Engineering - experiences

Jeanious

Hey all, ive applied for common entry engineering this september as a mature student. Really just looking for any sort of feedback or insight into the course/lectures/workload etc. I know its about 30ish hours in first year, but would ya be expected to do a sh1tload above and beyond that, or is it just a few projects and whatnot? Also are the lectures themselves big, or whats the rough class size?

I read somewhere (but cant find it now) that there's a short course (maybe 2days to a week in length) for people that havent done physics in secondary school...can anyone confirm or deny though, or let me know if its worth it at all? I was pretty good at maths for the leaving and science for the junior, but both of them are goin back a few years at this stage...dya think id be alright with that?

Any general advice is also much appreciated!

Thanks for any advice, i dont know anyone that's done the course so its gonne be quite valuable to me!

TheAmateur

I'm not a mature student but I just finished first year. I like the course so far. It's pretty maths-y. We did differentiation, integration, a little bit of sequences and series (so little I don't even think it came up on the test), differential equations and some matrices at the end. You usually get one maths assignment per week, usually to be completed online on a god-forsaken website called Wileyplus. If you look at it cynically, technically it's optional, but it definitely helped me to do the assignments. They usually took me about an hour or two.
As for other weekly "optional" assignments, writing that week's computer science program is probably a good idea too. You can download a free C++ compiler called Dev-C++ and do them at home. This definitely helps when it comes to the exams. These might take 15 mins or they might take a couple of hours to work out.
You usually have a lab report to write up every week too. They're slightly different for physics, chemistry and engineering labs but they take from an hour to three hours (I found the engineering ones took waaay longer).

There are also occasional engineering graphics assignments. They're few and far between thank god and they don't take very long either.
Rough Class Size: It'll start at the full 150 or how many are in the course for the first few days maybe, then drop off steadily until there are only about 40 people coming in for certain 9am classes. Maths 1 and 2, computer science and physical science I think are taken with engineering with management so that's another 15 people. Generally I think the maths lectures were usually almost full (about 130 people), while on the other end the Engineering Graphics lectures were almost empty (about 50 people).

Re. the physics course: I think you heard right, but all I know for definite is that there's one for chemistry and people say it's useless. The physics one might be better though. I'm hoping someone else here will weigh in on that...

Knew I was forgetting something: The project. Our year and the year before us had to build a catapult, but I've heard next year will be different (I hope this is true cause the catapult kits are definitely not fit or use after this year...) It was a bit of a joke. Whole thing only starts at the last 6 weeks or so and everything is prettymuch spoon-fed. I'm not saying that's bad (makes it easy anyway) but the only thing we got to redesign was the throwing arm. There was a competition at the end.

An extra note re. maths: If you can do the higher level leaving cert. stuff you should be fine. If you know some who just did it/is currently doing it I'd say grab a book off them and flick through it. The most important stuff will be differentiation and integration. Matrices'd be handy too.

That's all I can remember/type at this hour. Hope there's something useful in that ramble.

Jeanious

TheAmateur wrote: »

Re. the physics course: I think you heard right, but all I know for definite is that there's one for chemistry and people say it's useless. The physics one might be better though. I'm hoping someone else here will weigh in on that...

Yeah maybe it was chemistry actually, cant find any info on either one, anyone have any experience of going to either of them? As i say ive done absolutely zip physics or chemistry since the junior, 10+ years ago, so im wonderin is the course(s) worthwhile or are they pure useless?

TheAmateur wrote: »

That's all I can remember/type at this hour. Hope there's something useful in that ramble.

Absolutely yeah! Thats exactly the kind of info i was lookin for, thanks a million. I think its more the psychological barrier of goin back to education after a good while out, but judgin by your post its not the hellish sort of thing i had in my mind's eye! thanks again.

Any more info (from anyone) would be seriously appreciated!

imaleper

As far as I know there is no "catch up" course in physics, there is definetly one in chemistry a week before college officially starts. Although if there was one I would not have paid much attention to its existence!

Fortunately, the lecturers do cover all aspects of the basics before covering anything advanced with regards electronics or mechanics. Most people struggle with the chemistry, as its harder to grasp theoretically.

Dont worry about the Physics, its very "equation based", and quite manageable in first year.

Jeanious

imaleper wrote: »

As far as I know there is no "catch up" course in physics, there is definetly one in chemistry a week before college officially starts. Although if there was one I would not have paid much attention to its existence!

Fortunately, the lecturers do cover all aspects of the basics before covering anything advanced with regards electronics or mechanics. Most people struggle with the chemistry, as its harder to grasp theoretically.

Dont worry about the Physics, its very "equation based", and quite manageable in first year.

Thanks for the info as well! Dya reckon itd be worth doin the chemistry course? Or do ya know anyone that's done it? My biggest fear is landin in on day 1 (slight exaggeration!), starin blankly and not havin a bull's notion whats goin on! (and i mean that in general by the way, not just physics and chemistry!)

The general impression i get seems to be that first year is very doable, any thoughts on second or subsequent years? or are ye both just finished first?

devinejay

I also just finished first year, and it is a fairly doable course, although it can be tricky especially if you haven't seen some stuff before e.g. I did applied maths so Mechanics was grand, but people who didn't might struggle at first.
If I had one piece of advice it's to keep on top of things. It's really easy to just sit back and listen in lectures and say to yourself "Oh yeah, I get that" as the lecturers spell it out, but that moment of clarity isn't likely to stick with you all the way to exam time. If I could do the year again I'd try to spend more time in the library working away to myself, especially as some lectures can be a big waste of your time (or possibly I just wasted what time I spent there), that said there's always a risk in missing lectures unless you have a friend who could fill you in on what went on or share notes, you never know what you'll miss.
So yeah, as long as you actually do work on your own most days you should be fine.

P.S. I said earlier that having done something beforehand helps like with applied maths, but I loved chemistry for the LC but came ridiculously close to failing it. Also I did physics in the LC and found physics course fine until I saw the exam papers, when I promptly shat myself. Both were down to never putting any theory I learned into practice myself.

P.P.S. Wileyplus is a pain but stick with it, it's worth it in the end.

cherrytaz

Hows it going

Iv just finished my 4 years of engineering in trinity (Civil) and would agree that its not the easiest of courses. Coming straight out of the leaving cert it as a bit of an eye opener to be honest. I found the step up was a bit of a challenge but its definately manageable.

For the first two years i can honestly say that i missed at least a third of all lectures with going out etc and it affected my results feck all. In third and fourth year though it pays to go to everything as it all goes towards your final results.

For our finals there a bunch of us studied flat out for 5 weeks before exams but that was it,we all got 1st's so the myth of having no social life etc in final year is completely untrue.

I wish you the best of luck with the course as i believe its a great degree to come out with and stick at it,its difficult at times but you'll get through it

cunnins4

cherrytaz wrote: »

Hows it going

Iv just finished my 4 years of engineering in trinity (Civil) and would agree that its not the easiest of courses. Coming straight out of the leaving cert it as a bit of an eye opener to be honest. I found the step up was a bit of a challenge but its definately manageable.

For the first two years i can honestly say that i missed at least a third of all lectures with going out etc and it affected my results feck all. In third and fourth year though it pays to go to everything as it all goes towards your final results.

For our finals there a bunch of us studied flat out for 5 weeks before exams but that was it,we all got 1st's so the myth of having no social life etc in final year is completely untrue.

I wish you the best of luck with the course as i believe its a great degree to come out with and stick at it,its difficult at times but you'll get through it

Thought all you cavan boyos were on a J1?

Don't forget the fúckin thesis! That's also a pain in the balls - February and March of final year are very stressful.

cherrytaz

We are indeed,

Serious craic,just posting the odd drunken rant on this..Any work at home?

kthnxbai

I'll be going into third year eng in Octber this year...

even though they say it's 30 hours, you WILL be there 9-5... and it was actually mostly 9-6 in second year... though with semesterisation, it's difficult to tell how timetables will be next year.

Our class was about 200 in first year, about 170ish in second year...And depending on the subject, those numbers vary (due to common classes with MSISS, MEMS, maths etc...)

I didn't do the physics course before first year but a few friends of mine did.

AFAIK, it's only for chemistry (at least it was when I was in first year) and is held before you start college and lasts one week... I'd say defo do it if you can... most people who I know that didn't do physics or chem for leaving cert struggled a bit with 1E4... but if you put some work in you'll be fine.

The amount of hours never really drops unfortunately... It's a full time thing, but it's worth it.


EDIT:

Also, if you want to know if the work load increases in later years, it depends on who you ask... I know for myself I did feck all work in first and second year and did quite well in exams...
It depends if you've got the knack for it (resists urge to post dilbert vid)

I actually did better in second year than in first year... I found tthe maths easier, and a lot of the eng subjects repeat what you learned in first year...

However, I'm doing computer eng next year, as I've an aptitude for it.. so I coped grand with computer science course this year, but a lot of people struggled...

If there's anything that increases in difficulty a lot from first to second year, it's gotta be computer science...

It's the kinda thing though, that if you go to labs and actually put an effort in you'll be grand.