Computer Science/Applications

phreak

i'm looking for people's opinions on the 3 courses in the poll.

vote which one you think is best (from what you've heard or from experience)

Also post your reasons for/against each of them.

phreak

5 of you have voted.....some of you wanna give me reasons?

Rew

Iv heard a number of times from employer thats the best Computer degrees going are

DCU - CA
UL - CS
WIT - CS

Iv heard bad things about Trinity and UCD and the people iv met who have done them dont help its rep much....

Your better off with a course that has a work placement as part of it. Any experience you can get is a bonus so getting it as part of your course is obviously a big plus...

I know a lot of people who did CA in DCU and i reckon its a pretty good course and they have access to a lot of facilities there...

Im finishing up in WIT...

damnyanks

If you do a seach there is a thread from last year that had all this stuff. It was quite helpful

Zombrex

UL and DCU if you want to do commerical stuff (ie work for a software development company) .. TCD if you are more interested in research type stuff (ie work in a software development company after you have a Phd in Advanced Software Engineering Using Corn Flakes Packets )

Thats what i heard anyways ....

phreak

Originally posted by damnyanks
If you do a seach there is a thread from last year that had all this stuff. It was quite helpful

yes i know steven. i was the one that started that thread last year. i was seeing if peoples views had changed on the different courses.

i actually have to make my final decision soon and i'm still not sure where i wanna go.

Man U babe

First year in UCD they have to do a lab science subject as well as maths and CS, which is a complete waste of time if you know you want to be a computer-type. Have heard DCU is good, and I couldnt be arsed putting up with all the D4heads in Trinity.

Thorbar

Having to do maths or science is not a waste of time for a computer science course. The wider your degree the better programmer you'll be at the end of it. I wish we did more varied modules in computer systems in UL instead of just focusing on how to code alone.

I think the most important thing for you if your thinking about doing a computer science course is to make sure you enjoy designing and making things. If you've got a bit of programming experience already and enjoy that then you're set. If you haven't touched a computer but you really enjoy wood working or messing around with the engine in your car then I'd say you'll probably do well in a comp sci course.

The only course I'd recommend personally is computer systems in UL as that's what I'm doing myself and I think its a great course but only if the subject matter suits you. As to the other courses you've listed above I can't really say as I haven't heard much about them but I think kaids is doing computer apps in DCU (not sure) worth giving him a pm about it?
Barry

ballooba

Computer Applications in DCU has the best rep from what I've heard.

What do people think of DIT's CS degrees? I'm doing one but I'd like to hear other people's opinions.

pfitz

Do you think the points for CA in DCU will be higher or lower than last year?

ykt0di9url7bc3

Have you considered WIT as Rew says....

find out from employers and Career guidance officers of whats the story..

I'm finished 3rd year of Applied computing atm...likeing the course alot

damnyanks

Originally posted by pfitz
Do you think the points for CA in DCU will be higher or lower than last year?

I don't think they will let it drop any lower. From what I heard they didnt as many people in last year as other years.

Repli

Originally posted by ballooba
What do people think of DIT's CS degrees? I'm doing one but I'd like to hear other people's opinions.

I thought you were in aungier st? DIT completely changed the FT228 course this year, I've talked to people in year 2 who did PASCAL in 1st year but we do C/C++ now and also they didn't do algorithms at all in 1st year.. but we do now. Anyway from what i've heard DIT work closely with industries and have placement programs with intel, ibm, microsoft, dell, symantec, and a few others..
The only bad thing about the course is that the maths is very very hard (Even in 1st year!)

Moonbeam

It really depends on what you want to do at the end of it the courses are all different and can lead to different things,
work out if it is programming,networking,support,design that you want to do and then find the course that contains these,

decob

Originally posted by damnyanks
I don't think they will let it drop any lower. From what I heard they didnt as many people in last year as other years.

I remember reading somewhere recently that CA have set a base of 300points for entry if as expected numbers applying are down again

Having been through CA it was a good course, tho i did it in the old format. Whereas now you are streamed from 2nd yr, so not sure what the standard is like.

As someone else said, you really need to know what area you'd like to go into. From looking at the way the CA streams are it's geared alot more toward programming. If you were interested in networking you get a bit of a feel for it from CA but would end up doing most yourself. As for webdeisgn/Dev you'd be doing it all yourself

uberwolf

i'm in ucd, wouldn't do it again, neither would very many, nuff said

damnyanks

Just curious, whats wrong with the UCD CS Bs Degree ?

I know a few people doing it. Dont really ask about the course but seems to be a fair amount of stuff on it.

How relevant is maths on a IT course?

I'm only doing a cert at the moment :rolleyes: We only had one semester of maths, if I was to do the degree version I'd only be doing maths in first year and never again

uberwolf

material is relavant, to be fair i haven't much comparison, but there just doesn't seem to be a level of understanding amongst the class, there are the normal few geniuses, them aside everyone is struggling through and there isn't the support for those who might be having difficulties

Snowball

but uberwolf is that not always the way? a few geniuses do realy well and the rest just scrape by

uberwolf

I wouldn't know, i'm one of the geniuses

strawberry

Originally posted by Man U babe
First year in UCD they have to do a lab science subject as well as maths and CS, which is a complete waste of time if you know you want to be a computer-type. Have heard DCU is good, and I couldnt be arsed putting up with all the D4heads in Trinity.

For what it's worth, the people in first CS in Trinity this year are pretty nice people*.

*major concession from law student.

Chucky

Have ye not heard of Computer Science DIT?

damnyanks

Whats that then ?

Chucky

Something ive been stuck doing for 3 years, haha. And it doesnt get any better i can assure you.

damnyanks

Awwwwwww you need a box of chupa chupes

Chucky

Its like this ya see. Im on my easter break at the moment but I've now been in college monday and tuesday doing assignment work. And Im getting the bus up and down from Naas everyday.

damnyanks

Ahhh some guy in my class comes from Navan everyday. Must be a pain in the arse. They should give ya money towards rent in Dublin, some place nice and near DIT

Chucky

I could get a job and live up in dublin. But that wud just suck the rest of my spare time out of me. Work after college till 10pm, and then saturdays 9 to 5 or something most likely

HAHA!!

So what great computer course are you doing?

Chaos-Engine

UCD is crap
don't bother

next question goes to you...
Are u interested in the whole theory of computing or not?

If the answer is YES then go to TCD

If your more interested in doing a Comp Course that will get u trained to the highest standard of Code Monkey then go to DCU.
But be warned they teach such things as Accounting and such.

Comp Sci in TCD is much more mathamatical and you will be far far more future-proofed than anyother course in the country

Forget Employers' favour. Are you interested in teh best course or not?

P.s I'm a CS student in TCD who is a 5min walk from UCD

Chucky

I think this is more a personal issue than a computer relted matter.

All of a sudden im realising that im going into my final year of my degree in CS (DIT Kevin St.). Im only 20 for gods sake. I cant handle all this stuff at the moment. I simply dont want to go out working in industry EVER...especially not in computers. Where's the fun in it all? Computers are boring. It's just electricity and magnetism to give a nice pretty picture on a screen. How fun is that like?!

damnyanks

Sorry to hear chucky, maybe you can do a masters course on a business related topic. It seems like a terrible waste of 4 years. I picked this course because I like computers and programming

I'm at NCI doing a cert. Its not that bad I guess :ninja:
Leaves me wtih a few more options. Would of prefered DCU but I made an arse of the ol maths ya know

Chucky

Maybe that's one good point about my course -> there being no more maths after year II

I think it just boils down to the fact that I feel im far too young and immature to be gathering my degree already. Im the youngest in my course and my classmates are already talking about settling down.......

.......i think ill take this up in the personal issues section.

cheers though for listening

spuddy

don't knock cs in ucd completely. first year is a doddle, some of the hardware stuff is tricky but the software project is a bit of craic. plenty of comp facilities (even if the network does go on the blick from time to time!)

however 2nd year aint so enjoyable - they've changed the marking standards for 2002/2003 (but only introduced them since jan/feb 2003!) which means that we now have to get 55% in 4 out of 8 comp subjects & a min of 40% in other 4. this is dispite the fact that we were categorically told before x-mas that 40% in all subjects was the required standard to proceed to 3rd year. they've only just taken the time to tell us of the changes now (with an informal email ~3 weeks before the exams!) but to top it all if we dont get the required standard we may not even get the chance to repeat in august, we may be forced to repeat the whole year!

as you might imagine we're all a bit annoyed. not so much about the new marking scheme but about the lack of consultation. we dont mind being asked to achieve a certain standard of proficiency but what we do object to is being asked to achieve that standard on just a few weeks notice.

on top of all that nobody in the dept seems able to give us a straight answer on what the official line is. instead we're left high & dry, completely unsure of what the future holds. with the decline in applications from the cao for cs courses over the past few years and the requirement for graduates to fill the intels, hps and ibms in this country, you'd imagine universities would be doing all they can to encourage those currently studying cs. but no, instead we are left in the dark to ponder what will happen come the May exams and more importantly, what on earth made us think studying in ucd would be a fair, rewarding experience.

on second thoughts stay well clear, you're probably better off in the long run.

Lorrainbow

I'm doing the Diploma in Computer Science DIT Kevin St
we did algorithms and pascal in first year and we're doing COBOL in 2nd year, which is totally different from the degree course, according to this year's 3rd years.

a lot of my class want to transfer into DCU computer applications, after their diploma. I heard it's a really hard course though.

one thing that shouldn't come up in your decision of which college to go to, but i have to mention, is fees.
am i right in saying that university fees are more expensive than IT fees? employers probably look for a university degree before an IT degree. but they're all the same.

there's also distance to consider which adds on to cost.

a friend of mine going to Tallaght IT and has done JAVA in first year which i am extremly jealous of cause we don't get to do it till 3rd year.

damnyanks

Why do they do that ?

We are leaarning Vb this year java next.

I was under the impression that C++ and Java are the main languages that companies use.

Why would they be teaching other (lesser?) languages.

I know Vb.Net is out now so does that mean what we are learning is already dated ?

and bla bla bla etc.

Rew

Originally posted by Lorrainbow
a friend of mine going to Tallaght IT and has done JAVA in first year which i am extremly jealous of cause we don't get to do it till 3rd year.

Java is very easy to pick up, I had little experience with java and just finished coding my 4th year proj compleatly in java.

Get the JDK and the java tutorial from the sun web site and get a head start on 3rd year

Yeah i think uni fees are a bit higher or somthin like that (maybe its the other way round cant remember)

Your employers look for experince more then the scrap of paper that the college give up. I got a summer job based on my experiince when i had just finished 2nd year and failed 2 exams!!

The whole Uni degrees are bett then IT degrees is just snobbery... The DCU CA degree was modled on WIT's Applied Comp AFAIK.

Chucky

Hey lorraine. im in the Degree of computer science in DIT Kevin st. Its such a small college you probably know me to see.

Trebor

just finished a FAS course (made a balls of my leaving) on programming which was very good and i am trying to get in to any college, might be going into to second year of DIT CS but really hoping to go to scotland to study computer games technology, have heard very good things about it. got shot down by DCU my fas course not good enough for them as an entry requirment and not a mature student yet :mad: but i have heard very good thing about it

Tyrrial

DCU, has a bit of a weird first year, i ended up doing "Introduction to the Irish Political System" for some reason, it wasn't a bad thing, i really enjoyed the subject, but couln't help wondering why i was doing it!

DCU - great for computing and the such.
TCD - I hear is dated and unintersting (second hand info)
UCD - haven't heard to much bad about it really.

Druid

One caveat you should know. I have seen countless people drop out of CA (@DCU) during my 4 years here. Do not expect it to be easy. It can get hard especally if you don't go to lectures.
I can speak with experience after seeing 1/3 of my class drop out in 1st year, slightly less in 2nd and less again in 3rd.

DCU is also quite anonymous, lecturers will rarely get to know you. And during my time there the managment were completely hopeless.

My opinion of the DCU course is that its quite good. You get to learn a multitude of programming languages and touch on interesting aspects of other area's of computing.

My advice is to be prepared, 1st year is actually quite easy but it gets harder.

Good Luck with your decision.
- Dru.

hussey

I finished last year with hons from CA,

more people have good jobs than TCD,UCD from what I've heard

though it is fairly though.

last year they put a cap on how many ppl were allowed in .. originally 300 but that went to 150 after points fell.

This was the right decision as alot of people wouldn't have made it to 4th year.

Though just a warning there is no social life in DCU .. it is completly dead .. people look at it like a degree factory.

my 1st year we had to q for 1hr to get into the bar on the first day of rag week.

last year the bar was empty at 1 o clock

uberwolf

Originally posted by Chaos-Engine
UCD is crap
don't bother

next question goes to you...
Are u interested in the whole theory of computing or not?

If the answer is YES then go to TCD

If your more interested in doing a Comp Course that will get u trained to the highest standard of Code Monkey then go to DCU.
But be warned they teach such things as Accounting and such.

Comp Sci in TCD is much more mathamatical and you will be far far more future-proofed than anyother course in the country

Forget Employers' favour. Are you interested in teh best course or not?

P.s I'm a CS student in TCD who is a 5min walk from UCD

strange cos i heard the exact same as that in reference to UCD!!! thats where i'm at going in to fourth year honours now and still can't code!! whats more you just cram the theory to pass the exams so where does it leave you. end of the day you'll get what you want out of a course

phreak

in the end i chose CA in DCU.

also applied for the informations and communications engineering in DCU. looks really interesting. (my second choice)

after that its CS in TCD followed by CS in UCD.

and the other six places are filled with computer courses i really have no interest in.

eirebhoy

I'm going to DIT to study CS next year. I love computers. I thought I would get this degree done and over with and get a well payed job as a Software Engineer or somtihng. But you are all starting to chane my mind.
Is it reallt that bad?

Repli

Originally posted by eireboy
I'm going to DIT to study CS next year. I love computers. I thought I would get this degree done and over with and get a well payed job as a Software Engineer or somtihng. But you are all starting to chane my mind.
Is it reallt that bad?

Well you say you love computers, so it won't be `that` bad.. Read up on careers in IT or have a chat with a programmer/software engineer. It's an interesting course I've just completed 1st year (we were the first year doing the new ft228 course).. but there's a lot of irrelevant material in the course.. (like management & communication studies)
Having said that - education never goes to waste. Getting a degree shows you have the ability to work hard and employers respect that, no matter what industry you go into.