TCD - Postgrad hours

Eimear_K

Hi!
I'm looking into doing a full time postgrad in Civil Engineering in TCD starting in October. Has anyone on here done this? If so, how time consuming is it?? From your experience, would it be possible to work maybe 2 days or 3 days a week at the same time?
I think it'd be a really silly time to give up a job to do it but at the same time its a perfect time to go back and try do one..
Thanks :-)

Cantab.

Eimear_K wrote: »

Hi!
I'm looking into doing a full time postgrad in Civil Engineering in TCD starting in October. Has anyone on here done this? If so, how time consuming is it?? From your experience, would it be possible to work maybe 2 days or 3 days a week at the same time?
I think it'd be a really silly time to give up a job to do it but at the same time its a perfect time to go back and try do one..
Thanks :-)

Working 16 to 24 hours a week would be frowned upon.

You can do demonstrating and tutorials within your department at a rate of €25 an hour.

IvyTheTerrible

It depends. Is it a Masters or a phd?

I don't know about a masters cos I never did one, but I did a phd and I don't think I would have been able to work 2 days a week and still get finished in 3-4 years.

I suppose you have to ask yourself why you want to do a postgrad. If it's just to pass the time during the recession, or to put some more letters after your name, then it's not a good idea. But if you love your research area and don't mind a few years of hard work, then it's for you!

IvyTheTerrible

Also I should mention, that some funding bodies don't allow you to work outside your project, unless in special circumstances.

Boston

It's up to your supervisor, however if you don't pass muster at the end of the year you could be required to pay back any grant you've received. If its the taught masters, then you can do what ever you want, it's you money to piss away.

Eimear_K

No, no, I am doing it because I'm interested in it! But I'm not sure I could afford it without some sort of income, I figured working 14-15 hours might be do-able and out-right giving up work could put me in a otugh position once the course is finished. Its a one-year masters, 16 weeks of lectures and the rest is a dissertation.

snappieT

From the Civil Engineering MSc course page:

The degree programme is divided into three parts: two eight week semesters of taught courses (October - March inclusive) with an average of 12 lectures per week. A major dissertation is undertaken during the second half of the course (April - September inclusive).

If there are just 12 lectures per week (plus labs, tutorials, I assume...), then I don't see any reason you couldn't do a few hours of work in the evenings also.

Would you consider doing the 2 year part-time masters instead?

Eimear_K

Thanks, SnappieT.

There wouldn't be labs as far as I know. I've looked at the time table and can see how I would fit in some work, the question is more whether anyone here has done the same course and they they found the work load to be much greater (drastically so) compared to the actual lecture hours? I'm just trying to avoid any nasty surprises!

I don't mind have to work a bit harder to do it, but if I find it is completely unfeasible then I'd look at alternatives.

Regarding doing the course part-time over two years - I've looked at the time table for this too and it's not much better, the time table seemed to be set up in such a way that if I did it part time then I'd be running in and out of uni all day, leaving lots of unproductive time.

snappieT

Eimear_K wrote: »

Regarding doing the course part-time over two years - I've looked at the time table for this too and it's not much better, the time table seemed to be set up in such a way that if I did it part time then I'd be running in and out of uni all day, leaving lots of unproductive time.

Well for the part-time course "you would typically attend 6 hours lectures per week during the two 8 week terms", so I would expect that would be over 2 or 3 days a week, probably in the evenings, and you could use the remaining days to work as required. I don't see a part-time timetable myself, where are you getting it from?

Eimear_K

Its the same timetable as the full time course. I asked the couse co-ordinator to email me the timetables for the past two years.
I had intended on doing it part time this year under the assumption that it would be possible to do it in the evening times or over 1 or 2 full days as is the case with a lot of part time courses. However, it's the same time table and you pick your subjects and attend the lectures with the full time students. I found this out too late in the day last year so I deferred my place to take up the course full time this year.

The problem with the part time system is the lectures are quite scattered throughout the week because you're not staying in for other classes. It seems like it would just mean a lot of time hanging around waiting for a lecture and wouldn't offer much more scope to work part time than the full time course.

The course co-ordinator just emailed to say that the course is being restructured now becasue Trinity is switcing to symmesterisation next year. So now I can't really base any decission on previous time tables! I'll just have to wait and see what the new structure looks like.

Jonathan

There is a user around here called Kernsr who is doing a part time masters in civil eng. I'm sure he'll know a thing or two.

godtabh

Eimear_K wrote: »

Its the same timetable as the full time course.

Its the same time table but you do half the subjects in year one and half in year two

I've sent you a pm