Aaron Donohoe

One thing I cannot fathom about being a student, is how are we to finance ourselves throughout college?

I am finding it increasingly difficult to scrape by, mainly as there is a massive delay in the Maintenance grants and the fact that part time jobs are pretty much nil in Dublin city, so seeing as I have no regular income from employment, I am using my savings to just get by — food, travel etc. I’m slowly squandering my ‘upgrade’ fund (money to buy myself a laptop for college).

Pretty soon if the grants don’t come through, and as my savings account diminishes I may be forced to leave college due to financial constraints. I have already given up all ‘luxuries’ — I haven’t been for a night out in quite a while & I no longer have a car as I no longer drive because:
– parking tariffs are extortionate in college
– insurance rates have increased dramatically — especially for recently qualified young male drivers
– I pay for monthly rambler tickets, so fuck it I’m going to make use of them
– driving in traffic for more than 40 minutes gives me intolerable lower back-pain (since my accident)

I know that I am not alone. Quite a few students I know are in the same financial situation, where they simply cannot afford to hold on in there in college if the maintenance grants do not come through in the next few weeks. It’s bad enough that fees have soared and the resources slashed, but to rub salt into the wounds by denying grants will cause uproar as they’d be picking on those who cannot afford college without subsidisation — which is quite a lot of people, myself included. And since the colleges aren’t more than helpful once grants are refused, it could see a lot of people having to leave. They seemingly expect you to have €1500 in your back pocket within days or you’re gone.

That’s enough from me. Don’t want to seem like I’m being a moany bollocks…

Today was my first official exam in college — Java (Instantiable Classes)

Despite my initial dismissal of Java, I am starting to get the hang of it — like HTML it’s more or less repetition with the variables being the main changing faces. Our exam today was based in Instantiable Classes and calculating integers. Exhilarating I know. But more or less involved regurgitating the main elements of several Apps we created previously, and since the exam was an open book exam in pairs, it allowed for quick reference and coding.

I’m not too sure if everything is 100% correct, but it does work nonetheless. I’ve put the code up for my own reference, but I’d also like some feedback from any Java moguls out there (Steo )

Once the Object Diagram was created we had to create the instantiable class, including the methods required to calculate the integer of in the input product:

class Numbers{

//Declare Data Members
private int num1;
private int num2;
private int num3;
private int ans;

//Constructor
public void ans(){
num1 = 0;
num2 = 0;
num3 = 0;
}

//Set Methods
public void setnum1(int a){
num1 = a;
}

public void setnum2(int b){
num2 = b;
}

public void setnum3(int c){
num3 = c;
}

//Compute
public void compute(){
ans = (num1 * num2 * num3);
}

//Get method
public int getAns(){
return(ans);
}

Next we had to create the application itself:

import javabook.*;

class NumbersApp{
public static void main(String args[]){

//Declare Objects
MainWindow mWindow;
MessageBox mBox;
InputBox iBox;
Numbers myNum;

//Create Objects
mWindow = new MainWindow();
mBox = new MessageBox(mWindow);
iBox = new InputBox(mWindow);
myNum = new Numbers();

//Show Objects
mWindow.show();

//Declare Variables
int num1;
int num2;
int num3;
int ans;

//Get Input
num1 = iBox.getInteger(“Please enter First Number: “);
num2 = iBox.getInteger(“Please enter Second Number: “);
num3 = iBox.getInteger(“Please enter Third Number: “);

myNum.setnum1(num1);
myNum.setnum2(num2);
myNum.setnum3(num3);

//Compute
myNum.compute();
ans = myNum.getAns();
mBox.show(“Your answer is ” + ans);
}
}

It’s Week 3 of college and we’ve more or less been assigned our primary projects for this semester. Since my class only contains like 12 people, it has been merged with Computing for this year. Which is brilliant for me as Jim & Steo are now in my class. It’s like primary & secondary school all over again

Since we’ve been given our projects it’s really dawned on me that there’s more to a computing degree then just bytes and turning things off and back on again. For instance, we’ve a module called Personal & Professional Development which is to hone our presentation and public address skills. Hence why our main project for this semester in that class is to find an interesting business related topic and in groups of 4, research it and present it. We’ve decided to do ours on the Wal-Mart effect.

For xHTML & Web Design, we have to design and develop a website within a criteria — containing more than 6 pages, using CSS tags where appropriate, make the site fully valid etc. I had to fight tooth and nail to do this project solo. Mainly as I have so many ideas for a certain organisation that working with someone who isn’t interested in the topic might hinder the result. I also would like to work at my own pace.

For Computing, we have to develop in pairs a Business plan using MSWord and a Budget for said business using Excel. Sounds easy but it’s more complicated then you’d think. I need to get watching the apprentice for business ideas!

For Programming we haven’t been giving a CA yet, but I’m sure it’s just around the corner

This may sound liked a bribed post, but it’s not. I just love my student travelcard.

I get the full benefits from the cheap bus, train and luas fares, but also discounts with McDonalds, O2, CDWow and now Subway give me a discount (which is a good thing as I’m eating there most days ). An additional bonus is that I can get my Macbook Pro for €1080 instead of the usual €1149 from the Apple Education store.

It’s well worth the €15 in my opinion, with the amount of money you save. Although, an added bonus for me was the fact I got it for €3 when I signed up for an AIB Student account

Well my first day as a fully fledged college student is over. It was a good informal day, more so focused on getting us all registered up and making us aware of the various student services and supports available as well as finding out what type of learner you are — I’m a Well Rounded Learner who has a Kinetic preference to learning (doing more-so than reading, writing or listening).

I had contemplated driving in this morning as it was a fairly early start of 9AM — early for me who hasn’t seen anything earlier than midday in a long time. I abandoned the driving concept when it became apparent how expensive the parking is. I went in with Jim & Steo, who are doing the Hons Computing course, despite the fact that Jim can’t turn on a computer. I eventually got myself registered around 9:30, but I don’t think I was supposed to get registered at that time as just before lunch my group were scheduled for registration which left me to arse around and go for an early lunch. Alas, the sniping reps accosted me and within 15 minutes I had 3 student bank accounts in Bank of Ireland, AIB & Ulsterbank!

Ulsterbank got to me first offering me free money, an overdraft and laser card with good student deals on the services. I signed up as I had planned on moving away from Permanent TSB. Following this I was grabbed by an AIB rep who offered the same as Ulsterbank, except I get my student Travel card then and there for €3. Too good to refuse. And Bank of Ireland offered me the same, except instead of the travel card I got offered free return flights to some European airports. They seen me coming.

All in all, following a subway lunch, the afternoon went well. Most of it spent in the Student Union playing Darts (badly) or Pool. Got all my network login details, student ID, attendance key fob, various tours, and got my timetable which has made me quite happy as I get every Friday off, half-day Wednesday and finish at 4pm everyday. I was completely knocked me out when I got home. I fell asleep around 8pm and only woke up about 30 minutes ago. Don’t have to worry about sleep, I wasn’t getting any sleep with the insomnia the pain killers cause.

I start lectures 9am on Monday morning with two hours of Programming, followed by 2 hours if Maths and then XHTML & Web after lunch.

Tomorrow morning I will be beginning a BSc in Business Information Systems in NCI. Things have only really sunk in now — the fact that I am no longer in school, the fact that I won’t see a lot of my friends on a daily basis and the fact that now I will be fending for myself out in the big bad world! It’s quite surreal.

I can’t wait until I get into college life. I’m lucky with the fact that I know a few people starting tomorrow, so I’m not completely alone with starting college — although I might be hitting Starbucks early…just to fit in