As a Business and Law student, combining two disciplines and two degrees, life can be a bit hectic. Here’s an example of a typical day! We sometimes have entire days focussing on one of the subjects, as well as others where they’re mixed.
Early Start
Like most days, I wake up around 8am. I’m lucky enough to live about a 20 minute cycle from UCD, so in no time at all I’m wheeling in the front gates. There’s always tons of spare bike spaces so it’s never a stress. Outside the business building we even have bike lockers you can rent for security (if your bike is fancy!) and covered bike racks so you don’t come back to a wet seat at the end of the day. It sounds like a small thing but it all helps.
Accounting Tutorial
Today, I have a 2 hour management accounting tutorial, setting up product and materials budgets. I had a 1 hour lecture for this module (class) on Monday, with a group of about 250 people and a lecturer, whereas this is a small group of 40 with a tutor. These sessions are designed so we can ask questions, work through practical problems and get any questions we have answered. Today I was lucky, I got most of them right!
Lunch
After that, it’s lunchtime – or, hungry as I am, close enough in any case! Every Thursday there’s a food market outside the business and law buildings, which suits me just fine. Although we do have Student Union shops, a few restaurants and a Centra on campus it’s always nice to have something different. There’s so many options- Korean BBQ, vegan burgers, falafels, fish and chips – the hardest part is only picking one. I’m a newly converted vegetarian so I try a seitan shawarma – basically a kebab without any meat! I’ve never heard of it before but it’s delicious.
Readings
After that I do some readings, catching up on some work that’s been building up during the week. Lecturers generally give reading lists of suggested articles, cases and books, so if you’re interested in any topic you can really easily find out more about it. Today its about representation of different groups on Irish juries – women effectively didn’t serve on juries until 1977, and even today non-citizens can’t serve on juries. This is one of my favourite classes so I always like to follow up on things I hear. It makes college a bit more interesting because you can follow your own nose almost, towards what you like!
Property Law Lecture
After that I have a 2 hour lecture in property law. It’s late in the day, so I grab a coffee from the cafe in the law school to try and keep my eyes propped open! I needn’t have worried though. We’re learning succession and inheritance, and the rules of the wills. For example, we find out who gets priority in cases where people die without wills or that you can make gifts in wills conditional. We all leave determined make a will as soon as possible and decide who we’re going to leave our (plentiful) assets to! This is one of my favourite things about studying law, although some of the stuff is old fashioned and arcane, sometimes you come across things which are really practical and easy to understand.
Dinner
The day isn’t over yet, even if its 6pm. I’m on the badminton club committee and we have training this evening. I heat up my dinner that I brought in from home – veggie chilli with cornbread – in one of the microwaves that are dotted around UCD. They really are a life saver sometime, when it’s been a long day, hot food really does make the difference.
Training & Home Time
Training is on for another 2 hours. We have 6 full courts available for training so I get a fair few matches in, do a few drills and try and stretch the old-age out of my legs. I certainly dont feel only 21 at the end of the session! It’s 10.30 by the time I get home, and dark. This often happens, both leaving and returning to the house in darkness – but that’s part of the college experience! I find myself spending whole days here, in class, reading, but also socialising or playing sport. It’s all about balance.
And that’s it! I check whether I need to bring any books in for tomorrow and then its lights out! That was a day in the life of a B&L student! Hope you got something from it.
Conclusion
UCD’s Business & Law is ideal for those who are unsure of their future career path, as the flexible programme allows students to experience both areas in depth before making any ultimate decisions.
We get access to two world class schools, fascinating lectures and engaging assignments and readings. Furthermore, we constantly apply things learned from Business classes in our Law classes and vice versa. This forced exposure gives Business & Law students a unique multi-disciplinary perspective, which is highly valued by employers.
Initially, indecision led me to choose Business & Law – I wanted to keep my options open. In retrospect however, it’s one of the best decisions I have ever made.
