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college

  • 21-01-2009 2:20pm
    #1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 78 ✭✭


    anyone doing or finished business in U.L .
    is it a good course


«1

Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 932 ✭✭✭Yillan


    Business is never a good course

    tinhat


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,219 ✭✭✭Mossin


    Yillan wrote: »
    Business is never a good course

    Thats very unhelpful, and a ridiculous statement! :mad:
    -mr.x- wrote: »
    anyone doing or finished business in U.L .
    is it a good course

    I'm currently in 4th year of the old BBS course along with Ninty9er and DJCR.
    There are quite a number of others currently doing the new BBS course.

    I can comment a little on the new course as I covered a lot of the same modules in my course.

    Its an interesting course, which gives you a taste of Marketing, Accounting, HR, Economics and Insurance and Risk in your first 2 years, and then you can choose which you want to major in.
    Its very broad and some may say its too vague blah blah...but trust me, its an excellent course overall.

    I went the Marketing major route, and I'm loving it.

    There are usually over 450 people who start BBS in 1st year and as such people tend to think its an easy course, but its not. The drop out rate is about 18% in both 1st and 2nd year. Its not a course for dossers.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 78 ✭✭-mr.x-


    thanks


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 162 ✭✭nouveau_4.0


    Mossin wrote: »
    Thats very unhelpful, and a ridiculous statement! :mad:



    I'm currently in 4th year of the old BBS course along with Ninty9er and DJCR.
    There are quite a number of others currently doing the new BBS course.

    I can comment a little on the new course as I covered a lot of the same modules in my course.

    Its an interesting course, which gives you a taste of Marketing, Accounting, HR, Economics and Insurance and Risk in your first 2 years, and then you can choose which you want to major in.
    Its very broad and some may say its too vague blah blah...but trust me, its an excellent course overall.

    I went the Marketing major route, and I'm loving it.

    There are usually over 450 people who start BBS in 1st year and as such people tend to think its an easy course, but its not. The drop out rate is about 18% in both 1st and 2nd year. Its not a course for dossers.



    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDW_Hj2K0wo


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,096 ✭✭✭ImDave


    Mossin wrote: »
    Thats very unhelpful, and a ridiculous statement! :mad:

    +1

    I would agree with Mossin 100% on everything he has said there. I am in 3rd year of the BBS (out on co-op now), so the first year of the new course, and have to say it is a very good course overall. I am doing the Accounting and Finance major with Entrepreneurship minor (which is class). There are a few modules over the past three years that one may question the relevance of, but this will be the case in the vast majority of courses in uni., but none the less most modules are excellent.

    The class size, which ultimately leads to didactic lectures being the only feasible option for teaching the majority of the course content is the only thing I dislike, but it doesn't present an overwhelming problem, particularly if you are comfortable with such a style of learning.

    Overall I would not hesitate to recommend the course to anyone, but would say only do the course if you are prepared to do a bit of work and have some, even a vague, interest in business.


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  • Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 2,432 Mod ✭✭✭✭Peteee


    Yillan wrote: »
    Business is never a good course

    tinhat
    Careful now.

    If your going to mock a course, please be funny at the very least.


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,215 ✭✭✭Rowley Birkin QC


    I started doing business in UL in 2002, absolutely hated it.

    The size of the lectures were ridiculous, the content was horribly bland and I generally didn't enjoy it. I liked business in school but found the 3rd level course mind-numbing.

    Just finished doing my final year exams in Town Planning in Bolton St. and couldn't be happier. Apart from the recession business obviously.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,219 ✭✭✭Mossin


    bigkev49 wrote: »
    I started doing business in UL in 2002, absolutely hated it.

    The size of the lectures were ridiculous, the content was horribly bland and I generally didn't enjoy it. I liked business in school but found the 3rd level course mind-numbing.

    Just finished doing my final year exams in Town Planning in Bolton St. and couldn't be happier. Apart from the recession business obviously.

    Business isnt for everybody, and just because you liked it in secondary school doesnt necessarily mean that you will like it at 3rd level.

    You would have been doing the old BBS course which I am doing.
    It is difficult to adjust to the large lecture size and some of the content in 1st year, but it gets better, and who knows, if you had stayed at it maybe you would have enjoyed it and found that its not bland at all


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,215 ✭✭✭Rowley Birkin QC


    Mossin wrote: »
    Business isnt for everybody, and just because you liked it in secondary school doesnt necessarily mean that you will like it at 3rd level.

    You would have been doing the old BBS course which I am doing.
    It is difficult to adjust to the large lecture size and some of the content in 1st year, but it gets better, and who knows, if you had stayed at it maybe you would have enjoyed it and found that its not bland at all

    Have to say I doubt that, but as you say it's not for everybody.

    Still in contact with people who finished the course and I'm nearly asleep listening to their job descriptions. The size of the course really was an issue for me, zero interaction or personal relationships with lecturers, more akin to a factory churning out huge numbers of degrees every year than a learning experience IMHO.

    Just recommending that the OP look into this course further before choosing it.


  • Registered Users Posts: 932 ✭✭✭Yillan


    bigkev49 wrote: »
    Have to say I doubt that, but as you say it's not for everybody.

    Still in contact with people who finished the course and I'm nearly asleep listening to their job descriptions. The size of the course really was an issue for me, zero interaction or personal relationships with lecturers, more akin to a factory churning out huge numbers of degrees every year than a learning experience IMHO.

    Just recommending that the OP look into this course further before choosing it.

    With complete disregard for my first post on this thread, isn't business the same everywhere, as regards huge class sizes?

    To be honest, I'd recommend UL as the best place to do anything, especially something like business, which can end up being a 'token degree' elsewhere. From UL you actually do have to work for the degree and I think this is recognised by employers.

    UL or Trinity, for its reputation abroad alone


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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,056 ✭✭✭dragonfly!


    Did you go to the open day? FOund it v helpful when I was at it in 07:)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 162 ✭✭nouveau_4.0


    Yillan wrote: »
    With complete disregard for my first post on this thread, isn't business the same everywhere, as regards huge class sizes?

    To be honest, I'd recommend UL as the best place to do anything, especially something like business, which can end up being a 'token degree' elsewhere. From UL you actually do have to work for the degree and I think this is recognised by employers.

    UL or Trinity, for its reputation abroad alone
    LOL, thats a lie and you know it.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,219 ✭✭✭Mossin


    LOL, thats a lie and you know it.

    If you want a 1st class honours then thats not a lie!
    I glided through 1st and 2nd year by putting in feck all effort, and lads here can testify to how much I went out and how little I did college wise, but I always managed to do the required work and passed my exams in good stead.
    My XBOX was overused in those years.

    But since 3rd year I've put in savage effort, and if results go my way I could be looking at a 1:1 this year.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,614 ✭✭✭Rineanna


    Hi Mr. X,

    I'm currently in third year Business too, so, like a previous poster, out on co-op at the moment.

    The course has its advantages and disadvantages. I won't lie, there are aspects of it I'm not mad about, but, in general, its good points outweigh its bad ones from an educational point of view.

    First of all, the very fact that its such a broad course illustrates its good points and bad points. You get a well rounded perspective on everything business-wise, obviously. I had very little interest in accounting coming into 1st year; didn't do it for the LC, hated the book-keeping part of JC business apart from the P&L stuff. However, there are three obligatory accounting modules in the course (Financial, Managerial and & Financial info analysis), so every person, whether they were a person who loved the HR/Marketing side of things or someone able to construct a set of accounts in two minutes flat, you studied these modules. There isn't a problem if you're crap at accounting because they teach the syllabus with the very fact that there is an anti-accounting sub-culture within the course :D. I am so glad I studied these modules, even though I'm a Marketing major, as I'm using techniques and skills learned while studying them everyday on co-op in my marketing position. Plus, I'd rank Finanacial Information Analysis as one of my top five favourite modules so far, partially down to an excellent lecturer and secondly because it was so relevant to all the turmoil in the national and global economy currently. On the other hand, you do come accross a few, not many, but a couple of modules which you have no interest in and on which you would rather not have to do exams. You get over it though, as long as you put the effort in to compensate for the lack of interest. This could be avoided if you were to study a more specialised course (say, Economics and Sociology, which would cut out the HR, Marketing and Insurance stuff). It really depends on what you want to do at the other end but despite its drawbacks, I'm happy to have experienced so many facets of the business world.

    Just before I go on, there are a few ill-informed naysayers (not just on this board) who love throwing around ridiculous comments on the 'Business Degree' that you graduate with, the statistics do speak for themselves. IIRC, the numbers employed one year on in posts relevant to their degrees stood definitely within the 90%-100% bracket, with the majority of the remainder in postgraduate studies and something like 3% unemployed. I stand to be corrected on those figures as I don't have the actual ones in front of me, but that's what I remember from memory. Despite what it may appear like, I'm not just trumpeting my own course for the sake of it; indeed,there were times at the very beginning where I was disillusioned with it, but I'm glad I endured.
    bigkev49 wrote:
    The size of the lectures were ridiculous

    Err..yeah they're huge, but as Yillan pointed (and I'm suprised someone had to point it out), business courses are always gigantic, compared to some courses which might only have less than 10 or 20 students. This, or so I thought, was pretty much common knowledge. I, and everyone I know in the course, knew this before we started or even put it on the CAO, even when we were in secondary school. The places for each course are listed in the prospectus and are pretty much available with very little research, so I don't understand how you wouldn't have known this before picking it, and why, if you did know its size, was it such an issue?
    bigkev49 wrote:
    Still in contact with people who finished the course and I'm nearly asleep listening to their job descriptions

    What? :confused:
    This perplexes me somewhat. Given the fact you picked the course, I would imagine you had an idea as to the type of jobs you'd be getting into when you completed it. So, it's pretty obvious you didn't have any sincere interest in Business, aside from the superficial aspects of it, if you find the job descriptions of people who actually graduated sleep-enducing. A little research prior to picking the course wouldn't have gone astray, to be honest.
    wrote:
    zero interaction or personal relationships with lecturers

    Ok. I have to ask. Do you have any genuine arguments against the course or are you, like many others, just lambasting the course because it's an easy target due to its size?

    That zero interaction malarky is nonsense. I have had extensive interactions with several of my lecturers. Yes, it's probably more difficult to achieve than in other courses, but, in all fairness, all it takes (God forbid) is a little effort. You take from the course what you put into it, and if you endeavour to interact and build a relationship (strictly platonic, of course :pac:) with your lecturers, then it will happen. Let's not forget that the semesters with 100% 'common' modules (i.e. 300-400 students) is only for the first three semesters out of a total of seven semesters on campus. From the second half of 2nd year, you split into your major and minor options, meaning smaller , more manageable classes.

    Bigkev49, I know it looks like I'm picking holes with every thing you say (and, well, maybe I am), and I'm sure you had genuine reasons for leaving, but the reasons you've stated don't wash AT ALL with me. They certainly aren't anything that a little research or effort would've solved by highlighting the fact that you weren't suited at all to the course.


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,171 ✭✭✭1huge1


    Agree with the majority of things said so far.

    I'm only a 1st year so my knowledge of the course is limited to 1 semester.
    That said I have enjoyed it and believe I definitely made the right choice in picking the course.

    I'm doing business and German and i'm sure by now people on this board are sick of me saying this but I can't recommend high enough doing a language with the business. It adds so much to the course.

    As for the business side I'm really interested in economics (despite never doing it for the leaving cert) and can see myself majoring in economics and finance next year.
    This course has something for everyone thats interested in business.
    LOL, thats a lie and you know it.

    I find it hard to take anyone seriously that uses ''lol'' on a message board.


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,366 ✭✭✭ninty9er


    If there was one thing I would change it would be specialisation from 1st semester of 2nd year as opposed to second semester. From an accounting perspective, they could actually churn out qualified accountants if there was a specialised Accounting course as opposed to having a minor and lots of shite in 1st and second year. I will be giving that advice as feedback after I graduate (I think they ask us anyway and if they don't I'll do it myself).

    For the other specialisations such as Risk, Marketing, Finance, HR and Entrepreneurship there is no "technical" study programme to follow after graduation like the 3 year training contract for accountants, so they are more suited to the current system.

    The main thing with UL is Co-Op which is invaluable and if you're any good you'll most likely get a job where you did it if you want one after graduation. It allows a relationship to build whereby (in my case) they overlook exam results to some (reasonable) extent in choosing you over more "paper qualified" graduates from UCC, UCD, Trinity etc...


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,215 ✭✭✭Rowley Birkin QC


    I will admit that I walked into the course not knowing a whole pile about it, we were basically advised to do business if we didn't really know what else to do.

    Once again my advice to the OP is to research it well and to make himself aware of issues such as the class size. I fully stand by the comment I made about interaction.

    Finishing in DIT this year and it's always possible to ask direct questions to lecturers in class.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 78 ✭✭-mr.x-


    Is there much to do with stockbroking and shares with the business course in U.L,,,,,,,,, Thanks again.


  • Registered Users Posts: 7,639 ✭✭✭PeakOutput


    Mossin wrote: »
    Its not a course for dossers.

    you are right about the rest but are absolutely taking the piss with that statement

    i know at least 5 people who never go to lectures or if they do they go for 1 or 2 hours a week they keep up with the projects by doing them last minute and photocopy notes a week or two before the exams and cram and they are getting b's one even has a 3.1qca. they ar in 2nd year now by the way

    op it seems like an interesting relevant and broad ranging course that is not that hard but i dont do it


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 18 TeganRainIsGod


    i'm in fourth year business (accounting major) myself and i have to admit i think its a bit of a joke of a course..

    some of the modules covered in first and second year are absolutely sh*te and extremely boring...

    third and fourth year arent much better...

    modules like ireland and the world economy and business resource methodology (FYP module) are a waste of time

    not to mind that but neither of those modules evern rewards people who attend lectures...

    eg - half the class got the BRM exam the night before, the other half didnt....it was a pretty tough exam also which meant anyone who didnt have the exam was at a major disadvantage...

    economy - you could attend every single lecture but you would be no better off than anyone else...it basically amounted to learning essays off word for word the night before

    again there's modules that just are downright a boad of bol*ox - management accouting - what a pile of shi*e

    (note also, my dislike of htese modules is purely content based, and not anyway spiteful or anything...i was one of the people who had the brm exam[A2 - woo] and got B1's today in both economy and mangament)

    i couldnt agree more with the statement saying that "some of the job descriptions nearly put you to sleep" .... (how many people's dream job is actually to become an accountant)


    unless you really know what you want to do at the end of it, i wouldnt suggest it....

    granted business isnt for everyone....but some people do enjoy it and in no way do i intened to slight the other 4th year bbs people here....


    but basially i'm probably gonna end up doing another undergrad degree next year....simply because none of the job options really appeal to me...


    i've had great craic here for the four years, but the job possibilites strike me as being very boring......

    really, i would just say, look at the job prospects and if you think that one of them is your vocation, then go for it....

    but if not....then dont do it....


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  • Registered Users Posts: 6,171 ✭✭✭1huge1




    again there's modules that just are downright a boad of bol*ox - management accouting - what a pile of shi*e

    Management accounting is a pile of sh*te? Damn and I'm starting it monday morning...fun fun


  • Registered Users Posts: 14,381 ✭✭✭✭cson


    Hmmm, I think I can offer a somewhat impartial view of the course given we (Law & Accounting) share a good whack of modules with business. I think what'll make or break you in the course is going to tutorials, because of the class sizes in lectures there is only so much the lecturer can do. I certainly would value the tutorials in those modules as far superior to the lectures.

    Secondly, there are some fantastic lecturers in the course, Anthony Leddin who does Macro-Economics in 1st year and Fergal O'Brien who does Finance in 2nd year are two that immediately spring to mind. Both are very enthuasiastic about what they teach. The economics modules are very good from the point of view of someone who never did economics before, easy enough to get a grasp of I thought.

    There are some ****e modules too though, BIM being the one that sticks out imo. Overall I'd say its quite a good course if you're prepared to do a bit of work and choose carefully what you major in.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,039 ✭✭✭rmacm


    Mossin wrote: »
    Its not a course for dossers.

    Agreed, granted I don't think any course in college should be a course for dossers (granted I did enough dossing myself). Personally I think you get out of a course what you put into it i.e. if you put in a decent(ish) effort you'll get a decent result out of the course. If you put in **** all effort then be prepared to reap **** all results out of it.
    ninty9er wrote: »
    If there was one thing I would change it would be specialisation from 1st semester of 2nd year as opposed to second semester.

    You lot (and I don't mean that in a degrogartory way) specialise in 2nd year? In Comp Sys we didn't really end up specialising in anything until the end of 3rd year. I suppose it depends on how long you think someone needs in a course to decide on what they want to specialise in. Myself, I was pretty much dead set on Localisation from 1st year till mid way through 3rd year (due to co-op and family influence) but after 3rd year I changed my mind drastically enough to pretty much an entirely different area of computer science.
    ninty9er wrote: »
    The main thing with UL is Co-Op which is invaluable and if you're any good you'll most likely get a job where you did it if you want one after graduation. It allows a relationship to build whereby (in my case) they overlook exam results to some (reasonable) extent in choosing you over more "paper qualified" graduates from UCC, UCD, Trinity etc...

    Yep that is indeed one of the good things about co-op if you do a reasonably good job you've got a good chance of being taken on after college in the same company.
    PeakOutput wrote: »
    you are right about the rest but are absolutely taking the piss with that statement

    i know at least 5 people who never go to lectures or if they do they go for 1 or 2 hours a week they keep up with the projects by doing them last minute and photocopy notes a week or two before the exams and cram and they are getting b's one even has a 3.1qca. they ar in 2nd year now by the way

    op it seems like an interesting relevant and broad ranging course that is not that hard but i dont do it

    Meh some people can pull that kind of thing off but for the rest of us it requires a small bit of work. There are some people who can waltz through college like this but it doesn't count for everyone. Every course requires a bit off effort for at least some of the people on the course and to be honest 5(ish) people isn't really a representative sample. This kind of thing doesn't happen in BBS alone either.

    Anyway just to fulfill the sterotype that I'm supposed to live up to, I'm drunk and I'm off to bed soon.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,219 ✭✭✭Mossin


    PeakOutput wrote: »
    you are right about the rest but are absolutely taking the piss with that statement

    i know at least 5 people who never go to lectures or if they do they go for 1 or 2 hours a week they keep up with the projects by doing them last minute and photocopy notes a week or two before the exams and cram and they are getting b's one even has a 3.1qca. they ar in 2nd year now by the way

    I'm really not taking the piss. Its the small proportion of people like the people you know [and that I know] that give the BBS degree such a bad name.
    Being in 2nd year mean their qca has only counted from the last set of exams just before xmas '08, so having a high qca is well achievable by cramming, and that can be said for all courses imo.

    But if you really want to succeed and make use of the degree, it might be worth actually attending, learning something, networking with lecturers and T.A.'s and fellow classmates. Imo, that way your degree will stand more to you than just graduating with a 1:1 or 2:1 because you crammed fror 4 years.
    i'm in fourth year business (accounting major) myself and i have to admit i think its a bit of a joke of a course..

    You are like myself and a few others here who are the last of the old BBS course, which is important to note, because any advice you give cannot be told as fact anymore, unless you know the exactness of the new course.

    some of the modules covered in first and second year are absolutely sh*te and extremely boring...

    third and fourth year arent much better...

    modules like ireland and the world economy and business resource methodology (FYP module) are a waste of time

    not to mind that but neither of those modules evern rewards people who attend lectures...

    I will agree that we did a lot of pointless modules: Communications, Business and Society [1 + 2], Principles of Law, and having to do an elective also in the 1st 2 years. These are all removed now, with the exception of Communications.

    Like you say the FYP module was a joke, a complete and utter waste of time, but seeing as in the new course, students get to choose whether they do an FYP or not, means that that module is also irrelevant to them!

    IWEC in 4th year was a good module, just badly taught imo.
    Like you said it didnt benefit you at all to attend the lectures, which were 2.5 hours long each week!
    i'm in fourth year business (accounting major) myself

    i couldnt agree more with the statement saying that "some of the job descriptions nearly put you to sleep" .... (how many people's dream job is actually to become an accountant)

    but basially i'm probably gonna end up doing another undergrad degree next year....simply because none of the job options really appeal to me...

    i've had great craic here for the four years, but the job possibilites strike me as being very boring......

    Perhaps you should take your own advice. You chose BBS and took the accounting major. So I'm assuming that you had some indication that you were interested in being an Acountant? If not, then why take that route? The job prospects for accounting majors are fairly straight forward. You must go and do another 3 years, and become a qualified accountant. I'm confused as to why you'd take this route and knowing this :confused:
    cson wrote: »
    Hmmm, I think I can offer a somewhat impartial view of the course given we (Law & Accounting) share a good whack of modules with business. I think what'll make or break you in the course is going to tutorials, because of the class sizes in lectures there is only so much the lecturer can do. I certainly would value the tutorials in those modules as far superior to the lectures.

    This is very true. The BBS degree is coupled with other courses for certain modules, which makes lectures even larger, often over 600 people. Making the tutorials is a must! Lecturers are going to be under pressure to deliver effective lectures to that many people, so the interactions in tutorials provides a more suitable learning experience.
    Secondly, there are some fantastic lecturers in the course, Anthony Leddin who does Macro-Economics in 1st year and Fergal O'Brien who does Finance in 2nd year are two that immediately spring to mind. Both are very enthuasiastic about what they teach. The economics modules are very good from the point of view of someone who never did economics before, easy enough to get a grasp of I thought.

    Again very true. I also had Anthony Leddin, and he was by far one of my favourite lecturers, and I hated economics. I managed to get an A1 in his macroeconomics module in 1st year. He makes it interesting, and I for one actually wanted to attend his lectures, which cannot be said for all lecturers!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 78 ✭✭-mr.x-


    whats the difference between commerce and business in college


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,614 ✭✭✭Rineanna


    Pretty sure there isn't any; just U.L, the I.T's and one or two other Uni's call it Business, while the NUI's like UCC and the rest of them traditionally called the course 'Commerce'. No difference as far as I know.


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,171 ✭✭✭1huge1


    Ya the subjects for commerce in UCC are very similiar to the ones in UL.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 78 ✭✭-mr.x-


    Is going out as good as in dublin?


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,171 ✭✭✭1huge1


    Well Dublin would have more choice but in my opinion the night life in Limerick is class, A lot to choose in the city and a lot of places are free in (almost everywhere on tuesdays).


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  • Registered Users Posts: 2,219 ✭✭✭Mossin


    -mr.x- wrote: »
    Is going out as good as in dublin?

    You can make going out anywhere fun if you want to.
    You have to experience somewhere for yourself in order to ascertain the best location for going out imo.


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