Smurfit

knightro

Hi,

I am going to Michael Smurfit business school in Sept and am from the UK. I am trying to decide which halls of residence to live in on the Smurfit campus. Are the Proby ones worth the extra cost other than the fact they are en suite? Also is there much craic on the campus in terms of going out, playing sport and general socialising? Lastly I am doing the MSc in Supply Chain Management and was wondering how many hours a week lectures there is and how challenging the course is? I hope it is challenging..

Thank you for any assistance/advise you can offer.

[Jackass]

First of all, congratulations.

Smurfit is the finest business school on this island, by some distance, and the wage demands by its graduates are reflected by this.

The only part of your question I can address is regarding the campus. Living on campus anywhere you are bound to meet plenty of people, and whilst I don't think there is anything major situated on the campus, it is located in the village of blackrock, so a couple of minutes walk away is a nice busy village with plenty of good bars (from ye old Irish pub to tacky cocktail bar) and it has two quite large shopping centres for clothes / groceries etc., on a dual carriageway for easy access to the city and countryside if you are driving, and probably most importantly, is located on the DART line, which is the main mode of transport on the east coast of Dublin, with trains running fairly regularly into the city and out to picturesque parts of Dublin, both north and south, and can have you in the city centre in about 15 minutes. It's a very nice and safe area and is also served by many major bus routes.

You've also got the beach at your door step, for the unlikely event that you witness a sunny day whilst studying here.

I don't know how well you know Dublin, but it's a great city for culture, arts and socialising, and the city centre is bustling most days of the week with all sorts of activity.

For sport and socialising, smurfit has all the usual sports and social societies to join, so you can play rugby or football or whatever (and use the nearby UCD campus for sport, which also has plenty of bars etc for after session sessions) and any interest areas you might have where you'll meet similar minded students.

All in all, on that side of things, you've nothing to worry about. As with anything, the more involved you get, the more you'll get out of it and enjoy it.

Best of luck with it.

knightro

Thank you very very much for your response it's really helpful.



Anybody else!?

Blut2

Proby is significantly better craic than any of the other Blackrock residences (Noviate and Halls I think it is?). Proby tends to be mostly Irish students, 'foreign' students mostly get lumped into the other two. Which means all the predrinking and parties happen in Proby. Or used to a few years ago anyway. Glenomena would also be good for parties (probably better actually, the RAs in Proby are a bit sensitive) but its a fairly decent commute away from the Blackrock campus - a 5-10min drive or a long enough walk.

I've also heard bad stories about the shared kitchens in the halls, stolen food etc. I'd say Proby is deffo the best call.

Pandoras Twist

Definitely Proby. En suite is a big bonus, plus they're generally nicer.

knightro

Thank you! How much is proby a week
Pls on average? Cheers

knightro

I'm 29! Will I look out of place or is there other late late 20 s there?

Thanks

knightro

The other smurfit halls seem ti be the Blackrock residence. What are these like for social, Irish students mostly and standard?

Thanks

cmccarthy0470

Hi Knightro,

I've been looking into this for awhile. I'm 24 and from NYC and will be attending Smurfit for my MSc in Marketing, i've heard some pretty negative things about living on campus and better things about sharing off campus. If you're interested in sharing a place off campus let me know, i'll be coming in August/September and i'd be interested in meeting people in a similar situation as my own who want to live off campus that will be attending Smurfit and doing their masters. Let me know, just PM me if so!

Christina

CanadianMBA

I'll also be at smurfit this fall doing my MBA. i'm also hoping to get into Proby, although i wish i could apply for it now. I'm 27 and coming from Canada. The thing is, it should be more simplistic to live on campus, plus from everything I have read, it is really expensive to find off campus lodging in blackrock. Then again you guys might have heard something different than me.

Mark

mel_o_c

Hi,

Just wondering, are you doing the MSC in Marketing Practice?

cmccarthy0470

mel_o_c wrote: »

Hi,

Just wondering, are you doing the MSC in Marketing Practice?

Haven't fully heard back from the interview yet but I think I am doing Msc Marketing. You?

mel_o_c

cmccarthy0470 wrote: »

Haven't fully heard back from the interview yet but I think I am doing Msc Marketing.

I have applied for the Marketing Practice? How was your interview?
I have mine today week

Pandoras Twist

I feel so sorry for those doing marketing practice. Its evil by all accounts.

narwhalthe

Pandoras Twist wrote: »

I feel so sorry for those doing marketing practice. Its evil by all accounts.

Sorry for resurrecting this thread, but why is it evil by all acounts? I'm thinking of applying to it so just want to check.

Pandoras Twist

They have to wear suits every day and organise all the marketing events for UCD. Its basically a full time job that you have to pay them to do. Their course co-ordinator is rude and sexist, referring to girls as "blondey" and other generally unprofessional remarks. Their hours are ridiculous. Multiple other reasons.

Not sure what the employment rate is after. The people I know who did it have jobs now but I'm not sure about the rest of them. Its only a year so you can suck it up, but dont expect it to be enjoyable.

macsauce

Pandoras Twist wrote: »

They have to wear suits every day and organise all the marketing events for UCD. Its basically a full time job that you have to pay them to do. Their course co-ordinator is rude and sexist, referring to girls as "blondey" and other generally unprofessional remarks. Their hours are ridiculous. Multiple other reasons.

Not sure what the employment rate is after. The people I know who did it have jobs now but I'm not sure about the rest of them. Its only a year so you can suck it up, but dont expect it to be enjoyable.

Did you do this course? I would be careful to describe people as such on a public forum. I know both guys and girls in this course who have never complained.

The course has an incredibly high employment rate 95 - 100% and are in very high demand.

Pandoras Twist

No as I said above, I had friends on the course. I'm going by what they told me.

reshsald

Hey.. I have an offer for the MSC Finance course for the Sept 2013 intake.. I am Indian and was wondering if anyone could provide an insight about the jobs that Smurfit graduates can hope to find after the course.. any other feedback would be really really appreciated...

I have seen mixed feedback abt the college and the standard.. Considering the investment etc please advice if there would be a decent ROI...