If final-year student Maria McNamara is a reliable guide, then the earth-sciences course at NUI Galway is "brilliant".

At school, in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, she liked physical geography better than the "social and economic stuff" and says that's a good guide for second-level students considering earth sciences as a career. "The first two years of the course are very general and third year is the turning point, with a very steep learning curve," she says.

Maria and fellow student Cara Morgan, who hails from Dalkey in Dublin, began their studies in NUI Galway in an undenominated science degree (cut-off points 2001: 310) and then chose to specialise in earth sciences.

There is also a denominated entry route (cut-off points 2001: 320).

Maria has already set her sights on a PhD, after a summer spent travelling.

She is torn between "paeleo and tectonics" and will probably go to Britain to continue her studies. Cara is less sure about her future but wants to spend a year travelling, before, perhaps, returning to college to do a more vocational master's programme in some aspect of earth sciences.

Professor Michael Williams says that typically about one-third of primary degree graduates go on to further study, with the remainder finding work in a variety of fields - geophysics, oceanography, hydrology, lecturing, environmental protection and meteorology. He says the total first-year class is usually in excess of 250 students - with many not having studied geography at school, it's back to basics for first year.

Both direct-entry earth-sciences students and those taking it through first science do practicals in the new first-year lab. However, the direct-entry students do some additional field work. In second year, between 40 and 60 students usually continue with earth sciences and numbers fall again in third and fourth year (with very few failures in third year, according to Williams).

All students must take a field course in second or third year. This includes field safety techniques - "how not to die on a mountain", says Williams with a grin. Having taken that, they must then spend a month, prior to fourth year, on a field project, making a geological map of a particular area, and writing a thesis about it. This is usually done in Ireland but some students have gone to France and Spain under the SOCRATES programme.

Why choose direct-entry over entry through general science? He says the principal difference is that third- and fourth-year students have a bigger choice of modules, including oceanography, geophysics and hydrology. But the course is in a state of flux. The departments of geology, oceanography and geophysics are working towards a new programme, which may be called earth and ocean sciences.

With the outdoor aspect to earth sciences, and the possibility of travel to farflung places, it might be expected that it is a career that would appeal primarily to young men. However, this year's final-year class in NUI Galway includes 11 Irish students, nine women and two men. Of the three overseas students, there are two men and one woman.

Williams says the course has attracted increasing numbers of women over the past few years. There are few, if any barriers, to women working in the field. He cites the British Antarctic survey, which involves spending two months in a tent under extreme weather conditions, and which now employs women.

NUI Galway does not offer taught postgraduate programmes in earth sciences but has an active research programme. There are 12 postgraduate students, mostly doing PhDs, on diverse topics. One project involves the development of an automated method to test the quality of crude oil, while another student is engaged on the study of the white zone, the zone between deep ocean and land.

If all this sounds very exotic, Maria and Cara warn that it's not like the TV documentaries, where earth scientists are often pictured running down a volcanic slope, pursued by a glowing lava flow. You have to study the science behind the phenomena, says Maria. Williams urges would-be students to come to college open days, meet the staff and students, ask questions, and find out what it's all about.

Correction: In last week's course profile, John McKay, chief executive of Cavan VEC, was misidentified as "John Cox". His job title was also given incorrectly.