• Question: What are the best colleges to attend for science courses?

    Asked by chloemf98 to Adam, Chris, Eleanor, Jessamyn, Sinead on 11 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Adam Murphy

      Adam Murphy answered on 11 Nov 2013:

      They’re all good, I went to DCU, so I have to say that DCU is the best.

      UCD and Trinity have excellent research centres too. So does Maynooth, Galway and DIT.

      Cork and Limerick also have brilliant programs and research centres!
      You’ll have to look at each college and see what each individual course offers that you might want to do

      (Psst…DCU is the best!)

    • Photo: Christian Wirtz

      Christian Wirtz answered on 12 Nov 2013:

      I have to reply to this just so Adam does not get to be the only one to make advertisement!

      I went to Trinity College and would of course say Trinity is the best. There are some differences in the universities, depending on how big their relevant departments are and how much money they spend on certain teaching things like labs, field work and tutorials. As physics, chemistry, biology, geology, etc. are different departments in most universities, and even those may be split further, the quality of teaching and research may even vary a lot within a university.

      Realistically though, for a science degree they differ by less than you may think. It’s when you get to the actual research (after you have finished your primary college degree), that you can really see the differences but you won’t have to worry about that anytime soon.

      If you want to study science have a look at the universities but I think it is more important that it is in a location that you enjoy as social life is a really important part of going to college. So if the best science university in the world was in some forsaken place in a desert I definitely wouldn’t go there, regardless of how good it is. College is meant to be hard work but also fun!

    • Photo: Eleanor Holmes

      Eleanor Holmes answered on 14 Nov 2013:

      Hi Chloe, great question.

      I also went to Trinity, but it would be unfair of us to all gang up on Adam! Instead I’ll tell you about how I made my decision.

      I live one bus ride away from three major Dublin colleges (UCD, DCU and Trinity) so I knew when I was filling out the CAO that I would be giving those three my preference. I spent all of secondary school with an 2 hour commute and I was sick of it. Then I talked to a friend of mine who was doing Theoretical Physics and I realised that that was what I wanted to do. At the time DCU didn’t have a Theoretical Physics course on offer so even though I had visited the campus and really liked it, that was out.

      I looked through the prospectuses for UCD and TCD (Trinity), specifically at their Theoretical Physics programmes, and compared them. I also visited both campuses to get a feel for them.

      In the end the choice came down to the individual courses in the two colleges. In UCD the Theoretical Physics programme contained some statistics courses and in TCD they were advertising analysis courses. I didn’t want to do statistics so I put Trinity at the top of my list and the rest is history. That’s how close it was!

      Find the college that fits you best. Some people want to stay close to home, some people can’t wait to spread their wings. Sometimes only one university is offering the exact course you want, sometimes you have a choice to make. Do the research and remember, Wherever you go, there you are. Make the most of it.

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