Dropping out.

DylanJM

Hi, I'm doin first year science at the mo but I'm thinking of dropping out to go through CAO again. How should I go about this program office? Oh and the deadline is the 31st isn't it? Thanks!

Fad

Deadline is the 29th!

Just ask in the program office, they're really helpful.

mk1600

Don’t drop out unless you know what you want to do, after first year you can specialise in what you want to do, if you failed a few who cares everyone does just repeat in the summer. Science in ucd is a great course loads of options:)

The Paws

Hi,

Could you tell us what you dont like the course? is it because of your results/subjects/people in your class etc...dont give up! - you have a few more weeks left to go - I am sure everyone felt like dropping out at this time of the year so you are not the only one!

If you really wanted to drop science - have a think about what you really want to do - what you are good at etc. Also - just a gentle reminder that if you drop out - you would have to pay xxx if you are going to be in 1st year again.

Good luck!

Michaelrsh

DylanJM wrote: »

Hi, I'm doin first year science at the mo but I'm thinking of dropping out to go through CAO again. How should I go about this program office? Oh and the deadline is the 31st isn't it? Thanks!

Science ... it's like climbing up a stairs but you can never reach the top floor 'cause there isn't one. You'll just keep on climbing and climbing and climbing ...

DylanJM

Right so I've got the form all I have to do now is fill it out. I'm gonna go in on monday and tuesday see if anything changes my mind I doubt it will but I'll give it a shot.

@ The Paws I did alright in my exams passed 5 out of 6 which wasn't bad for the pitiful amount of study I did. The main reason I want to drop out is that I just can't really see myself in a science related career for the rest of my life. I sort of got railroaded into science "science is where all the jobs are gonna be blah blah blah". Don't get me wrong I am interested in science but more casually like.

The travel was a bit of a killer aswell. I'm livin in north Co.Dublin and it took bout an hour and 40 mins to get in. And I had all 9 o'clock starts this semester:eek:

Yeah I know exactly what I want to do next year so it's not that bad really. If I hadn't got a course I really wanted to do I'd be sticking with science.

Michaelrsh

DylanJM wrote: »

Right so I've got the form all I have to do now is fill it out. I'm gonna go in on monday and tuesday see if anything changes my mind I doubt it will but I'll give it a shot.

@ The Paws I did alright in my exams passed 5 out of 6 which wasn't bad for the pitiful amount of study I did. The main reason I want to drop out is that I just can't really see myself in a science related career for the rest of my life. I sort of got railroaded into science "science is where all the jobs are gonna be blah blah blah". Don't get me wrong I am interested in science but more casually like.

The travel was a bit of a killer aswell. I'm livin in north Co.Dublin and it took bout an hour and 40 mins to get in. And I had all 9 o'clock starts this semester:eek:

Yeah I know exactly what I want to do next year so it's not that bad really. If I hadn't got a course I really wanted to do I'd be sticking with science.

Listen, I'm in first year science too (consentrated mainly on maths, maths-physics, and physics) and personally I can't see myself having science related career either. You have to remember however that a science degree is way more transferable than an Arts degree. Do you think that someone in Arts who is doing let's say English, Geography and Philosophy knows exactly what career direction their taking ... I don't think so.

A science graduate in general has far more analytical and problem solving skills than an Arts degree. (Please don't get the impression that I'm being too harsh on Orts, there are -some- good subjects in it like economics, mathematical physics, maths and computer science).

You can transfer to things like business, finance and banking with a science degree. A lot of physics graduates for example go on to work in financial services, they can actually transfer into a master in Quantitative Finance too.

What subjects are you taking by the way? And what course do you want to take if you leave science?

By the way I leave in Swords and it I have to leave my house every day at 7:15 am for lectures at 9:00 am.

DylanJM

Yeah I'm livin in skerries such a trek to get in.

I'm lookin to do music technology next year it's a BSc. as well. Mixture of computer sci and sound engineering. I'll hopefully be doing it in either UL or WIT. I had the course in UL after UCD on my CAO last year should have stuck it down as no. 1 then instead.

I dropped out and switched after my first year in Science. All I did was talk to the program office about it just so they'd know, afterwards I re-applied through the CAO. They tried to convince me otherwise but I was miserable in science.
You will have to pay full fees next year as well if you do this. So it'd be smart to get a job ASAP and start saving. Though you may be able to transfer some of your science credits over to your new course as electives, which will reduce the amount of tuition charges you have to deal with.

Just a word of advice: be extra careful about what you're choosing this time around! I chose science because of the career opportunities as well, but when I changed I thought about what I was really interested in. It'd be horrible to go through all this and end up in something else you dislike again!

Extrasupervery

Casual arts bashing...every frickin thread

Michaelrsh

Extrasupervery wrote: »

Casual arts bashing...every frickin thread

Nah, Arts isn't that bad.

Extrasupervery

Good to know...

Michaelrsh

Extrasupervery wrote: »

Good to know...

... if you get a 1.1 or a good 2.1 and not if you're majoring in art history, irish folklore, liberal arts or celtic civilisations.

Extrasupervery

Majoring in politics. I'll get back to you with the GPA

seraphimvc

tbh ,like Michaelrsh said above is 100% true.

ok this will really upset some people i guess so i spoiler tag them:
dont read it if you are doing science and dont have a mind of steel :P

is just that i need to remind you that,science course is tough sh!t to do in the end of the day.

just go do a 3 yrs art/business - not saying they are easy p!ssy,but 3 yrs is way better than us 4 yrs hell especially when you come to 3rd/4th yr of the science degree,the pressure/the stuffs you will study in science is total tough sh!t(only apply to students who wanna do well).

is it worth the effort to get a science degree to get to nowhere(is not like doctor/actuary/accounting etc have jobs)? :P especially upset by the stuffs we study are so advanced to the point that why the hell do we need to learn all these tough sh!t while nobody is gonna pay us good for what we learn?

being a scientist is tough.sh!t.

/rant

Michaelrsh

seraphimvc wrote: »

tbh ,like Michaelrsh said above is 100% true.

ok this will really upset some people i guess so i spoiler tag them:
dont read it if you are doing science and dont have a mind of steel :P

is just that i need to remind you that,science course is tough sh!t to do in the end of the day.

just go do a 3 yrs art/business - not saying they are easy p!ssy,but 3 yrs is way better than us 4 yrs hell especially when you come to 3rd/4th yr of the science degree,the pressure/the stuffs you will study in science is total tough sh!t(only apply to students who wanna do well).

is it worth the effort to get a science degree to get to nowhere(is not like doctor/actuary/accounting etc have jobs)? :P especially upset by the stuffs we study are so advanced to the point that why the hell do we need to learn all these tough sh!t while nobody is gonna pay us good for what we learn?

being a scientist is tough.sh!t.

/rant

Ooops, read the spoiler, I thinK i better just drop out of science here and now.

A science degree is more transferable then an arts degree. For example maths/physics/statistics/computer science graduate can go into banking and finance. Computer science graduate themselves earn some of the highest starting salaries of any graduates. Besides, if people had the attitude you have, there would never be any scientific advancements and you would never be able to write that comment. And by the way, read this; http://www.payscale.com/best-colleges/degrees.asp

http://www.payscale.com/best-colleges/degrees.asp

seraphimvc

as i said what you said earlier is 100% right:P
if you can get a job(in industry) then you are granted.nuff said.no matter what science courses you take.a professional is a professional in the end of the day.

depressing stuff proceed with caution:

BUT,look at the link you gave above,the currency of the page is in US dollar.:cool: we are told we are precious.we are told we are....read this article from Irishtimes and maybe you will know more about the reality in ireland:
http://66.102.9.132/search?q=cache:qYXUIwkentUJ:www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/letters/2008/0708/1215380378349.html

dont be upset.you want the truth and here you go.

of course most people dont have the attitude i have lol caused' most people who went into science didnt really found out the reality until they are in 4th year of their degree and realise thats too damn late to turn back - like me and my many 4th years scientists-soon-to-be friends:D

science is tough sh!t to study and there is no guarantee if the course is financially worth it.fact. think twice and choose wise on which science you study.

IM0

seraphimvc wrote: »

as i said what you said earlier is 100% right:P
if you can get a job(in industry) then you are granted.nuff said.no matter what science courses you take.a professional is a professional in the end of the day.

depressing stuff proceed with caution:

BUT,look at the link you gave above,the currency of the page is in US dollar.:cool: we are told we are precious.we are told we are....read this article from Irishtimes and maybe you will know more about the reality in ireland:
http://66.102.9.132/search?q=cache:qYXUIwkentUJ:www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/letters/2008/0708/1215380378349.html

dont be upset.you want the truth and here you go.

of course most people dont have the attitude i have lol caused' most people who went into science didnt really found out the reality until they are in 4th year of their degree and realise thats too damn late to turn back - like me and my many 4th years scientists-soon-to-be friends:D

I find it hard to believe that anyone who writes this *crapily* is actually a 4th year science student nice try.

Michaelrsh

seraphimvc wrote: »

as i said what you said earlier is 100% right:P
if you can get a job(in industry) then you are granted.nuff said.no matter what science courses you take.a professional is a professional in the end of the day.

I agree that a professional is a professional at the end of the day and a degree in science (i.e., a BSc) alone is not going to be seen as a professional degree, however, this is not to say that scientists are not professionals and in order for scientists to be recognised as professionals they will need a Ph.D and in some cases post-doc work. This is true for arts too. The only real type of a degree that can assure a profession and a job is medicine or some sort of engineering maybe.

seraphimvc wrote: »

BUT,look at the link you gave above,the currency of the page is in US dollar.:cool: we are told we are precious.we are told we are....read this article from Irishtimes and maybe you will know more about the reality in ireland:
http://66.102.9.132/search?q=cache:qYXUIwkentUJ:www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/letters/2008/0708/1215380378349.html

What you have given me here is a synopsis of someone who has made academia a career and has stayed working in science for her whole life. The link I gave you however didn't spacifically detail what line of work those people with scientifically based careers went into. It didn't spacifically say if graduates went into research, academia or industry or something else altogether. It has been proven, for example, that physics graduate earn more in something other than science (like transferring to finance), than they do if they continued with physics. Also, it is quite evident that people earn more money working in industry than they do in academia. Yes, the link I gave you is in dollars however the salaries I showed you can make some sense if transferred to euros, e.g., $50,000 - $60,000 is worth in the region of €35000 - €42,000 which is not bad at all for a graduate in any discipline (even outside science). This would also be the same sort of salaries a business graduate might expect too on their first job. The point I am trying to make is that people with science degrees, let's say chemistry, physics, maths, biology, have the skills (example; analytical and numerical skill) that are much more valued to employers than skills obtained in an Arts degree.

seraphimvc wrote: »

of course most people dont have the attitude i have lol caused' most people who went into science didnt really found out the reality until they are in 4th year of their degree and realise thats too damn late to turn back - like me and my many 4th years scientists-soon-to-be friends:D

science is tough sh!t to study and there is no guarantee if the course is financially worth it.fact. think twice and choose wise on which science you study.

No undergraduate the degree, as I tried to explain earlier, is going to guarantee you a job, with the exception to medicine and maybe engineering (disregarding the current economic climate of course).

You know Monsieur Seraphimvc, I really pitty your attitude. Your imagination seems to be stuck in a four walled enclosure that is created by your own ignorance. Do you think that because you have a science degree that your life must therefore be confined to science and nothing else for the rest of your life? NO!! The whole idea of promoting science is to promote innovation. Let's say I'm a chemistry graduate (hypothetically) who decides to set up a company that specialises in the creation of new drugs. Do you think that your chemistry degree was a waste of time then? NO!! Let's say I'm a computer science graduate who decides to create a company that specialises in the creation of computer programs and devices (hmmm, sounds a lot like Bill Gates to me). Was that a waste of a degree? NO!!

I thank you for reading my rant.

Sid_Justice

Obviously some people doing science want to defend their position for some reason. I think what Seraph says is largely true.

Having a Science degree is no guarantee of getting a decent 'graduate' job in industry, further research or in a non-science related discipline (finance, programming, teaching). There are very few 3rd level qualifications that guarantee a particualar job. Even those in the professional courses like Dentistry, Pharmacy, Medicine and Veterinary seem to moan about the lack of available jobs or career paths.

Haven't said that, I don't think having a Science degree puts you in any kind of worse position than someone with an Arts or Humanities degree (generally speaking). But I do think there are more obvious career paths for Engineers. I think it's easier to become a Mechanical Engineer with a Mechanical engineering degree than a Microbiologist with a Micro degree.

The crucial point Seraph makes is that for a broad range of careers (business, finance, teaching, analytics) a 2.1 Science degree doesn't offer you a huge amount over someone with 2.1 Business or Arts degree. But people from Science, and I think they're correct, can argue that it probably takes a lot more blood, sweat and tears to get a 2.1 in a Science discipline than many others.

Like obviously if you want to be a Biochemist or a Cancer researcher a good science degree (and usually a M.Sc/PhD) is necessary. A lot of people I know who graduated with science degrees (everything from geneitics, biotech, zoology, chemistry) found it difficult to get good positions that weren't Clinical trails or QA. Some of the bright sparks who did well at applying/interviews got kinda cool graduate jobs but the majority are doing further education (medicine, teaching, IT).