choosing subjects for arts!!

leavingcert002

thinking of doing geography, english and history as my three subjects in 1st year arts!! anyone know what they're like??

Graca

My cousin did history and english I think and she said they're not as hard as everyone makes out. When or if I do it I think I'll do French, Geography and for the first year biology or beginners' Spanish.

allandanyways

Dont know about history, but Im just finished 1st year geography and english (with spanish) this is what i can tell you:

English: I think the course is being changed slightly for this year but much of the content will be along the same lines as last year... its a fantastic course, so interesting and up to date... my advice would be not to get to attached to your first lecturers ways of lecturing because when the lecturers change over halfway through the semester, alot of people were inclined to give up on the module as they didnt find the second half as interesting as the first. The essays are specific and a bit tricky but put the work and research in during the year and you'll be ok. DO THE SECONDARY READING, i cannot recommend this enough. Essay and Exam correctors love secondary reading because it shows you tried and made an effort. One more thing, READ ALL THE BOOKS! (It just makes things easier before exams!)

Geography: depending on how you found it at secondary level (although you dont have to have done it), geography can be received one of two ways. I loved it in school but found the course VERY different, whereas some of my classmates found it easier to follow than school geography..Still... so much detail, so much study needed to be done (although that never seems to dawn until the week before the exams ha!) and you HAVE to go to your skills classes and tutorials...I just hope they're not at the same queer time they were at last year, might encourage more attendance! The physical module with Dr. Mc Carron is really interesting but the human geography just failed to grab alot of people's attention...

All this is just personal experience, I know people who hated English and Loved geography and some who were of the same opinion as me...

History has alot of work attached to it, essays and tutorials according to classmates...

Best of Luck, hope you enjoy maynooth!:)

Rozabeez

Out of interest, would you not be tempted to take subjects you've never studied before? Or is it that you'd like to teach them eventually/you're good at them already?

Ostrom

Did geography for my degree with sociology, good option to have in terms of graduate opportunities. Third year can be computer heavy and remote sensing and GIS give you some good postgrad options. Also set you up for Msc planning in UCD and other semi-environmental science and planning masters.

Its diverse and in second and third year you can limit the amount or physical of human geography you do, depending on your preference (although you will have to do one of each). Nice department, good supports, high profile academic staff - its a solid subject to have.

Your choices are'nt very broad though. I would suggest doing something 'unusual' while you have the chance - Anthropology (which I took and hated, but was thankful for the experience) another language? Biology? You will be dropping one so keep your options open. If youre going for teaching and are set on these, then go for it!

leavingcert002

tanking yous!!! eh yeh i want to go on to do primary teaching or else teaching english and geog in secondary so thats why i picked them two, just still undecided on a third subject for 1st year....was thinking of psychology but heard its really hard....dont really want to spend all my time trying to pass a subject that ill only be dropping after 1st year so just looking for something easy as a third subject!!

Rozabeez

I did the Celtic Studies course for first year as one of my arts subjects, it was really interesting tbh! Very small class and a bit of a laugh sometimes too.

Ostrom

From my own experience, you might try sociology? Psych is stat heavy in first year and the competitive mentality is not a positive thing to be exposed to so early on. Sociology is either loved or despised - easy to pass, difficult to do well in but is one of the most popular. Most choose it as a good all rounder

starflake

Sociology is a lovely distraction from other "heavy duty" subjects... a bit of common sense will get you a long way. You will learn to think in a different way through a year of sociology. It opens your eyes so to speak. I would recommend it also.

Watch out for the tutors though..... dodgy crowd.... eh Efla??!

TouchingVirus

Spend your first two weeks going to all the subjects you can - then pick

Joe1919

BEWARE ...Study page 32 of prospectus, especially the bottom table (year 2). There are some subjects (e.g. Biology cant be taken in second year) or combinations that limit your choice when going into second year and I personally like the idea that I can dump my least prefered subject after first year.
Also I personally kept one teaching subject and was glad, as it gives me the option to do the teaching hDip.

TGE

I'm going into my final year of English, and I have to say that the English courses in Maynooth are absolutely awful. I just finished Erasmus in Germany and it was a pretty important thing for me in terms of being able to compare what they get in other countries, and what we get in Maynooth.

The course is fitted for people with a passing interest in the subject, but wont satisfy most people who live and love books. You can bluff your way through the course, and the majority do, which is horrible to be surrounded by. But to the more technical elements:

Unlike in most countries, you arent given a choice of subjects. It's like school in the English department at Maynooth. You're given set modules each year, and that's that. In the US, Germany, France etc. you choose modules out of a pretty expansive list, and at the end of your degree you have YOUR degree, fitted to your strengths and interests. In the Maynooth system, you end up with the exact same degree as 300 other people. Your individuality as a student is never given room to develop, but if you're one of the rare students with a real interest in the subject, it wont show at the end anyway.

The modules. The teachers dont choose their module titles, rather they are assigned to them. They can modify the reading lists a little bit, but ultimately they're fitting into something predetermined. Some teachers rise to this, others fail miserably. A lot of the classes are taught by teachers who have no interest in teaching the same subject for another year (and one even openly told it to us on numerous occasions).

The course texts. Again, this is disappointing. When you see a class called 'modernism' in other universities, you'll usually get a really stretched out and exciting use of the concept. In Germany, I did a Modernism course which ended up going from Emily Dickinson to African American poetry to Faulkner and Anderson's accounts of small town American lives. The teacher assumed (rightly so) that the students had already read or had chosen not to read the obvious names like Eliot and Joyce (etc. etc.). Not so in Maynooth. The obvious names make up the whole list, bar one or two books, and again there are no surprises.

It ultimately depends on how seriously you take the subject. You have to consider the fact that the classes are usually around 350 people, and there is no contact with the teacher. The exam papers are predictable, because there is always a question on each (or most) of the texts from the course. You are therefore able to not go to class, read one book well, and get a great result in class.

And that's what I feel surrounds me in my year at least, with (naturally) some exceptions.

Your subject choice should be motivated by two things: 1. do you have a strong enough passion to WORK with these subjects after college, and 2. even if you do, will the amount of job options actually give you what you want?

Afterall, college is only 3-4 years and it should count for a hell of a lot more than 2 books read per semester and a degree achieved with 10% of the work done.

Hope this has helped dispell you from any myths you may have heard about the quality of English at NUIM (and hopefully has encouraged you to fight it and do the subject well anyway, because more people like that are needed).

Good luck in what is otherwise a cool enough place.

mrstpatsfc

does sociology entail alot of work?

Rosita

Anyone who is interested in doing teaching at the end of their time should be aware teaching jobs are not plentiful that English/History degrees are two a penny.

While English is not a bad subject as it's compulsory in schools, there are loads of English graduates, and it would need to be paired with French, Maths, Irish or some other strong subject like that that will be a benefit looking for a job at the end of it.

i-confuse

I did english music and psychology in 1st year - got offered degree in psych and took it. and boy do i regret that- but thats not what i wanted to say. damn rambling

i thought english and psychology were two of the worst subjects to put together. be warned, i had three assigments due on the same day (my birthday, on rag week) from those two subjects. makes life a bit hard for yourself like!

PrivateEye

Spend your first two weeks going to all the subjects you can - then pick

Somewhat related question to the one asked by the first poster, and touching on the above, I hope one of the NUIM oldies (eh..anyone whos done more than a week) can help me here.

Filled out my reg. form last week, I'm doing History (MH 113, the new one) and put Irish down as subject II. I was somewhat undecided about Irish vrs. English but this weekend decided I'd leave things as I registered, Irish and History.

Well today I hear that 1st year students doing Spanish,Irish etc. were supposed to ALSO reg. in the Arts building between last Monday and Friday. But why would I have done that if I was still unsure? 'Yer one' told me put something down and you can change it later.

Now I've decided I'm a happy camper, do I need to talk to somebody about it...or was that just them trying to rope me in for something else? I presume I'm registered for Irish as stands?

Thanks in advance,
Donal.

i-confuse

Hey Donal - registering for spanish and irish in the arts block was probably for the language lab. You have to register for the language labs so that they can timetable you a time slot. But I didn't do a language in first year - so i dunno what the protocol is now.

PrivateEye

Cool cool.
I'm sure I can sort something out there, anyone know what my next best step is?

Being told you've two weeks to choose your extra subject meant I didn't want to commit myself to Irish until I'd had a good think about it, which I now have. I'll take it the language lab is an essential part of it?

Cheers for the response mate.

Ostrom

mrstpatsfc wrote: »

does sociology entail alot of work?

Any subject is as much work as you want really. If you want to do well, its a decent workload. Every subject has its own required readings, with similar learning curves (speaking for arts, I'm sure people have different opinions on other subjects)

mrstpatsfc

its grand thanks

cheers for reply