Bachelor of Arts in UCD, any good?

JohnDunne

Hi all,

I'm planning for my first place on the CAO to be TCD for English / Sociology, or else UCD for a Bachelor of Arts (starting with English Lit., Linguistics and Sociology). I really like the fact that I can include Linguistics in UCD, as it's something I have a big interest in.

However, I've heard that the whole Arts department is really disorganised and that it's just a bit all over the place. I've also heard some of the lectures can have loads of people, which makes it hard to make friends.

Anyone want to share their experience of this degree?

Maldesu

JohnDunne wrote: »

However, I've heard that the whole Arts department is really disorganised and that it's just a bit all over the place. I've also heard some of the lectures can have loads of people, which makes it hard to make friends.

Anyone want to share their experience of this degree?

I did English and Geography, but had friends who did sociology and linguistics so I know a bit about each area.

I've never really dealt with the art dept as a whole, mainly because each subject has an individual school who would be the first ports of call if there were issues. The English is a fairly large dept and have their own offices, as do most of the other subjects. Think of the arts dept as the overseers and usually only handle registrations and such. I never had to go near them in my time there so I can't say if they were disorganised or not.
As I said, English is a large dept and the lectures can reflect that. In 1st year you would share a lecture with about 500 other students. Sociology also sees large numbers from around 300-400 and it is a very close department. Most of the year 1 modules will have tutorials, but they can range from weekly to every 2-3 weeks, depending on modules. Linguistics is a smaller dept and I've noticed many of their students remain close throughout the years there.

Making friends can be difficult when getting to UCD. It can be very daunting on first arrival. On average, there are around 24,000 students in UCD in a year, so it is on par with moving to an average town, rather than a new place of education. If your going to do arts in UCD, be prepared to mix, join societies and get involved - best and easiest way to make friends rather than relying on who you might meet in a tutorial

JohnDunne

Yeah, it is a huge number of students. Thanks for confirming that the Eng. lectures can be big—I wasn't sure.

Thanks for the heads up!

kiwimad

English lectures are ridiculous in first year, especially if you're coming from a small school down the country! I does get better though - second year is 200/300, and third year is fully based on tutorials so never more than 20.

Regarding making friends, it can be a bit hit and miss in your class. I was lucky, my peer mentor group stuck together and I worked from there. As Maldesu said, societies are probably your best bet, though the English Literary Society's a bit of a joke from what I gather.

The best advice I can give you is that you'll need to really love reading, cause you'll be on 2/3 novels a week plus secondary reading (articles etc) by final year, which is also when some tutors start getting really pissy if you haven't done the reading. If you can handle that, then the rest of the degree shouldn't be too tough! (Though I'm just talking about English here, no idea what sociology is like.)

hdowney

what's the reading like in Eng Lit for first year if you don't mind me asking. Im doing the Access in UCD at the moment

kiwimad

Coming of Age narratives is fairly heavy reading, a novel a week usually. It's a great module though, really enjoyable and well-taught.

Literary Genre is less reading, as it's just plays and poems, but I also found it wasn't as interesting. My tutor was awful though, and I prefer prose anyway

Lit in Context 1 was fine in terms of reading load, but once you get on to studying Chaucer even reading one page will make you want to cry. Get an annotated version of his works, they're bloody awful otherwise.

Lit in Context 2 is way more interesting, they'll tell you to read around 300 pages of the textbook for the exam but you can get away with a lot less than that.

Bear in mind it's 2 years ago that I was in first year, it could very well have changed since. First year isn't exactly taxing though, go to class and you'll be grand for most of it!

Mr.Saturn

hdowney wrote: »

what's the reading like in Eng Lit for first year if you don't mind me asking. Im doing the Access in UCD at the moment

Single honours get a couple extra modules, so I cannae really speak for that, but for joint, Coming-of-Age has 2 novels over first 4 weeks, then 1-a-week 'til semester's end. Traces the Bildungsroman from mid-Victoriana, Dickens and Eyre to relatively modern times. Really enjoyable module.

Lit Genre is generally just a selection of plays, poems and short-stories tracing how form, genre and whatnot has changed; you'll be doing Poe one week, then LeGuin the next and whatnot. Text a week again, though the workload is a bit less. Brilliant course.

Finally, Lit-in-Context 1 and 2, the core modules you must take, can be a grind. It's mired in a lot of that 'transferable skills' stuff, so it'll consist of a lot of group work, library skills and it can sometimes feel like the actual subject is secondary. Anyways, it's just a problem-statement in semester 1, dealing with staging Shakespeare in the first half and modernizing Chaucer for TV in the second; you and your group will have to submit and present your findings. Semester 2 sees it go from 18th century through to Modernism in terms of the periodical and literary culture throughout the ages. The final assignment consists of mocking up and presenting a periodical from your chosen era.

percy212

That sounds so interesting. I might just go back to college at middle age based on this thread! Science first time round. Hard and boring!

Actually - anyone know of any good online resources similar to the course outlines above. Thinking coursera etc.

hdowney

Mr.Saturn wrote: »

Single honours get a couple extra modules, so I cannae really speak for that, but for joint, Coming-of-Age has 2 novels over first 4 weeks, then 1-a-week 'til semester's end. Traces the Bildungsroman from mid-Victoriana, Dickens and Eyre to relatively modern times. Really enjoyable module.

Lit Genre is generally just a selection of plays, poems and short-stories tracing how form, genre and whatnot has changed; you'll be doing Poe one week, then LeGuin the next and whatnot. Text a week again, though the workload is a bit less. Brilliant course.

Finally, Lit-in-Context 1 and 2, the core modules you must take, can be a grind. It's mired in a lot of that 'transferable skills' stuff, so it'll consist of a lot of group work, library skills and it can sometimes feel like the actual subject is secondary. Anyways, it's just a problem-statement in semester 1, dealing with staging Shakespeare in the first half and modernizing Chaucer for TV in the second; you and your group will have to submit and present your findings. Semester 2 sees it go from 18th century through to Modernism in terms of the periodical and literary culture throughout the ages. The final assignment consists of mocking up and presenting a periodical from your chosen era.

It's joint honours I'll be doing - History as my second.

The bit in bold does not appeal to me AT ALL

SparkySpitfire

hdowney wrote: »

It's joint honours I'll be doing - History as my second.

The bit in bold does not appeal to me AT ALL

You can't let that turn you off the subject as a whole, it's one assessment in one module of the entire 3 year course. My friends didn't like it either but managed it grand.

Witcher

hdowney wrote: »

The bit in bold does not appeal to me AT ALL

If you're doing history you're going to have to get used to speaking in front of a class because you'll encounter a lot of modules where you have to choose a week/topic and lead the discussion that week with a presentation.

It's easy doing it as an undergrad; you'll speak, people will pretend to listen and chances are there won't be any questions when you stop speaking.

Try doing a presentation as an MA student where your class and the tutor will dissect your presentation piece by piece and you're expected to defend your position. :pac:

NervousGremlin

I'm a current English and History student in UCD.
I find these departments in particular are well organised, probably because they are the two most popular arts subjects. However I did Irish Studies as my extra first year subject and it was very disorganized, especially the second semester module "Introduction to Irish Cultural Studies"
I honestly love my course but I have always had an interest in my subjects. I would not recommend anyone picks subjects that they are only kind of interested in or didn't particularly like but they were good at in school/think it may be easy.
I only knew two people doing my course prior to starting and I didn't find it too hard to make friends despite the size. Up until Christmas of first year I was extremely lonely but apart from that I've managed to get on ok and make friends. (I never did the society thing, I don't think they're too welcoming to commuting students as most events/meetings etc. are during the evening). The lectures are huge but the small classes make it easier to get to know people

JohnDunne

Hi there, thanks for sharing! Yeah, that makes sense about bigger depts being better organised.

ronflynn

This might seem like a very silly question but I'm applying to UCD advanced entry (year 2)

i currently study English Lit in Belfast but i want to transfer to UCD next year. I've already paid for and sent off my CAO but I got an email saying i entered the wrong course code for UCD. I don't understand what I'm supposed to enter if I'm applying for a joint honours degree. I originally entered the general joint honours code, but I need to enter a specific code for English and the other subject I want to choose (still undecided!)

Any help with this would be amazing!

Thanks

Maldesu

DN500 was always the course code for the BA joint, but after selection this an additional option appeared so you could pick your two subjects - this would close after a period of time. I would have thought you had to apply directly to UCD to enter 2nd year rather than the CAO?