UCD BA Social Science Degree

JayC5

Hi,

I'm hoping to apply for a mature student position on the BA Social Science course @ UCD in 2009, basically I'm wondering does anyone know of any short introductory courses or anything I could do over the next few months which I could mention to help me seal the deal in my application letter? I'm aware of the access course but I will be unable to do that because of current work commitments. Thanks for your time & help.

J

Hi JayC5,

It might be worthwhile contacting the Social Sciences Department in UCC directly to ask what type of qualifications / courses they would be looking for a prospective student to have.

If you can't make the access course, could you perhaps chat to them about whether you could get the notes from it? It might still be worth getting as much information from it as possible.

Hope it all goes OK!

Dónal

JayC5

Thanks for the info - good stuff Myth, will follow that up - if anyone else has any other suggestions or insights they'd be greatly appreciated. Cheers

J

Whoops - I meant UCD not UCC (as you obviously copped!)

Joe1919

Its no harm to mention why you are motivated and enthuaistic about doing this course and how it fits into your life plan. Be sure to show that you have fully checked out the modules. (check school website for info e.g. past exam papers(try their library website) etc.)( You could also mention something to the effect that you will be under no financial or family or personal pressure, as I suspect this can cause problems with some students. (My info is based on a mature students talk I attended .(not UCD) The person who gave the talk was also on the interview board that I attended)
The one thing, I think, that university administrators are watching for, are people who fail to complete their courses (often because they have not fully being aware of what ther course is about or have not financially planned fully), as this is an unhappy situation and also looks bad on their staistics.

soccerchick

I'm doing a course in the health care area too as a mature student and had to attend an interview as I did not have the 500+ points that they required!

Voluntary work or work experience in maybe community settings etc would help you. Maybe a short course from the open university in sociology would help too, check out their courses. I did an introductary psychology course, voluntary work, read up as much information on the course as possible, did a special needs course and also wrote on my application what my plan would be to get into the course another way if I wasn't successful this time..i.e. do an arts degree or a social care certificate course to get me into the course I wanted to do. They bascially want to see that you have thought out how you will fund yourself, what your plan is, what you know about the course and why you chose it....proof that you are not randomly picking a course. Also tie in your life experience into the interview/application such as..if you played sports you have the ability to get on with all ages and therefore you have no problem being in uni with people that are younger than you.

Best of luck!

IKOS

Hello JayC5,

I think this course may be covered under Arts at UCD. If so, you could take the short, 25 week course "Access to Arts". This course will guarantee you a place in the area of Arts if you obtain 60% in your average grades. I have the like here, hope it helps http://www.ucd.ie/adulted/courses/access_ahs.htm

Cammai

Économiste Monétaire

Cammai the OP already said that he/she couldn't do the access course.


By the way the BSocSc and the B.A. (a.k.a. Arts) are two seperate programs. The OP is talking about the BSocSc.

The rules on the BSocSc on the access course are

Applying for a Degree of Bachelor of Social Science in UCD

• Students who achieve 60% or over will be deemed to have met the academic requirements for entry to Human Sciences
• Student's motivation and relevant work/life experience will be taken into account
• Applicants must be eligible to apply on grounds of mature years, and
• Follow appropriate application procedures via the CAO

It doesn't say anything about a guaranteed placed, it just says that for Arts omnibus. It might just be bad formatting, though.