Irish College Life

EdgarAllenPoo

College life my hairy hole. The only people who can partake in "college life" are those who live on campus or spitting distance from the college, not unfortunate feckers like me who spend four hours a day getting there and getting home.

Voodu Child

indough wrote: »

By the same token, if noone studied 'pointless arts degrees' you and your children would not have received anything resembling an education.

No, because I said 'pointless', making the distinction between actual qualifications and airy-fairy ones.

Im sure we all know someone who ambled through an arts degree with no real idea of what they wanted to do in life, and ended up with some daft qualification in philosophy or ancient greek literature....just because the guidance counsellor told them to 'go to college.' I know a few :rolleyes:

EdgarAllenPoo

I always wondered why people bothered studying subjects like that, aside from teaching or lecturing what sort of a career could they get you?

It wasn't me!

To be honest, the majority of jobs these days don't care what your degree is, as long as you have one. Of course, I'm studying Latin and Philosophy, so yeah, shine on, bright future.

Terry

mac123 wrote: »

do you mind me asking what you did exactly?

Tiling.
2 bathrooms a week. 2 days work in each bathroom.
Or a large kitchen floor, which takes one day.
Patio, one day.

Plasterers, electricians etc. make similar money.
However, Tiling has only recently become a recognised trade in this country (look out for chancers) and anyone with more than ten years experience (yay me) does not need to pass any training course.

AlmightyCushion

Terry wrote: »

I'm out of work at the moment, but when I was working I often pulled in over €1500 a week and I never went to college. Ditch digging indeed.

That was a 4 day week, by the way.

I'm in the wrong profession.

Outer Bongolia

indough wrote: »

By the same token, if noone studied 'pointless arts degrees' you and your children would not have received anything resembling an education.

This brother is on my level

indough

voodoo_child wrote: »

No, because I said 'pointless', making the distinction between actual qualifications and airy-fairy ones.

Im sure we all know someone who ambled through an arts degree with no real idea of what they wanted to do in life, and ended up with some daft qualification in philosophy or ancient greek literature....just because the guidance counsellor told them to 'go to college.' I know a few :rolleyes:

Those subjects are only pointless or 'airy fairy' if you have no intention of following them up with a related career. There are careers available in both areas. When you adopt the attitude that such subjects are pointless to study then you're no better than the people who doesn't go to college is this or that.

dame

DaveMcG wrote: »

One of my (American) lecturers in UCD commented that American students are alot more enthusiastic about their college course/subjects. Irish students in general just do the bare minimum and get on with it, whereas the Americans will take an active interest and do extra-curicular work.

Ever heard the phrase "Extra Credit"? That seems to be a big thing in America. Of course we'd all be doing extra like that if we were getting something out of it.

Kold

mawk wrote: »

kold,
your post intrigues me and i wish to subscribe to your next class party.

Crawford class parties do indeed rule.

leninbenjamin

i don't get why people blab on about college life. college campus's are dull, lack resources and over crowded. courses themselves tend to be more tedious than stimulating even for those who actually enjoy their area, and most lecturers would rather be in their dept or lab researching than giving lectures but do so for monetary reasons. when most people talk about "college life" being so great, they should really be saying "living away from home and not having a real 9 - 5" is great. end of.

AlmightyCushion

College would be a lot better if my course didn't have such bullshít subjects like management behaviour in organisations or intra-personal skills. I hate those subjects. :mad:

Firetrap

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

College would be a lot better if my course didn't have such bullshít subjects like management behaviour in organisations or intra-personal skills. I hate those subjects. :mad:

Hey! Wait til you join the workforce. Those sound like the bullsh!t courses my employers love sending me on. The only difference is, I get travelling expenses

Kernel32

College students in the USA have motivation to work harder. Many come out owing a lot of money because they had to take out student loans to get through. 20k, 30k, 40k, 50k and more aren't uncommon. In Ireland the government along with Mammy and Daddy pay for most of it so a lot of students treat it like secondary school but with less rules.

Dudess

leninbenjamin wrote: »

i don't get why people blab on about college life. college campus's are dull, lack resources and over crowded. courses themselves tend to be more tedious than stimulating even for those who actually enjoy their area, and most lecturers would rather be in their dept or lab researching than giving lectures but do so for monetary reasons. when most people talk about "college life" being so great, they should really be saying "living away from home and not having a real 9 - 5" is great. end of.

Depends on the college really. For instance, DCU is indeed a dreary wasteland, but UCC is absolutely gorgeous. You're making major generalisations.

Sonnenblumen

Terry wrote: »

Tiling.
2 bathrooms a week. 2 days work in each bathroom.
Or a large kitchen floor, which takes one day.
Patio, one day.

Plasterers, electricians etc. make similar money.
However, Tiling has only recently become a recognised trade in this country (look out for chancers) and anyone with more than ten years experience (yay me) does not need to pass any training course.

Not bad going but how come you're out of work ? I mean the boom might be slowing but it is still very much going??

Dudess

Kold wrote: »

Yeah, falling apart around us but we just put sweaters on and try not to bitch because we love our home Or are you implying that it's a ****hole because of the amount of stoners?

To be fair, in spite of being either stoned or tripping 100 per cent of the time, you have to hand it to those Crawford students - the way they held protests a few years ago over the state of the place, that was mighty militant of them
Nah seriously, what a dump. It's an absolute disgrace that you have to work in facilities like that - freezing your arses off every winter. But the new School of Music is fabulous. Hopefully Crawford is next. Although I heard talk of it being moved to the CIT campus. Not really a good environment for an art college, in my opinion.

AlmightyCushion

Firetrap wrote: »

Hey! Wait til you join the workforce. Those sound like the bullsh!t courses my employers love sending me on. The only difference is, I get travelling expenses

It's not the actual subjects, it's the fact that I could be the best programmer in my course but if I fail these subjects I don't get my degree. They also end up bringing down my average as well which sucks. In all the real subjects I get over 70, on the bullshít subjects I get between 50 and 60.

Xavi6

My three years in college were the best years of my life and it had nothing to do with the course, although 12 hours a week left plenty of time for partying. It's what you make of it really. I didn't live on campus so that was a hinderance but I made sure I crashed on someone's floor just to be involved. Like most things college isn't for everyone. I don't feel I learnt an amazing amount but I got my piece of paper at the end and had to do very little to get it.

rossie1977

universities in ireland do need an overhaul. i have been on both side of the fence, IT and university.

i had 35 hours of lectures a week in the first two years and it took me 4 years to do my degree in Athlone (2 years cert, 1 diploma, 1 degree), whereas most commerce degrees in universities only have 12-15 hours lectures a week (and you never have to come in at all because all the notes are put up on the internet :rolleyes:) and you get a degree in 3 years The exact same degree that took me 1 year longer :mad:

i probably shouldn't complain as i never did a LC in the first place and i really enjoyed my time in 3rd level both undergrad and postgrad

AngryBadger

I found college to be a bit odd really, then again my course involved pretty close to a 40-hour week, erego I know I didn't socialise anything like as much as your "average" student, had some good times, but mainly remember working a lot of the time. Did a few shows too though, and a whole mess of singing, good times....on occasion.

To be honest, I find, (and found) that regardless of whether it was college life/real life people didn't chance much, they generally had marginally more responsibility, but otherwise were as stupid and childish as when they were pre-schoolers.

Any americans I know have generally had to work a lot through college in order to pay for their degrees.

thelordofcheese

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

It's not the actual subjects, it's the fact that I could be the best programmer in my course but if I fail these subjects I don't get my degree. They also end up bringing down my average as well which sucks. In all the real subjects I get over 70, on the bullshít subjects I get between 50 and 60.

Those subjects only exist so that when you go into the real world you can refrain from punching the buzzword spewing simpleton that is your manager. Once you've had a taste of that they willfully put themselves through for four or more years you understand why they are so brain damaged and come to pity them.

But on the results, i feel your pain, plenty of people i know graduated with decent degrees but couldn't code to save their lives, they could however learn stuff by rote and vomit it back up on command.

cson

It's amazing the amount of people who go into Computer courses thinking that the last time they'd see maths was in the leaving cert.

AlmightyCushion

cson wrote: »

It's amazing the amount of people who go into Computer courses thinking that the last time they'd see maths was in the leaving cert.

It's amazing the amount of people who do these degrees having never used a computer before. There was a few in my course in first year. They never made it through.

TPD

My computing course assumes no prior knowledge of computing. But, we're doing programming at the same time as learning how to use a mouse. Strange.

Agamemnon

voodoo_child wrote: »

Im sure we all know someone who ambled through an arts degree with no real idea of what they wanted to do in life, and ended up with some daft qualification in philosophy or ancient greek literature....just because the guidance counsellor told them to 'go to college.' I know a few :rolleyes:

I did Arts as my primary degree because I didn't know what I wanted to do. I had 3 fantastic years partying and I wouldn't go back and change it if I could. Then I realised computers were what I was interested in so I went into Computer Science at post-grad level (and still partied like mad). Now I have a job in IT that I'm very happy with.

An Arts degree is still a degree and it's a back door into other courses. The people from Arts I'm still in touch with are teachers, lecturers or in media or IT.

Kernel32 wrote: »

College students in the USA have motivation to work harder. Many come out owing a lot of money because they had to take out student loans to get through. 20k, 30k, 40k, 50k and more aren't uncommon. In Ireland the government along with Mammy and Daddy pay for most of it so a lot of students treat it like secondary school but with less rules.

Where do you think this entity called "the government" gets its money from? When students enter the workforce, they will repay their grants many times over through tax. Grants are like a loan from your future self. I never sponged off my parents either: I worked every weekend and all summer to keep myself in Guinness and Drum tobacco while at college.

AlmightyCushion

agamemnon wrote: »

Where do you think this entity called "the government" gets its money from? When students enter the workforce, they will repay their grants many times over through tax. Grants are like a loan from your future self. I never sponged off my parents either: I worked every weekend and all summer to keep myself in Guinness and Drum tobacco while at college.

I don't get the grant and I haven't sponged off my parents. My parents have done enough for me the least I can do is pay my own way. I've always had a job while at college except for this year but that's only because I quit my job to go on work placement for college. Lack of money sucks.

irishcrazyhorse

Kold wrote: »

Every college seems **** in comparison to my college (Crawford, Cork). 300 students, loads of personal attention, and they don't seem disappointed when I turn up at 2pm and tell the truth about being bollocksed the night before. Oh, and a 1:9 ratio of guys to girls.. who tend not to be superficial oompa loompas.

Youve never been to NCAD have you then.
900 students with around the same ratio but loads more gay lads so it works out even better
and the fact that our parties are held in venues bigger than my attic

Dudess

Well the Crawford is an art college too, so Kold can aim to do further studies at NCAD!

Agamemnon

So true about all Crawford students being stoners - every single one of them I've ever encountered was in a deep and meaningful relationship with the wacky baccy. They gave the best parties though. Just feign interest when they start showing you the films they made for college.