Changing courses to maths...UCC or TCD??

Xtina!!

Hey all!

Im not sure if I should have posted this in the “Pure maths as a degree forum”, but anyways...

Im in need of some help and advice. Ive just finished first year Medicine in UCC. While I have loved every second of the course so far, I am again looking towards my future and I have finally decided in the last few weeks or so that I would rather pursue my love for maths.

I put in a CAO application last February and put down Mathematical Sciences UCC as my first choice, for obvious reasons, Im in UCC already, friends, familiarity, I live only an hour and a half away etc....I have done so much research into the various maths courses in the past four years or so...however, I am now worried if I should have put down TCD Mathematics first.

In UCC, after first year, we have to pick one of the following four streams:
1) Financial Maths and Actuarial Science
2) Mathematical Sciences
3) Mathematics and Physics
4) Applied Mathematics and Physics

This decision has to be made after first year, which seems like such a short space of time for people to decide what they want to do. Im not sure myself, I wouldn’t rule out actuary or anything to do with finance but I wouldn’t say its my aspiration at the moment. I want to keep my options open...for meteorology, medical physics, something maybe in neuroscience (I heard TCD offered this as a module), engineering etc...I just want options!

Also, I never did physics in school, and I have heard its incredibly difficult in college. I therefore feel wary to commit myself to stream 3 or 4. Stream 1 is too focused and stream 2, Im not sure...

But in TCD, I have written to maths students and they have said they have so many options to vary their degree throughout the four years. The finance option isn’t there like ucc but I heard there are stats modules to go from there. It seems like a more generous degree in terms of giving students options and variability throughout the four years, compared to after first year with ucc.

I was told they often have vacancies in Trinity Mathematics after offers go out. I have a lot of emailing to do to clarify this and a lot of my questions...

But I just wanted to post here in the meantime, would TCD be a better degree in the long run? Or have I been misinformed and UCC is just as good a degree in terms of broad career options? Ive been thrown in the deep end here in the last few days, the degree I will end up getting is the most important thing at the end of the day, not the university and friends etc...

Sorry for the long post, but I would really appreciate any comments? I need to get my course right this time round.

Fremen

If you want to be a pure mathematician one day, my gut feeling is that TCD is a better option. That said, there are no major gaps in the UCC courses apart from the lack of number theory.

It's not clear to me that TCD has more options. They list their maths, physics and stats courses all on the same page, whereas UCC don't.

Don't worry too much about restricting your choices. Just do what you like, get good grades, then think about specialising at postgraduate level. Good maths graduates have a lot of options for postgrad courses.

Xtina!! wrote: »

This decision has to be made after first year, which seems like such a short space of time for people to decide what they want to do. Im not sure myself, I wouldn’t rule out actuary or anything to do with finance but I wouldn’t say its my aspiration at the moment. I want to keep my options open...for meteorology, medical physics, something maybe in neuroscience (I heard TCD offered this as a module), engineering etc...I just want options!

Then take any course with the word "analysis" in the title

LeixlipRed

Also, most maths departments will accomodate you if you wish to take a mix of modules. I know in Maynooth it's possible to mix and match modules outside of the regular programme structures. You're not stuck in one stream as such!

Xtina!!

Thanks for the replies!

When I mean mix of modules...for example I was told by a friend in TCD maths that you have to make a choice in second year to do a year long module in either Advanced Mechanics or Probability and Theoretical Statistics, and whichever one you choose affects what you study in your final two years, pre-requisites for further modules in other words. But if you choose one in second year, you have the option to do the other one in third year. TCD also has a module in Mathematical Nueroscience which is something Id be interested in. I dont think UCC has this, but of course Ill keep postgrad in mind!

Id probably want to study either stream 3 or 4 but of course I dont have an idea at this stage. Whatever stream I choose Id want a bit of pure maths, applied maths, stats (for finance) and physics (which is the one Im worried about). The tcd website gives a lot more info than the ucc one! I really hope anyway Ill be able to mix and match modules, I want to do a bit of everything, not just for first year!

rjt

There's a possibility that the maths neuroscience course won't run again, so keep that in mind.

The maths dept in TCD are quite flexible anyway, as you said you can do quite a few stats courses (in the final two years you can spend half your time on stats if you want to), and there's programming and a teacher training course. They also allow 10 credits (so one sixth of your courses per year) to be in something like philosophy or a broad curriculum introduction course to something (like law or film studies).

One of the drawbacks is that with such a variety it is unbalanced in terms of course difficulty and grading. Some of those courses are graded like arts subjects, so you'll never get more than 80% (and more realistically something like 60%). Some courses are just a lot more difficult than others (usually some of the pure maths ones). So although you're doing the same degree as 30 other people your, you're all being marked on different scales depending on your courses, so your grade at the end can be fairly misrepresentative! This adds some pressure to pick the "easy" courses instead of the ones you're interested in, which is a bit of a shame

Fremen

It's worth remarking that at PhD application level, any interviewer worth their salt will be able to figure out whether you picked the easy subjects or not. Not so sure about HR drones in industry though.

I wouldn't let the presence or absence of a single module influence your choice a whole lot. As long as your university has a decent library, you can pick stuff up on your own.

Get in touch with the undergrad faculty administrator at both colleges if you have questions. They're usually pretty helpful.