Course advice!

red herring

I'm interested in finding out about Law, History, french, philosophy, sociology, politics, english, and Italian in TCD. I realise theres already advice on these courses but some is slightly dated and I would love if some people could tell me about the above courses.

underthetides

History student here.

As far as I know, first year courses mostly revolve around the medieval stuff. It's tough if this isn't your area of interest, but it really helps you to get a grounding for the more modern history courses that follow in the later years, and keeps you on your toes throughout first year as many of the modules are quite tough and inevitably detached from our day-to-day world.

Second year and third year (and I'm assuming fourth year, although I'm not sure): wide range of modules to pick from, from pre-medieval up to courses dealing with events as recent as The Troubles and American foreign policy up to the second Iraq war. Huge scope, and more variety to really focus on what you want to focus on.

I study single honors history, and I have little or no complaints about the department or the structure of the freshman courses:) one or two of the tutors have a bit of an attitude, but honestly, no big deal. Lecturers are always helpful and some of them have quite a fan-base among the students! Department co-ordinators and executives are top-notch; always friendly and helpful.

Any more questions on history, just ask.

red herring

Thanks a million underthetides!:)

claire h

underthetides wrote: »

Second year and third year (and I'm assuming fourth year, although I'm not sure): wide range of modules to pick from, from pre-medieval up to courses dealing with events as recent as The Troubles and American foreign policy up to the second Iraq war. Huge scope, and more variety to really focus on what you want to focus on.

Same for 4th year, which also includes a dissertation. 1st and 2nd year courses tend to cover longer periods and be fairly general; 3rd and 4th year shorter periods or following a certain theme over a period. To get an idea of courses, take a look here: http://www.tcd.ie/history/undergraduate/materials.php

OP, with such a wide range of interests, you might find combined honors programmes (e.g. History and Political Science; Law and Political Science; Philosophy, political science, economics and sociology, etc) or TSM (two subject moderatorship - pick two subjects from allowed combinations) programmes worth looking at. http://www.tcd.ie/courses/undergraduate/faculty/#F01

red herring

Thanks claire h.
I guess I should have outlined it more clearly in my original post, I listed single subjects eg. philosophy, french etc, but I am also interested in courses combining these subjects. Eg. Philosophy and politics, History and Politics...

Basically any advice on most arts degrees in TCD. History of art and architecture, Film studies, Irish studies, Ancient History and Archaeology also included!
Theres some information you just can't get in the prospectus, nothing beats a 1st hand account of a course! All info is greatly appreciated!

djcervi

Hey! I'm a first year TSM French and Spanish student.

So far I am liking the French.I'll tell you how 1st year works. you have:
1 French grammar lecture a week,
2 written language classes where you read texts taken from newspapers, which deal with issues that have shaped French society. For this you have to submit a 200 word homework every week on a topic in French. It's doable enough.
1 Oral French class- You also have have homework every week for this. Listening to TV5 online and language stuff.
French texts- Lecture and tutorial every week. Literature is somewhat interesting. Books are very small, so they are readable with a bit of patience. There is also poetry (Great if you like it) and film, which was interesting. You have 2 compositions to do for this course at christmas and easter. One of them must be written in French.
1 lecture Intro to Contemporary France- Basically the work you cover in the written class, in lecture format. It's conducted entirely through French with powerpoint. Although the lecturer puts powerpoint and notes up online for everyone to re-read. It can be interesting, it can be boring at times.

I'm liking it so far. However a lot of the grammar and language work you have to do yourself. Nobody really gives you homework with regard to translation, or learning tenses/grammatical concepts. It's pretty shabby, considering that in Spanish we have two small grammar classes a week, the teacher gives and corrects homework, you can ask questions in class, etc. There's a lot of support in this area, but for French there isn't really any. It's all up to you. The staff are generally very nice, but some can just be a bit unfriendly and unapproachable. However as a general rule it's very minor. The language assistants (for the oral classes) are really sound. There are a lot of rumours that the French department try to make French as tough as possible so people will drop out, but that's nonsense.

Other things: for practising your spoken French the French dept organise un pub francophile in the Duke pub on wednesdays at 8 for students to practise their French. I haven't been yet, but will do someday . For Erasmus if you want to go away for the year you can only really do it safely in 2nd year in either Paris or Orléans. This is because you are only expected to pass your first 2 years, and then 3rd year onwards the work you do counts towards your degree. At a stretch you could go away for the term in 3rd year on Erasmus, or take a year off book and head off to work in France (English language assistant, bar work,etc).

Any questions feel free to PM