If you're one of those sad cases filling out a CAO form, courses covering the meaning of life are probably high on your check list. If you still haven't had the call, a B Sc in applied physics at DCU may, believe it or not, be the answer.
Dr Brian MacCraith, a senior lecturer on the course, explains: "Physics is about understanding the whole physical world around you, from galaxies to the components of matter, the big to the small. It answers the fundamental questions. This course is for people who are curious, logical, reasonably numerate - you don't need to do honours maths for the Leaving Cert - and are not given to waffling."
There are those of us who might faint at the idea of anything beginning with `phy', but applied physics is not exclusive to the weirdo mad genius. According to Ruth Saunders, a thirdyear student on this four-year degree, "scientists like to make the whole thing seem a lot more complicated than it is - it's good for their egos. They also tend to have pretty poor communication skills - I've found myself talking to people in my class about something I understood when I was five and they have me totally bewildered.
"It's easy to be intimidated if you look at a blackboard full of strange symbols, but these equations are frequently about something like what happens when a person is walking down the road and their foot is banging against the foot path!"
The course has been running for 18 years now. There are 50 places for first-years and last year's cut-off points were 330. "The points are relatively low", says McCraith, "but this is not a reflection on the quality - rather it reflects the fact that we take in a lot of students."
Black holes, subatomic particles, lasers - this is the degree that goes boldly in search of all you ever needed to know. The emphasis is on the application of physics, rather than the purely theoretical. Electronics and computing, tools of the trade for the modern scientist, constitute a substantial component of the skills training.
The courses taught within the degree provide substantial specialisation in these areas: semiconductor materials, lasers, optical fibres and optoelectronics, electronics and computational physics.
Each year consists of two semesters. In the first two years, courses are provided in classical and modern physics as well as maths, electronics and computing. From second year on students choose optional courses such as guided wave optics and digital signal processing.
Third-year students do an industrial placement, for which they are paid. The placement spans the second semester and summer of third year and, according to MacCraith, many companies which take students on placement make job offers pending graduation.
A major element of the final year programme is a lab-based project, which gives scope for individual initiative.
Students on the course have an unusually broad range of interests and ambitions. Cormac Purcell, a third year whose placement is with ICON Systems where he will work as a programmer, says: "Astronomy is a big passion of mine and this course is a route to a career in that area. I've always been interested in physics - it's the one discipline which makes an effort to explain everything."
THE placement is a big attraction for lots of the students who apply. Anne Harris, in fourth year, says: "I had always been interested in sciences - I had an excellent physics teacher at school - and I was attrated to this particular degree by the placement.
"I worked in Intel for the plant improvement engineering department on my placement. I was in making their database more user-friendly and putting it up on the web site. It was a great place to go on a placement because they don't treat you like a student. They left me to get on with my job, there was no coming over and checking up on me or anything like that."
According to McCraith, there is currently a 100 per cent employment rate for graduates. Physicists are in demand in a range of professions from weather forecasters to astronauts.
It's also a subject for people interested in trying to save the planet. "Students on this course are eligible to work on environmental issues such as pollution monitoring and remote sensing," says MacCraith.
"There is actually an amazing versatility of career choice for our students because they leave here with great skills. There has been a demand for physics graduates from the financial sector recently where the analytical and logical approach of our students is viewed as important. Physicists are particularly in demand in industry.
"An important point for anyone choosing a course to bear in mind is that the word, engineer, features in the job description of a lot of our graduates. It recurs time and again on the job pages in national papers - software engineer, telecommunications engineer, process engineer."
Postgraduate studies are also popular with students. "I'd quite like to spend my time researching things like life on other planets and different phenomena in the various galaxies," says Purcell, "so I'll have to go abroad and do postgraduate work." Harris is hoping to do "a master's in optoelectronics, so I'll have to go to abroad as well."
Saunders is looking into doing "some sort of post-grad in the States, probably something more theoretical."
The drop-out rate on the programme is very low. "It's just very interesting," says Saunders, "although there's no point anticipating Star Trek transportation and warp speed - these aren't typical final-year projects."
