What's it like to go to NUIG?

Lollipop95

Hey guys I have NUI as my first choice for next year and I'm doing arts hopefully. I'd just like to know what the university is like in general? Nice atmosphere,etc..I'd love if someone could tell me about the arts course. How many students roughly in the classes,easy to make friends?(none of my friends are going there so if I get the college I'm going to look into getting digs), timetable(is arts mon-fri?), lecturers and so on subjects wise I'd be probably doing English,social&political,psychology and legal studies. Also, would be great if someone could tell me about the societies/clubs offered at the college. Thanks in advance for any replies

India7

Hey ! I'm in the same boat ! I'm hoping to do arts in september in NUIG as well ! and I do not know anyone, but I did go up to see the university for the open day and it looked really nice, and I keep getting re-insured that the social life is class, and its really easy to make friends, so don't worry, you're not alone

Gatame

Galway is a great city and the university is back smack in the middle of it. If you stay in student accomodation it's impossible to not make friends. Social aspects of the college are very good and the first year isn't that academically challenging so you really aren't under that much pressure if you put in any sort of effort.

LoonyLovegood

It's fantastic. I love NUIG. I moved to Galway from Dublin and didn't know anyone. I've some fantastic friends, a great social life and Galway's a great city to live in

Nailz

Galway as a place is terrific, has a lovely localised feel to it, great night life, by far the safest "city" in Ireland, and the people are great.

The college inherits pretty much the same qualities as the town; nice and laid back, student life is fantastic and there's plenty of stuff to get up to. Academically you can achieve many things if you put the effort in and don't **** about the whole time.

I couldn't recommend NUIG more to any of my friends, it was my college of choice and I would rather go nowhere else in Ireland for 3rd level education.

Chuckieawrlaw

Im just after completing a degree in nuig .... Galway is a nice city ... the College is ok, nathin special ..can't imagine much jobs out of arts though to be honest .. Everyone I know that has done arts ends up "taking a year out" and has no real plans for a career

MadYaker

Ah sure it's grand.

pourquoi

MadYaker wrote: »

Ah sure it's grand.

This sums up Galway in its entirety.

Janeh9

I'm going for NUIG and I wanna do arts too! :P I also wanna do English and Psychology

as far as i know though you can't do Psychology and Legal Studies if you look through the prospectus it says the discourage it anyway

MagicianBF

Hi, I'm an arts student in NUIG, just finished third year. I major in Irish and Psychology, and do a minor in Theatre. I'm actually doing the BA Connect theatre course, so I'm doing four years instead of three years.

Galway is a lovely city. It's not as big as Dublin and everything you ever want is in walking (or biking) distance. It's got about 15,000 students, and if you join societies or clubs you'll be sure to make lots of friends. People are generally very friendly. Socs' and Clubs' days are especially good for this. Don't be afraid to sign up to anything and everything (membership numbers are how they get funded, and no you don't have to attend just because you joined).

While some people do look down on Arts (I had a science student stop talking to me in first year because I did arts), it's not really any better or worse than other courses. Sure, some people who are lazy do arts and do no work and get by, but if you want to do well it *will* take some work. Also it's hard to judge "arts" as your course will be so so different from other people depending on what you do (think philosophy and soc&pol vs psychology and archaeology).

There are a lot of opportunities in arts that you should make yourself aware of. You can't be over-prepared. And even if you think you know what two subjects you'll graduate with, you might actually end up changing. As a regular arts student, you will also have the option to extend your course to a four year degree by turning it into a BA International. Basically you add an extra year, and in third year you study abroad. You'll study either one or both of your subjects. If you study a language you'll be required to spend at least one semester in a country of that language.

There will also be a lot of summer opportunities such as summer courses and internships, which differ according to each subject/department.

TL;DR: You can either be a regular "arts student", or you can be someone who does two subjects in NUIG, and makes the most of their opportunities.

MagicianBF

Janeh9 wrote: »

I'm going for NUIG and I wanna do arts too! :P I also wanna do English and Psychology

as far as i know though you can't do Psychology and Legal Studies if you look through the prospectus it says the discourage it anyway

The subjects are separated into, I THINK, eight groups, based on timetables. You can only pick one from each group, so you might find you have to decide over two subjects you wanted to do. You have a month to decide though when you get in before you register your subjects, so don't worry too much. The same thing happens in second year when you drop down to two subjects.

There will also be a few other subjects you can't take together. For example, Psychology only take the top 100 students into second year (in my first year there were about 700 students). To get into second year you had to have an overall grade of about 64%, on your first sitting of exams (so if you have to repeat any of your exams, you're already out).

Because of this, you can only take one subject that has a cut off point - because if you took more than one and didn't make the cut for any of them, you mightn't have enough subject to even continue.

audi12

Arts is not a good degree to do i know three or four people who are doing or did it utterly useless their views on it easy to pass but no good when you finish and you have no career .. i did business in a IT excellent though course now going to do a masters in NUIG in Marketing

MagicianBF

I've already gotten most of my jobs thus far, simply through the fact that I study Irish and Theatre, without having even graduated. If a person really wants to do IT or Marketing - Great! More power to you! But if you Don't know what you want to do yet, or only have a vague idea, With arts you can at least start something and move on to specialise. When I graduate I can move onto masters in Irish, Irish language, teaching, Psychology, Health science, research.... I think a lot of the people who do arts give it a bad name, I don't think there's anything particularly bad about it.

audi12

Sorry i should have made i clear I did Business and specialized in to Marketing and am not going to do a masters in Marketing business has excellent career prospects but of course it is important that you like what you do.. Correct me if I am wrong but it is my understanding that even with a masters after Arts you still wont have a career as you are not specialized enough as Arts is so vague.

You may also correct me on this but the people I know who have done arts say it is so easy it is beyond a joke whereas in Business we were pushed to the edge with five projects on the go at one time and constant pressure

audi12

now going to do a masters in marketing i meant

MagicianBF

If a person does arts, and then moves on to a masters in, Psychiatry, for example, then at that point they would in fact be specialised enough to follow a career in psychiatry. The fact that you gained entry to a masters via an arts course, does not make you less "specialised" than anyone else doing that masters, or any less employable simply because your initial course was so "vague".

While I can't speak for the other 20 or so subjects available through arts in NUIG, I found Psychology pretty challenging. Especially considering the competition in gaining entry to second year Psychology. If we're boasting about workloads here, I can give you a list of the number of essays, lab reports, projects and reviews I've written until now, as well as comprehensive portfolio compiled of my experiences this past year studying in America and then rehearsing a play full time, studying Applied Developmental Psychology and attending and reviewing plays locally and nationally.

audi12

I take you point that i guess it depends on what subjects you choose some it appears is a lot easier that others the people i know said they had to do little or nothing to pass a few essays etc spent most of their time drinking and i am not talking about geniuses here just average intelligence ..
A couple of them are struggling with what to do after college so are doing teaching abroad as a career path it is accepted Arts is not great but if you motivation like you it appears it can offer some hope if you go on to do a masters ..

MagicianBF

With your undeniable knowledge of how all variations of arts courses operate through the experience of your knowledgeable friends, you'll no doubt appreciate my mentioning friends of mine who study medicine, and who *actually* have social lives, too.

While my choice of course may have left more options open to me than if I had simply done Denominated Psychology, I don't see that as a bad thing. So I now choose to spread my wealth of knowledge to prospective students who are also considering doing the same course as me.

If a course's worth were determined by how difficult its students advocated it to be, I trust your course would outrank mine.

audi12

What has the fact that people doing Medicine have a social life got to do with anything .. A course should be difficult as it prepares you for future progression career wise I could start a career without doing a Masters which is very difficult if you do arts as the people I know who did it learned sweet feck all so i cannot see how they would be ready for any career.

It may be different for you you may have choose different subjects and been tested more.

audi12

I only commented on here because I saw people saying they were coming to Galway to do arts and like so many that went before them I wonder are they aware of the reputation the course has or are they just happy to have got in to a course.

MagicianBF

Well seeing as you decided to argue my points about Arts in terms of Friends of yours who do it, I decided to in turn bring up friends of mine who Don't do arts.

And seeing as we're pointing out things that are irrelevant; the reason I replied to this post to begin with was to give someone a bit of information on the course I do. And your reason was to - what? Explain to them through your extensive knowledge that arts is a bad life-choice?

It should be pretty evident that just because you are telling me how much more difficult you find your course than I find mine, is not going to convince me to rethink my life choices.

You're right; arts courses can in fact vary, because they have a number of subject to choose from.

audi12

Do you not think that people considering doing arts should know that is maybe not the best in terms of obtaining a career..

I am not saying you cannot obtain a career from it by doing a masters after or claim to be an expert on it but I am sharing the views of people who have done arts or are currently doing it in NUIG

Janeh9

Anyone choosing a college course should have looked into the career opportunities or further education opportunities if needs be. Arts is not a bad course simply because it has a bad reputation.

starlit

audi12 wrote: »

now going to do a masters in marketing i meant

Ah cool I was looking into the Marketing Masters in NUIG and the ISM one. Which Marketing masters are you going to the do the practice one or the mainstream one?

I did Arts did an IT and Business course. Then did a hdip in computing gone down a different route since.

audi12

doovdela wrote: »

Ah cool I was looking into the Marketing Masters in NUIG and the ISM one. Which Marketing masters are you going to the do the practice one or the mainstream one?

I did Arts did an IT and Business course. Then did a hdip in computing gone down a different route since.

I am doing the Marketing Practice course I am confused how many courses have you done

starlit

audi12 wrote: »

I am doing the Marketing Practice course I am confused how many courses have you done

Oh about 5! I did a step by step as part of degree, two year cert, one year add on ordinary and one year add on honours degree. Did a hdip and recently another course but not a Masters.

Lostman1990

audi12 wrote: »

Sorry i should have made i clear I did Business and specialized in to Marketing and am not going to do a masters in Marketing business has excellent career prospects but of course it is important that you like what you do.. Correct me if I am wrong but it is my understanding that even with a masters after Arts you still wont have a career as you are not specialized enough as Arts is so vague.

You may also correct me on this but the people I know who have done arts say it is so easy it is beyond a joke whereas in Business we were pushed to the edge with five projects on the go at one time and constant pressure

Was it Commerce you completed? It is actually pretty straight forward. The projects are pretty straight forward too. Extremely easy course to pass. Marketing was probably the most straight forward stream in this too. Rivaled by the management stream.
I also know quite a few people who are doing Arts. Specifically psychology. They would be among the top performing students in their year now and they have a huge workload and massive career opportunities.
Though, it's all relative I suppose!!