Science in DCU

B2k

I'm hoping you can help me out here and tell me what the Science courses in DCU are like. I am thinking of entering Chemical and Pharmaceutical or Analytical science. What are the hours like? Many early starts? Are the courses tough? Are the exams hard? I really dont know what I am getting myself into so any help would be greatly appreciated!!

cooker3

Well I am not an expert but those science courses have bloody long labs. 6 hours a day at times I heard!

B2k

HA! Thats the same as UL but you can leave if you want. I'm sure its the same in DCU!

:|

I'm in first year doing common entry but we have pretty much the same classes as those. There's about 25-30 hours a week, with lots of early starts unfortunately. But i'm really enjoying it, it's very interesting and not too hard atm. The timetables should be on the dcu website.

Labs are 3 hours long, there's one for physics and biology and one for chem in the 1st semester and 2 in the 2nd. Atm you can leave physics and biology early but not chemistry. But sometimes the labs do take 3 hours to finish. And they're compulsory.

Haven't a clue about after 1st year

Will

as with most courses in dcu i think the longer you stay at it the shorter the hours get

B2k

wrote:

I'm in first year doing common entry but we have pretty much the same classes as those. There's about 25-30 hours a week, with lots of early starts unfortunately. But i'm really enjoying it, it's very interesting and not too hard atm. The timetables should be on the dcu website.

Labs are 3 hours long, there's one for physics and biology and one for chem in the 1st semester and 2 in the 2nd. Atm you can leave physics and biology early but not chemistry. But sometimes the labs do take 3 hours to finish. And they're compulsory.

Haven't a clue about after 1st year

Cant seem to use the timetable link on the DCU site! Are you studying for exams at the minute? Are they tough? Have you many assignments to do during the semester? What are the labs like? Sorry for asking so many questions!!!

rugbug86

3rd year biotech, but i know the ac and as courses too

first year common - its changed since i did it, but its interesting.

second year:

ac: lots of labs. only chemistry labs (obviously!)
as: less labs than ac, but still a hefty amount. also do biology labs because of the biology option in 3rd year.

similar modules in each course too

labs are tough, not gonna lie. the lab report are hefty documents in 2nd year. expect to do at least 10 hours work on them. properly formatted, full introductions etc. but labs are where you get your experience and its invaluable.

third year:

ac: here i'm not too sure, still lots of labs, even bigger lab reports!
as: choose between chemistry and biology, but still do chemistry labs no matter what. choose either chemistry topics, or the biology option which is immunology, food microbiology, animal cell culture and bioclinical biochemistry (or something) and a few others that i'm not sure of.

all of your modules are squashed into the one semester - only have 6 weeks in the second semester because of ...

INTRA!! (work placement, meant to be savage experience, cant wait to get started)

4th year:

not too sure, but its your Final Year Project and Lit Survey and then labs and modules for both. time intensive, but very interesting.

you obviously like chemistry if you're choosing between ac and as. would recommend (unless you're really into pharma) to do as. the forensic aspect is super interesting. but do consider the biology option also, the area is set to explode in the next couple of years. (or so we've been told!!)

if you get to dcu and realise you hate chemistry, you can switch after first year to either:

environmental science and health
genetics and cell biology (need to get good results to get this course)
biotech (my course - love it)
applied physics

DCU is a great place to study science. The hours are intensive right through, 30 hours a week average, then lab reports, study etc. The exams are hard, but if you put the work in you'll do well.

Early starts? YEA! But not too bad when you get used to it.

any more q's, pm me and i'll get back to ya - i can ask my friends. because of the common first year you end up having friends in all of the classes. plus shared modules right through...

:|

B2k wrote:

Cant seem to use the timetable link on the DCU site! Are you studying for exams at the minute? Are they tough? Have you many assignments to do during the semester? What are the labs like? Sorry for asking so many questions!!!

I should be studying for exams yeah....im gonna start today...So far the continuous assessment exams have been grand, i'd imagine these end of semester exams(coming up in the next few weeks) are going to be a lot harder. This semester we didn't have many assignments at all, but a lot of continuous assessment exams. The labs are do-able and interesting, easy as long as you do you're pre labs and read up on them(which im gonna start doing next semester heh)

:|

rugbug86 wrote:

if you get to dcu and realise you hate chemistry, you can switch after first year to either:

environmental science and health
genetics and cell biology (need to get good results to get this course)
biotech (my course - love it)
applied physics

All of which look very interesting(which will i choose ahh i'll decide later)

rugbug86

what do you have an interest in?

biotech - biology and engineering. everyone gets scared of the engineering, but its not hard if you pay attention. little bit of maths (2 modules in 2nd year - ones cack, ones easy).

GCB - biotech without the engineering and 3 extra modules over the 2 years. good course if you like biology. but job prospects kinda unknown. all of my class has intra sorted, only have of this class has. you have to go to america to get a decent genetics job.

ESH - field trip in 3rd year... choose between "biology and health" and "physics and chemistry". its considered the easier of the science courses.

AP - dont know a huge amount about this, but i know that i chose BT over AP based on a very smart man who is a proper legend in physics telling me to do biology cos its set to explode in the next few years.

AS and AC i already mentioned above... like i said, any more questions just shout.

Creature

B2k wrote:

I'm hoping you can help me out here and tell me what the Science courses in DCU are like. I am thinking of entering Chemical and Pharmaceutical or Analytical science. What are the hours like? Many early starts? Are the courses tough? Are the exams hard? I really dont know what I am getting myself into so any help would be greatly appreciated!!

4th year pharmaceutical and to answer your all your questions with one word; yes.
First year is a doss, most people could do it with their eyes closed. Second and third year the workload is piled on and the labs are a lot longer. Third year wasn't so bad because half of it is spent in work placement, which depending on what job/company you get can be good or bad. It was bad for me. Fourth year is (so far) not too bad. There are no labs and most of the material you do in lectures builds on what you did in third year.
I recommend pharmaceutical if you're interested actual chemistry (inorganic and organic) not that analytical and physical crap. You'll also have to do some biology and physics in first and second year. Third and fourth year are mostly chemistry but there's some quantum mechanics thrown in there for the craic.

rugbug86 wrote:

not too sure, but its your Final Year Project and Lit Survey and then labs and modules for both. time intensive, but very interesting.

There are no labs for AC in fourth year, unless you count the project, then you've got a few months of labs.

B2k

I was thinking of doing BioTech. I'd probably prefer chemistry but we'll see how it goes! Thanks for your replies! If I think of anything else I'll let ye know!

Anyone have anything else to add???

rugbug86

do biotech, its really interesting, and you get to make your own beer

Originally posted by Creature
There are no labs for AC in fourth year, unless you count the project, then you've got a few months of labs.

my bad! like i said, dont know much about AC after 2nd/3rd.

B2k

Im torn mostly between AC and AS. I think I'll do one of the two but I'm still undecided! Creature put in a good arguement there for AC!!

Somebody else stand up for AS!!! Ye are getting yer asses kicked so far in this disscussion!!! LOL!!!!

sunnyjim

Whatever you do, don't bother do Science Ed unless you really want to do teaching. But seeing as you have expresses no interest in it you are safe!

Does anyone else here find a lot of things annoying about their course? Like doing labs in one semester, and the lectures (that should run concurrently with them) in the next semester?

Or does anyone find some modules absolute BS?

:|

I've only done half a year so i haven't found that many annoying things, but i did notice the labs sometimes weren't connected at all.....and the lab tutors seemed to think they were. Twas a bit annoying

rugbug86

sunnyjim wrote:

Whatever you do, don't bother do Science Ed unless you really want to do teaching. But seeing as you have expresses no interest in it you are safe!

Does anyone else here find a lot of things annoying about their course? Like doing labs in one semester, and the lectures (that should run concurrently with them) in the next semester?

Or does anyone find some modules absolute BS?

yes!

its super annoying

for example, WHY do i need 2nd year organic chemistry? I DO BIOLOGY! i can understand the thermo/kinetics cos i use them in chemical engineering but organic is pointless.

DemocAnarchis

Not really; you need to understand how biomolecules operate, I assume? Im 2nd year AC, and although I hate having to do biology with a passion, I can understand how it is relevant. Quite a bit of overlap between a lot of organic chemistry and biology.

rugbug86

There's not really an overlap IMO, with the exeption of drawing out glucose/lactose/etc. I see biology being more beneficial to an AC student (when looking at the effects of drugs on the biomolecules, the ATP generation system, metabolism...) than organic chemistry is to a BT/GCB student.

With the focus of our course being biology/enginneering, and with so many recent discoveries in the biology area, I feel that its pointless to waste learning time on a module that I haven't used since. (Unless you count making animals out of my molecular orbital kit.) I also think that its a waste of study time trying to understand it, when we don't need it, or want it. If we had wanted to do chemistry and biology we would have signed up for AS.

I agree that thermodynamics and kinetics is useful. I didn't last year, but when I started in 3rd year and we did the kinetics of a bioreactor, it all made sense. However I don't agree with how that module is taught. (CS201 I think)

DemocAnarchis

I agree, its not massively relevant to a lot of biology, but I do think some organic chemistry is needed to understand how interactions between molecules work.

Saying that, I dont think the reason BE is taught CS modules is for anything that convoluted, its probably to make up credits. I mean, if you want to talk irrelevant, how about the twelve weeks of Optical Techniques we have to suffer! What the heck do I want to learn about telescopes and fiber optics for?

Anyway, having a grounding in all three disciplines is useful, but its always a pain in the arse to have to study something you thought you chose not to do.

Creature

DemocAnarchis wrote:

Saying that, I dont think the reason BE is taught CS modules is for anything that convoluted, its probably to make up credits. I mean, if you want to talk irrelevant, how about the twelve weeks of Optical Techniques we have to suffer! What the heck do I want to learn about telescopes and fiber optics for?

Lol yeah I agree completely, optics was a nightmare. What a horrible subject. Wait till you get to third year, you get to do basic quantum mechanics. Irrelevancy will take on a whole new meaning.

rugbug86 wrote:

There's not really an overlap IMO, with the exeption of drawing out glucose/lactose/etc. I see biology being more beneficial to an AC student (when looking at the effects of drugs on the biomolecules, the ATP generation system, metabolism...) than organic chemistry is to a BT/GCB student.

Surely you do something on protein/peptide synthesis? I would imagine that's fairly organic heavy - and needed too.

rugbug86

well they're taking 2nd year organic chemistry off for BT.

first year chemistry is enough to know the interactions between molecules.

B2k

WHOA!!!!!!!!! Ye'r all beginging to scare the heck out of me with all this scientific talk about Quantum Mechanics and the like!!!! It's like double dutch to me!!!!

Ah no, just kidding, but they do sound pretty complex, does it get tougher aa the years go?

Oh, by the way, hope exams went ok.

Brow

I do Analytical Science. A lot has been covered already but if youve any specific questions i'd be happy to answer them.

We were talking to a lecturer and she said theyre thinking of removing the Optics module completely or trying to incorporate it into another module. It wouldnt be so bad if it was completely relevant to all courses and not just solely and the small group of physics people amongst the many other classes.

B2k

Does Analyitical get much harder as the course progresses? Is there much Physics as the years go on? I wasn't fond of Physics in school! What are the Maths modules like? Are they tougher than Higher level Maths?

Brow

It's not that it gets harder in terms of what you learn, its just the workload will increase a lot from first to second year. You do physics for second year for one semester and its kinda based on the instrumentation you'd use in the lab and how it works, principles etc (how its relevent to AS anyway). Also you do a smester of physics labs where theyre on every two weeks so you do six physics labs in total and theyre handy enough.

You do maths for one semester too in second year and first year. If youve done higher level maths and were good at it youll have no problem with the stuff. It's nothing new really. And its continuos assessment so you can earn marks before even doing the exams.

B2k

I didnt do Higher Maths!!! By workload do you mean lab reports, assesments and stuff like that?

Also, what is the most common area of employment that AS graduates go into?

Pez

Im also interested in this course.. Its basically a forensics course isnt it? I only did biology and pass maths for the LC.. so i wudnt have a clue about physics or chemistry. Are the labs really hard?

Brow

By workload i pretty much meant lab reports. At some points you could have three lab reports due for the following week, a computer assignment and a maths test to study for. But thats only if you let the three euro tuesdays get a nasty grip on you *cough*. If you keep on top of it it's not bad.

AS can go into the forensics side of things but its a hard job to get. I'll be goin on intra soon and i'll be testing food and drink to make sure theyre safe to sell and stuff so its really an analysis science.

If you did pass maths its grand. It's not like the lecturer assumes you all did honours. The pace its taught at is grand.

If you did biology then you'll find the biology module a piece of cake. It's easy to learn the new stuff so long as you put the work in and dont let questions you might have go unanswered. Tutorials are organised so that you can ask questions in a small group if your embarassed to do it in class.

Also with regards to labs the chemistry labs have changed and im told theyve gotten easier then from when I did them so they should be very basic. The ohysics and biology ones were grand too.

B2k

Is there a % marked on your exams for attendance in labs and tutorials? Does a mark from each years exams go into your degree or is it just the last year that counts?

rugbug86

attendence is compulsary for labs, and advised for lectures and tutorials.

1st and 2nd year don't count, but 3rd year is worth between 20-25% of final grade depending on your course choice.

p1akuw47h5r3it

Creature wrote: »

4th year pharmaceutical and to answer your all your questions with one word; yes.
First year is a doss, most people could do it with their eyes closed. Second and third year the workload is piled on and the labs are a lot longer. Third year wasn't so bad because half of it is spent in work placement, which depending on what job/company you get can be good or bad. It was bad for me. Fourth year is (so far) not too bad. There are no labs and most of the material you do in lectures builds on what you did in third year.
I recommend pharmaceutical if you're interested actual chemistry (inorganic and organic) not that analytical and physical crap. You'll also have to do some biology and physics in first and second year. Third and fourth year are mostly chemistry but there's some quantum mechanics thrown in there for the craic.

Ok apologies for dragging up a years old thread, i know you are not supposed to but i don't think my questions require a new thread .But I was just wondering; I am under the impression that the hours go down in second and third year with regards lectures, labs and tutorials. So is it just the workload that you are given to carry out yourself that is piled on??

And I am also wondering would Science have much more hours than say nursing or engineering, or would they have a similar number of hours? I'm just curious thats all

ironictoaster

I'm not totally sure about the hours getting smaller as the years go by. I'm in 1st year BT and I just looked at 2nd, 3rd and 4th year timetables. If anything, they're getting busier .

I have a few friends doing engineering, they have similiar hours.

Creidim

This thread is a bit dated but maybe someone can help me out..

I'm starting Chemical and Pharmaceutical Science this year and I'm just wondering if there's a lot of computer work involved? Like is there many assignments to be completed, do lab reports have to be typed up etc??

And how do people generally manage their notes? Do you throw them all into a lever arch file and lug that along to every lecture or do you have a smaller folder for every module or what? :P

Sorry I'm a very organised person and I like to know what to expect ahead of time :pac:

Thanks for any help

ironictoaster

In first year science, all lab reports have to be typed up.

In terms of notes best thing to do is print out the notes before hand and write down anything you find relevant the lecturer says.

Creidim

ironictoaster wrote: »

In first year science, all lab reports have to be typed up.

In terms of notes best thing to do is print out the notes before hand and write down anything you find relevant the lecturer says.

thanks, that's a big help!

p1akuw47h5r3it

Creidim wrote: »

This thread is a bit dated but maybe someone can help me out..

I'm starting Chemical and Pharmaceutical Science this year and I'm just wondering if there's a lot of computer work involved? Like is there many assignments to be completed, do lab reports have to be typed up etc??

And how do people generally manage their notes? Do you throw them all into a lever arch file and lug that along to every lecture or do you have a smaller folder for every module or what? :P

Sorry I'm a very organised person and I like to know what to expect ahead of time :pac:

Thanks for any help

Tbh though we only really got two proper lab reports, both in Chemistry. They took about 2 to 3 hours. From second year onwards you get them every week afaik so is a lot of work. It's a good course though so enjoy it and don't let first year put you off

cw67irl

Reviving this thread guys, Im currently Re Taking LC chemistry as a mature student with a view to going to DCU next year to do Analytical Science, Is anyone starting it this year? Could they offer any advice on what first year is like? Or anyone in 2/3 year have any opinions on what they want to do when they finish? I will be 26 going back next year so wont be too far on the mature side of things!!

Thanks

Stephen

p1akuw47h5r3it

cw67irl wrote: »

Reviving this thread guys, Im currently Re Taking LC chemistry as a mature student with a view to going to DCU next year to do Analytical Science, Is anyone starting it this year? Could they offer any advice on what first year is like? Or anyone in 2/3 year have any opinions on what they want to do when they finish? I will be 26 going back next year so wont be too far on the mature side of things!!

Thanks

Stephen

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055048147&page=22

Look at my post, is the second last one on the page.

Basically to sum it up first year is ok. Just try get through as the fun starts in second year when you specialize. I've just started second year Physics but I heard AS is a good course. The employment prospects are very good aswell from what I've been told. A big advantage of DCU is the INTRA where you do a work placement programme.