Physics with Astronomy and Space Science

siobhaanx

Thinking about doing this course next year but I've heard that some of the lecturers are bad and the astronomy side is actually quite boring?

Can anyone who is doing or has done this course tell me honestly what it's like. I'm not doing physics for my leaving cert but I'm really interested in space and I enjoy maths

Also what sort of jobs have people got with this course? I'd hate to finish this course and end up with working in finance or IT.

Thanks

seXmym0nkey

I'm in my third year at the moment doing physics with astronomy and space science. It's simply an experimental physics degree with a minor in astrophysics. There has only been one astro class out of twelve each year so far and I'm pretty sure fourth year is the same.

If you are interested in studying space science make sure you can handle the physics and the maths because that's what the majority of the program is about! Also know that there is a very high workload for physics students.

All UCD first year science students can pick modules from physics, chemistry, biology, geology and maths anyway so if you have an interest in other disciplines in science you can trial them all and then decide what you ultimatley want to study. There are classes in the first semester that can bring you up to speed with the leaving cert standard for each area too if you haven't done them before.

Whether or not the astronomy classes are boring is a matter of opinion but they're not going to be like the discovery channel documentaries! I found the first year astro module to be very interesting. It was part of the core learning for the astro degree but also open to students from other disciplines as UCD students get the chance to pick two classes per year outside their area of study, so it wasn't very mathematical. In second and third year the astro classes were a bit different and while they had interesting bits they also have a lot mathematics and other tedious topics.

If you love to watch 'Stephen Hawkings Universe ' and those kinds of shows, that doesn't necessarily mean you'll enjoy studying astrophysics! However, if you would like to learn how the universe works in depth, in a scientific and mathematical way, then maybe it is for you! Of course you should also be prepared to be learning about general physics for most of you degree including mechanics, electromagnetism, quantum mecahnics, nuclear physics etc. and also learning lots of maths. Since you haven't studied physics before, I'd suggest you look into it before you make this choice unless there are other areas of science you would be interested in studying at UCD in case you hated the physics course!

Be very careful about this decision! It's not necessarily going to determine the rest of your life but it can be pretty awful if you wind up in a course you don't enjoy, I've seen it happen to friends and peers. Don't just go to college because it's the next logical step after school, because your parents/careers teacher/society expect you to or beacause all your mates are going. You really need to be self motivated to succeed in third level education so you need a legitimate reason for pursuing a particular area of study. You have to want to be their. It an be expensive to leave college and start again if you're unhappy with your course. Personaly, I think more people should take time out between school and college to find out what they want from life!

Can't really say much about jobs myself, I haven't thought that far ahead!

Hope that helps! If you've got any other questions about the course ask away but I don't use boards often so I might be slow to reply.

siobhaanx

seXmym0nkey wrote: »

I'm in my third year at the moment doing physics with astronomy and space science. It's simply an experimental physics degree with a minor in astrophysics. There has only been one astro class out of twelve each year so far and I'm pretty sure fourth year is the same.

If you are interested in studying space science make sure you can handle the physics and the maths because that's what the majority of the program is about! Also know that there is a very high workload for physics students.

All UCD first year science students can pick modules from physics, chemistry, biology, geology and maths anyway so if you have an interest in other disciplines in science you can trial them all and then decide what you ultimatley want to study. There are classes in the first semester that can bring you up to speed with the leaving cert standard for each area too if you haven't done them before.

Whether or not the astronomy classes are boring is a matter of opinion but they're not going to be like the discovery channel documentaries! I found the first year astro module to be very interesting. It was part of the core learning for the astro degree but also open to students from other disciplines as UCD students get the chance to pick two classes per year outside their area of study, so it wasn't very mathematical. In second and third year the astro classes were a bit different and while they had interesting bits they also have a lot mathematics and other tedious topics.

If you love to watch 'Stephen Hawkings Universe ' and those kinds of shows, that doesn't necessarily mean you'll enjoy studying astrophysics! However, if you would like to learn how the universe works in depth, in a scientific and mathematical way, then maybe it is for you! Of course you should also be prepared to be learning about general physics for most of you degree including mechanics, electromagnetism, quantum mecahnics, nuclear physics etc. and also learning lots of maths. Since you haven't studied physics before, I'd suggest you look into it before you make this choice unless there are other areas of science you would be interested in studying at UCD in case you hated the physics course!

Be very careful about this decision! It's not necessarily going to determine the rest of your life but it can be pretty awful if you wind up in a course you don't enjoy, I've seen it happen to friends and peers. Don't just go to college because it's the next logical step after school, because your parents/careers teacher/society expect you to or beacause all your mates are going. You really need to be self motivated to succeed in third level education so you need a legitimate reason for pursuing a particular area of study. You have to want to be their. It an be expensive to leave college and start again if you're unhappy with your course. Personaly, I think more people should take time out between school and college to find out what they want from life!

Can't really say much about jobs myself, I haven't thought that far ahead!

Hope that helps! If you've got any other questions about the course ask away but I don't use boards often so I might be slow to reply.

Thanks so much for this! Would you say the physics is interesting and what type of maths is in the course? As a whole do you like the course and do you have any idea at all what you'll do when you finish?

seXmym0nkey

No problem! Sorry I'm only getting back to you now. To be honest I'm not enjoying the course and I'm thinking of leaving at the end of this (3rd) year since we have the option of graduating early with a degree in general science instead of doing 4th year. I don't think I'd really factor that into your decision though as I'm a minority and there are obviously plenty of people in my year who are enjoying it. I don't have any particular problem with the course and I do think it is interesting but I'm just not motivted enough for the workload! I was still able to get by for the first two years but it's proving quite difficult this year, our lab work in particular is very autonomous and self-motivated.

There's all sorts of maths really, in first year you're required to do linear algerbra and calculus as well as two applied maths classes (or one if you've done it for leaving cert) and then there are other optional maths and statistics classes. Later on you'll do more detailed calculus, more applied maths and more specific topics e.g. fourier analysis. The physics classes you do will be using these maths for physics applications in differennt ways so it's hard to narrow it down exactly. If you go here: http://www.ucd.ie/students/course_search.htm you can see all the modules (classes) for science and it has details on what's covered and stuff.

I wish I had a better answer for whether I like the course and what I wanted to do after but I'm not really the right person to ask! Most of the people in my course are trying to get internships for this summer in research and lots of the fourth years I know are applying for postgrad courses for next year. There are definatley opportunities for pursuing reasearch and academics so I don't see any reason why you'd end up in finance or something if you didn't want to!