Business : limerick VS UCD ?!

ManonRiv

Hi guys !
I am a future business student ( finger crossed for that ! ) wishing to apply to either limerick uni or UCD . I was wondering what was the best place to study business . I have heard UCD was much more prestigious than limerick but there is no intership in the international commerce degree in UCD ( this would be my first choice ) which is worrying me ! ( lots employers nowadays are appealed by people with experiences )
Any advices ?!

haro124

ManonRiv wrote: »

Hi guys !
I am a future business student ( finger crossed for that ! ) wishing to apply to either limerick uni or UCD . I was wondering what was the best place to study business . I have heard UCD was much more prestigious than limerick but there is no intership in the international commerce degree in UCD ( this would be my first choice ) which is worrying me ! ( lots employers nowadays are appealed by people with experiences )
Any advices ?!

Commerce international in UCD has a year abroad. Also UCD definitely has more recognition overseas

ManonRiv

Thank you! I hope i'll get enough point for UCD so !

Packet Of Gravy

UL has an Erasmus year too. UL has the work placement while UCD doesn't.

Nearly all business courses now have internships to give students practical experience. UL has good links so you can get a placement with a company with a good reputation. It means when you walk out with your degree you're actually ready for the world of work and you'll have a solid reference. Nowadays businesses don't just look for business students who can handle the academic side of things, they want well rounded individuals.

You can do an erasmus in Quinn too, and they've recently started an internship scheme, though it involves applying and interviewing with companies, no guarantees. http://www.ucd.ie/quinn/courses/bcomm/page3title,181611,en.html

Kiltennel

If you want to pursue Commerce International there's nothing stopping you from applying to the range of internship schemes on offer every summer assuming you've a good CV. In terms of recognition, UCD is a target schools for front office roles in many of the leading tech firms, investment banks, law firms, and consulting firms. The same can't be said for UL. If you plan on staying within Ireland there's not a major difference between the two but if you want to go abroad you'll want the more reputable university on your CV and be in a university where companies recruit for foreign roles. (i.e. UK based roles)

If you choose to study regular Commerce there's the option to apply to the year long internship scheme and a semester long erasmus. As long as you get decent results in first year, you'll more than likely get an offer for both. I know of several people with 2.2s in their results up to the point of applications who got offers on the year long scheme. Firms involved in the year long include the Big 4 Accountancy firms (PwC, Deloitte, EY, KPMG), trading firm SIG, investment banks Goldman Sachs & Morgan Stanley, prop trading firm SIG, tech firms including LinkedIn, Skype, Google, Microsoft & Salesforce, and then other big firms such as Proctor & Gamble, Accenture, and Barclays. I'm not sure if the same are involved in UL so would be something to investigate. There's more firms getting involved every year so there's more places becoming available.

Packet Of Gravy

In UCD the internships are only for Commerce students, not Commerce International. The internships with Commerce last a few months and you still get the Erasmus Year in places like Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, China, Canada and Europe.

With the horizons electives programme you can take language modules in the ordinary Commerce programme. Another advantage of plain commerce is that it's only 3 years instead of 4.

How important is the language to you OP? Apparently Commerce International is a good deal more intensive than ordinary Commerce. Which language is it? You'd want to be getting an A in the LC or at least a good B.

ManonRiv

Packet Of Gravy wrote: »

In UCD the internships are only for Commerce students, not Commerce International. The internships with Commerce last a few months and you still get the Erasmus Year in places like Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, China, Canada and Europe.

With the horizons electives programme you can take language modules in the ordinary Commerce programme. Another advantage of plain commerce is that it's only 3 years instead of 4.

How important is the language to you OP? Apparently Commerce International is a good deal more intensive than ordinary Commerce. Which language is it? You'd want to be getting an A in the LC or at least a good B.

I am planning to study spanish and chinese if i can go into commerce international . I have already been studying spanish for 7 years at school so my level is pretty good . I also speak fluently french and english and thus i thought taking up chinese would boost my cv ! I actually LOVE learning new languages, it is really exciting !

Packet Of Gravy

OP, fair play on having such a good level in Spanish and fluent French. Since you're sorted for languages and you're keen on the work placement I'd say go for plain Commerce in UCD and take as many Spanish modules as you can. The work placement will probably stand more to you and the fluent French could mean nabbing an awesome place like Google or Microsoft, which'd make your CV really stand out!

Don't bother going for the 'Chinese Studies'. There's a reason it's called 'Chinese Studies', not just Chinese. They'll just give you loads of lectures on Chinese history and culture without enough focus on the language. All Chinese university departments are fairly new but in UCD you can't even get an arts or translation degree in Chinese, unlike NUIM, UCC and DCU.

The FSI estimates that it takes 600 hours to learn either French or Spanish but 2200 for Chinese! http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikibooks:Language_Learning_Difficulty_for_English_Speakers

Kiltennel

I'd second Packet of Gravy's point on Chinese. For the European languages near fluency is expected at the end of the degree, in contrast with Chinese where it is more a knowledge of the language and culture. I have several friends who have done Commerce International, both European languages and Chinese and the difference in the language capabilities between the two is massive. It's not a negative reflection on the students or UCD, it's just a completely different language and achieving fluency by the end of the 4 years is next to impossible. For example, those who start any of the European languages from scratch (can't for French) will be expected to have a good enough hold of the language by the end of their second year that they'll study their business modules through the host country language on their erasmus. For the Chinese students, they spend half the year studying Chinese language, and then the other half of the year studying business modules through English as they don't have a sufficient grasp of Chinese to study the modules through Chinese while on their erasmus.

If you have fluent French and prior knowledge of Spanish you should excel in Commerce International no problem if you specialise in Spanish, Chinese can be a lot more difficult. From a recruitment point of view, fluency in 2 European languages will be very helpful considering plenty of firms have their EMEA HQs in Dublin.

ManonRiv

Thank youuu you both i think i'll put commerce on the first position on the CAO and commerce international second ! Hope i'll get enough points and that i wont fail maths , it is not that i am bad at maths but i dont study enough for it and i could achieve better grades than i do ! :S

haro124

They've really changed Chinese a lot in the last few years- Commerce ad Chibese Studeies no longer exists, it's just part of Commerce International so you only do language as a core, a reading and writing and a listening and speaking module per semester. Any of the culture modules are optional but if you're going to do Chinese for four years you definitely should do one or two. The other languages you tend to do one compulsory language module per semester and then have a list of modules to pick from. A good few people apply for internships from the course, but these are during the summer unlike Commerce which can be the full year. If you want you can PM me if you want to know anything else! Good luck!

ManonRiv

Thank you very much i also wanted to ask, if i get into commerce international, would it be easy for me to find a summer intership?!

Kiltennel

It's really down to you. It's never "easy" to find an internship, but if you get good grades, get involved in extracurriculars and make use of your time in UCD instead of being someone who just drifts through you'll get an internship no problem. Every summer the Big 4 accountancy firms take on about 100-150 interns between them so there's plenty of spots available. The tech firms take on plenty too. If you're proactive, you could try find one with a small firm or start-up in your second year and this will drastically increase your chances of getting a "big" one at the end of your penultimate year. UCD Careers always has a good few listed on their website so you'll always stand good chance of getting one if you make the effort.

Packet Of Gravy

I'm presuming Commerce also has summer internships that the OP could go for?

It's also worth noting OP that Commerce has a lot more business modules than Commerce international because of the time taken learning a language. Doing normal Commerce will make you more skilled and help you specialise in your favourite areas eg. finance, accounting etc. which will make you more appealing to the big firms. According to people who've done the course, they were able to get a better grounding in the business subjects which made doing exams easier.

Don't worry to much about the points for Commerce. They were 475 last year but because it's such a big course the points aren't going to rocket. Sure you'll be grand.

Kiltennel

The summer internships are completely independent of any course. You apply to the company yourself rather than through UCD and every summer you see quite a few from Commerce doing the summer ones instead of doing the year long ones.

ManonRiv

Alright i got it also, does the university help you to find a job after you finish your degree ?

Kiltennel

As a graduate you still have access to the UCD Careers Service. They help with CVs, cover letters, mock interviews etc and have an online job board that is decent enough. The handy thing about Commerce is a substantial amount of the students will have their job offers in place by the end of the first semester of your last year and the vast majority of internship schemes are used as a feeder system into full time graduate roles so if you're pro-active about it you'll be able to have a job offer in place for a decent firm before you even start your final year.