arts or computer science

Barrt2

i am interested in both courses but cant decide which one to do for next year can someone give me pointers and info about the courses from their own experience?

UpTheSlashers

What subjects were you thinking of for arts?

Barrt2

english history German, cant decide a 4th
2nd year then history and english

Barrt2

Barrt2 wrote: »

english history German, cant decide a 4th
2nd year then history and english

Honestly i'd pick arts, computer science is supposed to be BRUTAL. like a horrible course.

Its the best course in the world if you love all the science subjects, and are maaaaaad into maths:)

If you fit into that then go for it, but if not, STAY WELL AWAY

Best of luck

Jayo_M

The CS course isn't as bad as most make out. I'm rubbish at maths and sciences and finished up last week without any major difficulty (I did fail first year, but that had nothing to do with the difficulty of the course :-p). Plus, the course has changed so much over the last few years, so its very different now to the course that gained the reputation of being really tough. I think most peoples difficulties with CS is that it's so different than anything you would have done before that it might take awhile before everything starts to click.

Plus, if you want a job from your degree, go with Computer Science. The industry is absolutely booming.

x43r0

I'd agree with everything Jayo said.


The course is not as difficult as it once was and the maths thing is a total myth. There's feckall maths needed for the course. It's logic thats needed. The kind of person who is good at logical things like sudoku and other puzzles would have a strong aptitude for CS.

It also a course where you don't need top marks to get a good job. I finished last year with a 2:2 degree (50% average) and i'm starting work in a investment bank in London in six weeks on frightening money.

I would say go with Computer Science but only if you have a good work ethic and some interest in computers and how they work

jreanor

I am a first year CS student and I love the course.... practically no maths or science as suggested above. But people with not much interest in computers are struggling...you do have to put the work in.

That said..no-one can tell you whats best for you....only you can decide.

UpTheSlashers

Barrt2 wrote: »

english history German, cant decide a 4th
2nd year then history and english

History is a good choice, good department and lecturers.

closeline

Barrt2 wrote: »

english history German, cant decide a 4th
2nd year then history and english

What are you into...Celtic Civ is awful...if you are into mythical stories and the likes you might enjoy it..cu chulainn etc...politics and history are decent enough.

Barrt2

i was doing arts, to be a secondary school teacher?

Byron85

Barrt2 wrote: »

i was doing arts, to be a secondary school teacher?

Not necessarily, although a lot of people pick Arts for that reason. An Arts degree is as broad or narrow as you choose it to be. I'd consider my choices, Sociology and Psychology, narrow as I only have a certain amount of options to choose from relative to someone who chose English and History for example. Don't think it's a "handy degree" as others tend to suggest. First year isn't too taxing but i'm just after finishing second year and the work load is immense.

Reacher Creature on here is just after finishing third year and he'll tell you the same thing.

Barrt2

So is this cased based alot on maths? as in if i'm doing pass maaths now for the leaving is that good enough? :P

Manach

As a mature student, I'd mention that at present the IT sector has a reasonably good jobs market at present, though that is always subject to peaks and throughs. Re: Maths, I always did fairly poorly in maths, but I found the CS courses not too math heavy.

Barrt2

Manach wrote: »

As a mature student, I'd mention that at present the IT sector has a reasonably good jobs market at present, though that is always subject to peaks and throughs. Re: Maths, I always did fairly poorly in maths, but I found the CS courses not too math heavy.

I think i will take this course so provided i get the points on it.
just have more interest in this i think and i will work harder to do good in it whereas in arts i would've been too laid back

ReacherCreature

Byron85 wrote: »

Not necessarily, although a lot of people pick Arts for that reason. An Arts degree is as broad or narrow as you choose it to be. I'd consider my choices, Sociology and Psychology, narrow as I only have a certain amount of options to choose from relative to someone who chose English and History for example. Don't think it's a "handy degree" as others tend to suggest. First year isn't too taxing but i'm just after finishing second year and the work load is immense.

Reacher Creature on here is just after finishing third year and he'll tell you the same thing.

Just to re-echo Byron's point. You pick what you want to do and you can choose the path you want to study. It's great like that.

But the workload is very heavy. There's a lot of assessment necessary and reading is in abundance. Then you've your exams which can tot up the difficulty. It is far from being "handy". It's a tough degree and I'll argue to the ends of the earth with someone who goes against that.

Also OP, a lot of work is necessary if you want to extract the most out of your degree whatever the choice. No plain-sailing in that case whatsoever.

metalfest

jreanor wrote: »

I am a first year CS student and I love the course.... practically no maths or science as suggested above. But people with not much interest in computers are struggling...you do have to put the work in.

That said..no-one can tell you whats best for you....only you can decide.

hey james what's up :P results are out!

You can always do the computer science module in arts....

Herb Powell

metalfest wrote: »

hey james what's up :P results are out!

You can always do the computer science module in arts....

Now what's the story with this? This is what I've (kind of) settled on, because it was very difficult to decide Arts or Computer Science, but I decided I wanted slightly more emphasis on languages (not computer languages ). I'm going to presume this option does not offer the same scope as straight-up computer science?

metalfest

Herb Powell wrote: »

Now what's the story with this? This is what I've (kind of) settled on, because it was very difficult to decide Arts or Computer Science, but I decided I wanted slightly more emphasis on languages (not computer languages ). I'm going to presume this option does not offer the same scope as straight-up computer science?

Not really, you do html, css, but it's slow and not very difficult i think
it was very popular this year

Also: My friend did arts with CS last year, and he's contemplating doing straight CS now I think

JohnyDarko

Herb Powell wrote: »

Now what's the story with this? This is what I've (kind of) settled on, because it was very difficult to decide Arts or Computer Science, but I decided I wanted slightly more emphasis on languages (not computer languages ). I'm going to presume this option does not offer the same scope as straight-up computer science?

They offer Computer Science & Chinese and Computer Science & French as 'full courses' now along with CS & Economics (as far as I know the credit split is 30/30) and I'm not sure, but in my first year at least they offered Italian and German too, but I'm not sure if they have made it into the same level.

Computer Science is great, and will definitely enable you to rest easy knowing that you'd be extremely well placed to get a graduate job compared to doing Arts with CS if you wanted to go that route, but the course itself is pretty tough (and has the highest failure rate in UCC so I'm told) but if you put even a modicum of effort in you'll do grand.

deRanged

JohnyDarko wrote: »

... , but the course itself is pretty tough (and has the highest failure rate in UCC so I'm told) but if you put even a modicum of effort in you'll do grand.

it's really not that difficult. failure rates are more to do with the low points to get into the course (imo).
like you said, a bit of work and you'd be fine.

Herb Powell

deRanged wrote: »

it's really not that difficult. failure rates are more to do with the low points to get into the course (imo).
like you said, a bit of work and you'd be fine.

and I would imagine the amount of people who don't actually know what computer science involves