The Academics
The experience of entering the Irish education system is what I imagine a baby bird must feel when first pushed out of the nest. Going from the highly structured courses at DU to having nothing due until the end of the term was definitely a shock to my system. I know some of my peers had midterms, but I did not. All of my classes required an essay, and two of them have a final exam in addition to the essay. The ones just graded on an essay are Aspects of Irish Folklore, the Psychology of Everday Life, and Child and Adolescent Psychology. The ones graded on both are Introduction to Modern Irish History for Visiting students and Ancient Ireland. You are mostly left on your own to figure out writing the essays, though most professors are open to questions and UCC has a skill center to help if you need it.
The secret to this is to manage your time from the beginning. I knew that I had a lot of major essays to work on, so I started that work as soon as possible. As I write this, it’s the end of October, about a month and a half before my essays are due, and I have 4/5 mostly complete. I’ve managed my time so that I will not have to work on essays as I study for exams. I highly highly recommend this method, it’s the best way to avoid being ridiculously overwhelmed by the end of the term, and it lets you give your essays the attention they deserve – and it makes some of them even fun to do.
Lectures are a relatively small part of my learning. Many students don’t go to lectures not directly related to their interests, unless it’s a class with a final exam rather than a final essay. Some classes have rotating lecturers, so you have a different person each time. The more niche the topic, the less likely the lecturers will be rotating. I have rotations in two of my five classes, the least niche topics (Modern Irish History and Child and Adolescent Psychology). I would say I do not like rotating lecturers as much, as it means I do not know them well, but it’s fine enough and I still feel like I learn well.
This very independent, non-structured way of learning is difficult to adjust to, but I think it’s very valuable to experience. You learn how to manage your time well, how to motivate yourself, and how to do tasks independent of instruction. I think this will be very valuable to the Experiential Project I’ll be working on when I get back to DU. I’m excited to return to the world of assignments, but I’m so glad I got to experience this different way of working.
Social Life
Am I the best person to ask about social life? Absolutely not. There is a reason this section is shorter than the academics one – I am a massive nerd. That being said, I’m not a total shut in, so I do have some things to say about social life at UCC.
UCC has a lot of “societies.” A society is what we would call a club back in the USA, but specifically referring to non-sports clubs. They use the word “club” specifically for sports-related activities. UCC is one of the few schools in Europe that do not charge you to join a society, which I think is pretty awesome. I’m part of WARPS, which is basically the school’s main nerd society. I play DnD there and act as one of the dungeon masters, it’s a lot of good fun.
You will likely connect the most with visiting students, rather than locals. This is partially due to shared experience, and partially because locals are hesitant to befriend people they know will leave soon. UCC also provides a lot of spaces specifically for visiting students, such as courses specifically made for us and a few school-organized trips to placed like Kildare and Killarney. Societies and clubs are the best way to befriend some locals as well as visiting students.
I made some connections with other visiting students before even getting to campus. UCC provided us with a visiting students chat on the Goin’ app, and I chatted with a few people to find who I clicked with. I ended up clicking most with one person, Kaii, and then was invited by him to join a Discord server to play online art games. Kaii introduced me to more people when I got to UCC, and the people I met through him are the main people I hang out with now. We recently did a Halloween party, which was so much fun! I highly recommend trying to make connections before you get to UCC.
