the lecturers or admissions officers what % of degree graduates are employment and what % go on to a post grad course. You need to be aware if you are going to have to pay fees for a 1,2 or 3 year post grad course after graduating to get any reasonable change of a job.

There is a balance between what subjects you enjoy and the prospects after graduating.

Wanderer78

Some really good advice above, you probably will have better prospects from a science based course but don't allow that to dictate your choice, it's very important to study something you like, preferably something you love. Science based courses tend to have longer contact hours compared to other fields. I'd advise against showing your employer your timetable, they may take advantage of that, just explain the situation to them, without revealing your exact timetable. Science based courses can be very draining and general have a high work load compared to others, but it's important to note, most if not all third level courses are stressful. Best of luck

GalwayGrrrrrl

You might get less contact hours with an Arts course, compared to science, but you’ll be expected to do a lot of reading in your “spare” time so don’t try to work too many hours in your paid job.
In years gone by the comment about “skills you learn at uni are important to employers” would have been true. However there are so many people with degrees these days you need to make sure you have extra “employability” either by doing a degree directly linked to a job (Physio, medicine, nursing as examples) or by being prepared to do a postgrad course after.