Could any History/English/Politics students share their thoughts with me?

GOCathail

I am a sixth year student, and am torn between studying History Political Science or History and English as a BA. Could anyone please tell me what they think of theses courses - past experiences, comments on lecturers, the campus, and the like.
I would love to hear any stories/advice you have to help me decide which course to take. Thank you all very much.

I am reasonably distraught - I am totally torn between going to UCD or Trinity,
I also have no idea whether I should do History plus English or History and Political science. HELP?

Siuin

I'm doing English and history and would definitely recommend history over doing something like politics- it leaves you more options if you want to go into teaching afterwards. Also, having looked at politics myself I thought it looked really dull (unless you're very much into that kind of thing).

As for Trinity V UCD- much of a much really. You'd probably be better off taking practical concerns like finances and accommodation into account before making that decision.

Fergus_Nash

It depends on what you are interested in really. AS a politics and history student, with a great interest in all things political, I really enjoy politics. But if you want to enjoy it, then you have to like comparing political systems, reading political theorists (like Marx, Aristotle, JS Mill, Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau) because those are the key courses that you will have to do. Politics can seem dull and boring but it's not too hard a course to do well in, and there's not too much reading to do.

A lot of what you'll do is theoretical, you'll never debate how terrible the government is for example, but you'll know about Irish electoral results since 1922 and the history of the various departments. Other courses, like International Politics with Tobias Theiler (a scary but interesting half German guy) are really interesting.

I would say that if you are interested in debating at university politics will definitely help you, though that isn't a rule and I'd hope that doesn't become your deal breaker.

As for lecturers, some are good some are bad, like everywhere. Some are experts in their field but can't make their lecture interesting, others are excellent. I would advise you to take International Politics at some stage if you come to UCD, even if you don't take politics, just to have Tobias as a lecturer.

As for the campus, a lot of people don't like it. You are just one person among 25,000, and some people feel lost in the whole place. If you didn't make any of the open days, I'd say come into the university during next semester, and attend a few lectures. There won't be any attendance taken so don't worry about that. There's a timetable on the UCD website which will tell you what classes are on and where. Pretend that you are a student for the day and get a feel for the place. Do the same in Trinity. That, I would expect, will help you.

Politics is definitely hard if you have no interest in the subject, but if you like it, it's great. I hope I have helped and if I haven't, ask again.

Seanchai

GOCathail wrote: »

I am a sixth year student, and am torn between studying History Political Science or History and English as a BA. Could anyone please tell me what they think of theses courses - past experiences, comments on lecturers, the campus, and the like.
I would love to hear any stories/advice you have to help me decide which course to take. Thank you all very much.

I am reasonably distraught - I am totally torn between going to UCD or Trinity,
I also have no idea whether I should do History plus English or History and Political science. HELP?

For your own good, please do a serious subject - i.e. none of the above. The above are all classic waffler subjects which you could read up on in your leisure time. Seriously. Because they are waffle, there is an inordinate number of people doing them. That means more competition and thus more difficulty in securing a job. Keep your eye on a career, and never mind this misguided hippy bullshít about "following your heart". Yes, I get (and respect) that there are people who love these subjects, but a tiny, tiny number of such people will ever be in the league of the Declan Kiberd types of academia who are creative and perceptive enough to make a career out of them. Don't delude yourself about this, because there are far too many people in universities who do so already.

Siuin wrote: »

I'm doing English and history and would definitely recommend history over doing something like politics- it leaves you more options if you want to go into teaching afterwards.

In theory, because Politics is not a secondary school subject, this highly comparative observation is true. In reality, however, the most popular combination which trainee teacher students on the PDE (Postgraduate Diploma in Education) in UCD have every year is, you guessed it, History & English. Jobwise, that combination is a disaster zone. Drop over to the Teaching & Lecturing Forum for an idea of job prospects with those combinations. If you were thinking of teaching a smarter choice would be Irish, Maths, French, Spanish etc. They are tougher to do and therefore tend to frighten the average lazy-arsed waffler. This is, obviously, good news career-wise for somebody who has the motivation to take them on.

GOCathail

Seanchai wrote: »

For your own good, please do a serious subject - i.e. none of the above. The above are all classic waffler subjects which you could read up on in your leisure time. Seriously.

A serious subject? May I enquire as to what you studied? Because, no offence, you seem like a bit of a pretentious arsehole. I'm choosing subjects that I like, not something that I think will impress people like you, or subjects which will make it "easier" to get a job. If I'm getting a job, I want it to be in a field that I like. Which is History, English or Politics. I have interests in Science and Engineering and in honesty, I could get the points to do basically any of the aforementioned courses. BUT I LIKE ARTS, sorry to let you down there.

Seanchai wrote: »

a smarter choice would be Irish, Maths, French, Spanish etc. They are tougher to do and therefore tend to frighten the average lazy-arsed waffler. This is, obviously, good news career-wise for somebody who has the motivation to take them on.

"Lazy-arsed waffler"? Are you joking? My God, if a degree in the subjects you're championing will give me a miserably arrogant and, in honesty, ignorant way of looking at life and education - I think I'd rather not study something that I don't like.
Good lad, no need to reply - as I'm quite aware that it's rather difficult to type when your head is up your own arse.