Computer science DIT vs applications DCU

Gererf

Hey, I'm interested in both Computer science DIT and Computer applications DCU. Does any have any information on either course? Things like facilities, hours, academic standards etc. I think for a career i would like to go into something like cyber security or maybe software engineering. Would one course be better for cyber security work? As far as I know from knowledge I've already gotten DCU would be better for software engineering.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated

DipStick McSwindler

This post has been deleted.

grimm2005

IrishFeeney92 wrote: »

Hey Gererf, I am a recent graduate of DIT DT211 and work in the field of Cyber Security, my cousin is a part of the DCU Computer Applications course and from a few conversations together here is what we have gathered.

1. DCU is more focused on software development and contains a lot of Java
2. DIT provides a general overview of MANY different fields in computer science (you usually do around 2-3 modules in each topic) so you can get a feel for what areas you like and are good at. (DCU does this too but The range of topics I covered in college was more diverse)
3. DIT had a 2 year internship that was what made it totally different from DCU in that respect but I believe this year it has been reduced to 6 months so the internship in DIT & DCU is now the same.

So in reality theres not a whole lot different (hopefully somebody else chimes in with anything I may have missed or forgotten)

In the professional world theres not much of a difference, I work with lads from Many different Institutes and at the end of the day the Degrees are all the same. Its totally down to your mindset and the effort you put into whatever field you want to get into.

Any questions give me a shout

Rob

I graduated from DT228 Computer Science around 4 years ago so my info may not be up to date at all, but I found when I was there from talking with the DT211 crowd as well as lecturers that while DT211 was a much broader course as you say, with more diverse modules, DT228 was definitely more focused on programming and a good majority of the modules were very programming heavy, particularly from 3rd year onwards, with a lot of Java. There was also a 6 month paid internship in the 2nd semester of 3rd year.

Hope that's of some use to the OP.

Gererf

Thanks for the reply's, I'm still in Fifth year so i think Ill check out the colleges on open days. I was in DCU and it was good but missed the DIT open day. They both sound like good courses, I'll see how i feel after talking to the lecturers and students on open days, thanks again

grimm2005

Gererf wrote: »

Thanks for the reply's, I'm still in Fifth year so i think Ill check out the colleges on open days. I was in DCU and it was good but missed the DIT open day. They both sound like good courses, I'll see how i feel after talking to the lecturers and students on open days, thanks again

You've plenty of time to explore your options so. One thing I would highly recommend if you haven't or aren't already doing it is to do some beginners programming/coding to see if it's for you. While I did graduate and saw the course through to the end, I discovered that programming never "clicked" with me and I was always very weak with it. Realistically it probably wasn't the right course for me but I only really realised that in 3rd year. I was always (and still am) big into computers and just assumed that computer science would be perfect for me and hadn't tried any programming whatsoever.

I don't regret doing it as it's a great degree and gives you a lot of options work-wise when you graduate but I did struggle a lot during it.

Not trying to put you off or anything, just giving some friendly advice to not go in blind!

Gererf

grimm2005 wrote: »

One thing I would highly recommend if you haven't or aren't already doing it is to do some beginners programming/coding to see if it's for you.

Not trying to put you off or anything, just giving some friendly advice to not go in blind!

Yeah, I'm going to try some programming/coding soon, if its not for me ill probably go for something like computing or if I like it ill go for computer science, thanks for the reply's and advice

eoinp11

So for those that actually went to DIT, how did you rate the college over all.. I get the feeling their credible for their computer science. But was the college a pain itself or was it pleasant?

I'm looking at DT265. Has a work placement, not sure if it is paid though.