Can't Decide!

Pythagoras

At the moment, I’m trying to figure out what course I want to do in college so that I’ll have it all clear in my head for next year when I’ll be sitting the leaving cert. The two courses that I’m stuck between are “Information Technology” and “Physics And Astronomy”, both at NUI Galway. I can’t decide which one to do, as I really love working on computers and physics equally as much. The points and requirements really don’t make any difference to my choice either, my strong point is maths and physics which feature in both of the courses.
So, does anyone here have any info on what kind of job prospects there are available after finishing the four years of each course? Is there many jobs in Physics around and if so, what are they? A job at nasa, seti maybe?? Or would it be lecturing at college?
Also, how about the IT jobs? I’d be more interested in working on computer games than databases and such (I’ve been doing that for a while on the net) but would I actually need a degree like the one in this course to get a job or would they go on my ability (like in a portfolio)?
I would ask the guidance counselor guy at my school but he really hasn’t got a clue (said he’ll be doing aptitude tests with us this time next year!!)
I know I’ve asked some questions not really specific to college courses (as in working on computer and the games industry) but I figured this would be the best place to post on to find out where to go to next…thanks for any help!!

Sev

Well.. I figured IT would be too easy and boring for me, and lack originallity, challenge.. everybody does it these days. So I have Theoretical Physics in Trinity down no.1 atm on my CAO. I generally get the idea from everybody who ive met doing it.. thats its the nastiest, bitchiest, hardest mathematical/scientific/technical course they do.

But at the end of they day, you'll have a "Degree in Theoretical Phsyics" which sounds pretty leet. I also liked the sound of a "Degree in Astrophysics" from maynooth, but its a bit out of the way for me, and too much astronomy might get boring and lack practicality. Lots of maths in TP tho im told, which is good.

A degree in a mathematical discipline such as TP, maths, physics also qualifies you for pretty much anything and everything that requires any kind of technical ability. Many TP students Im told persue further studies or go on to work in the financial sector to become actuaries and the like or work in the IT sector.

ferdi

do astronomy cause it sounds cool. that is as good a reason as any, i picked my course due to the fact that it has relativly few hours of lectures per week.

YoungNastyMan

Take a year out, go find yourself, and apply on the CAO the following year. my point is you can always go back and re apply, at the moment just concentrate on getting those points. then worry about chooseing your course.

Although having a dream course to get into. is good for motivation.
worked for me.

Good luck

issch

Originally posted by Pythagoras

Also, how about the IT jobs? I’d be more interested in working on computer games than databases and such (I’ve been doing that for a while on the net) but would I actually need a degree like the one in this course to get a job or would they go on my ability (like in a portfolio)?

Really? What kind of stuff have you been doing?
I'm interested in game development myself (the programming and design parts anyway) and am always interested to know what others are up to.

Id say do Computer Science, that way you have something which could be applied to Physics if you change your mind, plus it would be challenging.
And if you want to make games or databases it would surely be useful.

Get a degree and write a demo game/program to show off your skills, that IMHO would be the way to go, and what Im doing.

Thats just my opinions, I have no real experience to go on as yet.

Pythagoras

well, I've been mapping for the Q3, HL, UT2003 engines for a good while, plus I've been doing some modelling for UT2003, haven't started on Q3 engine modelling yet, but I've plenty of time to start on it.
I've been learning programming for a while now (~1-2 years) so then I'll start learning how the sdk's work and stuff like that.

And in the design part, I've been looking at a lot of games figuring out how the gameplay runs and architecture and the like.
Also, been reading up on the net different articles about it....

How about you, what kind of stuff have you been doing?

issch

Me, I'm just trying to get really good at C++ programming and am practicing hard for the International Olympiad in Informatics 2003.

I've been programming for the past 2 - 3 years now in Visual BASIC, python and C++ but I've also tried pascal, euphoria, prolog, MASM and probably others I have forgotton.

I am currently playing around with Lua (embedding Lua in C++) only started yesterday and so far its going well.
Other than that I've recently been playing around with the Allegro multimedia library (http://alleg.sourceforge.net) and before that I was messing with the Simple Directmedia Layer (www.libsdl.org) and some OpenGL programming.
I've also spent a while playing around with AI (FSM's, Fuzzy Logic and Genetic Algorithms).

I have some ideas I want to work on, but theres so many things I still want to learn or have to do that most of my projects don't get worked on as much as Id like them to.

Some things Im "trying" to work on:
A particle based 2D terrain system.
A multi-user text based adventure game server. (I thought it'd be a great way to master Databases, command parsing and sockets (winsock), my problem with this project is I don't have a solid design so every so often i redesign and scrap most of my code...)

Other than that, I spend a great deal of time on GameDev.net reading the articles or hangin' around the forums.

Right now I want to make a small graphical demo with sound, just to show what I can do. It will use Allegro for I/O and possibly some Lua scripting.

Thats more or less what Ive been doing.

Man U babe

Originally posted by Pythagoras
The two courses that I’m stuck between are “Information Technology” and “Physics And Astronomy”, both at NUI Galway. I can’t decide which one to do, as I really love working on computers and physics equally as much. The points and requirements really don’t make any difference to my choice either, my strong point is maths and physics which feature in both of the courses.

If you do pretty much any maths degree you'll have to do programming in it, same goes for TP in trinity (correct me if I'm wrong any TP's), also CS in UCD most of them do physics in 1st year.

Physics and astronomy sounds cool though. Yes I'm just a big nerd.

well, I've been mapping for the Q3, HL, UT2003 engines for a good while, plus I've been doing some modelling for UT2003, haven't started on Q3 engine modelling yet, but I've plenty of time to start on it.

Have you thought about computer games technology in Abertay?

I'm probably a bit biased against CS in general cos I'm absolutely atrocious at programming and am probably going to fail my Java exam on Friday, but that's just me, it's obviously your cup of tea so if you want to do CS go for it, just tbh if you've got a talent for physics use it because when you get into physics it's a beautiful subject. (you probably wouldn't think this in 1st year, but anyways...)

issch

Yes. of course Im also biased. Im also quite interested in physics, but more in computer programming.

I suggest CS because it is relevent to game development (after all game programming is a broad term, so unless you want to specialise in say Graphics or AI you should learn about all) and CS gives a nice range of career possibilities. (besides many of the people over at GameDev have CS degrees).

Well in the end its your choice, pick something you like. Write down everything you like about physics and everything you like about computers, decide what career possibilities are most appealing to you, then pick the one for which you have most written down.

Anyway, good luck.