Computer Applications or Enterprise Computing??

Gagalady

I like both of these degrees but am trying to work out which is most suitable for me!

I like business but wouldn't be really mad about it though it's interesting enough (but I don't like accounting!!)

My maths is okay - honours maths B/Cs but I was told programming is more about having a logical mind (which I hope I have!!! :pac:)

Anyone who's doing these have any advice?

Also are there many girls on the course or are there mostly boys (not that that would be a bad thing... )?

And what's the maths like?!!!

THX!!

Fuhrer

Enterprise Computing is a waste of time.


The Maths is ok but its taught really badly

But then again, its a pretty good bench mark for the course


If you can handle a hardish subject that you have to mostly figure out on your own, you'll be fine for your time here.

Gagalady

That's pretty harsh - why do you think that?

Do you do the course yourself? What year are you in?

I don't know anyone who does (apart from some guys I met at Open Day) but my friend knows someone's sister who does it and they seemed to like it but found it very computer orientated in first year(but that's supposed to become more business-y in later years).

Also I had heard that some people had switched into it from Computer Applications.

StiLL-TrAiNinG

Some people are just a bit elitist about EC without any good reason really.
When comparing the two courses modules in first year, they actually differ very little. See CA here and EC here.

EC is slightly more business based and is the successor to the IS stream of CA. In previous years there was just CA and after first year it branched into two separate streams IS(Information Systems) and SE(Software Engineering).
As EC is only in its first year as course, I can only guess that it will probably split from CA in the same way the IS does from SE in terms of modules. Oh and apparently instead of a third year project in semester one and INTRA for 6 months (or is it 9? I can't remember) with CA, EC do a 12 month long INTRA placement.

Basically they're both pretty similar in a lot of ways, only EC is more business orientated. It doesn't make a huge difference which you choose, if you find you don't like it you are able to transfer from one course to the other easily enough from what I gather.

EDIT: Oh right, the maths. Well you've done honours level for the leveling cert, so as long as you put a bit of effort in you should be fine. There's also the maths learning center on campus if you need extra help.

Gagalady

Tx for your answers!

The INTRA placement is the work experience thing, right? Is that paid?

The Maths Center - what's that?

Matthewthebig

INTRA is paid workplacement yeah. Although with current ecomonic climate etc etc will be harder to get jobs.

Maths Learning Center is where you can go and get help with your maths if you need it.

if you do EC do the programming module. This ensures that you can switch to CA if you want to.

D3UC3 J3

Your best bet is to apply for EC.

If you do EC in first semester you can try "Programming 1".

If you really like it maybe think about transfering into CA in Semester 2.

Otherwise stick with EC.

Its infinitely easier to go from EC to CA, but not so from CA to EC.

There was a huge demand to move into EC after semster 1 this year, and i'm not sure if everyone that wanted to get in to EC did.

In first year there are only two or three module differences in CA and EC.

Then going on from that the rest of the years have a good bit of cross over but obviously CA being more software engineering oriented and the difference in INTRA periods.

There are plenty of girls on the course if you take the whole of EC and CA together, maybe a third. Less girls in CA than in EC though.

Don't think of it as a male dominated subject though. If you want to do it, go for it.

You have plenty of opportunity to find more friends in the Clubs and Societies anyway if you don't make many friends in your course.

Don't take an ounce of notice to what Fuhrer has to say about EC being a waste of time, it's a really good course.

The Professor that set up the course is one of the most highly regarded computer programmers you could find so I think he knows how to design a course that is anything but a waste of time.

Attol

I'm a first year CA and am enjoying it. From my programming lectures there seem to be about 8 girls to 40/50 guys in the year but don't let that put you off. The people in my class are very friendly. As was mentioned before DCU is great for its clubs and societies. You get to know people with the same interests from outside your course too.

There is a lot of practical stuff which I really enjoy. In the first semester we made our own websites and had a lot of practice with Java. This semester we still have Java practicals and also networking assignments that involve doing things like seeing the traffic aimed at our machines. We're starting scripting next week in our operating systems module.

All in all so far I think I made the right choice. A friend in Trinity recently told me he felt his course(CS) had been a bit sh!t and he'd felt so each year he'd been on the course so that reinforced it for me a little too.

If you do decide to do either though : GO TO LECTURES!!!!

Draupnir

StiLL-TrAiNinG wrote: »

Some people are just a bit elitist about EC without any good reason really.
When comparing the two courses modules in first year, they actually differ very little. See CA here and EC here.

EC is slightly more business based and is the successor to the IS stream of CA. In previous years there was just CA and after first year it branched into two separate streams IS(Information Systems) and SE(Software Engineering).
As EC is only in its first year as course, I can only guess that it will probably split from CA in the same way the IS does from SE in terms of modules. Oh and apparently instead of a third year project in semester one and INTRA for 6 months (or is it 9? I can't remember) with CA, EC do a 12 month long INTRA placement.

Basically they're both pretty similar in a lot of ways, only EC is more business orientated. It doesn't make a huge difference which you choose, if you find you don't like it you are able to transfer from one course to the other easily enough from what I gather.

EDIT: Oh right, the maths. Well you've done honours level for the leveling cert, so as long as you put a bit of effort in you should be fine. There's also the maths learning center on campus if you need extra help.

It used to actually split into three streams, at least it did when I did the degree, but there was poor uptake for the third stream (it may have been called CS - Computer Science, can't really remember).

Anyway, to the OP, I was in one of the first years that actually had the splits in place and some of my friends went into IS and some of us (myself included) went for SE. To give you an idea, a lot of the SE guys ended up working as developers while a lot of the IS lads are working in financial companies as project managers/business analysts/systems advisors etc.

My advice would be try to generalize as much as possible at the start, I can see from reading the above posts that you can dip your toe into both degrees at first and get an idea for what you like. I would do this as much as possible, a lot of the people knew very early on in Semester 1 of my first year that they really, really didn't like Programming. They dropped out as a result but you could get the same impression and just decide to stick with Enterprise Computing.

D3UC3 J3

Attol wrote: »

If you do decide to do either though : GO TO LECTURES!!!!

Or don't bother with the course in the 1st place. I missed a lot of lectures being sick and am now so behind now it's not funny.

Both EC and CA are hard courses so be prepared to work.

irish_boy90

in first semester we were allowed to swap from CA to EC.
They were only allowed to swap into CA if they did programming.

So you will have time to try java and see if you like it.


Maths has a lot of stuff from higher lv LC, so if you did honors you will know a lot of the stuff already.(or at least know the easy parts :pac:)

not many girls in the year though (most swapped into EC too)
maybe next year the nursing courses will require them to do java

Gagalady

I don't mind that there aren't that many girls...

Did you have any computing experience before you started?

irish_boy90

Gagalady wrote: »

I don't mind that there aren't that many girls...

Did you have any computing experience before you started?

nothing major no, could use computers alright but never tried programming or knew much in-depth stuff about hardware.

they teach from the ground up so its all fine as long as you put in an effort.:D

Draupnir

Gagalady wrote: »

I don't mind that there aren't that many girls...

Did you have any computing experience before you started?

If you are capable of operating Microsoft Word or Excel at the moment or before you start the course then you will be sufficiently skilled to start. They will teach you the rest.

For an example, the first day of Computer Programming 1 when I started involved teaching people how to open a text file, type in it using Notepad and then how to create a folder and save the file to it.

Obviously, the difficulty ramps up pretty quickly from this but it gives an idea of starting point.

mark renton

Computer Applications or Enterprise Computing??

whats the difference between the 2 ?

Katniss everMean

D3UC3 J3 wrote: »

Or don't bother with the course in the 1st place. I missed a lot of lectures being sick and am now so behind now it's not funny.

Both EC and CA are hard courses so be prepared to work.

Its really not that hard compared to a science or engineering degree. I transferred into CA from a science course, I had more then 40 hours a week with two full days of labs, and a zillion reports to do on top of trying to learn the course material, the work load is very manageable once you do it and don't get lazy, though CA 1st year can make you lazy compared to 2nd year. CASE 2 imo has the most working / learning over all four years, its not that hard but there is a huge learning increase that you have to be ready to handle.

The new CASE and CAEC sound better then what I am doing, as in there modules and when they are being taught. Id suggest go into EC do programming 1 make sure you like it and can grasp programming easy enough or you will find CASE2 way to hard. If you like it transfer to CASE because well for me I find pratical work much more fun then writting essays on business subjects

H2G2

john47832 wrote: »

Computer Applications or Enterprise Computing??
whats the difference between the 2 ?

Basically CA is for a career in software development and EC is for a career in IT management.

The two programmes are similar in 1st year 1st semester and then start to differ in 2nd semester of year 1. However in year 2 they are very different.

Draupnir

H2G2 wrote: »

Basically CA is for a career in software development and EC is for a career in IT management. .

I would not agree with this, CA in no way excludes you from a career in IT management. EC would deny you the ability to work in Software Development though.

EC will allow you to do more business oriented jobs such as business analysis and product management. It does however make it very difficult to ever work as a project manager, software developer or technical architect.

In my opinion, CA is the choice hands down as it gives you options on both sides. However, a lot of people struggle with Computer Programming.

irish_boy90

Draupnir wrote: »

I would not agree with this, CA in no way excludes you from a career in IT management. EC would deny you the ability to work in Software Development though.

EC will allow you to do more business oriented jobs such as business analysis and product management. It does however make it very difficult to ever work as a project manager, software developer or technical architect.

In my opinion, CA is the choice hands down as it gives you options on both sides. However, a lot of people struggle with Computer Programming.

yeah many people jumped ship into EC after the first semester over programming.
(only one person went into ca from ec i believe)

CA is tough, but remember that those of us in the higher years (and graduates) are willing to help when you're stuck. #lobby on RedBrick is a handy place to avail of this.

First years should talk to their class reps (Carri and Diarmaid) as they are RedBrick members and that society has been helpful in the past with putting on tutorials for certain difficult modules.

D3UC3 J3

Deleted User wrote: »

First years should talk to their class reps (Carri and Diarmaid) as they are RedBrick members and that society has been helpful in the past with putting on tutorials for certain difficult modules.

Is that "redbrick and class reps" or "just plain class reps"...cos there's one more, Jamie.


You have to "help yourself by getting help from others" in DCU.

There's so many student support services in there... like the "Maths Learning Centre" for want of example.

Diarmaid07

Just thought I'd stick in my €0.02 -

I'm Diarmaid, the one coconut was talking about =p I'm absolutely loving CA, and highly reccomend it - or EC - to anyone thinking about the course.

The great thing is the ability to change, too. You can jump from either course(providing you meet certain requirements) at the end of semester one.

There's always plenty of help for you too, be it through redbrick or lab tutors, or the support services like the Maths Learning Center DCU has set up.

Maths isn't too bad once you pull your weight.

This course is well worth going into*


* - just for the record, I had a lot of computer/programming experience before doing this course that probably helped me. But if you're ever looking for help next year, I'll still be around I hope, so don't hesitate to ask!

the butcher

if EC is the twin to what Informations System stream used to be, you will have no problem getting a software development job. I did IS and got a dba/developer job. to be honest, i would do EC for the 12 month INTRA alone, loads of courses you wouldnt get that kind of experience. Both are good courses, personally looking back id still pick IS/EC.

camroc

Given that the enterprise computing degree allows students to not do any programming modules, I don't think it's the way to go if you're looking to land a development job.

I'm a fourth year S.E. student, and from what I can see, the vast majority of I.S. students can't really program (this might only be in my year though). There are two reasons for this. One, students who aren't keen on programing were more likely to choose I.S. in the first place, and two, for the most part they weren't taught many modules heavy on programming. They then found themselves up s**t creek when they had to complete a fourth year project on their own. I get the sense that splitting the course into two seperate degrees will help with this sort of problem as any EC fourth year project can then focus on EC skills, and not just software development.

My advice to any prospective students now echoes what has been said above: make sure you do programming in first year to give yourself options later.