Doing Science in Maynooth

Tarren

Well as the title suggests, I've been giving some consideration to applying for science in Maynooth. I was just wondering if you guys could give me a few ideas on what I should be expecting if I do. I've looked at the actual science course. It seems similar to the course in UCD, with modules and subjects and whatnot. So I have an idea what the subject itself involves.

What I'd like to know is what the place is like, in general. Is studying science there hard? I know it sounds vague since there's so many options. But are the lecturers decent enough in terms of actually teaching and helping you out?

What are the atmosphere and the campus in like? I've heard that in comparison to Trinity and UCD, it doesn't have much going for it. I'm not going purely for the social scene, but I'd like to leave with some fond memories if I do go there.

Also, how hard is it to get to from Dublin City Centre? I'm not actually sure where it is and I'd hate to be travelling for ages every day to get there and back.

I hope you can all forgive my mentions of UCD and Trinity and general lack of knowledge of the place. I honestly probably would have overlooked it if it wasn't an NUI. But I really can't say that it jumped out at me like other places.

NotWormBoy

What I'd like to know is what the place is like, in general. Is studying science there hard? I know it sounds vague since there's so many options. But are the lecturers decent enough in terms of actually teaching and helping you out?

Science isn't hard until third year where you start to specialise. But that said, I'd say its the same in most places. So you can have your year or two of easy fun and then get into the meat of it. The good part about it being vague is that you can go in without knowing exactly what you want to do, and make your choice based on which subjects you liked/were good at.

On the lecturers, some are good, some are bad. But you'll nearly always be able to find someone that will be able to help you.

What are the atmosphere and the campus in like? I've heard that in comparison to Trinity and UCD, it doesn't have much going for it. I'm not going purely for the social scene, but I'd like to leave with some fond memories if I do go there.

From what I've heard, UCD doesn't have a great social scene and NUIM is much better. Trinity i can't speak for. But there is always something going on in Maynooth, you just have to be able to find what you like.

Also, how hard is it to get to from Dublin City Centre? I'm not actually sure where it is and I'd hate to be travelling for ages every day to get there and back.

Trains from Pearse/Tara/Connolly. About 40 minutes travelling time, and the station is five/ten minutes from the college campus. Or you can bus it, route 66 or 67A. About an hours travelling time, bus stop is ten minutes from the campus.

Maynooth has a reputation for being easy to get into, but hard to get out of (with a good degree). Judge yourself if thats a good or a bad thing.

Nala

The social scene in Maynooth is great and it's really easy to make friends. I made most of my friends on the first day. There isn't as much problems with people not being able to make friends as in the bigger places like UCD and Trinity.

Science is hard, 1st year isn't too bad but there's a big jump in 2nd Year. I'm in 3rd Year at the moment and it isn't as much of a jump as 2nd year was. The hours in 1sy Year are long, I had 23 hours a week in 1st Year but there's less in 2nd Year and less again in 3rd Year.

Oh, and another thing-don't do Computer Science. It sucks.

Smurfpiss

Yep i'm in 3rd science too...(wahey hat trick)
like any college you get a mix of good lecturers and bad lecturers....This is especially true in maths I find.
Speaking of which maths is compulsory in first year, but if your not too great at it you can do quantitive methods. or cabbage maths as we call it.
by third year there is a MASSIVE spike in the difficulty of your chosen courses so be prepared. 1st year however is a doddle.
Unless you really want to do Comp Science I wouldn't recommend it either.
Maths Physics is by far the easiest of them all, it's impossible to fail in first year.
Physics is grand although not mad on the supervisors..
Dunno bout biology or chemistry, bit like the rest its got good bits and bad bits.
If you find yourself really leaning towards a certain area there are plenty of specialist courses available.

As for the social life...yeah it's not bad. It's a small college so ya get to know lots of people (although the classes are still quite large in science)
the local the roost is a grand old pub and tends to be packed during term.
There's a nightclub but it's cack and they charge a fortune.
The SU was done up, it smells funny but fosters is only 3 euro and there's 3 euro drinks every monday!

I'd say its better than UCD since that really is in the middle of nowhere and you do have to rely on the # 10 to get into town...and ya dont wanna hang round that campus after dark.
Trinity would have a great social life I expect. points are a joke though.

Oh and if you get over 500 points they give you a grand. Not bad i say...

FunkyChicken

Nala wrote:

Oh, and another thing-don't do Computer Science. It sucks.

Heed this advice. The new course is really crap.

NotWormBoy

Yep i'm in 3rd science too...(wahey hat trick)

I'm not in third science.

DingChavez

NotWormBoy wrote:

I'm not in third science.

well LA-DE-DA

Tarren

Science isn't hard until third year where you start to specialise. But that said, I'd say its the same in most places. So you can have your year or two of easy fun and then get into the meat of it. The good part about it being vague is that you can go in without knowing exactly what you want to do, and make your choice based on which subjects you liked/were good at.

Great great great. That'd be grand, really. I haven't got a clue where I'd like to specialise yet. I'd probably go off for a good think anyway when I see what offers I get. Don't want to be totally clueless.

On the lecturers, some are good, some are bad. But you'll nearly always be able to find someone that will be able to help you.

That's alright. I suppose if I put any effort in, I should be ok.

From what I've heard, UCD doesn't have a great social scene and NUIM is much better. Trinity i can't speak for. But there is always something going on in Maynooth, you just have to be able to find what you like.

Well most of what I heard was probably second-hand, anyway. I guess it's hard to judge the place until you've actually went there. Does Maynooth have societies like UCD?

Trains from Pearse/Tara/Connolly. About 40 minutes travelling time, and the station is five/ten minutes from the college campus. Or you can bus it, route 66 or 67A. About an hours travelling time, bus stop is ten minutes from the campus.

Maynooth has a reputation for being easy to get into, but hard to get out of (with a good degree). Judge yourself if thats a good or a bad thing.

Spiffy. Thanks

The social scene in Maynooth is great and it's really easy to make friends. I made most of my friends on the first day. There isn't as much problems with people not being able to make friends as in the bigger places like UCD and Trinity.

I don't know about Trinity, since I never really had any intentions of applying there, but I was told repeatedly that you'd have to be a bit of a social retard to wind up with no friends in UCD.

Oh, and another thing-don't do Computer Science. It sucks.

Why not? I was probably going to be inclined to take it. And a lot of my other choices are computer science. Is it just a lousy course in Maynooth? I was thinking about going down a biology route too, so I guess I could do that if I wound up getting offered this course. Still... I was fond of the idea of doing computer science...

like any college you get a mix of good lecturers and bad lecturers....This is especially true in maths I find.
Speaking of which maths is compulsory in first year, but if your not too great at it you can do quantitive methods. or cabbage maths as we call it.

Well naturally I have every intention of showing a little more dedication than I did throughout my entire academic career. I can't see maths being a problem if I apply myself a bit, so long as it's not BEING taught by a cabbage.

by third year there is a MASSIVE spike in the difficulty of your chosen courses so be prepared. 1st year however is a doddle.

I'd expect as much. All the more reason to get into this studying business I've heard so much about.

Unless you really want to do Comp Science I wouldn't recommend it either.

¬_¬;

Maths Physics is by far the easiest of them all, it's impossible to fail in first year.
Physics is grand although not mad on the supervisors..
Dunno bout biology or chemistry, bit like the rest its got good bits and bad bits.
If you find yourself really leaning towards a certain area there are plenty of specialist courses available.

Well... I don't really have any plans to lean toward physics and I doubt I'd be dabbling in maths too much unless I did go against the grain and give computer science a shot. I've always had a knack for biology, though.

As for the social life...yeah it's not bad. It's a small college so ya get to know lots of people (although the classes are still quite large in science)
the local the roost is a grand old pub and tends to be packed during term.
There's a nightclub but it's cack and they charge a fortune.
The SU was done up, it smells funny but fosters is only 3 euro and there's 3 euro drinks every monday!

Hehe. Thanks for the advice.

I'd say its better than UCD since that really is in the middle of nowhere and you do have to rely on the # 10 to get into town...and ya dont wanna hang round that campus after dark.

I've been too UCD. The #10 was handy enough for getting out and back. To be honest, I thought the campus was pretty cool. Although I didn't wait around to see what came out when the sun went down. >.>

Trinity would have a great social life I expect. points are a joke though.

Yeah. With the points they're demanding, I can only dream.

Thanks for all the replies, guys. I'll be putting the course down in my choices.

Gone West

course it has societies.
read the website.
or the websites of the socs.
Most are linked from www.may.ie

FunkyChicken

I wanted to do CS as well but I thought it would include coding and stuff. Java/C++ etc. like it was last year but this year it's just crap. There are two modules in the first semester. One is easy (Past persent and future of computers CS154) although I havent been to any lectures at all, the other is TERRIBLE (What is computation? CS156). It's all crap like Finite Automata, Pushdown Automata and crapomata. It's really hard and from what I know a lot of the class hate it. Supposedly one of the post-grads who supervises the labs doesnt agree that they should be teaching little 1st years about regular expressions and stuff as it's too hard. Im inclined to agree.

Still though maybe you'll like it. If I was back choosing my subjects I'd probably take biology or chemistry over it.

munky

OK I haven't read the whole thread but as for Bio, first year is a piece of piss.
Labs are boring as hell though,but goin to them give you a lot of marks.
Then again the whole of first year is a piece of piss, 2nd year really kicks ya but things do start getting interesting again.
As for the social life, if you can find some fun people its as good a place as any to go to. The pubs are smallish though and the night clubs are a bit of a joke BUT you're only spitting distance from Dublin so nights out are easy enough to organise=)

Odaise Gaelach

FunkyChicken wrote:

I wanted to do CS as well but I thought it would include coding and stuff. Java/C++ etc. like it was last year but this year it's just crap. There are two modules in the first semester. One is easy (Past persent and future of computers CS154) although I havent been to any lectures at all, the other is TERRIBLE (What is computation? CS156). It's all crap like Finite Automata, Pushdown Automata and crapomata. It's really hard and from what I know a lot of the class hate it. Supposedly one of the post-grads who supervises the labs doesnt agree that they should be teaching little 1st years about regular expressions and stuff as it's too hard. Im inclined to agree.

I'm a first year student doing Science, and CS is one of my choices. I wouldn't mind doing PDAs and FAs if I actually knew why I'm doing them. But I suppose that there's method in the maddness... I hope...

Well, at least I've still got my Celeron 450MHz computer and a Teach Yourself C++ book.

The CS154 lectures (history of computers) was pretty good. If you're interested in computers then you'd find them to be the highlight of CS in first year. And the lecturer dipped a little into computer laws and ethics too.

DingChavez

Computation is easy. lol

Gone West

Odaise Gaelach wrote:

I'm a first year student doing Science, and CS is one of my choices. I wouldn't mind doing PDAs and FAs if I actually knew why I'm doing them. But I suppose that there's method in the maddness... I hope...

Well, at least I've still got my Celeron 450MHz computer and a Teach Yourself C++ book.

The CS154 lectures (history of computers) was pretty good. If you're interested in computers then you'd find them to be the highlight of CS in first year. And the lecturer dipped a little into computer laws and ethics too.

Teaching yourself C++ is a great way to learn about programming. If you continue CS in later years, you will have a nice advantage over others in the class.

\o/ the boards are filled with firstie science students. (myself included)
I like CS154 (although I have only gone to one lecture)
PDA/FA is a tad boring, but meh. (this coming from a moderately mediocre coder).

But Math Physics or Experimental physics are pretty good. I like em.

FunkyChicken

Weird man we do the same subjects. Are you in stupid maths?

dango

if you do maths phys or exp phys and do "cabbage maths" you must be lazy or crazy...pick one.

FunkyChicken

the latter
edit: i mean former

Nala

Ok when I was in 1st CS we did Java the whole year iirc.

Odaise Gaelach

Nala wrote:

Ok when I was in 1st CS we did Java the whole year iirc.

Unfortunately they've decided to pull all coding from the Computer Science course in Science. No coding for us until second year.

DingChavez

They pulled it from the CS students too. Only CSSE do coding in first year now.