Worst College in the Country?

Thargor

IMO Athlone IT is the most depressing sh1thole you could make the mistake of attending, its more depressing than places you see built out in the middle of nowhere in Gaelteacth areas or Sligo.

- Horrible town, I mean Horrible, the whole layout of Golden Island and the way it joins up with the Old Town just makes me go "ugh" every time I see it.

- Horrible campus, depressing old buildings and prefabs, disgusting canteen, nothing to do anywhere.

- Brutal lectures droning on in their monotone voices from their slides that look like they were printed in the eighties and have been used every day since, every subject just a test of memory instead of understanding, just memorise what the lecturer tells you to and regurgitate it on the day, dont worry about understanding it.

- Poor facilities, crappy internet, crappy pcs, crappy equipment in the labs that just does not work. Same for the library, in every other library the rule is SILENCE, in the AIT one it sounds like the canteen.

- No clubs/societies like other places have, even if theres a club/society there it doesnt fulfill its function.

- Horrible overpriced noisy accomodation everywhere.

Plenty more I could go in to, I really despise AIT tbh.

pracky2k10

Thargor,
I have to agree with you in almost every respect- I did four years in Athlone and hated it. It's a real backwater town and when I attended there was absolutely nothing to do. Perhaps it's changed now but when I attended pretty much every night organised by the s.u. was a 'dance night..' as the ents officer was a local 'dj' and aspiring alter-jock type person...it was ridiculous. However I have to say my degree has held up extremely well against similar degrees from other institutes/uni's. I did social care btw. Despite that I still hate the thoughts of ever going near the place again!! What are you studying?

Thargor

I finished there 2 years ago Pracky, did a Biology degree then went straight into 4th year of a pharmaceuticals degree in GMIT, everything about GMIT was superior right down to the good job they got me at the end of it for which Im eternally grateful in todays economy, I only posted this thread because I saw a link to a new AIT forum in someones sig in After Hours, AIT didnt have its own board to vent on and warn others when I went there, Ive never been back since and I never will, cant stand the place. Go somewhere else if you can is my advice to anyone reading this.

cherryghost

Thargor wrote: »

IMO Athlone IT is the most depressing sh1thole you could make the mistake of attending, its more depressing than places you see built out in the middle of nowhere in Gaelteacth areas or Sligo.

- Horrible town, I mean Horrible, the whole layout of Golden Island and the way it joins up with the Old Town just makes me go "ugh" every time I see it.

- Horrible campus, depressing old buildings and prefabs, disgusting canteen, nothing to do anywhere.

- Brutal lectures droning on in their monotone voices from their slides that look like they were printed in the eighties and have been used every day since, every subject just a test of memory instead of understanding, just memorise what the lecturer tells you to and regurgitate it on the day, dont worry about understanding it.

- Poor facilities, crappy internet, crappy pcs, crappy equipment in the labs that just does not work. Same for the library, in every other library the rule is SILENCE, in the AIT one it sounds like the canteen.

- No clubs/societies like other places have, even if theres a club/society there it doesnt fulfill its function.

- Horrible overpriced noisy accomodation everywhere.

Plenty more I could go in to, I really despise AIT tbh.

Thargor, honestly I don't know what college you were going to. It's really not as bad as you make it out to be.

- Why does the joining of Golden Island bother you? It has nothing to do with the college at all in the first place. It's well out of the way from the college and there are plenty of other places for similar shops. Personally I think it's in an ideal place, but each to their own.

- I will admit that about 5 years the college was a mess, but even 2 years ago when you graduated the college had been refurbished somewhat. It's still got good facilities, and not to mention the new top notch building by the pitches.

- I seriously don't know where you're getting these lecturers from. Perhaps you weren't actually interested in the course you undertook? I was well taught in AIT, I think the fact that pracky's degree has held up well backs up that statement.

- What's wrong with AIT's facilities? It's got a good gym, good library, 10 very good dedicated PC labs. The AIT equipment was never an issue for me, nor anyone else I know of. Never had that issue in the library either.

- I do agree to a certain extent of the clubs/societies issue, but I've been to a few colleges, and everywhere has a few 'sleeper clubs'. It just happens because of either a) the people running it have no motivation/time, b) sign ups or attendance was lacklustre

- Housing accomodation around AIT varies from 45-75 a week, and apartment acommodation from 60-85. I lived in two different areas for 2 years and maybe the odd Wednesday night had its noise, but generally was ok.


I'm sorry if you ever had problems with the college, but I really don't think the college is as bad as its made out to be. As I've said, I been to a few colleges, with AIT I was enable to engage more with lecturers and understand subjects better due to the smaller class sizes. It was a great experience for me.

kob29

Ummm who had control of your cao form? Attended an open day? Picked AIT over other colleges in the country?

Smarmy

The new Engineering building where I am for 95% of my classes is just a fantastic building. Great facilities in there, the equipment is excellent, the computer labs are top range too. I'm not sure what the rest of the college is like as regards equipment etc.

I dont see anything wrong with the canteen at all either. The food is not 5 star hotel stuff but it does the job and fills a hole.

Excellent gym and soccer pitches too in AIT

Irishchick

You obviously went to some other AIT that none of the rest of us have heard of.:rolleyes:

boredatwork82

A.I.T. is savage and only getting better. New sports centre is going to be deadly.
I spent 4 years there, and I was heavily involved in lots of academic and sporting activities, and I would love to go back if I could afford it.

A society is only as good as the people in it.
Don't take it out on Athlone just because its not your cup of tea! You are in the minority I'd imagine.

Popple3

The facilities in AIT seem to be perfectly fine to me.
The new engineering building is brilliant (although could've done with a bigger canteen).

There are a few lecturers who seem to be still living in the past with their teaching style, but the vast majority do a great job.

Now, I will however admit, there's been some really stupid admin decisions in the college.
Like, we were one of the first colleges in Ireland to switch our student email system to Gmail, other colleges campaigned for it since, and yet they went and switched us to Windows live@edu this year, which is horrible. The spam filter seems to catch the important emails while all the spam the college sends me ends up in my inbox. Other decisions have been made, but a lot of the time, they do get sorted.

But overall, I love AIT. Any problems that have cropped up have been addressed, most lecturers are friendly, and will go out of their way to help you, and facilities have been perfect for me.

Conor_M1990

Popple3 wrote: »

The facilities in AIT seem to be perfectly fine to me.
The new engineering building is brilliant (although could've done with a bigger canteen).

There are a few lecturers who seem to be still living in the past with their teaching style, but the vast majority do a great job.

Now, I will however admit, there's been some really stupid admin decisions in the college.
Like, we were one of the first colleges in Ireland to switch our student email system to Gmail, other colleges campaigned for it since, and yet they went and switched us to Windows live@edu this year, which is horrible. The spam filter seems to catch the important emails while all the spam the college sends me ends up in my inbox. Other decisions have been made, but a lot of the time, they do get sorted.

But overall, I love AIT. Any problems that have cropped up have been addressed, most lecturers are friendly, and will go out of their way to help you, and facilities have been perfect for me.

Yea that was a pure stupid idea the g-mail system was way better the only thing I personally dont like myself is open access for some reason the printers never work

BlueNemo

Conor_M1990 wrote: »

Yea that was a pure stupid idea the g-mail system was way better the only thing I personally dont like myself is open access for some reason the printers never work

I'm constantly using those printers and I've never had a problem with them.

Conor_M1990

BlueNemo wrote: »

I'm constantly using those printers and I've never had a problem with them.

Was in there last Monday tried about 6 computers not one of them could print

BoB_BoT

was there a technician on the desk at the time? If so, be sure to give 'em a kick if you're having problems

cherryghost

General consensus is, it's A-okay

If you have an issue with the college and its services, I suggest contacting them. Locking this thread, I've seen similar threads on other forums spiral into a trolling exercise