Engineering course hours

theirishrover

Hi, im in 6th year now and seriously considering engineering in uni but ive heard the hours are fairly hefty, can anyone give me a rough idea what theyre like for undinominated or mechanical?

thanks, g

For first years in most colleges you'll be doing a fairly similar number of hours as to the other engineers, if you're not in the undenominated courses. So it should be somewhere between 25 and 35, probably depending on your weeks. It went down in the number of hours for me (Civil; Trinity) as the years went on.

Tails142

From my experience, structural in DIT it was a 9 to 5 thing. Having said that, I didnt attend even half of the lectures in first and second year. I copped on for third and fourth as I almost failed but at that stage the days get shorter and you get more breaks between lectures.

So yeah, you'll be doing pretty much 40 hours a week - but its not too bad at all because you can skip the one after lunch if you feel like it, or head off to the cinema. Miss the morning lectures etc.

Just be prepared to put the work in come exam time obviously.

breadmonkey

For 1st year, it depends how much you've done for the Leaving.

In 1st year I had done physics, chemistry and applied maths so I didn't go to any of those for most of the year. I also never went to maths lectures as I found them a waste of time and was able to learn the stuff no problem on my own with the lecture notes and problem sheets (which were available on the internet; would have been a different story otherwise). Tbh, 1st Eng is just a broad science course. (I'm talking about UCD btw)

I went into civil after that so don't know if this really applies to you since you seem to be leaning towards mech but 2nd year was a doss, 3rd year less so butt 4th year has been basically a 9-6 affair.

Probably not a great idea to pick your course based on the number of hours required.

Actually, I just realised that the course will have changed a bit due to modularisation so I'm not sure how my experience compares nowadays. What a pointless post....:)

theirishrover

ok, thanks!:) just one more question for any mechanical engineers out there, ive been looking at the course sylibus and alot of it looks very theoretical whereas im more interested in the problem solving, hands on kinda stuff. whats the course actually like? is there room for creativness in it?

hmm, maybe i should move this to a new thread.. anyway, thanks,g

Turbulent Bill

theirishrover wrote: »

ok, thanks!:) just one more question for any mechanical engineers out there, ive been looking at the course sylibus and alot of it looks very theoretical whereas im more interested in the problem solving, hands on kinda stuff. whats the course actually like? is there room for creativness in it?

hmm, maybe i should move this to a new thread.. anyway, thanks,g

From my own experience (Mech in TCD), the initial courses are almost entirely theoretical, with science or eng labs being the only really 'hands on' bits. The idea is that you learn the fundamental basis behind the subjects first. From 2nd year onwards there is more project/creative work to use your skills.

chris85

theirishrover wrote: »

ok, thanks!:) just one more question for any mechanical engineers out there, ive been looking at the course sylibus and alot of it looks very theoretical whereas im more interested in the problem solving, hands on kinda stuff. whats the course actually like? is there room for creativness in it?

hmm, maybe i should move this to a new thread.. anyway, thanks,g

Hey final year mech in IT tallaght here. The course here has some very hands on at time but there is of course some modules that are purely theoretical. Ive had the chance to get hands on and operate most of the machinary in here which has been good for experience. But also can create and solve mathematical models.

For hands on stuff have a look at the ITs out there. DIT are good but are limited on the equipment they have afaik.

The hours drop the further you get into the course but the free is usually needed for projects and assignments.