Do's and don'ts for first year students?

Red Alert

Did you internally repeat RK?

rainbow kirby

I'm changing course... I did 3 years of a maths physics degree :eek:... now changing to computer science and going back to second year. So I gotta pay fees this year and next, 2/3 fees this year because I've already passed 2nd year maths (just about) and full fees (about 6k! :eek::eek:) for 3rd year part deux.

I've been wrecking admin's heads all summer... Took them 2 days to tell me how much I had to pay in fees!

Waltons

Wow, that's a pretty complicated academic history :eek:
How's the computer science treating you?

rainbow kirby

Pretty good actually
I've spent the summer going back over my 1st year Java to make sure I'm up to speed for the start of term. And of course, playing with my shiny new iBook that I got for my 21st

Waltons

Ooooh fancy!
I'm taking the BA Comp Sci. Any advice do's or don'ts for the Comp Sci people?

irlrobins

rainbow kirby wrote:

I'm changing course... I did 3 years of a maths physics degree :eek:... now changing to computer science and going back to second year. So I gotta pay fees this year and next, 2/3 fees this year because I've already passed 2nd year maths (just about) and full fees (about 6k! :eek::eek:) for 3rd year part deux.

I've been wrecking admin's heads all summer... Took them 2 days to tell me how much I had to pay in fees!

Hey! thats what I did. Except I did three years of elec eng before deciding to transfer. Best move i ever made. Hope it works out as well for you as it did me. But yeah the "repeat fees" are a bitch. About 3K back when i did it.

Anyway good luck with it. Might bump into during the year....

upmeath

yeah i have a mate doing it, so DON'T go too near the guy whose kitchen is in meath and whose garage is in westmeath. just my advice having spent 5yrs in secondary with him! ah seb, im not a wuss, im just a lazy-happy-go-lucky-get-strunk-everyday student, aren't we all? so the beer and munchies will have to be paid for!

rainbow kirby

Waltons wrote:

Ooooh fancy!
I'm taking the BA Comp Sci. Any advice do's or don'ts for the Comp Sci people?

First year... GO TO YOUR LABS!!! Actually getting the hang of programming well in 1st year is a really good idea. And the demonstrators can be very helpful. Also... try to stay awake in the lectures. Joe Carthy tends to recycle his exam questions a lot, you'll probably have him for hardware. The courses and exams aren't too difficult in 1st year if you keep up with the work.

Dave!

RK, could you confirm for me -- am I not able to do history as a major with Computer science? It conflicts on the timetable, is there a way around it or anything? I can do 3 of the 4 modules, but I can't get my degree unless I do all 4.



I'm gonna have to change my course to arts if I can't do it!

tribulus

tbh mate most people already in ucd are'nt very up with modularisation, though vainglory should be able to help more

there's always gonna be problems with subject clashes , i guess most people interested in CS don't do history :rolleyes:

i don't see a way around it unless a number of people complain of the same problem....

rainbow kirby

I don't know, I'm BSc CS...
But just looking at the UCD Horizons site, history is given as one of the options. Maybe have a word with your course coordinator (I think it's still Julie Berndsen...but I'm not sure). Or ask Vainglory to look into things. That's a bit of a headfunk though.

*Angel*

A LOT of the options on the Horizons site for my course conflict with my schedule... annoying!

tribulus

i suppose the more core modules you have the more conlfict there'll be in your timetable.

i was with my gf while she was enrolling for her modules and gotta say i'm kinda jealous now .... i would have loved to have got my little mini degree in business while still getting a science degree

Dave!

tribulus wrote:

tbh mate most people already in ucd are'nt very up with modularisation, though vainglory should be able to help more

there's always gonna be problems with subject clashes , i guess most people interested in CS don't do history :rolleyes:

i don't see a way around it unless a number of people complain of the same problem....

Thanks, I PM'd Vainglory so hopefully he/she will get back to me.

Funkstard

LadyLotts wrote:

Also any tips on how many hours to work? I'm thinking about Dunnes Cornelscourt if I get res as it's not too far. Any other places that are a handy distance away? I know there's a couple of petrol stations nearby anyway. And I know I'm only in year 13(6th year in England) but I have an obsession with planning way too far ahead!

Yeh good luck to you, there's fecking 600 people on the waiting list to work there

Attol

Funkstard wrote:

Yeh good luck to you, there's fecking 600 people on the waiting list to work there

Well about 6 of my friends in Dublin got jobs there the first time they applied, which was about a week apart from each other. I'll be moving back during the summer so that I can stay at a friend's house and find a job. With the high rate of turnover I can't say it'll take long to get one, especially if I get there before other college students move down from the country. I'm going to work full time during the summer and then change my hours so that it fits in with my timetable. Apparently they're sh!tty bosses but pretty good with giving you suitable hours. Also I'll be 18. The waiting list doesn't seem to exist. I've applied for a job there and they said they'd contact me if anything came up(I was 16 at the time). They didn't get back on that.

Ruskie4Rent

Thanks, I PM'd Vainglory so hopefully he/she will get back to me.

Yeah and when he/she does, let me know cos i have the same problem. I chose to only do 2 histoy modules out of 4 cos if you can't do all 4 of them then whats the point.

arbeitsscheuer

Vainglory is a she, and a very pretty she at that, so that's that question outta the way... :rolleyes:

Also, I think she mentioned something about not using the PM thingy so much cos it's cumbersome, and said a better way would be to talk to her directly on MSN, so here's her msn address so's ya can ask her whatever: sueducation@ucd.ie

ArizonaBayNow!

I'm sorting this stuff out myself at the moment, and my only advice is to keep rechecking the times of your other modules, I was able to make stuff fit pretty well but it takes alot of moving stuff around, and it isn't easy to figure out what to move as if you have one of a selection of module times selected it doesn't show the others, so it's all pretty annoying. But keep at it.

upmeath

80 quid a week could very easily become 180 if maths or engineering students with good leaving cert maths grades gave grinds on saturdays and weekday evenings, a mate told me this morning he made 25 euro an hour giving one-to-one grinds while in ucd last year, and im looking into it now myself! as a nixer it pays well for just letting someone else know what you already know!

Dave!

Ruskie4Rent wrote:

Yeah and when he/she does, let me know cos i have the same problem. I chose to only do 2 histoy modules out of 4 cos if you can't do all 4 of them then whats the point.

I'm still waiting to hear from Vainglory, but I rang up the 1st year helpline place and they took all the information, but told me that if I can't fit the modules around my core subject, I'll have to ring the programmes office and see if there's anything they can do.



I may end up changing my course to Arts...

*Angel*

upmeath wrote:

80 quid a week could very easily become 180 if maths or engineering students with good leaving cert maths grades gave grinds on saturdays and weekday evenings, a mate told me this morning he made 25 euro an hour giving one-to-one grinds while in ucd last year, and im looking into it now myself! as a nixer it pays well for just letting someone else know what you already know!

That's a good idea!

elle

I honestly dunno how anyone could survive a college year without work. I mean travel and food alone, even if ur living at home cost a fortune. I could never expect my parents to support me. Was wondering if anyone might know anything about claiming fees back on your tax...I had to pay half fees this year but heard somewhere that u are entitled to claim it back if ur working...anyone know what i'm on about????

Blush_01

I survived on €50 a week in first year, but I was within walking distance of college. I didn't work until Christmas last year, but I lived on €70 a week, out of which €15/€15.50 was bus ticket money, with clothes and other emergencies being covered by my savings from working all summer. After christmas I kept working part-time, but my boss is a wanker, and most fortnights I'd have maybe two days work, so I had €90 extra to play around with - occasionally. Which filled holes like interest on loans occasionally, when I had a few extra squids.

I knew someone who survived on €30 a week, after rent. but it was literally just surviving. Even I felt like I was just surviving.

I'm dreading after christmas, I have to quit work then to focus on college, but it'll make things wrung-out tight. Even with the loan.

I really envy people who get grants. Yis fockers.

Jonny Arson

elle wrote:

I honestly dunno how anyone could survive a college year without work. I mean travel and food alone, even if ur living at home cost a fortune. I could never expect my parents to support me. Was wondering if anyone might know anything about claiming fees back on your tax...I had to pay half fees this year but heard somewhere that u are entitled to claim it back if ur working...anyone know what i'm on about????

I heard that anyone paying fees can claim back 20% in tax working or not working.

I actually didn't work at all during college last year but I live at home in Dublin so it's very possible for me to survive confortably without working. Even though I'm still living at home my parents go out of their way to support me and I don't want it! I'm actually arguing with my parents at the moment becasue they want to pay half of my fees this year whereas i want to pay all of it! I'm insane i know but I'm a big boy now and have got to get off my ass and make my own living instead of unvoluntarily scabbing off mummy and daddy.

elle

Really, how do u find out? Tax office? Or admin? Yeah i live at home too, rent free, but i'm the eldest of three, so my parents really can't afford to be supporting me the whole time, anyway it's my fault for dropping outta my ****ty course last year so it's up to me to pay for it, no matter how much they try.

Blush_01

You value things more when you have to work for them. I'm the eldest of three too, my brother is a fresher in WIT this year and my mother was in college last year (sponsored, thank ****, or I'd have been living in a cardboard box outside back entrance to the arts block.)

Maybe I'm being selfish, naive (damn lack of umlauts!) or stupid, but I know I couldn't support myself completely and manage college too. If I was able to live at home, it'd be different, but when you have to think of things like electricity bills and gas etc. as well as travel, rent and all the ordinary living expenses you take for granted, in addition to the fact that if you want food in the press, you have to put it there yourself, there's no parent in the house to grocery shop... well, the reality of living away from home without a grant is no laughing matter, and it's crippling for the entire family, even with a loan, for so many people. I know the grants are means tested, but otehr people seem to be able to get around the limits and get grants anyway, whe I know people who have had to remortgage their houses or sell land to afford to help their kids out in college. I pay my rent myself for as long as I can from my savings and my loan, but if I can't afford my rent I have no qualms about asking my parents for help - they know they'll get it back, just maybe not immediately. Besides, I'd prefer to borrow it from them than have to repeat and pay for a year's tuition on top of everything else.

As for the fees - if you're working and living at home, your fees are about half a years rent - which you could earn in three months, even in a minimum wage paying job.

Money makes the world go round.

Obviously you need way more money from your parents if you live away. If you live at home it is definitely possible to have a part time job and support yourself. You're not paying for rent, food, laundry, travel home at weekends if you need it, basically you're not paying for any of the stuff people who live away have to pay. My friend who lives at home thinks I'm spoiled cos she saw my dad give me 150 euro cash when he came down to see me. I had to explain that it wasn't for going out drinking or ordering pizza, it was towards the rent, my food bill, etc. She genuinely hadn't even realised how much she takes for granted. She works and she gets to keep all the money she earns to spend on whatever she wants.

I got 100 euros a week from my parents, and that wasn't including rent which was mostly covered by a student loan (although my parents had to help as well cos the maximum loan didn't even cover it). That was for everything, including travel and books and all that. I wasn't dirt poor but at the same time I could barely afford to go out once a week. I spent 15 euro on travel, 20 euro on supermarket groceries, about 20-25 euros getting lunch in college or O'Briens, 5 euro for laundry, there's 60 euro gone there on bare essentiels. I often needed to buy college books regularly which would average another 10 euro a week and that leaves 30 euro to go out, providing I didn't need to buy clothes etc. Theoretically you could live on less, say about 60 euros but that would mean making sandwiches every day for lunch, never going out, walking into college etc. I did that a few times when I spent half my allowance on clothes and it was pretty miserable to be honest. I ended up getting a job so I could spend more on 'luxuries'

Blush_01

Luxuries, like Brennan's bread instead of Tesco Value and Tesco luxury toilet paper instead of sandpaper, those kind of things?

The real secret to living away from home is to gather ammo when you do go home. They won't mind you taking a few rolls of toilet paper, some tins of beans etc. when you go home. And it'll make a big difference to you.

Also, Eng is apparently great for "free" toilet roll, as are the ladies bathrooms in the Arts block. But that's just what I've been told.