Tell me, why should i study in Galway NUI?

Ekancone

I am applying for masters programmes at the moment and i am seeing what current students can tell me about living/studying in Galway. I am currently in final year of my undergrad in UCC and im looking to head away for may masters so fill me in on life in NUI Galway.

Cheers

C-J

NUIG is the most laid back campus on the country but theres always something going on. Societies and clubs are very much at the forefront of NUIG life and getting involved is the best place to get to know people. Accommodation isnt hard to find, the galway advertiser on a Thursday is the best bet or galwayadvertiser.ie. Its a great student city with a great nightlife and tourist buzz around the city. Im in my final year and am devastated to be leaving. I guarantee everybody you speak to will say the same!!

Ekancone

Cool, sounds good. What are the campus facilities like? Is the library any good? Is the campus a bit overcrowded? (Like UCC is) Are the lecturers any good, etc?

ArraMusha

NUIG is the best place in ireland to go to college. I spent 4 years there and now live and work here. As the other above say, you'll enjoy your time in the city and have a real good time which is as important as the course your study!! Good look with it.

leninbenjamin

daithifleming wrote: »

Cool, sounds good. What are the campus facilities like?

alright i guess. I wouldn't rave about them. Computer services always seem to crash in the run up to exam... the food on campus is sh*te... some departments have better facilities than others. Overall everything you need is there (for the most part, not in IT i've found) but just not enough.

daithifleming wrote: »

Is the library any good?

I hate it myself. other's don't seem to mind it, but it is far too small for the place. It wasn't big enough in the late 70s when it was first built (according to my parents) and it certainly isn't big enough now. Air conditioning is dodgy in the place too. Staff are good and the services they offer aren't bad though, particularly the online stuff imo.

daithifleming wrote: »

Is the campus a bit overcrowded? (Like UCC is)

no idea what UCC is like but almost every class i have in economics is over subscribed... people forced to sit on steps and that. it's pretty common place.

daithifleming wrote: »

Are the lecturers any good, etc?

like every walk in life you'll have your absolute muppets. there are quite a few who simply shouldn't be lecturing, but i've still had some great ones in my time here.

i've lived in Galway for the past 10 years so i'm going to the college as a local living at home so can't really give you too much info on the student life...

and i probably should add that for whenever and where-ever I do my masters i'm desperately hoping it won't be in Galway.

C-J

Lectures arent over crowded, but it really depends on what faculty youre attached to. For example Im in Corporate Law, a nice class of about 75, whereas the classes that I have with Commerce can be crammed to capacity, largest lecture hall holds 400 and sometimes can be jammed.
Obviously some not so desirable lecturers but for the most part theyre objective and extremely helpful, office hours are really flexible and they go out of their way to help you.
Food on campus isnt that great, particularly the Bialann which is run by a catering company but Java City is great for coffee and a chat!!
The student life is fantastic, and theres something for everybody, ie acoustic nights, comedy nights, great gigs in the Roisin as well as discounts all over town with your student card. Im gutted to be leaving!!

leninbenjamin

C-J wrote: »

Lectures arent over crowded

then you go on to say they are...

Java City is great for coffee and a chat!!

no it isn't, the coffee is terrible there! how can you say the coffee is good? :eek:

C-J

for the most case, lecture halls arent crowded because most class sizes are reasonably accommodated. And as for Java I specifically stated that the LOCATION is great not in particular reference to the quality of the coffee. Get a life and stop cross examining posts good man!!

dodgyme

I went to UCG in the early 90's and I enjoyed every min of it. My brother and most of the extended family (cousins etc) went in the mid eighties and the mid 70's and everybody really liked the place.

Galway is a great place to go to college regardless of being in the rtc or ucg.

leninbenjamin

C-J wrote: »

Java City is great for coffee and a chat!!

No you get a life. i already have one. it's designed purposely to piss off other users on boards. you said Java is great for coffee. that implies it has good coffee. so there.

:cool:

and espite what you say: just under half of all my classes in NUIG have been over subscribed. it clearly is a problem.

ZorbaTehZ

C-J wrote: »

Lectures arent over crowded

C-J wrote: »

whereas the classes that I have with Commerce can be crammed to capacity, largest lecture hall holds 400 and sometimes can be jammed.

Good job.

leninbenjamin wrote:

and despite what you say: just under half of all my classes in NUIG have been over subscribed. it clearly is a problem.

This is true. My 1st biology lectures are insane some days.

C-J

Do yourself a favour and stop being such a whiny old woman if you want to get ahead in life.

MOST classes arent overcrowded is my statement. Giving that the Commerce classes which I attend (ONE) are a tiny proportion of the overall lectures, I think you'll find that my original statement still holds true. And read the Java statement again.

Bet youre one of the bitter ugly college people.. figures

ZorbaTehZ

C-J wrote: »

Bet youre one of the bitter ugly college people.. figures

My, you are a very angry little girl aren't you. Next time, read your posts twice before clicking submit. That way you hopefully won't look like an idiot.

leninbenjamin

C-J wrote: »

Do yourself a favour and stop being such a whiny old woman if you want to get ahead in life.

MOST classes arent overcrowded is my statement. Giving that the Commerce classes which I attend (ONE) are a tiny proportion of the overall lectures, I think you'll find that my original statement still holds true. And read the Java statement again.

Bet youre one of the bitter ugly college people.. figures

my God are you psychic? you have me right down to a T! I'm scared now...

Food on campus isnt that great, particularly the Bialann which is run by a catering company but Java City is great for coffee and a chat!!

how is it possible to interpret that statement as anything other than saying the coffee in Java is good. from these postings i have concluded you like suck at english or something...

OV COURSE IZ CUD POST SOMETHIN MOAR EASIR 4 DA LIKEZ OV U IF U CANT UDNERSTAND TEH GROWN UPS???!!!!11

JIZZLORD

classes are overcrowded sometimes, but its on the assumption that a good chunk wont show up 90% of the time. if you're doing postgrad they're not going to overcrowd ye.

galway is a great city, buy a good coat.

Toto Wolfcastle

Hey I was in UCC for the last 3 years for my undergrad, now I'm in NUIG for my postgrad, so hopefully I can compare the two!

daithifleming wrote: »

Cool, sounds good. What are the campus facilities like?

There seems to be a good few computer suites around, but I don't really use them. The food is pretty much like UCC. I think they have Campbell catering in the Bialann here, which I hear UCC just got rid of in favour of Kylemore. (About bloody time!) Also, as mentioned, Java and Smokeys for coffee, although I don't drink coffee so I wont comment on the quality! (No Starbucks, which I hear is also in UCC! Why did I leave?) Oh and only one college bar, but it's nice all the same. Lecture theatres are pretty much like UCC, they have a Boole type thing, only not underground, and some of the newer buildings are pretty nice. The student centre seems to have a gym of sorts, but other than that I don't really know why it's there!

daithifleming wrote: »

Is the library any good?

Nope, nothing like the one in UCC. It's very crowded, worse than the Boole when they took out half the desks last year. The layout of the study areas is awful, but they do have postgrad rooms so that shouldn't be a problem. It's not mustard though, like the Boole was (last year at least) so that's a bonus. Also, desk reserve is a lot less strict. There's never anyone manning the desk, so you can basically just take a book and not have to worry about fines. (If you're that way inclined and staying in the library.) Also, they do either 3 hour or 24 hour loans on Desk Reserve books, which is good if you want to take one home. The selection of books is the usual.

daithifleming wrote: »

Is the campus a bit overcrowded? (Like UCC is)

The campus is a lot more spread out, so you don't get the masses like you used to at the old Boole library entrance. Sometimes it's hard just to find a place to sit and chat for awhile though, everywhere seems to be taken!

daithifleming wrote: »

Are the lecturers any good, etc?

Some of mine are, most of mine are a bit slow really. (But nice all the same!) Depends on the course though. I haven't managed to find a lecturer who I find really interesting and entertaining while still giving us what we need to know.

Couple more points, minor ones. Exams (Christmas and Summer, etc) are rarely held on campus, which is very strange. It's like having to go to Neptune every time, only worse! (Also, I'm still in shock over having Christmas exams)

It rains a lot in Galway. People kept telling me this, but I thought they just hadn't realised it rains in COrk too. Nope, turns out it rains and gets windy and the world nearly ends pretty regularly. I got caught in a hailstorm on Sunday.

The traffic in Galway is rubbish. Non-stop traffic jams, it's unbelievable.

Galway is a nice small city. Not much choice of shops (or even what's in the shops) compared to Cork, but it's still nice. Plenty of great pubs, haven't found my Brog yet but then I haven't been to Roisin yet so we'll see.

Any more questions?

(Oh, what are you studying? I know a good few final years in UCC)

C-J

moving on

Ya the rain is always a down point but try get a house close to the college ie newcastle area, it makes those late library or reading room nights so much more manageable. The admissions office are extremely helpful and friendly so you won't have any trouble settling in. Also as I mentioned before the large number of societies mean getting to know people is a lot easier. Hope you make the right choice!!

Ekancone

janeybabe26 wrote: »

Hey I was in UCC for the last 3 years for my undergrad, now I'm in NUIG for my postgrad, so hopefully I can compare the two!



There seems to be a good few computer suites around, but I don't really use them. The food is pretty much like UCC. I think they have Campbell catering in the Bialann here, which I hear UCC just got rid of in favour of Kylemore. (About bloody time!) Also, as mentioned, Java and Smokeys for coffee, although I don't drink coffee so I wont comment on the quality! (No Starbucks, which I hear is also in UCC! Why did I leave?) Oh and only one college bar, but it's nice all the same. Lecture theatres are pretty much like UCC, they have a Boole type thing, only not underground, and some of the newer buildings are pretty nice. The student centre seems to have a gym of sorts, but other than that I don't really know why it's there!



Nope, nothing like the one in UCC. It's very crowded, worse than the Boole when they took out half the desks last year. The layout of the study areas is awful, but they do have postgrad rooms so that shouldn't be a problem. It's not mustard though, like the Boole was (last year at least) so that's a bonus. Also, desk reserve is a lot less strict. There's never anyone manning the desk, so you can basically just take a book and not have to worry about fines. (If you're that way inclined and staying in the library.) Also, they do either 3 hour or 24 hour loans on Desk Reserve books, which is good if you want to take one home. The selection of books is the usual.




The campus is a lot more spread out, so you don't get the masses like you used to at the old Boole library entrance. Sometimes it's hard just to find a place to sit and chat for awhile though, everywhere seems to be taken!



Some of mine are, most of mine are a bit slow really. (But nice all the same!) Depends on the course though. I haven't managed to find a lecturer who I find really interesting and entertaining while still giving us what we need to know.

Couple more points, minor ones. Exams (Christmas and Summer, etc) are rarely held on campus, which is very strange. It's like having to go to Neptune every time, only worse! (Also, I'm still in shock over having Christmas exams)

It rains a lot in Galway. People kept telling me this, but I thought they just hadn't realised it rains in COrk too. Nope, turns out it rains and gets windy and the world nearly ends pretty regularly. I got caught in a hailstorm on Sunday.

The traffic in Galway is rubbish. Non-stop traffic jams, it's unbelievable.

Galway is a nice small city. Not much choice of shops (or even what's in the shops) compared to Cork, but it's still nice. Plenty of great pubs, haven't found my Brog yet but then I haven't been to Roisin yet so we'll see.

Any more questions?

(Oh, what are you studying? I know a good few final years in UCC)

Im studying Economics (50 credits) and History (10 credits). So i will be looking to continue with Economics. What do you study? So by the sounds of it UCC is better that Galway?

leninbenjamin

daithifleming wrote: »

Im studying Economics (50 credits) and History (10 credits). So i will be looking to continue with Economics. What do you study? So by the sounds of it UCC is better that Galway?

economics department is pretty good actually. I've very little to say against it, which is very unusual for me. gotten some great insights, into the likes of SSA theory and Institutionalism there...

kevmy

Okay I've never been to UCC but I do a postgrad here so I can advise on that side of things.

First off when doing postgrad course I'd say pick on how good a course is not on how great the college as a whole is.
If you're planning a research postgrad don't worry about library room as there is at least one desk space for every postgrad in NUIG (either in your research group or in the Arts or Commerce buildings).
As for food everywhere apart the canteen is good enough. No need for any more than one bar on Campus as the college is close to town and the pubs are way better.

Ekancone

kevmy wrote: »

Okay I've never been to UCC but I do a postgrad here so I can advise on that side of things.

First off when doing postgrad course I'd say pick on how good a course is not on how great the college as a whole is.
If you're planning a research postgrad don't worry about library room as there is at least one desk space for every postgrad in NUIG (either in your research group or in the Arts or Commerce buildings).
As for food everywhere apart the canteen is good enough. No need for any more than one bar on Campus as the college is close to town and the pubs are way better.

I agree, however its hard to find out which course is better than the other. I mean their websites make them out to be the greatest thing ever. What would you recommend in doing this?

Toto Wolfcastle

daithifleming wrote: »

Im studying Economics (50 credits) and History (10 credits). So i will be looking to continue with Economics. What do you study? So by the sounds of it UCC is better that Galway?

AH! History. Lot of work in that! I actually sounded really negative in my last post about Galway. I really like it here, and the college is great. I suppose I'm influenced that I've only been here since September and I was in UCC for 3 years. It's great to go to a different college, I don't regret it at all. New experience really. I'd really base the decision on the course.

oneofakind32

you should go to galway for the following reasons

1. the wide selection of coffee's in java's
2. The excellent physics department
3. Smookie's
4. The college bar
5. Bar 903
6. Supermac's
7. Rag Week
8. Buckfast
9. The Spanish Arch
10. €3 pints of fosters
11. shiny building (Cairnes, Myola)
12. Old buiding's (the quad)

Crazy Ivan

oneofakind32 wrote: »

2. The excellent physics department

Ha ha... agreed! Best one this side of the Corrib.

JIZZLORD

Crazy Ivan wrote: »

Ha ha... agreed! Best one this side of the Corrib.

it's won the coveted "best university in connaught" award every year since 1849

kevmy

oneofakind32 wrote: »

2. The excellent physics department

Actually this is true. One of the best in Ireland. The largest dept. in the university and soon to be expanded. It has 2 internationally renowned physicists heading up 2 of it's 4 main research groups.

Only Tyndall in Cork (which is not actually part of UCC but a collaboration) and the theoretical guys in Trinity are on the same level internationally.

oneofakind32

kevmy wrote: »

Actually this is true. One of the best in Ireland. The largest dept. in the university and soon to be expanded. It has 2 internationally renowned physicists heading up 2 of it's 4 main research groups.

Only Tyndall in Cork (which is not actually part of UCC but a collaboration) and the theoretical guys in Trinity are on the same level internationally.

I wasn't joking. Even though some of the staff aren't great lecturers, the department is of a high academic standard. I here the astronomy department is the largest astronomy community in the country.

Crazy Ivan

oneofakind32 wrote: »

I wasn't joking. Even though some of the staff aren't great lecturers, the department is of a high academic standard. I here the astronomy department is the largest astronomy community in the country.

Wow, I didn't actually think people regarded the Physics Dept so highly. I'm a postgrad in Astronomy and you'd think nobody even knew we were there!! As it happens, I'm part of a tiny group (4 people in NUIG) which is part of a larger US-based collaboration which is credited with basically starting a new field of astronomy. Well... making it successful where it had been a total failure beforehand if you want to get technical.

The truth is, I was an undergrad here and through 4 years I didn't even know much about the research that went on here. It's a shame that's the case. I demonstrate at labs now and always try to tell "the kids" about what's going on in the nether regions of the department.

To stay on topic, is it just me or is the website always down? This year in particular they seem to have an awful lot of down time. I know that mightn't sound like a reason not to study here, but it usually means that webmail, library, etc facilities are gone as well. Right now, can't get papers I need for my thesis.

JIZZLORD

the network was shut down a few times due to Denial of service attacks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial-of-service_attack

Crazy Ivan

Is that why it's currently down at the minute? Or is it just me that seems to be having problems with it? I can't even hit nuigalway.ie.

Do other universities have as much down time? Surely the NUIG network doesn't have a disproportionate number of attacks, does it?

ZorbaTehZ

It's ridiculous how often the nuig site seems to be down imo...

Toto Wolfcastle

Crazy Ivan wrote: »

Is that why it's currently down at the minute? Or is it just me that seems to be having problems with it? I can't even hit nuigalway.ie.

Do other universities have as much down time? Surely the NUIG network doesn't have a disproportionate number of attacks, does it?

I was in UCC for 3 years, and have been in NUIG since September. The NUIG website has nearly experienced more downtime in the time I've attended than the UCC website did in all those 3 years. To be fair, it had problems, but there is something seriously wrong with the NUIG one. (Of course I haven't got a clue what causes it so maybe I'm wrong in saying there is something wrong!)

Iano2K8

Does anyone know where I can get info on the Commerce(accounting) course starting new next year in NUIG... Career guidance is useless and they have no up to date prospectives in my school...

kevmy

janeybabe wrote: »

I was in UCC for 3 years, and have been in NUIG since September. The NUIG website has nearly experienced more downtime in the time I've attended than the UCC website did in all those 3 years. To be fair, it had problems, but there is something seriously wrong with the NUIG one. (Of course I haven't got a clue what causes it so maybe I'm wrong in saying there is something wrong!)

The trouble is that they employ monkeys in Computer Services. This leads to a lot of unplugged cables and broken servers.

In all honesty CS are a joke and I take the policy of avoiding them if I can at all.

Toto Wolfcastle

kevmy wrote: »

The trouble is that they employ monkeys in Computer Services. This leads to a lot of unplugged cables and broken servers.

In all honesty CS are a joke and I take the policy of avoiding them if I can at all.

Me too. My parents bought me a laptop for my graduation and my Dad had seen on the NUIG website that NUIG doesn't support Vista. Fair enough, so my Dad e-mailed CS to confirm this. No reply, bought the laptop with XP, 3 months later CS reply confirming that he shold use XP. Gee thanks for that!

But I hope that this doesn't put people off NUIG. I'm sure it wont!

leninbenjamin

tbh as far as i can tell CS inherit the same administration failings that are rampant throughout the college, it's just CS is so prominent you tend to notice their ****ups/short falls more than elsewhere.

there's quite a few arses in NUIG that deserve a good boot to them.

kevmy

leninbenjamin wrote: »

tbh as far as i can tell CS inherit the same administration failings that are rampant throughout the college, it's just CS is so prominent you tend to notice their ****ups/short falls more than elsewhere.

there's quite a few arses in NUIG that deserve a good boot to them.

Well there is that but I reckon they have disimproved over the last few years

JIZZLORD

you're all lucky syxpak doesnt still work for them or he'd open up a can of whupass on ye!

Toto Wolfcastle

JIZZLORD wrote: »

you're all lucky syxpak doesnt still work for them or he'd open up a can of whupass on ye!

Open a can of whupass? Well, it's a start. Soon he can move on to turning on a computer. He'll be a computer whizz in no time!

Seriously though, my limited experience with CS has been bad, but they have to do some things right......right?

JIZZLORD

dodgy budget and not the staff methinks

Crazy Ivan

Yeah in fairness it seems they are probably under-manned (under-personed?) for the size of the college and what they are in charge of. Think of the number of computers on-campus and how spread out they all are. Not just the computer suites, but computer labs and staff computers as well as all the laptops using the wireless these days. Then they have the website maintenance and updates as well as email, account management, virus protection, firewall maintenance and general enquiries ("I can't find the 'any' key!!"). They probably don't have enough staff or a high enough budget to do they job they do. It doesn't leave a lot of time for refresher courses and stuff for them to keep on top of the latest and greatest.

In any case, overall the university is great. Did my undergrad there and now doing a postgrad. The laid-back atmosphere is second to none. There's usually a good enough buzz around the place and something going on. Everyone will have some small gripe but the big picture is good I'd say!