Arts in Maynooth or UCD?

TheFlayedMan

Well, I'm all over the place with the CAO, and I've temporarily settled on Secondary Teaching with English and History. I've narrowed it down to two places, Maynooth or UCD.

From the opening day and a few visits, I love UCD but I fear that it's too large for an Arts student, and perhaps I'll find it difficult to make new friends or what have you. Fall by the wayside, you know?

I'm aiming for around 500 points, so that shouldn't really be a factor in my decision here.

Could anybody offer me advice? Also, if this isn't suitable for its own topic, I apologise

HistoryKitty

Hello there First year Arts student in UCD here. Last year I was trying to figure out exactly what you're considering.

Okay so you're worried UCD is too big? Well I find it's massive but after 2 or 3 weeks you seem to see the same faces around the arts building and in your lectures. I've made a ton of friends but my subjects wouldn't have as big as numbers as yours (well one does). With your subjects, you will be in lecture halls that accommodate 500 people just a warning! But its really up to you to make friends Turn to your left/right/both sides and start talking to the people beside you. That's how I made a few of my friends I know plenty of people doing english/history and they've made a lot of friends so I wouldn't be worried bout that aspect.

I was also aiming for over 500 and got it so in a way I do regret not picking Maynooth for that scholarship but tbh I'm really happy in UCD and I wouldn't change a thing.
However, money is an important factor for college. Rent in Dublin is more expensive than in Maynooth and that scholarship would certainly help matters. Just keep it in mind.

This depends on where you are from but remember that Dublin is usually easier to get to with more buses/train services available.

UCD offers the BIG college experience while Maynooth offers a smaller community feeling in the college. It really depends on you as a person, I know plenty of people who go to Maynooth and feel UCD would be too big and impersonal but I know people in UCD who would find Maynooth too small for their own liking.

Talk to people you know who go to UCD/Maynooth. Its what I did last year and it really helped matters. I'm biased because I go to UCD really and I cant really make much comments on Maynooth. Also go to the Maynooth open day too and check it out

Hope something I said helped but that's what I was thinking last year when I was trying to make up my mind Don't hesitate to PM me if you want more info or what not.

Best of luck

Geo10

+1 on all the points made by HistoryKitty in the above post!

You also might want to consider what the course content of each subject is in each college as one may suit you better (i.e. what modules they are offering)
Here's UCD History and UCD English
Here's Maynooth Arts (you have to select what subject you want when you go into it)

You may also want to consider what subject combinations are allowed in both arts degrees as even though you're set on History and English now you could change your mind when you experience them in college! You might say "I never will change, I'm definite!" but that's what I said with my original arts subjects and I changed after a couple of weeks into my course! Just say you were considering maths as a possible alternative to history if you ended up not liking it- you can do maths and English in UCD but that combination isn't allowed in Maynooth. There are other combinations allowed in Maynooth that aren't in UCD too! Please give these subject bands consideration as I didn't really because I thought I was definite on my subjects in NUIM arts... only to want to change to German after 2 weeks to find that I couldn't combine it with geography (whereas I could have had in UCD)

If you have any question about history in Maynooth I'd be happy to answer (I'm not doing English sorry) There's about 240 in my history lectures but that'll be reduced in 2nd year with all the different options people will have then. You have small weekly tutorials though with about 15 others so you're in personal environments too (and I'm sure that's the same in UCD). I'd imagine there to be much larger numbers in English though as we nearly have 500 in geography and I'd say English would be similar to geography in numbers (but probably a bit less from what I hear from my friend who does English and geography)

ahnowbrowncow

Don't know much about Ucd but Maynooth is a great place, you'll have no problems making friends there, as a previous poster said, it's got more of a community feel to it than the other colleges.

But a piece of advice on secondary teaching, you know you will have to do a two year post grad course after your degree to become qualified? Also, english and history are the most popular subject choices among teachers so competition is far higher and getting a job will be difficult.

TheFlayedMan

Thanks for all the information! I'm definitely leaning towards Maynooth at this stage! Although the scholarship has gone up to a requirement of 525 this year... slightly out of my reach :P

I didn't know that history was one of the more popular choices among teachers. I'm planning on doing Irish as a third subject if I do decide on Maynooth, and then drop one at the end of year two. Eng & His would be my preferable choices, though. Also, I was under the impression that you could do a one year HDip in UCD...

spurious

English and History would be a crazy choice in today's world, unless you intend not to teach in Ireland.

Irish is always employable, particularly a high standard of Irish.

Very few people get teaching jobs (even 18 hour contracts) these days until their 10th year of teaching or so. Yes, you might get 8 hours a week spread over four days, but you're not going to go wild on that. Irish might help you to get more hours in a part-time contract earlier.

This situation is not going to change any time in the next ten years or so as there are thousands of teachers qualifying every year and waiting for whenever the magical jobs are going to appear.

Please research the job market if you are thinking of teaching.

ahnowbrowncow

TheFlayedMan wrote: »

Thanks for all the information! I'm definitely leaning towards Maynooth at this stage! Although the scholarship has gone up to a requirement of 525 this year... slightly out of my reach :P

I didn't know that history was one of the more popular choices among teachers. I'm planning on doing Irish as a third subject if I do decide on Maynooth, and then drop one at the end of year two. Eng & His would be my preferable choices, though. Also, I was under the impression that you could do a one year HDip in UCD...

You could do a 1 year hdip but unless I'm mistaken it's being increased to two. One of the factors if not the only being that there's too many new teachers coming out each year and they're trying to reduce the numbers.

Just look at Geo10s post, 240 in history and more in English and that's just in Nuim which is smaller than other Dublin colleges.

I don't mean to be so negative towards your choices but I would consider other subjects like maths and Irish or a different job route altogether.

TheFlayedMan

Well, that's depressing news :P
I really don't have a clue about what I want to do. I'm not sure my standard of Irish would be high enough. I tend to get As and Bs in tests, but I spend an awful amount of time learning answers rather than using my own Irish. Not that my level is poor, but I doubt I'd be able to do well in the paper one without having learnt phrases for the essay.

av8r10

Defo UCD

Seren_

I studied English in Maynooth through arts and it is awesome. The department are really helpful and the lecturers are generally fantastic. However, English at school and English at college are two totally different things - there is a lot of background theory studied at university and you tend to not focus on the texts as much, or sometimes in much more detail than you would be used to at LC level. Personally I really enjoyed learning the theory (basically how things like Marxism, feminism, race, sexuality, colonialism etc etc etc affect the way a text is written).

You can always switch subjects (at least I assume you can in UCD as well) if you end up not liking something. Maynooth is a fantastic college, but obviously won't have as much services and stuff as UCD due to it's smaller size. Try and get to the open days of each college and see what you think - it can really help with making a decision.

whiteandlight

I have to second the consideration of teaching. Please research teaching and be absolutely sure before you embark on this career. Speak to current part time teachers about the career.

There are few to no jobs in teaching at the moment and this situation is very unlikely to change in the short to medium term. There is massive oversupply in almost all subject areas but particularly English and history. You will find it very hard to get anything resembling a full time position with those subjects and remember that the permanent cosy job that is still talked about does not exist for new entrants. The reality is one year contracts (at best) that are on reduced hours and many many years before any kind of job security. You will likely not get paid for the summer at all for many years.


Having said all of that if teaching is your passion and you are going into the career with you eyes open to the realities it is a very rewarding career.

pppink

spurious wrote: »

Irish is always employable,

only if you want to teach though?!

SarahFinglas

Hi, I just want to offer a word of advice from an older perspective. I studied at NUIG, arts, with French and English as my main subjects. I then lived in France for six years, and taught out there from primary infant level to post graduate university level. I have a first class honours MA in French (I came top of my class) and am halfway through a PhD, having been invited to do it by the faculty, and having had a government scholarship awarded on the merit of my previous research and the quality of my application. I cannot find a job in this country. You need to think your options through and please be sensible and bear in mind future employment opportunities. For teaching in Ireland, they are worse than grim. You may get lucky and get to cover for maternity leave, but think about it..... You will never get a mortgage, never be able to buy your own home, never have security. If being free as a bird is your thing, great. If you are happy on the dole, great. If you are interested in travel, do English and in your HDip year make sure you choose the TEFL option as it will cost you a fortune to do it privately. You cannot teach English as a foreign language in this country without it, although in many others you can. Many of my friends have taken up good jobs in Saudi Arabia, China etc, so if you are eager to travel go for it by all means. America has opportunities for Irish teachers also, but the pay is rubbish, and you may need to invest in a bullet proof vest as we all know by now. Don't rush into anything. Choose the college that best suits you, enjoy your degree, and examine economic trends before embarking on any postgrad qualifications. Good luck!