Best Irish University For Engineering?

000chris000

Right well, like alot of Leaving Cert students - I'm in a bit of a dilemma as to CAO choices at the moment.
What I know for certain - I want to study Engineering.
What I dont know yet - which type, or which college.

For a while I thought perhaps Aeronautical would suit me best, and so I went about applying to colleges in England for such a course. I have an offer from Imperial, but from the sound of it - its a crap college socially. Sure you may be with the smartest people around, but I need the social life too!

So at the moment my three options are, UCC, UCD, and Trinity. Seeing as all three courses are now general for the first year ( the first two in Trinity ) what I basically want to know is which of these offers the best engineering degree in Ireland. Trinity has the reputation, but UCC offers work experience in some of its courses. UCD also has a brilliant reputation, and is supposed to be unreal socially.

So thats what I need - experiences,advice and opinions. Any would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks

asborhen

well judging from the fact that you received an offer from Imperial you sound like the sort of person who doesn't need to worry about the points for engineering.....fortunately points for engineering courses in Ireland have gone way down. I heard that the trinity and ucd courses were 425 points.
This may seemed biased coming from a ucd student but I have been here for two years now and I love it...social life is great and on par with the likes of trinity and UCC....when it all comes down to it there isn't much difference; it's what you make of it yourself and the effort that you put in.
I chose UCD because it offered Chemical as an option which was not the case in TCD. In UCC I would have to do it from year 1 which I wasn't too keen on. In terms of choice for engineering; UCD is unbeatable. There are so many paths that you can take that it would seem impossible not to find one you didn't like. Also UCD no offer a masters course for new first years which allows you to complete a 4 years bachelors degree or a 3 years engineering course in which you specialise after 1st year and graduate with a bachelors science degree and then carry on to complete a 2 years masters program in which you get a very nice degree from. Unfortunately this wasn't available for me
In terms of reputation there is very little between these colleges although UCD has much better engineering facilities than TCD or UCC and can therefore add more practicle elements than the others....I have friends in TCD who noted that their course was alot more theoretical than ours.

I hope this was of some use to you. Best of luck in the exams and on a side note I hope that you are doing either applied maths or honours physics because they put you at a bit of advantage in 1st year and it means you don't have to study as much :cool:

flash1080

Out of those three UCD is the best. CIT is where engineering is done in Cork but they don't have a general entry. When it comes to applying for jobs most companies don't care where your degree is from, they're interested in the person.

Noodleworm

Have you considered DCU engineering?

Also just wondering have you been researching what the course content is like? make sure its what you want.

Bogsnorkler

UL have an excellent Mech Eng dept i believe. And a lot of links to industry.

It is in Limerick though......:P

timmywex

Its all about preference i think!

Theyre all the same roughly, you could easily end up in mech eng and specalise further in aero then i guess. TCD is introducing a new fifth year masters program (for engineers ireland accredidation) and as part of this the second half of 4th year is an internship somewhere! Or thats what it looks like it will be at the moment!

Im in TCD engineering at the moment, send me a PM if theres anything specific you want or any more questions and ill get back to ya!

Daniel S

Bogsnorkler wrote: »

UL have an excellent Mech Eng dept i believe. And a lot of links to industry.

It is in Limerick though......:P

I'm going doing that next year :P 8 months work placement, would love to do it abroad (Switzerland if possible, I'd do it for free!).

Daniel S

000chris000 wrote: »

Right well, like alot of Leaving Cert students - I'm in a bit of a dilemma as to CAO choices at the moment.
What I know for certain - I want to study Engineering.
What I dont know yet - which type, or which college.

For a while I thought perhaps Aeronautical would suit me best, and so I went about applying to colleges in England for such a course. I have an offer from Imperial, but from the sound of it - its a crap college socially. Sure you may be with the smartest people around, but I need the social life too!

So at the moment my three options are, UCC, UCD, and Trinity. Seeing as all three courses are now general for the first year ( the first two in Trinity ) what I basically want to know is which of these offers the best engineering degree in Ireland. Trinity has the reputation, but UCC offers work experience in some of its courses. UCD also has a brilliant reputation, and is supposed to be unreal socially.

So thats what I need - experiences,advice and opinions. Any would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks

Aeronautical can be quite specific. My dad works in Shannon aerospace and he says go with a broad degree, then narrow down later.

000chris000

asborhen wrote: »

well judging from the fact that you received an offer from Imperial you sound like the sort of person who doesn't need to worry about the points for engineering.....fortunately points for engineering courses in Ireland have gone way down. I heard that the trinity and ucd courses were 425 points.
This may seemed biased coming from a ucd student but I have been here for two years now and I love it...social life is great and on par with the likes of trinity and UCC....when it all comes down to it there isn't much difference; it's what you make of it yourself and the effort that you put in.
I chose UCD because it offered Chemical as an option which was not the case in TCD. In UCC I would have to do it from year 1 which I wasn't too keen on. In terms of choice for engineering; UCD is unbeatable. There are so many paths that you can take that it would seem impossible not to find one you didn't like. Also UCD no offer a masters course for new first years which allows you to complete a 4 years bachelors degree or a 3 years engineering course in which you specialise after 1st year and graduate with a bachelors science degree and then carry on to complete a 2 years masters program in which you get a very nice degree from. Unfortunately this wasn't available for me
In terms of reputation there is very little between these colleges although UCD has much better engineering facilities than TCD or UCC and can therefore add more practicle elements than the others....I have friends in TCD who noted that their course was alot more theoretical than ours.

I hope this was of some use to you. Best of luck in the exams and on a side note I hope that you are doing either applied maths or honours physics because they put you at a bit of advantage in 1st year and it means you don't have to study as much :cool:

Seriously thanks a million for such detailed feedback! Luckily i suppose yes i should be able to get the points for any of them, and yup honoursmphysics maths and applied maths should help me out I suppose its between UCD and UCC really. Trinity seems to be all too snobby, and theory based for me. Do you get a chance to do work experience in our ucd course?

000chris000

mtb_kng wrote: »

I'm going doing that next year :P 8 months work placement, would love to do it abroad (Switzerland if possible, I'd do it for free!).

mtb_kng wrote: »

Aeronautical can be quite specific. My dad works in Shannon aerospace and he says go with a broad degree, then narrow down later.

Ya thats my thoughts aswel, everyones been telling me to keep it general, if I really want I cam branch off later. Thanks for asking ur dad that aswel

Conway7592

000chris000 wrote: »

Seriously thanks a million for such detailed feedback! Luckily i suppose yes i should be able to get the points for any of them, and yup honoursmphysics maths and applied maths should help me out I suppose its between UCD and UCC really. Trinity seems to be all too snobby, and theory based for me. Do you get a chance to do work experience in our ucd course?

It depends on which area you branch off in i think. If you're doing a Masters i think your 4th year has work experience in it

RegE

If you're looking for an engineering course with the most options at the end - Chemical and Process Engineering is the most broad; it has a bit of mech/elec plus chemical. You can go into the chemical and pharma industry, energy, food etc...

CIT/UCC/UCD are all good for theory but are slightly different - can't go far wrong. Perfect if you are good at chemistry as well as maths and physics. UCC has the best maths dept. and a longer placement, CIT are a bit more practical with respect to the job but its classroom type college versus going to lectures, UCD has more research opportunities.

There's biochemical and biotech opportunities as well as medical devices or any form of mass production and plant design. Also, any engineering degree shows you're good with numbers and problem solving so again you can go into any sector.

Note: A four year BE here is equivalent to an MEng in the UK so careful looking at the Aeronautical course in case it's a BEng rather than MEng.

ruskey!

qualifax says the trinity qualification is BAI (4 yrs) and that UCD is BE( in 4 yrs) or a BSc(3yrs) + ME (2years) any comments on the differences?

RegE

Four year BAI and BE are equivalent as far as I know, it means that when you're looking for chartership as an engineer later (after a few years work experience), you have sufficient academic achievements to qualify. A three year BSc is not sufficient but coupled with the ME it would be fine - just takes longer. I don't know how the ME compares to the MScEng in UCC at the masters level (that's the only irish one I'm familiar with). Anyway, this is my understanding but it's worth checking with the bodies that grant chartership such as the IEI (Ireland), or internationally, the IStructE, IMechE or IChemE etc etc as all courses should be accredited by their relevant international organisation, ensuring the degree you are signing up for is internationally recognised at the level you want.

boggerbarbie

if you want to do civil engineering, the course in Carlow IT is the best in the country, UCD diehards will try tell you otherwise but Carlow IT has the top notch lecturers for civil engineering. The course in Dublin IT is similar but the college apparantly puts an unnatural amount of pressure on the students in the course.