UCD or TCD?

Conor108

Hi guys,

I'm currently in 6th year and trying to fill out my CAO. Really am stuck as to which college to put down 1st. I'd like to do a general science degree with a view to going into either Physics with Astronomy and Space Science in UCD or Physics and Astrophysics in TCD. (I like space-ey stuff)

Anyway I'd imagine contributors on this forum would have an opinion/advice?

Thanks in advance!:)


(Sorry if this is the wrong forum btw, dont think it is but just in case )

Kevster

Im just going to reply to get this post back up to the top of the page, but I've never studied in either of these unis. I did my undergrads in DIT and IT Carlow, and then a brief postgrad in the Uni of York, and now I'm moving to the Uni of Leicester.

Your choice should be based on the amount of subjects you are interested in (in each course), but also travel issues. To me, that extra 'space science' bit sounds good!

fillmore jive

Well definitely do science undenominated. It'll keep your options open: I wanted to do the astronomy degree in Ucd, got in, and absolutely hated it. Because science is undenominated it was easy to change subjects and I'm in third year mathematical physics now.

In terms of which college to choose, it's completely up to you. A degree from Trinity would have a better reputation, but I think the course is much better in Ucd because you have so many more areas to specialize in compared to Tcd.

Michaelrsh

fillmore jive wrote: »

Well definitely do science undenominated. It'll keep your options open: I wanted to do the astronomy degree in Ucd, got in, and absolutely hated it. Because science is undenominated it was easy to change subjects and I'm in third year mathematical physics now.

In terms of which college to choose, it's completely up to you. A degree from Trinity would have a better reputation, but I think the course is much better in Ucd because you have so many more areas to specialize in compared to Tcd.

Hey there,

I'm actually in first year at the moment doing Physics with Astronomy and Space Science. My advise is to do the Omnibus science programme (DN008) instead of the denominated (DN033). I now HATE astronomy (that lecturer was soooo boring) and now want to move over to the science omnibus to do a plain old physics degree and might minor in statistics later (don't be tempted by the field trip to La Laguna in 3rd year of astronomy, keep your options open as one person said there). Now I can't go onto take minors in chemistry or biology, which is a bitch.

In terms of the argument between UCD and Trinity, the omnibus science course in UCD is far more flexible yet the Trinity general science course is far more structured. Also you can take computer science in UCD which you can't do as part of the general science course in Trinity. Plus, in UCD there are a far greater number of possible degrees you can get out of the science omnibus in comparison to Trinity. However, OP, you seem sure you want to do physics, therefore I would say go for the Trinity general science course and make your way into physics that way (if you're absolutely sure you want to do physics though). I sure wish I could go back in time at this stage and change around my CAO application so that general science in Trinity would be before UCD. To my fellow UCD students, I don't want to sound like traitor, however I now know that Trinity has a far better physics department than UCD, it mightn't however have better biology, bio-medical and chemistry departments though. The reason for me saying this is that there are far far greater research and postgraduate opportunities in Trinity for physics. There is only one postgraduate research masters you can do in UCD for physics and it deals with nanoscience.

fillmore jive

Michaelrsh wrote: »

The reason for me saying this is that there are far far greater research and postgraduate opportunities in Trinity for physics. There is only one postgraduate research masters you can do in UCD for physics and it deals with nanoscience.

Ok this isn't true at all. There is only one taught masters in Ucd physics dept, which is the nanoscience year long course. However, for research masters there's a huge amount of oppurtunities (realistically you'd want to be doing a research masters as opposed to a taught masters when it comes to science subjects). Also, both depts are similar sized so they'd both have the same amount of postgrad places each year.

Michaelrsh

fillmore jive wrote: »

Ok this isn't true at all. There is only one taught masters in Ucd physics dept, which is the nanoscience year long course. However, for research masters there's a huge amount of oppurtunities (realistically you'd want to be doing a research masters as opposed to a taught masters when it comes to science subjects). Also, both depts are similar sized so they'd both have the same amount of postgrad places each year.

I was flicking through Trinity's propectus and apparently they say that they have the largest amount of postgraduate students studying physics in Ireland. Is that a lie?

fillmore jive

Michaelrsh wrote: »

I was flicking through Trinity's propectus and apparently they say that they have the largest amount of postgraduate students studying physics in Ireland. Is that a lie?

I'm sure it's not a lie, but I didn't say it was a lie. Tcd could have more postgrads, but your first post was giving off the impression that there were very few opppurtunities in Ucd, which just isn't true.

Michaelrsh

fillmore jive wrote: »

I'm sure it's not a lie, but I didn't say it was a lie. Tcd could have more postgrads, but your first post was giving off the impression that there were very few opppurtunities in Ucd, which just isn't true.

Trinity is in 70th place in the world for natural science (http://www.topuniversities.com/university/167/trinity-college-dublin)

UCD is only in 203rd place for natural science
(http://www.topuniversities.com/university/166/university-college-dublin)

I'm sounding like a bit of a turncoat here but I really do think I'm gonna try my best to try and get into a postgraduate course in Trinity after my degree in UCD. Praying to god that I'll get a 2.1.

macaronicheese

Michaelrsh wrote: »

Trinity is in 70th place in the world for natural science (http://www.topuniversities.com/university/167/trinity-college-dublin)

UCD is only in 203rd place for natural science
(http://www.topuniversities.com/university/166/university-college-dublin)

I'm sounding like a bit of a turncoat here but I really do think I'm gonna try my best to try and get into a postgraduate course in Trinity after my degree in UCD. Praying to god that I'll get a 2.1.

Mmmm Interesting........

Michaelrsh

macaronicheese wrote: »

Mmmm Interesting........

postgrad, not undergrad.

Podge_irl

Indeed, rankings have essentially nothing to do with undergrad courses. Which is not to say there is zero correlation, but it doesn't actively measure it.

Michaelrsh

Podge_irl wrote: »

Indeed, rankings have essentially nothing to do with undergrad courses.

Well obviously is does. However, research facillities have a strong impact on the rankings to be honest, especially in areas like science. Anyway, was merely referring to this statement that I made:

"I'm sounding like a bit of a turncoat here but I really do think I'm gonna try my best to try and get into a postgraduate course in Trinity after my degree in UCD. Praying to god that I'll get a 2.1. "

I would prefer to do my undergraduate science in ucd because of the amount of degrees you can get, and then try to do a masters/ph.d somewhere like Trinity.

Also I didn't want to sound like I was contradicting myself in relation to another thread.

Podge_irl

Michaelrsh wrote: »

Well obviously is does.

Obviously it does what? The rankings have next to nothing to do with the undergrad courses and it would be reasonably silly to base a decision on them.

Michaelrsh

Podge_irl wrote: »

Obviously it does what? The rankings have next to nothing to do with the undergrad courses and it would be reasonably silly to base a decision on them.

OK, but not even the smallest percentage?

Podge_irl

Michaelrsh wrote: »

OK, but not even the smallest percentage?

No. The rankings are generally based on things such as peer review of the dept, papers published, citations, prizes won by faculty etc. It has some relevance for postgraduate work but they are, in a lot of ways, a massive waste of time.

Obviously it's better to go to Cambridge than Trinity for a lot of courses, so the rankings aren't completely irrelevant, but even then the actual teaching would not necessarily be better. There is no student or graduate input into these rankings.

ApeXaviour

Michaelrsh wrote: »

I was flicking through Trinity's propectus and apparently they say that they have the largest amount of postgraduate students studying physics in Ireland. Is that a lie?

It's true there are well over 100 of us. But where you do your undergrad does not necessarily dictate where you do your postgrad, unless you're too lazy to look outside your alma mater (like me).

At least two people have said they grew to hate the astronomy lectures in UCD which I find interesting, it seemed the opposite in my graduating class, where a lot of people caught the astro bug and chose to specialise in it in 3rd year.

OP, I'll second podge (though I wish he'd stop gloating about cambridge ), rankings (except where there is a very large margin, which is not the case here) have no bearing on the quality of the undergraduate course.

Your decision should reflect how important the options each college gives are to you (eg computer science in UCD can be very beneficial skill for a stats crunching astro postgrad), anecdotal reviews, convenience of location etc etc. My supervisor, a trinity lecturer, is a graduate of UCD for both his BSc and PhD, so it's not like they don't attract talent.

bogman_bass

I'm a DIT graduate but If I was to do it all again I would go to DCU. Excellent science department and industry focused

ghostchant

Well if you're definite about what you want to do then you can't go to far wrong with TCD or UCD.

As far as postgratuate study is concerned, it depends on what you're interested in. I did theoretical physics in UCD, wanted to stay in Dublin and was talking to supervisors in both Trinity and UCD with regards to doing a PhD, and chose a supervisor in UCD based on the field I wanted to work in (computational/theoretical biophysics, or protein folding to put it simply). If my interest had been in something else perhaps TCD or somewhere else would've been the better choice.