Your degree...Good & Bad

everdead.ie

Final year BSc. IT Course has changed a lot since I started but
First year was great coasted through the year with ease programming was especially easy.

Second year wasmuch tougher the amount of work I had to put in compared to first year was crazy but it was grand again programming and Software Engineering was great some tougher subjects though. Maths physics was tough. This year made a Chat client in Java Group project first group to ever complete the project.

Third year Software Engineering and programming was great made a Bookstore/shop inventory and till system in Java. Had one lecturer I couldn't understand which made his subject really hard and the software Engineering exam was tough. Went on a 6 month placement then which was fine.

Fourth year was tough everyone is burnt out and we haven't even started our exams we did individual projects I mad an IPhone app which was cool then a bunch of group projects which were tough but great for bumping up your grade before the exams.

All in all very happy with my course although FYP burnt everyone out.
Heading to New York in June for a year which should be good fortunately java and c are the same in every country

theintern

TheCosmicFrog wrote: »

B.Sc. Information Technology - 2nd Year

Meh.

Once described to me as "maths, maths and more maths with some computers thrown in so nobody gets suspicious". While it's certainly true in some aspects, it's probably a bit of an unfair description. Far too much emphasis is placed on knowing mathematics. We're lumped into algebra, calculus and physics modules with science and engineering students, where about 80% of each module is completely irrelevant to Information Technology.

There isn't nearly enough programming covered in the first two years. There's only two lectures a week in 2nd Year, both of which are on the same day. There's also not enough computing fundamentals. What we get is the 2 straight hours one day a week, learning about hugely important (and genuinely exciting) aspects of computing, such as the inner workings of CPUs, memory, I/O devices, etc.

Most of us are left resentful at the proportion of our study spent studying maths and other sh1te which we didn't think we were signing up for. We came to learn and study about computers, software and hardware, not fourier series and confidence intervals.

2nd Year was much worse than 1st Year though. 1st Year was quite fun. And to be fair, I've been told 3rd and 4th Year are much better and far more applied. Subjects covered are things like AI, networks and application development.

Would I recommend the course? Probably. It's not the worst. But the quantity and spread of maths topics is frustrating. And 2nd Year is crap.



Die :pac:

The reason they have you doing loads of maths is because they're trying to train you to be a Computer Scientist instead of a code monkey. There's a difference between a programmer and a computer scientist, a level 7 course will teach you programming, level 8's usually try to teach computer science.

I have a friend interviewing at the moment for a job with a well known game company, and part of the interview process is a straight out maths exam (linear algebra).

The problem I think is, people don't see much of the application of some of the more complex pure maths until they either start working or do a graduate level course, which is frustrating as it seems as though the maths is useless until then.

The applicability of Maths Physics however, is certainly questionable.

At the end of the day though, you're the one who chose to do IT/CS instead of the much more awesome Computer Engineering..

B.Eng Electronic & Computer Engineering

Good:
Plenty of jobs to be had at the moment, practical work is good, projects are fun, vibe in the department is good. Most lecturers are helpful and understanding. New engineering building next year.

Bad:
Some tough courses mathematically. Long hours in 2nd year, heavy workload.

All in all, I'd recommend it. You learn the whole lot, from the silicon that makes chips all the way up to high level programming, learning circuit building, circuit design, electromagnetics, signals and communication, communication networks and operating systems on the way. Plus you get to build robots..

mr_november

whiteman19 wrote: »

Real analysis was brutal for me...complex analysis is easier imo. it's bit more application (doing out integrals/differentials) though i missed about a month of first semester due to illness so found it harder to catch up...no notes online really made that difficult

Yeah I thought complex analysis was easier as well...until i got 10% in that second midterm!! :o A lot of work to be done in the next week or so!!

Ar aon nós...

My course: Arts
1st yr: Gaeilge: Loved Irish for the Leaving Cert because I had a legend of a teacher. Found first year Gaeilge ridiculously boring though. Really didn't enjoy it. Sound lecturers but in first year when you're just one out of a class of over 300 you don't get to know them well in 1st year.

Maths (Honours): Enjoyed maths for the Leaving Cert even though I was never great at it. 3rd level is completely different though. Much more conceptual and which I probably didn't enjoy it as much. Once you get your head around dome of the ideas it's not too bad. What I found great was that you can get great results in Maths compared to other subjects, which can really bring up your year's average!!:D:D

History: Have to say, out of the four modules throughout the year I only really found one very interesting. The lecturer we had for the 18th century Ireland module was just excellent! (Not sure if I can name names) Best lecturer I've had in any subject so far i reckon! Other than him though, I found the rest a bit dull although not me not having much interest in what they were teaching probably influenced that!

Geography: Took Geography in first year having not done it since I got a C in the Junior Cert. Human geography was absolute torture. Didn't like the lecturers either tbh. Physical Geography I found fairly interesting though. Sounder lecturers as well.

After first year I kept on Maths and Gaeilge for my degree, as I had planned even before I started 1st year.

Maths (Honours): Was allowed to keep on honours maths so I did! Out of my modules, Real Analysis was tough, Discrete Maths was easy but boring, Probability was enjoyable:eek::D , Complex Analysis is tough enough, Statistics isn't as bad as I previously though it was, Linear Algebra is practical work mixed with some concepts. Some lecturers I found sound, aome interesting and others were eh, not so great.

Gaeilge: Very glad I kept Gaeilge on. I actually enjoy it this year! More of a class atmosphere this year with the smaller class. It's a tough subject though...big workload! One thing I don't like about Gaeilge is the structure or the course. We have 3 modules. One module Continuous Assesment and grammer etc. But the the other two modules are divided into three different submodules each. We have some of these submodules (one-third of module) being examined by 2000-2500 word essays which is fairly tough! (One essay we got was supposed to be 3000 words but we got it reduced!) On the whole though, the lecturers are sound, the tutors are dead on too. Definitely glad I kept up Gaeilge!!:D:D

That was an essay in itself!! Maybe I went into a bit too much detail but I'm sure as hell not goin back deleting stuff at his stage! :cool:

TheCosmicFrog

theintern wrote: »

The reason they have you doing loads of maths is because they're trying to train you to be a Computer Scientist instead of a code monkey. There's a difference between a programmer and a computer scientist, a level 7 course will teach you programming, level 8's usually try to teach computer science.

I have a friend interviewing at the moment for a job with a well known game company, and part of the interview process is a straight out maths exam (linear algebra).

The problem I think is, people don't see much of the application of some of the more complex pure maths until they either start working or do a graduate level course, which is frustrating as it seems as though the maths is useless until then.

All great points, thanks for sharing your insights!

At the end of the day though, you're the one who chose to do IT/CS instead of the much more awesome Computer Engineering..

Physics isn't really my cup of tea, which is effectively what a lot of Comp & Elec is. Same with maths.

...also I didn't get the points :P

RolandIRL

mr_november wrote: »

Yeah I thought complex analysis was easier as well...until i got 10% in that second midterm!! :o A lot of work to be done in the next week or so!!

i think everyone did bad in the second midterm...very few high marks that i could see. thought i did better but sure what can you do? i'd say it's going to be my hardest exam...(and no, cosmic frog, that spot's not reserved for maths physics :P)

MrSnuffleupagus

2nd Arts here

Doing I.T. and Economics. The former is going grand but I cannot stand the latter. Took economics as a result of a coin toss in first year (literally.) and it turned out I was good at it, decided to keep it on but it was only this year I realised I freaking hate the subject. Out of the 6 modules I took I (basically) avoided 4 of them, and of the two I found vaguely interesting I got 42% in one and the other is pretty irrelevant to the rest of my course

Thing is I'm not sure if I should drop out and start a different course or just stick it out for the final year. Thoughts?

Croppy Bhoy

MrSnuffleupagus wrote: »

2nd Arts here

Doing I.T. and Economics. The former is going grand but I cannot stand the latter. Took economics as a result of a coin toss in first year (literally.) and it turned out I was good at it, decided to keep it on but it was only this year I realised I freaking hate the subject. Out of the 6 modules I took I (basically) avoided 4 of them, and of the two I found vaguely interesting I got 42% in one and the other is pretty irrelevant to the rest of my course

Thing is I'm not sure if I should drop out and start a different course or just stick it out for the final year. Thoughts?

Info on 2nd Economics please! Do you get to choose your modules? What ones did/could you pick?

Raging_Ninja

Croppy Bhoy wrote: »

Info on 2nd Economics please! Do you get to choose your modules? What ones did/could you pick?

You have two compulsory modules and one optional module in each semester.

The compulsories in first semester are microeconomics (builds on what you learned in first year) and quantitative methods in economics (maths - mainly quadratic equations and the like, fairly straightforward).

Second semester compulsories are Macroeconomics (not like first year, IS/LM models, a lot of other stuff like that, more difficult but still straightforward) and an econometrics-type module in which you perform statistical analyses and the likes using the program SPSS (a large chunk of the marks going for this is a project you do while in the course).

For first semester the optional I chose was Economics of the Welfare State which is kind of interesting. A fairly good chunk of the marks go for assignments (~40% or something). The exam can be difficult but do the work and you should be fine.

For the life of me I can't remember what I did in second semester.

Final year is where the action is at though. In second semester the three modules are optional.

4k

Raging_Ninja wrote: »

... and an econometrics-type module in which you perform statistical analyses and the likes using the program SPSS (a large chunk of the marks going for this is a project you do while in the course).

It's not Econometrics, it's basic stats, and the project was worth 8%.

Just sayin

Raging_Ninja

4k wrote: »

It's not Econometrics, it's basic stats, and the project was worth 8%.

Just sayin

I found out the name of the module, was Research Methods in Economics. We did regression analyses, tests for heteroscedasticity and the like, so it was basically econometrics. The project was something like 30-40%. However, that was last year, what they are doing this year may be different.

Croppy Bhoy

Jesus that sounds terrible boring.

I'm really interested in the socio-political side of economics, less so in the "what can we do to bleed the consumer dry of all money they have" side. Even less so in maths, which everything seems to boil down to.

Then again, my only other options for second year are Legal Science (which I think would be too much seeing as I don't really want to do anything with Law) or Philosophy (which I doubt would be very helpful as a degree).

4k

Raging_Ninja wrote: »

I found out the name of the module, was Research Methods in Economics. We did regression analyses, tests for heteroscedasticity and the like, so it was basically econometrics. The project was something like 30-40%. However, that was last year, what they are doing this year may be different.

oops sorry, i misread and thought you were in second year this year. I'm embarrassed now.

Raging_Ninja

Croppy Bhoy wrote: »

Jesus that sounds terrible boring.

I'm really interested in the socio-political side of economics, less so in the "what can we do to bleed the consumer dry of all money they have" side. Even less so in maths, which everything seems to boil down to.

Its like any other subject really. Some of it is interesting, some of it isn't.

I found macroeconomics to be more interesting than micro in second year, with Terry McDonough's module being the best. In final year, you can do more of the stuff you seem to be into in second semester, such as Public Economics, Development Economics and History of Economic Thought.

4k wrote: »

oops sorry, i misread and thought you were in second year this year. I'm embarrassed now.

All good bro.

Badger2009

Civil Engineering:

Sorry no time to post any detail. Too many projects, tutorials, labs etc......


(Yes, I'm a former whinging engineering student!)