best science/maths course in ireland

smurphy11

hi, i was just wondering what is the best course available in ireland for someone interested in maths, physics and possibly chemistry.
also points will not be a problem

sganyfx

Go to the UK if you have high grades, Imperial, Cambridge, UCL, etc destroy any University in Ireland at those.

finality

I'm hoping to go to Edinburgh, really great university and no fees, fúck 9000 a year. If you're going to go to the uk Scotland is a good option right now.

but I presume Trinity is the best in Ireland?

spurious

How long is a piece of string?

How would you define the 'best' course?
The most difficult to get into?
The smallest? The biggest?
The one most people go on to further study from?
The one the people with the highest points do?
The one most people get work from?

pajero12

finality wrote: »

but I presume Trinity is the best in Ireland?

How so?

bscm

pajero12 wrote: »

How so?

Our Science course is pretty good (UCD and other colleges will beg to differ and everyone's version of 'best' is different). We have the largest Physics department in Ireland as far as I know, and contributors and graduates include Ernest Walton, G. J. Stoney (responsible for naming the electron), Schrodinger and Fitzgerald.

I'm enjoying Physics at the moment here, most of my lecturers are pretty good, campus is of course amazing, as are the atmosphere and people. Labs are about on par with other colleges, in that 'discovery' is a key element and you won't have detailed lab manuals as Biology and Chemistry have (of course they could do some serious damage with some of their labs, whereas the most dangerous thing in a JF Physics lab is the small piece of radioactive material, handled by demonstrators, for the Geiger Counter). The Maths modules are good, anyone with HL Maths should be well able for them. We cover Linear Algebra and Calculus in 1st Year, lots of matrices and integration with a good deal of recognisable content from the LC course.

I can't comment on Chemistry as I don't do it myself.

smurphy11

bscm wrote: »

Our Science course is pretty good (UCD and other colleges will beg to differ and everyone's version of 'best' is different). We have the largest Physics department in Ireland as far as I know, and contributors and graduates include Ernest Walton, G. J. Stoney (responsible for naming the electron), Schrodinger and Fitzgerald.

I'm enjoying Physics at the moment here, most of my lecturers are pretty good, campus is of course amazing, as are the atmosphere and people. Labs are about on par with other colleges, in that 'discovery' is a key element and you won't have detailed lab manuals as Biology and Chemistry have (of course they could do some serious damage with some of their labs, whereas the most dangerous thing in a JF Physics lab is the small piece of radioactive material, handled by demonstrators, for the Geiger Counter). The Maths modules are good, anyone with HL Maths should be well able for them. We cover Linear Algebra and Calculus in 1st Year, lots of matrices and integration with a good deal of recognisable content from the LC course.

I can't comment on Chemistry as I don't do it myself.

what course are you doing? theoretical physics i assume.

ride-the-spiral

If you're interesting in both physics and maths, theoretical physics in Trinity is a better course than general science I think. Science is of course better if you don't want to do physics and maths exclusively, or if you want to have a bit more option for your overall degree. In TP, you still take 1/3 physics for the first two years and your modules are pretty much the same as the physics students(TP do special relativity earlier, and chaos in second year) ,your other 2/3 are all part of maths and you share these modules with the maths students. You get a better grounding in Mechanics (which science only do for one semester in first year, TP for both), calculus and linear algebra, and there may be a programming course too (We're the first year with TP having it.) All of these modules are taught at a higher level in the school of maths than as a part of science, as a HB3 in maths is required. Also TP is good as it's not hard at all to switch from TP to either general science or maths, we've had people do both, and also from science to TP.

Of course this is assuming you only want to do maths and physics. If you want to do chemistry as well, then NPCAM could be a good option, which is pretty similar to general science, although I don't know much about the chemistry side of things there.

I also can't make any claim for any other university, I have no idea how good their science degrees are. All I can say is that the reason I chose not to go to UCD was because I'm not a big fan of the elective system in place there, and didn't go to NUI Maynooth because their TP course is only three years.

bscm

smurphy11 wrote: »

what course are you doing? theoretical physics i assume.

I'm in general entry Science, aiming to do a degree in Astrophysics. Currently I'm doing Physics, Maths and Geology. Last semester I did Physics, Maths and Geography (as Geology is only available in Semester 2 for JF students).

KKBL

ride-the-spiral wrote: »

If you're interesting in both physics and maths, theoretical physics in Trinity is a better course than general science I think. Science is of course better if you don't want to do physics and maths exclusively, or if you want to have a bit more option for your overall degree. In TP, you still take 1/3 physics for the first two years and your modules are pretty much the same as the physics students(TP do special relativity earlier, and chaos in second year) ,your other 2/3 are all part of maths and you share these modules with the maths students. You get a better grounding in Mechanics (which science only do for one semester in first year, TP for both), calculus and linear algebra, and there may be a programming course too (We're the first year with TP having it.) All of these modules are taught at a higher level in the school of maths than as a part of science, as a HB3 in maths is required. Also TP is good as it's not hard at all to switch from TP to either general science or maths, we've had people do both, and also from science to TP.

Of course this is assuming you only want to do maths and physics. If you want to do chemistry as well, then NPCAM could be a good option, which is pretty similar to general science, although I don't know much about the chemistry side of things there.

I also can't make any claim for any other university, I have no idea how good their science degrees are. All I can say is that the reason I chose not to go to UCD was because I'm not a big fan of the elective system in place there, and didn't go to NUI Maynooth because their TP course is only three years.

Why not? Most consider that a major advanatge? There is no such scheme in TCD.

bscm

KKBL wrote: »

Why not? Most consider that a major advanatge? There is no such scheme in TCD.

We have Broad Curriculum in 3rd Year. But most people who chose a Science course tend not to want to write essays, which are a large part of the module and exam structure of the UCD elective system.

ride-the-spiral

KKBL wrote: »

Why not? Most consider that a major advanatge? There is no such scheme in TCD.

I think it can dilute your end degree somewhat, of course this all depends on what type of person you are. I understand the attraction and benefit of doing broader modules, but I find in theoretical physics anyway that 60 credits just ends up not being enough. Throughout my course there are a lot of modules that I'd like to be part of the course (I'm missing out on the second part of Real Analysis for example) but there just isn't enough time in the week. Credits which would be allocated for electives would have to come from what I think of as core courses, and even if I had the option of taking them as electives, the fact that they're not compulsory might affect future courses for which they're prerequsites, if that makes sense...

Although there are more reasons I didn't go to UCD anyway so I didn't research this incredibly thoroughly.:pac:

KKBL

ride-the-spiral wrote: »

I think it can dilute your end degree somewhat, of course this all depends on what type of person you are. I understand the attraction and benefit of doing broader modules, but I find in theoretical physics anyway that 60 credits just ends up not being enough. Throughout my course there are a lot of modules that I'd like to be part of the course (I'm missing out on the second part of Real Analysis for example) but there just isn't enough time in the week. Credits which would be allocated for electives would have to come from what I think of as core courses, and even if I had the option of taking them as electives, the fact that they're not compulsory might affect future courses for which they're prerequsites, if that makes sense...

Although there are more reasons I didn't go to UCD anyway so I didn't research this incredibly thoroughly.:pac:

Oh I see what you mean But your elective modules can be chosen from any subject ares so you can just choose extra modules from science if you want

bscm wrote: »

We have Broad Curriculum in 3rd Year. But most people who chose a Science course tend not to want to write essays, which are a large part of the module and exam structure of the UCD elective system.

But Broad Curriculum only gives you one elective module (5 credits) and only in 3rd year. At the moment I'm trying to pick between UCD and TCD for my science course but I keep reading about employers looking for people with a foreign language and this is attracting my to UCD because I would have an opportunity to learn spanish, german or even chinese over the 4 years of my course and hopefully become fluent. If I could do that in Trinity then I would go there, but its not available.

ride-the-spiral

KKBL wrote: »

Oh I see what you mean But your elective modules can be chosen from any subject ares so you can just choose extra modules from science if you want

But then future modules might have to be structured around the fact that not everybody will have taken a certain elective module. The course will have to compensate for the range of modules which people may have chosen.

Oh and although Trinity don't do electives, there are evening courses in languages which can be taken at a range of levels. I know of two people in my year who are taking German, but obviously it's not as intensive or comprehensive as a full module.

bscm

KKBL wrote: »

]But Broad Curriculum only gives you one elective module (5 credits) and only in 3rd year. At the moment I'm trying to pick between UCD and TCD for my science course but I keep reading about employers looking for people with a foreign language and this is attracting my to UCD because I would have an opportunity to learn spanish, german or even chinese over the 4 years of my course and hopefully become fluent. If I could do that in Trinity then I would go there, but its not available.

The majority of people I know in UCD who do electives are doing electives like Art History and Film Studies. Also the elective system in UCD is a first-come-first-serve basis and a lot of my friends are stuck with electives they didn't want to do because they missed out on their favourites by minutes or couldn't/didn't log in to change. Learning a language to decent fluency requires a lot of hours, more than are allocated in most elective systems. Also with a Science course, you will be doing 20-22 hours a week, which eats up a lot of your time. Trying to fit studying in, on top of lab reports and assignments, is a struggle for me at the moment, and that's without regular essays and reading which would come with a language module.