Economics and Spanish/Russian

leo_watson357

Hi, I was wondering if anyone knows anything about these degrees in TCD? I'm applying for both this year:D

Running Bing

Cant comment on spanish but Economics is great in trinity. I would say its probably the best economics course in Ireland (based on my knowledge of other courses and talking to people on the courses). The department is run very well and its got over 175 years of history so its well respected in ireland and internationally.

As for the course itself the first year isnt really challenging if you've got a good grasp of economics or if your really interested in it but theres a big step up in difficulty in second year and third year(so I hear im only a second year myself). Its also a very maths focused degree from second year on with a heavy emphasis on quantative stuff(much more than other colleges). All in all its a great course, Id never done any Economics before college but found I loved it and thats what im going for my degree in( I did BESS by the way:o )

europerson

Like Babybing, I don't know anything about Spanish or Russian for that matter. Economics in Trinity is so much fun. It can be quite quantitative at times, but that's what employers want, so we may as well give it to them. The department is highly-respected and run very well, and the staff (both academic and administrative) are really helpful and friendly. The first-year courses make no assumptions about having studied economics before, so everyone's up to the same speed by the end of the first year. There's a good degree of choice in later years.

leo_watson357

Thanks for the replies!
So do you think that, if you were doing Economics as a joint degree, you could do as much/little maths as you want? I only say this because I don't do maths for my A Levels (equivilent of leaving cert), and although Trinity only want a B at Maths GCSE (equivalent of intermediate cert, or whatever is before leaving cert!) this means that I haven't done maths as school for almost 2 years (so am rather rubbish).

europerson

leo_watson357 wrote:

Thanks for the replies!
So do you think that, if you were doing Economics as a joint degree, you could do as much/little maths as you want? I only say this because I don't do maths for my A Levels (equivilent of leaving cert), and although Trinity only want a B at Maths GCSE (equivalent of intermediate cert, or whatever is before leaving cert!) this means that I haven't done maths as school for almost 2 years (so am rather rubbish).

The courses in Trinity are very maths-based. In some course, in every year, you'll have to do maths.

nutball

I do Russian. It's been...interesting. They've had a rather haphazard approach to tuition in my experience, but since restructuring they've got their act together ever so slightly. It's a very small department (apologies, school), which is great - I routinely have lectures with only two or three other students and extensions etc. are never a problem. They also put on lots of tea parties ("Russki Chai") for some reason, which naff as it sounds are a bit of craic.

The size of the department doesn't seem to impact on the range of courses they offer and you can pretty much focus on whatever takes your interest. For instance, we were given instructions in first year to write an essay about something Russian. Anything. So one person did Chechnya, one did the suppression of Jazz under the Soviet regime, one did early avant-garde propaganda, one did Lake Baikal... There are a lot of history courses throughout the years and plenty of literature. You're expected to read poetry, short stories and plays in Russian but novels you can get away with in translation. In third and fourth year the options diversify even more and they let the students determine which courses they'll offer so it varies year to year. Some options include Soviet Cinema, Contemporary Russian Society, Polish, Comparative Slavonic Linguistics, the Avant-Garde, Dystopian Science Fiction in 20th Century Poland and Russia, Comparative Slavonic Film but there are loads more.

As for the language itself, you start from scratch in first year (literally learning the alphabet) but they step it up quickly enough. The primary textbook they use was written by the head of department so our pleas to drop it have not been taken kindly. It's dreadful. The teaching itself can also be a little frustrating - they're academics, not language teachers - so you will need to do most of the work yourself and spend as much time as you can in Russia. The lecturers seem to communicate with each other as little as possible so in second year, say, you might leave a class where you've just conquered "I walked across the road" and head off to a lecture where you're expected to have read a Dostoevsky short story written in 19th century slang.

Still, I love it. It's just...cool. And unfailingly interesting. Can't imagine having done anything else.

Sorry for the long post but you won't find anything remotely informative on their webpage.

leo_watson357

Oh well, I pretty much assumed I'd have to be doing some Maths if I wanted to study Economics!
Yeah linguists can be very odd people, my old French teacher was so random, but scarily smart. Oh well, any excuse to go to Russia! Honestly though it took me ages to figure out the alphabet, and it really doesn't help that they've got like 6 extra vowels!
The options look good though, I'd quite like to see what Polish is like.
That's ok, it was really interesting to hear from a student what the department's like!

Running Bing

The maths aint to much of a problem leo but you will be at a disadvantage. It will require a lot of work. I did higher leaving cert and was always pretty good at maths so the transition was pretty smooth for me. Most of the stuff I did at leaving cert Calculus, matrices, algebra etc. Its not super hard stuff by any means but as the course goes on it gets more and more maths orientated. Second year micro is a lot more maths orientated than first year, lots of calculus. Then in third year theres courses like econometrics.

Basically what Im saying is you will need to put in extra work to catch up having not done maths for a while but as long as you dont mind a bit of maths you should be alright.

p1akuw47h5r3it

Running Bing wrote: »

The maths aint to much of a problem leo but you will be at a disadvantage. It will require a lot of work. I did higher leaving cert and was always pretty good at maths so the transition was pretty smooth for me. Most of the stuff I did at leaving cert Calculus, matrices, algebra etc. Its not super hard stuff by any means but as the course goes on it gets more and more maths orientated. Second year micro is a lot more maths orientated than first year, lots of calculus. Then in third year theres courses like econometrics.

Basically what Im saying is you will need to put in extra work to catch up having not done maths for a while but as long as you dont mind a bit of maths you should be alright.

Sorry for dragging up an old thread but didn't see the point in startin another but...

What standard of Maths are we talking about?

I do ordinary maths for the LC and with and am aiming for an A, at the very least a B1 but would I struggle with Maths doing this course?

I do Economics in school and the maths is relatively simple but is it a big step up?

I want to do Rusian aswell so if u've anything to say about that....

Thanks for the help

Mac Masters

Well I do Economics and Maths, so I do a different maths but the only maths you'll be doing is Statistics (I do a harder statistics so mine is different) and to my knowledge your statistics is not too bad at economics level, my friend did pass maths and got like an A or a B and he says it's fine. There's just alot to study in economics though, you have to study an 800 page book in one year it's rough especially with the fact I never did economics before and transfered in at the end of the year! :eek:

It's a good course though and lots of fun!

Good Luck!

p1akuw47h5r3it

Mac Masters wrote: »

Well I do Economics and Maths, so I do a different maths but the only maths you'll be doing is Statistics (I do a harder statistics so mine is different) and to my knowledge your statistics is not too bad at economics level, my friend did pass maths and got like an A or a B and he says it's fine. There's just alot to study in economics though, you have to study an 800 page book in one year it's rough especially with the fact I never did economics before and transfered in at the end of the year! :eek:

It's a good course though and lots of fun!

Good Luck!

Jeez 800 pgs. Prob won't get the points anyway but thanks for the info.

dan719

To put this in perspective, you do less than half the book. The course EC1010 Introduction to Economics is extremely doable, even easy. Don't let the percieved difficulties of the course put you off.

Saying that, may I advise reconsidering TSM. As a SF TSM Maths/Economics student I find TSM to be a bit of a disaster tbh. The administrative side can be very confusing, and course choices can be extremely limited. Personally, depending on which you prefer, I would reccomend a single honours degree in Econ or Russian through European studies.

p1akuw47h5r3it

dan719 wrote: »

To put this in perspective, you do less than half the book. The course EC1010 Introduction to Economics is extremely doable, even easy. Don't let the percieved difficulties of the course put you off.

Saying that, may I advise reconsidering TSM. As a SF TSM Maths/Economics student I find TSM to be a bit of a disaster tbh. The administrative side can be very confusing, and course choices can be extremely limited. Personally, depending on which you prefer, I would reccomend a single honours degree in Econ or Russian through European studies.

Is this just apersonal opinion or do most feel like this?

Thanks for the info.