Politics in UCD

caracara1

Hey guys

I'm thinking of putting my first option on my CAO down as Econ & Politics and Int. Relations in UCD. I'd really like to know more about the politics course itself from any current students. I know I have a great interest in Politics as living in the middle east most of my life, I have always been surrounded by political unrest hahahaha

Any information on the course material, hours, topics and possible modules would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Cici

PS. If anyone would have any info on how Leaving Cert Economics differs from Economics in University, I would love to hear about that too.

DreamByDay

Hi there,

I'm currently in my final year of a BA with Joint Major Economics and Politics/ International Relations, so I'd be happy to (try to) answer any questions you might have!

If you have an interest in Middle East politics there is a dedicated class, and we also discuss related issues as part of other classes (Terrorism, Gender in War and Peace, etc).

Course material: Each course is different, most lecturers will have a course textbook and then you'll have to read different articles on the topics. Courses are a mix of theoretical notions and case studies, it all depends on the course though so it's hard to get specific. Do you have a particular question about course materials?

Hours: In the first and second year you have about 12 hours of lectures in large classes and then small groups tutorial, for about 6 hours a week (this is maximum - usually it's less). Then in your penultimate/ final year depending on how you move around your options it usually falls down to 10 to 12 hours of classes a week since you're expected to do more work independently. Most classes are centred around late morning/ early afternoon and it's quite easy to arrange your timetable to have a day off.

Topics and possible modules: Honestly there's a great variation in modules, for example in Economics you could get your degree without ever doing a Quantitative course (but then you can't do a Masters in Economics in UCD), likewise with Politics some of my "classmates" and I have not a single class in common this year. Basically in First/second year you have required 'cores' but after that it's all your choice so you can choose depending on your topic of interest (for example I'm interested in political theory, gender and EU politics and there's classes on these topics - my friend is into foreign policy, middle east politics, latin american politics and terrorism and there's also classes on that, etc). There's also a lot of variation in whether classes are assessed by exam, essay, projects etc. so you can make your choices in function of that as well.

An lastly, I am not from Ireland (did the French baccalaureate not Leaving Cert) so can't help you really here but I had never done any economics before coming to college (though I did do advanced maths) and I found first year economics modules easy enough.

Hope that helps!

meganob

I'm also interested in this course!
I was wondering what kind of career you are going to pursue when you are finished and where?
And also does the course have to be majored in economics or can you choose something like French e.t.c.?
Thanks a million for reading!

DreamByDay

meganob wrote: »

I'm also interested in this course!
I was wondering what kind of career you are going to pursue when you are finished and where?
And also does the course have to be majored in economics or can you choose something like French e.t.c.?
Thanks a million for reading!

Hi,

With an Arts degree like Politics, languages, etc. there is quite a lot you can do, sine it's based so much on transferrable skills - but of course with the job market being what it is you have to be realistic in how good a job you can expect to land. Personally I took a year out instead of doing an Erasmus year and did an internship in lobbying, which is now (in my final year) helping me perform a lot better in my classes. I thought of pursuing a career in that field but at the moment I want to try and become an academic (so do a Masters and PhD first). Might not be a very smart plan but I want to at least try :-) As for alternative career paths, quite a few of my classmates are applying for graduate schemes in accounting and consulting companies, public relations companies, banks, etc. so there is a lot of variety in what you can do. I would warn you though that if you want to pursue a career in the public sector it's all unpaid internships and non-existent job vacancies so don't let that be your only plan.

As for your other question - yes you can combine subjects as long as the core modules don't clash, go on the UCD courses page and choose "Arts degree full-time - joint major" to see the combinations that are allowed. The most common combination is English and History, or Politics and History, but you can mix and match as you wish. In your first year you're actually required to try out at least three subjects so you're not stuck with something you hate, and then you eliminate progressively and end up with a single or double major. For example on my CAO I registered for History and Politics, then changed my mind last minute (lol) and was transferred to Economics and Politics. Then in first year took Geography as a third subject and got rid of it as soon as I could. So there is a lot of flexibility.

Hope that helped!

Lucie

quanlad13

Hi

I also put down Economics, Politics and International Relations as my first choice, I'm pretty sure I'll get it. Could you tell me if the Economics course is hard, as I never had a chance to do it in my school, due to low demand. And is there a lot of maths to it ? 😣

How has it been in general, doing them both as a joint major ?

And lastly, I'm looking to also take Philosophy and Sociology in first year but is it just loads of work then if you take a fourth subject, or would one be able to manage ?

Thanks a lot in advance and Best of luck in your final months

DreamByDay

quanlad13 wrote: »

x

Hi

So in terms of difficulty for Economics, I had never done it before either and didn't have a problem as the first year classes (as long as you don't skip them!!) make sure that everyone is brought up to the same level. As for the maths content, I thought is was fine but I did advanced maths (don't know if there's an equivalent in Ireland?) and physics in secondary school. Most people in my course who I've talked with have found the maths content manageable. But you do have to put in the work! E.g. attend lectures, attempt the homework...

As for this choice of a joint major, I LOVE my joint major. You can't really understand politics without understanding the economics that politicians spend most of their times arguing about and it makes economic models all the more realistic when you learn about them, to know whether they're politically feasible. In addition, if you're a "generalist" who's basically interested in learning how the world 'works' I'd say this is a really nice course, it's done loads to shape my understanding of the world, political opinions, etc. As far as Arts degrees go I'd also venture that it's one of the more employable ones, as it's general enough that you can do different things with it, but you still get enough 'technical' knowledge with economics to brag about to employers. Add in an Erasmus year and some extra-curricular responsibilities and you'll look like a worldly well-educated professional in a few years ;-) I've gone to a few interviews with companies that do law, finance, consulting etc. and they were very positive towards my degree choice despite me competing with law, finance, accounting etc. graduates

And for the fourth subject dilemna: You'll be taking the same number of 'modules' in first year, so the difference would be between doing 2 classes in philosophy and 1 class in each for example. So the workload would be the same pretty much - the only difference being that what you learn in philosophy could be more applicable to another philosophy class than a sociology class. But I think you'd be perfectly fine trying out both subjects

SORRY for this massive wall of text!! And hope this helped :-)