CA - is there any life in it at all??

johnjo76

Hey, I'm doing my leavin cert now in a few weeks and I put down CA on my cao.I woz just wonderin wot it woz like - is there any craic to be had or is it totally lifeless??

spockety

Uni is what you make of it. You will have great craic in DCU/CA if you are hell bent on having great craic in DCu/CA.

dregin

I came to DCU 3 years ago knowing only one person, and since then I've met loads of new people and made new friends. The key is to get involved with societys/clubs I reckon.

Suaimhneach

dregin wrote:

I've met loads of new people and made new friends.

Aww. *pets Dregin*

Yeah, college rocks. Join lots of clubs and socks and you'll be flying. Remember to take part in them, thats the other important thing.

I joined maybe seven, and I've only taken part in maybe three or four.

dregin

OMFG FIONTAR!!!!!!
CA (real course) thread tbh!!!1

red vex

Its very difficult to combine having a lot of craic and doing CA but it is doable. Join a really good sociable club like the CANOE CLUB and youll be fine

segadreamcast

A bit of a 'duh' question here - do you have to be an expert canoe'er to join?

red vex

NoelRock wrote:

A bit of a 'duh' question here - do you have to be an expert canoe'er to join?

Definately not! Theres even well known members that have never put a foot inside a canoe, they just come for the nights out. At the same time they are very active(Intervarsity champions) and if you feel like you want to learn youll progress very fast.
Heres the temp website DCUCC

gungo

I understand college what you make it- but with regard CA I'd steer well clear- i'm in 3rd year now and with the exception of web design all the modules involve is alot of learning off information and regurgitating it in the exams. You really have to be into the whole programming/maths buzz to get any enjoyment out of it :mad:

dregin

gungo wrote:

I understand college what you make it- but with regard CA I'd steer well clear- i'm in 3rd year now and with the exception of web design all the modules involve is alot of learning off information and regurgitating it in the exams. You really have to be into the whole programming/maths buzz to get any enjoyment out of it :mad:

Eh maths isn't that important. I did pass for the leaving and have done fine in maths modules on the CA course. Also, learning of isn't what it's about. You obviously need to understand how certain things work to write efficient software for them. Of course if you're doing I.S. learning of random crap probably is the only way to get through it.

Simple solution: Don't do I.S.

Zyox

gungo wrote:

I understand college what you make it- but with regard CA I'd steer well clear- i'm in 3rd year now and with the exception of web design all the modules involve is alot of learning off information and regurgitating it in the exams. You really have to be into the whole programming/maths buzz to get any enjoyment out of it :mad:

So leave?

gungo

Been thinkin bout it 4 ages jus got stuck in a rut- figure i'm as well 2 finish out at this stage jus another 2 sets of exams? good call on IS thats what i'm doing- by the learning stuff off bit jus mean there's little freedom, lots of rules and maths does play a big part in programming do ya not think so?

steviec

One thing about CA is the drop out rate... most of my friends dropped out in first year, I barely knew anybody going into second year, I pretty much stopped going to college for a while(if your good at computers you can do that, our whole course is online) kinda back to normal this year though, before being shipped off on intra. Evil, Evil, Evil Intra.

Zyox

gungo wrote:

Been thinkin bout it 4 ages jus got stuck in a rut- figure i'm as well 2 finish out at this stage jus another 2 sets of exams? good call on IS thats what i'm doing- by the learning stuff off bit jus mean there's little freedom, lots of rules and maths does play a big part in programming do ya not think so?

Maths plays sweet feck all in IS. It plays a much bigger part in SE by comparrison. And not just maths, a mathematical mentality and way of thinking in order to program well and understand it better.

This is a 4 year course that you are nearly 75% through.
After thinking about it for this long and not leaving clearly you shouldn't be moaning so much about it. That or you should have left. That really is very dumb. You're going to end up in some crappy web development job earning less than a teacher for the rest of your life if you keep this up...

gungo

Listen- its just my opinion- personally I wouldn't advise any1 to do CA and as for finishing the course, there's loads of people in the same position as I am fact is there are very few people who actually enjoy the course.

Draupnir

tis a hard course to enjoy alright, purely because its badly taught.

however, if ya like to program, youll enjoy it.

as for having good craic in DCU, its as good as anywhere else in the world so long as ya make a few friends early on.

Tyrrial

1 - not an easy course (but not very difficult either)
2 - you will meet nice people
3 - you will have fun if you get involved in societies and events
4 - you'll eventually get yourself a good degree and make money

thats basicly it.
enjoy.

the jew

its an alright course, wouldn't say i love it, wouldn't say i hate. the exams aren't overly hard, just study the week before and your sorted. you have a good bit of projects to do during the year compare to some of shíte bullshít courses around(but then they're probably shít degrees at the end of the day). with regards the social aspect, most of the people i hung around with in ca either dropped out or are just retards (rob you know who im talkin about, and if you don't, its you im talkin about) but i mainly hang around with people not doing the course, no reason for it, just the way it happened. ca in first year is handy, if you fail it in first year, its cos your a waster or a stupid cúnt. dcu is absolutely no craic from the point of view that they organise shíte events and except for the first few weeks of the year, there is absolutely no buzz about the college, you wouldn't even no rag week is on it's that dead, but then from my point of view its good cos i go out loads and just usually have a bit of craic between my mates but thats nothing got to do with the college, just what you make of it i suppose. ca looks to be a pretty good degree to have, better than most, it is a worth while course to do.

the jew

steviec wrote:

One thing about CA is the drop out rate... most of my friends dropped out in first year, I barely knew anybody going into second year, I pretty much stopped going to college for a while(if your good at computers you can do that, our whole course is online) kinda back to normal this year though, before being shipped off on intra. Evil, Evil, Evil Intra.

evil intra??? intra is handy and right now everyone else i know is studying for exams while im hear pissin about on the net, "working".

gungo

Not in2 the INTRA at all- sounds like I'm in the same boat as you, days drag through! Where ya workin?

the jew

gungo wrote:

Not in2 the INTRA at all- sounds like I'm in the same boat as you, days drag through! Where ya workin?

the days drag but sure **** it beats studyin for exams and you have a full time job for the summer sorted. im out in swords, what about yourself?

gungo

IPSI on abbey st. its a nightmare gonna give it a couple of weeks and see what happens :mad:

johnjo76

Whats the difference between IS and SE??Is one better than the other?

L5

Zyox wrote:

Maths plays sweet feck all in IS. It plays a much bigger part in SE by comparrison.

I beg to differ, the 2 Operations research modules in 4th year are taken by most IS people, and theres a hell of a lot of quite complicated maths/probability stuff in it.

dregin

2 modules out of approximately 24 in the 4 years isn't very much at all.

Zyox

L5 wrote:

I beg to differ, the 2 Operations research modules in 4th year are taken by most IS people, and theres a hell of a lot of quite complicated maths/probability stuff in it.

Beg all you like. SE is most definarely the more maths orientated side of the course, and the more technical. IS is businessy and leads to project planning and management later on. Ask anyone who is wise in IS. Good luck, slightly rare :P

bragan

I.S does cover more business than maths, but it also covers things like good program design, and taking users into consideration which S.E don't cover.

Both streams are good. you choose depending on your strenghts. if you good at maths, do S.E. Both streams do equal amount of programming, and have three common modules every semester. Both streams do the more important modules, while the less important ones are given only to the relevant streams.

Alot of people do I.S because you don't have to do computer architecture, which is a bulll**** module.
anyway you don't have to choose until the end of first year which stream you want to do, and by then it will be more clear to you.
Do C.A, its a good course, and the social aspect of DCU is what you make of it. I personally love DCU and enjoy all the social events, but everyone is different.

dregin

Computer Architecture is a bullshít module? Genius right there. Also S.E. does considerably more programming than S.E. unless of course you're counting de-compiling Java programs as programming....ahem Also, both S.E. and I.S. do Computer Architecture now. There is no option.

bragan

I.S do programming modules in second year, and are taught GUI's and applets etc.
we also do all the programming assignments in the joint modules. id say its pretty even, but could be wrong.
oh, they do architecture. i didn't know that. ah thank god i missed that

spockety

I reckon Computer Architecture was far and away the best module I did in my time in DCU..

dregin

Applets? Java Applets? You'd call that programming?
Mike Scott and Ray Walshe are by far the best lecturers we've had to date(in my opinion ).