Engineering-what's the course like?

augmented reality

What's the engineering course like? Are the lecturers good? Do people doing the course enjoy it?

Is there an entrance exam for those who don't get the HC3 in maths in the LC?

Thanks!

ciano1

I don't do engineering but the newly built engineering building is bloody amazing inside.. World class facility!

There is an entrance exam as far as I know

Croppy Bhoy

It's not rocket science

gant0

Just finished my first year of undenominated engineering and first there is an entrance exam but I would strongly advice to really considor if you want to do it if you arent good at maths.The lecturers are ok we've a few very good ones but a few more very bad ones.The timetable sucks especially in first semester and like ive said before maths is very hard.Overall though it's a pretty good course but don't expect too much as you'll be stuck doing subjects you really don't wanna do as it's an undenominated degree.New engineering building is a massive plus though.

Doctor_Socks

Depends on what course you want to do, good few options in Galway. I did electronic and computer a few years ago, enjoyed the course, only downside was it was in the sh!thole known as nuns island. You'll enjoy the new engineering building though which is ridiculously class!

As for the course, don't get to concerned if you're not great at maths, while it does play a big part in the course syllabus there is also a lot of tutorials to help you through it. I know from my experience that in the real world maths means sweet f**k all to a graduate in my area.

padraig91

Dont do it!!

donnacha1!

Engineering in college is though! no matter what type it is,
Long hours, large projects for very little marks,
It starts out ok in first year, but gets progressively harder and harder,
From my experience, it took over my life, i was going to college at 8 in the mourning and leaving when ever they kicked me out, usually 10 at night and I still had to do more crap at home just to keep up.
In fourth year I had to hand up an assignment every two days.
Advice to you is do not do it.

ZRelation

padraig91 wrote: »

Dont do it!!

Care to elaborate on why not?

donnacha1! wrote: »

Engineering in college is though! no matter what type it is,
Long hours, large projects for very little marks,
It starts out ok in first year, but gets progressively harder and harder,
From my experience, it took over my life, i was going to college at 8 in the mourning and leaving when ever they kicked me out, usually 10 at night and I still had to do more crap at home just to keep up.
In fourth year I had to hand up an assignment every two days.
Advice to you is do not do it.

Yeah the course is hard and time consuming, its not exactly contructive adivisng someone who may genuinely interested in engineering to not do it based on that though is it.

iii Stevo iii

donnacha1! wrote: »

Engineering in college is though! no matter what type it is,
Long hours, large projects for very little marks,
It starts out ok in first year, but gets progressively harder and harder,
From my experience, it took over my life, i was going to college at 8 in the mourning and leaving when ever they kicked me out, usually 10 at night and I still had to do more crap at home just to keep up.
In fourth year I had to hand up an assignment every two days.
Advice to you is do not do it.

It doesn't take over everyone's life. I did Mech Eng. I wouldn't recommend doing it but I know people who never went to lectures, barely submitted assignments, never seen in college come out with Honours Degrees...... you will need to be a good slogger and/or intelligent for this though.

IMO if you've a brain and are happy with a 2.1 a few hours a day(2-4) work is
all that's needed.

scotty_irish

agreed. half a brain and a bit of hard work (none of this 12 hour day crap) and you'll be fine. Quality not quantity is the one people seem to f*ck up on. the people who do well often do much less work. they're not any smarter but just smarter about how they study. but if you can't meet the maths requirement (on ability not other circumstances) I would seriously consider whether you will be able for the course as every subject pretty much is maths with some slant on it.

apoeiguq3094y

Engineering in general is not an easy way to piss away four years. When you finish have a professional qualification, so they don't hand them out for just turning up. You can coast through handy enough and get 2.2 or maybe a 2.1, but if you work hard you should be able to get a 1.1.

If you want to get a job when you finish.. they will probably expect you to work a full day, so if you're not ready to make that kind of a commitment, you probably wouldn't get a good engineering job anyway.

I graduated nearly 3 years ago, and anyone in my class who put in a bit of work during the course has a good job, the ones that didn't have mediocre jobs. Its not all about the result you get at the end. Any interviewer will be able to find out fairly quickly if you were asleep for the 4 years you spent in college. It annoys me to see people giving advice to people doing the LC that they should only to few lectures etc.... just because they want to piss away an opportunity doesn't mean you have to.

I'm over halfway through a PhD that I was funded for on the basis of my hard work. I spent a year in a university in california and have been to many international conferences. Friends that I graduated with have worked their way up in various companies here and abroad. I think thats a nice reward for the long hours I worked.

Same as any other course.. you reap what you sow.

To answer the OP's q.... I can only speak for mech/ biomed eng.
The lecturers are fairly good. (they're not all nice people, but they know their stuff)
The hours are longer than other courses, but if you keep on top of things you'll have plenty of free time.
I enjoyed it, and about 70% of my class did too.
The maths is hard. if you did pass and maybe feel you were able for honours then you might get on ok, but the maths is hard, not impossible though. You do a lot of calculus in 1st and second year. ( and even though it might not seem relevant at the time you will use it all later in college/your career)

apoeiguq3094y

the new building is class by the way.... they have some photos & facts on their facebook page.. https://www.facebook.com/engnuigalway

(not a huge fan of fb for this kind of thing, but its not anywhere else on the web afaik)

Doctor_Socks

Don't know what people are talking about regards the long hours in 4th year, go to lectures during the year ( even if you don't, most lecturers upload their notes ) and hand up assignments on time and you can easily manage everything.

Only people i've seen study ridiculously long hours were some civil engineers in my year and that was mainly cause they would leave the reading room every 10 minutes for a fag and talk sh!t for an hour to the rest of their class, then complain that they were in studying from 8 in the morning to 10 at night and are still struggling

theintern

It's kind of important that the original poster specifies what type of Engineering he wants to do.

gant0 wrote: »

....
you'll be stuck doing subjects you really don't wanna do as it's an undenominated degree
....

I don't really know what you're on about here, there's no undenominated degree, you pick your denomination after first year.

Previous advice is quite good, if you really struggle with maths, you'll find things difficult in first and second year. After that it depends on the type of engineering you do, some rely more on maths than others do.

I can really only speak for the Electronics department, but there are some excellent lecturers here and a couple of alright ones. The facilities, labs and lab staff though are all excellent.

gant0

I mean in first year.Like i was forced to do chemistry and electrical and mechanical all of which I hated and do not need to know for second year!!

LAVADUDE

From what I heard the course is basically summed up in this picture
http://i.imgur.com/XL8NF.jpg

Fisher Calhoun

LAVADUDE wrote: »

From what I heard the course is basically summed up in this picture
http://i.imgur.com/XL8NF.jpg

I love it! So true too.

wonderer123

If its what you want to do then go for it!! but engineering isn't easy!! esp. when you get to 3rd and 4th yr