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 ).

bragan

howard duncan is a good lecturer as well. no, i wouldn't consider applets programming, im just saying that we also covered them during our programming modules.

steviec

I'd have to say Computer Architecture has accounted for my favourite modules I've done in CA too. And most of the IS students I know willingly admit they haven't a clue how to program and that was the main reason for choosing IS. If you're into programming do SE, if not do IS, you get a year before you choose anyway. And don't think about what leads to what jobs in the future, its all fairly interchangeable once you've graduated.

Kingp35

steviec wrote:

I'd have to say Computer Architecture has accounted for my favourite modules I've done in CA too. And most of the IS students I know willingly admit they haven't a clue how to program and that was the main reason for choosing IS. If you're into programming do SE, if not do IS, you get a year before you choose anyway. And don't think about what leads to what jobs in the future, its all fairly interchangeable once you've graduated.

Would ya stop!! I presume your in SE so look at it this year. I know theres alot of rubbish programmers in SE this year just like there is in IS. There is also very good programmers in both streams as well. What stream you do has no bearing on how good a programmer you are. If what you say is the case I presume all IS people couldn't do their 3rd year projects because they can't program. Your full of sh1te!!

Both streams do basically the same amount of programming bar the odd bit here and there. If you want to have limited options in that your pretty much gonna have to be a programmer then do SE. If you want to learn about business and management etc. as well as programming then do IS.

By the way I would love for all the IS people who "willingly admit they have't a clue how to program" to admit it here or you tell me who they are stevie coz I would love to know.

As for INTRA its the most boring thing ever.

And what is the deal with the DCU discussion forums being off limits for us intra people? Anybody still gonna post??

Zyox

bragan wrote:

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.

Funny, I seem to remember doing SSADM and UML with IS people. And at the time going "this is such a bullsh1t IS subject". When we all did programming in 1st year we were taught the ethics of good programming style, we worked out from there on how to keep them good, we didn't have to be constantly reminded. :P

bragan wrote:

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.

Nonsense. Both streams do NOT do equal amounts of programming. IS do Java, full stop. We do assembly for multiple architectures, giving us a FAR better understand of how a programming language actually works physically on a system and what to do and why to do it. We have gone ahead in Java, but not done GUI and applets. I mean you can learn how to make a GUI from a tutorial, not have to be hand-held through it. And applets? Lol you twat.

Also, and a big one here, C++. You cannot say that we do equal amounts of programming if you've not learned c++. Well, you can, but you'll come off looking like even more of a mumbaloid.


And as for Computer Architecture. Best module ever. This is a computing course and CompArch describes perfectly and purley how a computer works. End of story.

pollyantic

You can argue about which part of CA is better and so on but to tell you the truth....... You graduate, you fall into your niche (which most likely will not ever make you revisit anything learned in CA), and you work through your career.

CA was good crack, but with regard to what you use after you leave i would say almost nothing. For example, we spent weeks, months even, doing a database project that i could do in 5 minutes now.
Any language etc you learn in CA is barely 1% - yes ONE % of the skills you will need at work. These skills are gathered from working in a particular field not reading books and passing exams.

You graduate with a 1.1, you're still greener than grass and only find this out after a few years. Go to DCU, have the crack (there'll be nothing else like it ever again ), pass your exams and then let life start seriously when you graduate.

Zyox

I'd actually agree with that based on what I've done so far on INTRA. The database stuff is very true and there's feck all use of languages.

But that could clearly mean we're both in crap jobs :P

pollyantic

What i mean about languages and database stuff is that what you will be doing when working in it is far, far in advance of what you will know when you leave DCU.
You could even end up working in completely different languages than you have ever used and then become expert in them.
Basically what you get from CA is that after you graduate you have proved that your mind can work in the logical fashion needed for IT (the drop outs are usually the ones who's minds are not suited to computers. Some would say they are the lucky ones ).

Within 1 year in a full-time job you will have vastly more knowledge and know-how than you would have even with 8 years in CA.

My point is that as long as you graduate, you should not worry too much about whats on your course. You should enjoy the uni experience to the max.

We played doom at the back of the computer labs for 4 years
Sad but true.

halenger

Stating the obvious to be honest. As much as people really don't want to admit it college is still "learning how to learn". It's giving you the basics you need to learn things for yourself.

How many people went off and learned how GUI programming works for their 3rd/4th year project? Quite a few one would think. Same goes for a different language. Yes you may fall into a niche but that's by choice and because there really is so much to learn about in so many of these niche areas. If you're not willing to learn things by yourself you really wont get anywhere. CA is very much not a waste of time though. Every tried to learn a new language? I know I have. Knowing java has helped me no end. There are things you know that carry over to most languages. Every language is different and it's important to realise that not every language does work like Java or should be written like it but the ground work is there.

As for Architecture I have to agree that it was great. Complicated as can be - I wouldn't call myself a strong assembly programmer - but very insightful. I'm very glad it's now core in 2nd year. I feel that people who didn't do it really missed out on a lot.

humbleCounty

im sure you're ALL super duper programmers, congratulations.

group hug?

kyper

CA is great. If your interested in the subjects involved its really good. as for havin a blast... get locked for the first 3 weeks and the rest just falls into place

cooker3

Kingp35 wrote:

Would ya stop!! I presume your in SE so look at it this year. I know theres alot of rubbish programmers in SE this year just like there is in IS. There is also very good programmers in both streams as well. What stream you do has no bearing on how good a programmer you are. If what you say is the case I presume all IS people couldn't do their 3rd year projects because they can't program. Your full of sh1te!!

Both streams do basically the same amount of programming bar the odd bit here and there. If you want to have limited options in that your pretty much gonna have to be a programmer then do SE. If you want to learn about business and management etc. as well as programming then do IS.

By the way I would love for all the IS people who "willingly admit they have't a clue how to program" to admit it here or you tell me who they are stevie coz I would love to know.

As for INTRA its the most boring thing ever.

And what is the deal with the DCU discussion forums being off limits for us intra people? Anybody still gonna post??

I do IS and I can't program. IS also do far less programing then SE, that is a fact.

Lemlin

I did CA for six months. Didn't like it at all. Was going to leave in November but they talked me into staying until the January exams so that I could do those and go back if I wanted the next year.

Stayed until January, did the exams and left. Haven't regretted it since. Didn't like the course at all, it just wasn't for me.

The people in DCU were grand but I have to admit that there were a lot of people in the class that could have done with spending a little less time in the computer labs.

I'm doing Business and IT in Blanchardstown IT now and I far prefer it. Suppose it depends what you're into yourself as to whether you'll like it or not.

Jonny Arson

With a course like CA you really have to know your computers inside out. I put it down on my CAO last year and if i had got 10 less points I would have being doing CA.... I'm so glad I didn't because I know a few people doing it in 1st year (they are computer experts) and they say its quite hardgoing. If computers is your passion and you are 100% certain about it then go for it but if you have any little doubts or if you are only thinking about it due to the relatively low points (300 I think last few years), I would advice you not to but its your decision in the end. FACT - Computers in any college has possibly has the biggest drop out rates of any course.

Zyox

That is a load of misguided nonsense. Frist year is the biggest doss. Being an "expert" is in no way needed. And clearly these guys are nowhere near "experts" if they're finding it "hardgoing".

I know a lot of people who came in with barely _any_ computing experience at all, some of them just about knowing how to turn one on, click on their lovely eircom dialup and then check hotmail. They're now in 3rd/4th year and can competently program and understand and use databases etc.
They didn't find first year "hardgoing" either, they just had to put a bit more work into it than the rest of us who knew a bit and sailed through it.

Drop out rate in CA from my year in 1st year was 33%.

pollyantic

My first day in college.

Where are the labs, we want to play some games.

Found the labs, but couldn't figure out how to turn the compter on

You dont need to know ANYTHING about computers for CA when you start. Thats why you do 4 years

Lemlin

I don't think you need an inside knowledge of computers for CA but to be interested in the subjects would be a big factor. I wasn't interested in the modules at all. I went to lectures and all but it just wasn't my thing.

I think it is assumed by some lecturers that you have a knowledge of computers ie. Ray Walsh. Charlie Daly was great though, he made sure you were versed in every last detail. And I'll never forget the day he ripped up that phone book, if Eircom ever found out!

28064212

Lemlin wrote:

I think it is assumed by some lecturers that you have a knowledge of computers ie. Ray Walsh

This is probably true enough, but on the other hand Ray is more than willing to answer any questions. He just can be kind of intimidating for a first year. If you're a complete novice, I think he expects you to learn quickly from Charlie et al, and then go back to the first couple of his lectures and do them again yourself. Which is fair enough tbh.

Kingp35

cooker3 wrote:

I do IS and I can't program. IS also do far less programing then SE, that is a fact.

how in the name of god did you get to third year then mate?? After 3 years of college you cant program?? My advice is to try something a little more to your brains standard. How bout a Mcdonalds worker or a road sweeper?

BizzyC

Kingp35 wrote:

If what you say is the case I presume all IS people couldn't do their 3rd year projects because they can't program. Your full of sh1te!!

How much of the 3rd year project did you do?

The non-operational applet???
While your S.E. partner designed the site, and got all the server side software developed, which was the only working code we had to demonstrate on the day??????

S.E does do more programming.
Did you have to program in assembly language, MIPS assembly, C or C++ last year??? No you didn't.

I'm not sayng that all the SE lads are better than the IS at programming, but we definitely do more developement, whereas you go through more theoretical, and businessy subjects.

Kingp35

BizzyC wrote:

How much of the 3rd year project did you do?

The non-operational applet???
While your S.E. partner designed the site, and got all the server side software developed, which was the only working code we had to demonstrate on the day??????

S.E does do more programming.
Did you have to program in assembly language, MIPS assembly, C or C++ last year??? No you didn't.

I'm not sayng that all the SE lads are better than the IS at programming, but we definitely do more developement, whereas you go through more theoretical, and businessy subjects.

Do I know you???