Chemistry in DCU or UCD?

disssco

Hi, long story short basically I dropped out of DIT studying media due to a "personal crisis". Now having nearly overcome or rather started learning to live with said issue I want to get my head together.
I feel the best way to do this is to pay the late fee and get my CAO in by 1st May or whatever. I dont think another year of weed, boredom and unemployment is going to be good for me or leave me better off mentally or financially.

So as someone who has a passion for chemistry i have made the enlightened decision to choose between Chemistry in UCD and Chemical and Pharmeceutical sciences in DCU.

I would be a great help to me, and bear no small karmic reward either i'll wager, if students from each course could give me a description of -
1: Their college (facilities, atmosphere and overall college experience)
2: Their course (structure, subject choices, topics studied, quality of degree in terms of knowledge)
3. Topics studied in first year (this being the make or break it year for me really. Mad professor or strung out grotty flat dweller)

I realise students are busy people so just give me as much information as you can. Try to sell me your college the winner of which will fill my number 1 CAO choice.
I will be posting a duplicate of the thread in the UCD forum so I can compare opinions.
I look forward to some nice replies. Many thanks.

Gunslinger92

Well I'm a Common Entry Science student in DCU, I study the same modules as chemical and pharmaceutical do in first year!

You do biology, chemistry, physics and maths. Also there are labs for the first 3, once a week for chemistry and physics, once every fortnight for biology. The labs are 3 hours long.

I cant really tell you anything also about chemical and pharmaceutical, I can go into 2nd year of it next year but I have absolutely no intention of it I know that this year there are only 12 people in first year, but that'll go up as some common entry students will go into it.

As for DCU as a college, it's lovely Facilities are excellent, atmosphere is really friendly! I hope that helped somewhat..

Urizen

Hey Disssco. I'm a 3rd year Environmental Science student here, which is mostly chemistry, and I shared a good few lectures with the Chem & Pharm guys. Trust me, if you enjoy chemistry, not just wet chemistry but also the theory behind it, DCU is the place for you.

First off, the college is AWESOME. The general atmosphere is fairly laid back, there are deadly events on most of the time and our clubs & societies are, frankly, epic. You'd see them around frequently, up to the old antics. It's a lot more compact than UCD as well, you can walk anywhere on campus in less than 10 minutes, and that's if you're strolling. Beats the trek across other campuses any day. On top of that, we have always had a dedicated Student's Union, who make it their priority to help out students with whatever.

All sciences do a fairly similar course their first year, as Gunslinger said. Just covers all the basic sciences. The second year has some interestingly difficult modules (at least I thought so), but as long as you study properly it's grand.
Lecturers are, overall, great. I've never had a real problem with any of them myself.

DCU was the Irish Times University of the Year. That says a lot about quality here. We give out first rate degrees. Also, if studying a science here, we offer a work placement scheme called INTRA, which puts 3rd years into the work environment and gives them some valuable experience.
No doubt you'll get some more in depth answers later on, I just wanted to encourage you towards DCU. Honestly, I think it's the best university to be in.

That was fairly rambling. If you want clarification, feel free to ask.

Garseys

Hey disssco I'm a 3rd year Chemical & Pharmaceutical Science Student

Im gonna give you a response under your 3 points

1: college (facilities, atmosphere and overall college experience)
DCU is a pretty modern campus. The science building is also fairly new. The Labs are well looked after and the lecture halls are all modern. DCU has got great sports facilities, a gym, aswell as a pretty busy Student Bar :pac:

In terms of college experience and atmosphere, DCU is a place where you need to dive in to get the most out of the social aspect. The Societies are fantastic. Most of them run weekly events and have regular social nights aswell and the SU have weekly events on also. Toxic Tuesday in NuBar is also pretty damn good!

2:course (structure, subject choices, topics studied, quality of degree in terms of knowledge)
As Urizen and Gunslinger92 pointed out, it's a common first year with other Biology and Chemistry courses.
The second year is more specific to Chemistry, You'll cover Biochemistry,Organic,Inorganic,Thermodynamics & Kinetics,Spectroscopy(Theory and Practical) aswell as 3 Lab modules and a maths module.
3rd year is mainly prepped for INTRA(Internship for 6 months paid April-September) so the modules are more based around practical knowledge.
4th year is more specialised again with pure and pharma chemistry aspects.

in terms of choice, there isn't one. The course used to have 2 streams after 2nd year (Chemical & Pharmaceutical). The pure chemistry stream has been inactive for years so it was integrated into the Pharma one. It means theres no choice in modules sadly.

In terms of the quality of the degree, it's perfect if you want to go on to do QC/QA in labs or to do a postgrad. DCU is a tough university so the degree is pretty well recieved by employers.

3. Topics studied in first year (this being the make or break it year for me really. Mad professor or strung out grotty flat dweller)
I'm gonna give you a detailed one for this.:pac:
You've got...

Interdisiplinary Science (Group project based module combining Chem, Physics and Biology)
Introductory Chemistry(Physical, Organic, Titrimetry, and Group Chem)
Biology (Cell Biology and Cell Function, Genetics and Microbiology)
Physics for General Sciences(LC physics really)
Maths for Scientists(Differentiation, Integration and Matrices)
Then 3 lab modules, Chemistry, Biology and Physics which are year long.


Overall I enjoy the course, Some of my modules have made me want to pull my hair out a few times but I managed to get through them. The lecturers are fairly ok and theres a few mad scientist types in there, but overall they are really approachable and willing to sit down with you on any difficulty you are having.

p1akuw47h5r3it

Hi OP,

I also dropped out of college this year with the hope of going to DCU to do science . Now I'm not sure when you dropped out but just to let you know you may be liable for full tuition fees (for science you are looking at about 8000 euro p.a).

The amount you will have to pay depends on how many years/months you completed in DIT.

I just thought i would make you aware of this in case you didnt know