StrawPoll for First years CAs

Gavin

Just out of curosity. The points this year for CA are so low, I'm wondering what sort of people are applying for it.

Did you score points far in excess of the required ? Why are you doing the course over say UCC, or TCD ?

Gav

canker

what are the points for it?

-course looks better than tcd/ucx versions.

Gavin

points are 300 I think. What I'm interested in I suppose are if the people signing up are actually interested in computers, or are just signing up because computers may be seen as an easy way to cash.

Gav

camroc

Well I've always been interested in computers, I was very impressed with DCU on the open day and the course seems very highly regarded. Also I live quite close to DCU so I put it down as first choice on my CAO form. When I saw the minimum requirement was 300 points and unlikely to rise too much I kind of took my foot of the pedal and started to relax and so I ended up with 380.
Has the course ever been much higher than what it is now?

dregin

At one stage it was ~460.

StickyMcGinty

its a very hard course though - over 50% first year drop out rate i think?

one of the highest in ireland

dregin

The dropout rate at the minute is probably fairly closely related to the low points requirement tbh.

CuLT

dregin wrote:

The dropout rate at the minute is probably fairly closely related to the low points requirement tbh.

Agreed.

StickyMcGinty

dregin wrote:

The dropout rate at the minute is probably fairly closely related to the low points requirement tbh.

i concur!

ah yea people goin in thinkin its a handy aul course generally get a shock fairly quickly

Druid

I would be shocked if people still think of it as a handy way to cash. There is a certain stigma now attached to "de computers". I know many people who will go to great lengths to disguise the fact they work in IT/Comp related industry.

Does CA still have 300 or so places per year?

The course is possibly one of the best in Irealand.

-M-

dregin

No they cut it to 150 places to keep the points above 300.

decob

I'm just wondering, is deebee's theory still applicable, which is essentially as the points decrease, the standard of good looking women doing CA increases...?

gizmo

decob wrote:

I'm just wondering, is deebee's theory still applicable, which is essentially as the points decrease, the standard of good looking women doing CA increases...?

Nope that would only coincide with the introduction of an Arts course.

I chose the CA degree in DCU as it it one of the most highly regarded in the country along with the course in UL, I prefer Dublin however so I came here.
The points requiremnt never really came into it for me tbh.

And agreed on the drop out rate issue, it has nothing got to do with the quality of the course, only with some of the students being attracted by the lower points.

stuey

the one thing i'll say about CA is fcuk me is the drop out rate massive. 50% its more like 65% ( i think thats what one of teh lectures said) and i think the drop out rate for lat year hit 65%, its not a nice thing at all going back to second year, when everyone you hung around with the previous year is gone

CuLT

stuey wrote:

the one thing i'll say about CA is fcuk me is the drop out rate massive. 50% its more like 65% ( i think thats what one of teh lectures said) and i think the drop out rate for lat year hit 65%, its not a nice thing at all going back to second year, when everyone you hung around with the previous year is gone

Heh, it's great when everyone you hung around with is still there though

All my mates in CA from first year are still here.

Gavin

hah ! same here. 6 years later !