First Year DN500 - Afraid I wont get my subjects?

ThatGuy93

Hi Guys,

I'm an incoming first year to Arts and on my CAO I put down Economics and Irish. But I'm afraid I now wont get Politics and International Relations as I did not specify it on my CAO, but I've now realised I will want to take this subject to degree level instead of Irish.

So basically I'm just wondering will UCD simply supply as many places for each subject for which there is demand or do they have a rigid set number of places for each subject every year?

Thanks alot in advance

[Jackass]

They have alloted positions for those who are studying the course, automatically get their place. So, Economics for example, students get a place on all the Economics modules (as 3 of the first year subjects are core, and they are automatically put in the 4th although can drop it if they want as it's not core, iirc) and once all the students who are studying that course get their automatically alloted places, other students can take it as an elective on a first come, first served basis, whilst places remain.

Don't worry though, you don't have to declare your joint major / minor subjects until you go in to second year, and I'm not a politics student and I studied 4 of the modules in first year, there are many, so just take as many of them as you can, speak to the programmes office and get advice, but if you do well in those subjects, my understanding is that you can switch to that as a major and drop Irish or whatever, as long as you took the core Politics / International relations modules in 1st year.

A lot of people end up changing direction during first year though, as things don't always work out as planned.

Maldesu

There is a rule of progression applied, but for the most part its not really mentioned.

In first year, you must have at least 10 credits completed in your subject to progress to the next year. In some subjects, there are core modules that must be completed or you cannot proceed to the next year.
However, in the case of Politics there are no core, so you could actually do two of them and still progress to the next year, but if you actually want to do the subject well, you might want to do a little more than the bare minimum.

Here is a link to the subjects on offer.

adnil64

Does anyone know how to add more than 1 DN500 course to the CAO as we're trying to do it online but it won't let us more than one?
Please help!

Maldesu

DN500 is only seen as one choice. You will either have to pick the two subjects you want the most, or leave it blank and hope you can get places in what you want.
I would recommend that you pick your two favourite choices and then try choose the others that you want when you register.
What subjects were you after?

adnil64

Thanks for such a quick reply.
My first choice would be French and Sociology in UCD, but failing that I would like French and Spanish or Spanish and Sociology, in UCD. It's confusing as the points don't appear to be exactly the same for each subject choice. So I was afraid that if I didn't get French and Sociology, due perhaps to a high demand, that I might not be considered for any other Joint BA combination such as, French and Spanish, if you see what I mean?
Thanks for any further clarification.

Maldesu

If you are accepted into DN500, your in. Min point in 2012 was 350. Individual languages have different points, but they are still different programs. So it doesn't matter if you put down Spanish, French or Socio, just put down your first preference. If you are accepted into the course selecting these subjects should get you a place in them.
Additionally, in first year arts with DN500, there will be other modules you have to take and if there are places available in Spanish, you should be able to take them.

adnil64

Thank you - that's really helpful!

Canard

adnil64 wrote: »

Thanks for such a quick reply.
My first choice would be French and Sociology in UCD, but failing that I would like French and Spanish or Spanish and Sociology, in UCD. It's confusing as the points don't appear to be exactly the same for each subject choice. So I was afraid that if I didn't get French and Sociology, due perhaps to a high demand, that I might not be considered for any other Joint BA combination such as, French and Spanish, if you see what I mean?
Thanks for any further clarification.

Why not put down Arts -> International French -> International Spanish? The points for French were 330 and I think Spanish was similar, so slightly lower than arts itself. I'm almost sure the only difference is that you can't drop the language at all and have to do an Erasmus year with it, but that's all, so you could do sociology too and even a third subject if you want.