Computer science: maynooth or trinity?

romakarol

Hi all, I have decided I want to do computer science, not sure yet wether at masters or bachelor's level. I gather the tcd cs course is good, but my friends are going to maynooth. So if the mynooth cs course is at the same level as trinity, I'd prefer to go to maynooth.

Maynooth:
-Friends going here, so it is my preference
-How good is the actual course, I heard its solid, but I also know the lecturers aren't as much into research as in tcd?
-How good is the college at attracting employers?
-How do the college facilities, mainly those used in cs, compare to tcd's?

TCD:
-Far more recognized if I ever have to go abroad
-I know the course is at least good here, and a lecturer virtually swore to me all students get jobs (all good students I presme : ) ) and the college does indeed have good links in the industry
-IMPORTANT: tcd lets you choose if you want to do a masters in the 3'd year of your bachelor's course (turning it into a 5-year). Does maynooth offer a similar choice?

I'll be posting this in both trinity and maynooth forums, would really appeciate feedback. Be sure to say if you are currently doing the course or when you finished.

GarIT

The Trinity course is known to be very outdated. UCD is the best place to go for CS. I'd rank Maynooth much higher than trinity even though very few of the lecturers speak English. Of 6 lecturers I have this year 3 speak English fluently. We do have a lot of research, I don't know what research Trinity does.

Facilities are good here, and we have a new building for CS to be ready for September. We have 100% employment of those who finished the degree with a 2:1 (60%) or better. We have links with a few big companies, e.g SAP and AOL but there are plenty of past Maynooth students working in every major company in Ireland.

In Maynooth you don't decide if you want to do a masters until you graduate but you could go straight in and have everything done in 5 years.

Just finished 3rd year of CSSE.


Unless you want to work in hardware you should be looking for degrees with software engineering rather than just Computer science.

Computational Thinking is also known to be one if the best degrees in the country re employment and slary, it's probably the best CS degree in the country, but it is very maths heavy (That's why its good).

Eric Cartman

if you like 4 years of learning how to look down on people and talk 'loike thos' then trinity may be for you.

If you however would like an actual CS degree, NUIM or UCD would be the job.

Although nuim has the least annoying students of the 3 colleges.

gruntling

tcd has the most heinously ****e cs course in the history of computing. If you go there you will regret the day you were born. The posho students will make you want to evacuate your digestive system thrice daily. Everyone knows it's approx 25 years behind the nuim and ucd and letterkenny it cs courses - EVERYONE knows that. Everyone who went to nuim earns 6 figure salaries, and people who went to tcd end up living in sleeping bags and sucking crumbs from the pavement.




'Course in reality they're all pretty much the same

PopePalpatine

Out of curiosity, how crap is TCD's CS course?

CSSE09

I wouldn't put either course ahead of each other, it's your own performance and grades that will stand to you when you go looking for a job. I did the csse course and found it good, learned a few useful things along the way and plenty of useless things too. I've worked with grads from trinity, ucd, some of the IT's and in the workplace there's no difference, everyone got a job based on their own merits.

romakarol

I know for a fact TcD graduates with a 2:1 degree ALL get jobs. So frankly some of this "advice" sounds like eejits talking out of their arse to me.

Eric Cartman

romakarol wrote: »

I know for a fact TcD graduates with a 2:1 degree ALL get jobs. So frankly some of this "advice" sounds like eejits talking out of their arse to me.

tech support call centers , internships and part time work as sysadmins are hardly jobs worth deciding your university over. TCD try very hard to place grads, and even if that means selling them waay short of the mark , they do it to keep stats.

024burcs

As a current CS student in Maynooth I have to say that the material is being covered at a painfully slow rate. Looking at Trinity's CS modules, it is clear that they are moving at a much faster pace. If you have a genuine interest in Computer Science then you will get bored to death in Maynooth, and so I would recommend Trinity. On the other hand, if you are just looking for a degree in CS with some job prospects then CSSE in Maynooth will be perfect for you.

There isn't anything significant which NUIM offers that's not being taught in Trinity. It seems like Trinity is focused more on the 'low level' stuff, so it depends on what you like as well.

You might also want to take a look at the Computational Thinking course. Its apparently the best CS course in Ireland at the moment. But its very maths heavy, and it could be a problem (and HB1 in maths is a requirement).

romakarol

Thanks for the tips all. I did look at Computational Thinking ages ago- not for me.

eoinp11

How would you guys rate NCI vs Maynooth?

Eric Cartman

eoinp11 wrote: »

How would you guys rate NCI vs Maynooth?

if your thinking private college in IT just do a bunch of certs (cisco ccna, microsoft certs etc…) it'll be cheaper and more useful.

eoinp11

Eric Cartman wrote: »

if your thinking private college in IT just do a bunch of certs (cisco ccna, microsoft certs etc…) it'll be cheaper and more useful.

Hey, thanks... care to elaborate? Do you know of the best places for certs? I've been lookin into CCT for some, they are €950 each.

Are you saying that public college would be better than private college for IT/software?

Would it be easier for employment if i had a bunch of certs over a degree? How about if those certs seperated over different areas? Like from networking, to microsoft to java etc ... thanks for the reply.

CSSE09

eoinp11 wrote: »

Hey, thanks... care to elaborate? Do you know of the best places for certs? I've been lookin into CCT for some, they are €950 each.

Are you saying that public college would be better than private college for IT/software?

Would it be easier for employment if i had a bunch of certs over a degree? How about if those certs seperated over different areas? Like from networking, to microsoft to java etc ... thanks for the reply.

Majority of IT jobs outside of support require a degree at a minimum, certs can come in later as an advantage. There's lots of debates you can read by googling but this stood out to me
"A degree is for life; an IT certification lasts only as long as the technical elements upon which it's based"

Hollister11

eoinp11 wrote: »

How would you guys rate NCI vs Maynooth?

I go to NCI. I just finished year 1 of computing, and I have to say i find it great. I don't enjoy to business modules in the course, but the computing is second to none. You, of course can't just rely on what you learn in the college, you have to work in your own time, and develop your skills. NCI School of computing has a 98% employment rate.

Eric Cartman

CSSE09 wrote: »

Majority of IT jobs outside of support require a degree at a minimum, certs can come in later as an advantage. There's lots of debates you can read by googling but this stood out to me
"A degree is for life; an IT certification lasts only as long as the technical elements upon which it's based"

software / hardware development and US multinationals are the only areas I've ever seen that a degree is really required.


a degree is a degree and thats it, but you'll always need to up skill , if you want to work as an engineer a CCNA or degree will get you in the door , but you'll end up having to do further cisco / networking certs and the requirements for some of them are having to do the CCNA anyway .

database engineer has its own set of qualifications to move to any sort of senior level.

Believe me I've been at this game for almost 11 years and I made the decision a long time ago , id rather get paid 100 euro an hour to install software than 25 to write it.