Anyone doing this course? (BA, Computer Science)

Dave!

Hey, I'm just waiting for my Leaving results now(1 more day ), but hopefully I'm going to be doing this course -- Computer Science with 2 Arts subjects(History and Psychology for me, since I can't do Politics or English with this course, which I would pick over Psychology), -- and I was just wondering if anyone is doing this course, has done it, wants to do it, knows someone who's doing it or has done it, etc., lol...? I just want to know how people found it, basically. Is there alot of work in it? Will I be studying for all of first year? Hope not Will I have time off to get a job/go drinking...?

Thanks guys!

(first post here, btw)

rainbow kirby

kasintahan is doing BA CS...
And welcome to boards.ie! We don't bite
I'm going into 2nd year BSc CS... 1st year is easy enough as long as you put the work in. Just make sure you keep up with your labs and you should be grand.

kasintahan

rainbow kirby wrote:

kasintahan is doing BA CS...
And welcome to boards.ie! We don't bite

Hey! I bite.

But i also do BA Comp Sci so i can answer your q's on that too.

Is psychology still an option for you guys entering this year?
The plan was to drop it from arts altogether and make it totally denominated.

Either way you can't keep it in 2nd year unless (a) you kick ass in the exams (top 5-10% depending on demand) and (b) you drop all other subjects (which i'm not even sure your allowed do for BA Comp Sci).

That said it's really interesting even just for the year.

One thing to make sure for though is that you enjoy your other arts subject, as you'll more than likely be doing that for 3 years (ie chosing psy gives you fewer options come 2nd year).

Dave!

kasintahan wrote:

Hey! I bite.

But i also do BA Comp Sci so i can answer your q's on that too.

Is psychology still an option for you guys entering this year?
The plan was to drop it from arts altogether and make it totally denominated.

Either way you can't keep it in 2nd year unless (a) you kick ass in the exams (top 5-10% depending on demand) and (b) you drop all other subjects (which i'm not even sure your allowed do for BA Comp Sci).

That said it's really interesting even just for the year.

One thing to make sure for though is that you enjoy your other arts subject, as you'll more than likely be doing that for 3 years (ie chosing psy gives you fewer options come 2nd year).

Well it's in the prospectus, and it's on the website, so apparantly so! (I hope so, cos there's really not too many other attractive choices) I don't think we can keep it after 1st year, though. That's alright, though, cos I'm really interested in history, so I wouldn't want to drop that anyway. What also sucks is that I can't even do politics or, I think, english modules with this course But that's alright, history and computers are my main interests, so that should be good.

I actually searched a bit and found this post by you and it helped alot...

I'm your token BA Comp Sci allievo.

I've just finished 1st year and it was class!*

Here's the score:

1. Computers for years 1 to 3 is treated like another arts subject - but you're in with the BSc people, just not all their "other stuff" like maths. I hate maths so this suits me , like a fox .

2. 4th year BA Comp Sci is all about the computers (baby).

3. You do 2 other arts subjects in 1st year from a restricted choice, so no philsophy (which I would have done) but still good choice (I did Psychology and Information Studies**). 2nd year you drop one arts subject, in my case this must be pshchology unless i chose to drop both of the others and do a psy degree - note: psy may not be open to you next year, i think we were the last)

4. You do 12 hours of lectures a week (4 for each of the three arts subjects) + 2/3 hours tutorial (we were told not to go to the comp sci tutorials unless necessary! it wasn't and I didn't and still got a first class honours***) + 2 hours of practical computers.
TOTAL hours : 16/17!

5. It's a lazy assed degree, one that gives time for other activities - I had the points and grades for BSc Comp Sci - THEY WERE LOWER THAN THE BA! but I was sick of hard college work and wanted to to other things.

So what if the the BSc is probably a better degree - I regret nothing

* In terms of the course and content (not general UCD life, which sucks sweaty Brazilian donkey balls)
** Do not ask me what Information Studies is; I asked the department and they couldn't tell me (seriously ). Just know it is the easiest course known to man.
***with no study (caveat: I did 3 years of hardcore C, ASM and Unix shell programing in my wasted youth - the content is actually mildly challenging, but not as tough as a DIT course. That, and I think like a machine... )

ps - you get to hang around the arts block, which is nice as it's the centre for most debates, meeting and has the best comfy benches in the concourse. That and you gain a minor qualifications in appreciation for make-up econonics, haute couture and insight into emergent perfume trends. There are soooo many girls (so what if most wouldn't give you the time of day)

3-4 hours of college a day = A-ok for me! :eek: I may be able to pay for insurance afterall, lol.. Just gotta get a job!(lemme see, no credentials, or experience, or references...THEY'RE FIGHTING TO GET ME!) Should I expect lots of reading or something for this course? I mean, it's not 4 hours in college, and the other 20 swatting, is it? How much of a workload is it?

Thanks for the help, guys!

Dave!

Also, what do you guys think about this theory about why I think my points will be lower still this year: there's lots of publicity about how there's a tonne of computer jobs and nobody to fill them, so people hear that and go "wow, i'll be set for life if I get a computer science degree!" and so the points for Csc goes up. But this is a lesser-known course, and plus people are too caught up in the computers part that they don't want arts, so less people go for it. I've also noticed that lots of my friends are going for arts. So there'll be all the computer heads going for Csc, and all the arts heads going for Arts, meaning less people coming to my course!!! And also, about the degree maybe not being worth as much; is it fairly similar to the BSc course? Cos if it is at all, then your angle can be "yeah, I've got a degree in computer science, but rather than just doing computer science like those slackers, I thought 'f*ck it', and did a degree in history simultaneously, as well as a minor in psychology, and [some module things]." It's so crazy it just might work!

ps., I'm ok sharing this theory now because it's too late to change the CAO offers

kasintahan

BA Comp Sci is (2 x 4hours lectures arts) + (1 x 3 hours lectures comp sci), + (1 x 2 comp sic ), + (2or3 hours x tutorials) = 15 or 16 hours in classes, not much study.
Loads of drinking time - personally i didn't nearly do enough of it this year, i remember the (now illegal) £15 all you can drink nights back in the good old bad days.

Have you programmed before?
If not don't worry, just make sure you attend ALL the labs.

In fact if you simply turn up for the labs make some sort of half assed effort, submit it and leave then you pass the labs for the year (and consequently end up with a huge number of marks going into the single paper summer exam, especially if you did well in the very easy Christmas exam).

Psy is the same, go to your lectures, write a few optional essays for your tutor and Bobs you fathers brother. The exams are predictable but long (three papers).

If you study the form then you can guestimate with almost 100% accuracy all of the questions in comp sci, information studies and psy.

Waltons

Myself and my friend are also going into this course so thanks for that last post; it was really helpful!
Oh, extra question. I was considering doing Information Studies. Is there really any point? (Apart from the fact that it's easy)

Dave!

kasintahan wrote:

BA Comp Sci is (2 x 4hours lectures arts) + (1 x 3 hours lectures comp sci), + (1 x 2 comp sic ), + (2or3 hours x tutorials) = 15 or 16 hours in classes, not much study.
Loads of drinking time - personally i didn't nearly do enough of it this year, i remember the (now illegal) £15 all you can drink nights back in the good old bad days.

Have you programmed before?
If not don't worry, just make sure you attend ALL the labs.

In fact if you simply turn up for the labs make some sort of half assed effort, submit it and leave then you pass the labs for the year (and consequently end up with a huge number of marks going into the single paper summer exam, especially if you did well in the very easy Christmas exam).

Psy is the same, go to your lectures, write a few optional essays for your tutor and Bobs you fathers brother. The exams are predictable but long (three papers).

If you study the form then you can guestimate with almost 100% accuracy all of the questions in comp sci, information studies and psy.

Yeah I've done a bit, some VB, C, and C++. I never did it too seriously, though, so I only recognise things, etc. Still, not everyone will have done any programming, so I'll have a bit of a heads up. Is there any web design in the course? Cos I know html, and some css, and I'm interested in it too, so that'd be handy.

ps. £15 all you can drink?!?! :eek: I wish I'd been THERE

kasintahan

To tell you the truth, I did BA Comp Sci because it looked (a) interesting and (b) easy (c) hot chicks* (seriously) and to a less extent (d) it is close to my house.

No other factors played a part, I don't care about the usefulness or otherwise of the degree, I don't care about the job prospects - I want to go to college and enjoy it damn it.

*I'm still working on this...

kasintahan

Waltons wrote:

Oh, extra question. I was considering doing Information Studies. Is there really any point? (Apart from the fact that it's easy)

It is almost, kinda connected with Comp Sci.

It's a bit of art/design, a bit of sociology, a bit of history and a bit of computer (esp database) theory.

kasintahan

No, no web design.

I taught myself XHTML and CSS during the year though. It's always useful to have.

Waltons

Cool, might give info studies a look in in first year then. You're completely right about them not knowing what it is. On all the open days all the leaflets were full of waffle and the people at the kiosks couldn't really answer any questions.
I was considering taking psychology but I'm a bit unsure about that now in case I abhor info studies. Time shall tell anyway!
Kas, you're a mine of information. Cheers

beanyb

For your art subjects, I'd recommend going to a few different ones in the first couple of weeks, to see if you like them or not. You can easily change the subjects you put down at registration as long as you dont wait too long (like I did.)

And I'd also say dont just pick psychology because you think it must be cool if it's psychology. I didnt do it personally, but nearly all the people I know that did it absolutely hated it!

Waltons

That's a good suggestion beany. It'd probably be best to try a good few arts so that I can go into second year with a subject I actually like

kasintahan

beanyb wrote:

And I'd also say dont just pick psychology because you think it must be cool if it's psychology. I didnt do it personally, but nearly all the people I know that did it absolutely hated it!

I really enjoyed it. There is A LOT of material though. Personally I think it should be leaving cert course, it's just that useful.

Dave!

Interesting... What'd you find useful about it? Like what kind of things should I look forward to studying? It says in the prospectus that there's alot of statistics in it. I don't mind that, in fact I've been looking at some stats on cso.ie, out of my own interest, so that might be ok.

kasintahan

DaveMcG wrote:

Interesting... What'd you find useful about it? Like what kind of things should I look forward to studying? It says in the prospectus that there's alot of statistics in it. I don't mind that, in fact I've been looking at some stats on cso.ie, out of my own interest, so that might be ok.

Everything
from Developmental Psychology which gives you an insight into child learning and behaviour, very useful for most people seen as how most plan to have kids some day (maybe "plan" is the wrong word ).
to
Cognitive Psychology where you learn how you think, memorise and learn, useful for both personal studying or teching.
Social Psychology dealing with attitudes/presuasion and most importantly interpersonal attraction.
Theres Biological and Perception and one other that I keep forgetting (Alana had to lend me her notes a couple of days before the exam as I forgot it existed :rolleyes:)

Oh and stats, easy stats. I hate maths (or more correctly maths hates me) but it's mostly non numeric stuff until the last 2/3 lectures where it gets hairy but learnable. He puts a lot of effort into his lectures and it shows.

Dave!

Sounds pretty good to me Thanks!

rainbow kirby

kasintahan wrote:

To tell you the truth, I did BA Comp Sci because it looked (a) interesting and (b) easy (c) hot chicks* (seriously) and to a less extent (d) it is close to my house.

Erm... CS probably isn't the best course for the hot chicks... though..

Gileadi

anything related to the science faculty isnt tbh,

up towards the arts/business the girls seem to get prettier(i found at least)

Syth

Gileadi wrote:

anything related to the science faculty isnt tbh,

up towards the arts/business the girls seem to get prettier(i found at least)

Depends what kind of women you like. There are no BOPs in the science faculty. Though we have scifi gothy girls by the bucketload.

tribulus

Syth wrote:

Depends what kind of women you like. There are no BOPs in the science faculty. Though we have scifi gothy girls by the bucketload.

the infection has begun :eek: my year (2nd year) now has a few, just a small group but still...

to the OP or whoever else 1st year CS is simple. If i was asked this time last year what java was i would have said some sort of coffee...seriously. Just turn up to the labs and you get marks, submit anything and you get more and know what you're doing and you'll get 10 every time

rainbow kirby

We *will* have to stomp out the BOPs. We can't have them tainting a pure supply of nerds

kasintahan

rainbow kirby wrote:

Erm... CS probably isn't the best course for the hot chicks... though..

It's the 'A' part of BA that has the loads of hot chicks!*
(and the very occasional really hot really helpful really friendly one too )

On the subject of BOP's here's one I perved while waiting to register for a psy tutorial in September/October last year. I took it to send to a schoolmate who was just starting his E50,000 a year consultant job and didn't fathom my reasons for starting a "worthless" arts course.




*science goth chic works for me too, i'm not a fussy when it comes to style.

rainbow kirby

What about the little nerd girl type?

Mr.Nice Guy

kasintahan wrote:

On the subject of BOP's here's one I perved while waiting to register for a psy tutorial in September/October last year. I took it to send to a schoolmate who was just starting his E50,000 a year consultant job and didn't fathom my reasons for starting a "worthless" arts course.

Why didn't you ask if you could take her picture? From my experience, girls love getting their picture taken and it's a good way to start a convo.

Dave!

I don't think they love getting pictures taken of their ass, though!

I can see the conversation now...

kasintahan: Hey, can I, uh, take a picture, of your, uh...your ass!?
*girl takes out a taser and electrocutes kasintahan*
kasintahan: Down I go

beanyb

Mr.Nice Guy wrote:

Why didn't you ask if you could take her picture? From my experience, girls love getting their picture taken and it's a good way to start a convo.

I know very few girls that love getting their picture taken, especially if it's by a complete random stranger in a queue to register!

Blut

So eh you go around taking pictures of random girls without them knowing...how very...not disturbing and scary?

kasintahan

Blut wrote:

So eh you go around taking pictures of random girls without them knowing...

Yes.

And animals and vistas and old people and buildings and markets and beaches and aeroplanes and, well, you get the idea.

Dave!

Sorry to bump this, just making sure, I don't need a laptop for this course do I? At least, definitely not for 1st year...? Will I need one by 4th year, say? Thanks