Info Day is happening on Wednesday 3 January, 9:30 - 4:30pm at the University of Sydney Camperdown/Darlington Campus.
It could change your life. It did for me...
I have a confession. I did not consider Sydney Uni as a serious preference at first. The UAI cut-offs seemed too high, the uni was a little too far and all my friends were going to a university in our local area. Then, on Info Day 2004, I took my first walk from Redfern Station to the Main Quad (via Eastern Ave) and everything changed. I knew I was born to be at this uni!
I had a terrible dilemma. My UAI was just under the previous year's cut off for my dream course (Arts/Law). It was unlikely that I would get into law. But I had an offer for an Arts scholarship (for up to 4 years) at this university. It was a choice between my dream course or a gift of $20,000. Not a decision to be taken lightly, hey?
My folks gave me good advice... they said, don't worry about the money, your happiness is more important. I agreed with them and (almost) resolved myself to saying “no” to the scholarship and studying law elsewhere. Then I went to Info Day and discovered that there was a possibility of getting into my dream course and still accepting the scholarship.
Things I learnt at Info Day that I didn't know before:
1. I could apply to transfer into Arts/Law from Arts after one year and the scholarship would transfer with me (so long as I got the Dean's approval, which I was told would not be that difficult as I was remaining in the Arts Faculty).
2. Transferring into law is difficult (you need high marks and a UAI very close to the cut-off). But if you don't get in the first time round, there are other options. There is the option of Graduate Law after completing my first degree. I could even do law at the Legal Practitioners’ Admission Board.
3. Sydney Uni has a captivatingly, beautiful campus.
4. The Arts degree has a peer mentor program for first years, where you get buddy-ed up with an older Arts student in your major.
5. Nerida (from the Arts Faculty, who helped answer all my questions) is a super nice person.
That night – the night before preferences had to be finalised – I changed my preferences completely! I put Arts/Law @ Sydney as my first preference. I inserted Arts @ Sydney as my third preference. Lots of my other Arts/Law preferences dropped off my list (that was the scariest internet form I've ever filled out!). With my UAI, I was almost conclusively going to be studying Arts @ Sydney. I accepted the scholarship.
The good news: a year later I was offered a transfer into Arts/Law @ Sydney and took my scholarship with me. Dream course + $20k scholarship = very happy customer. It took hard work and one year longer to get where I wanted, but that next year, I finally felt I had accomplished what I set out to do at the beginning of Year 12. I took photos of me and my best friend at my first law lecture. Geeky, I know. :-)
So the moral of the story is not to change your preferences for any amount of money. Rather, the moral is to come to Info Day and find out how to make educated decisions about the best path for you to take. And if you speak to someone called Nerida at the Arts stand, say “hi” for me – because her useful information and friendliness was the decisive contributor for a decision which changed my life!
Find out everything you need to know about what's happening on Info Day. You can even print your own customised timetable for the day!
Comments
Is this university opened to foreigners?
Posted by: Thai Radio | January 1, 2007 02:58 PM
Hi Ghassan,
i just went to info day yesterday and ended up more confused... I too really want to do law but I am now tossing up between arts law and commerce law. I'm really interested in economics, politics, social policy etc but despise the accounting/mathematically based nature of the commerce degree. If i did arts/law is it possible to do all my majors from the B stream eg not do any languages etc? Also in either arts or commerce law is it better to do one or two majors. I want to do two but i also don't want to do tooooo much study...
Posted by: Mel | January 4, 2007 02:50 PM
Hello Mel,
In an Arts degree (whether that’s a Bachelor of Arts by itself or as part of a combined degree programme) you must major in at least one ‘Table A’ subject. However, these Table A subjects aren’t just limited to things like languages but include the whole breadth of Arts subjects: such as ancient history, anthropology, history, philosophy, linguistics, Asian studies and scores more (for the full listing see: http://www.usyd.edu.au/handbooks/arts/08_tables_a.shtml). So to answer your question, no, it’s not possible only to major in Table B subjects in an Arts degree.
Also, if you are interested in the political and social policy side of economics, have you considered the Bachelor of Economic and Social Sciences degree programme? This degree can also be combined with the Bachelor of Laws degree.
As for the question of one or two majors, regardless of the number of majors you choose you will study the same number of credit points, and so, from that perspective, there is no real difference in workload. And if you choose majors that really interest you, you will probably enjoy the work!
Posted by: Sikeli | January 4, 2007 05:15 PM
Hi Mel,
The good news is that all the Combined Law courses at USYD have the same UAC number. So you put "Combined Law" as your preference, and you don't have to choose what the combination (e.g. Arts, Commerce, Economics etc.) will be until you get an offer. So more time to find out information. Hooray!
To answer your question in a straight-forward way, consider doing law with a Bachelor of Economics and Social Science degree(http://www.econ.usyd.edu.au/course/FH026.html), rather than either Arts/Law or Commerce/Law. The Eco/Social Science degree takes the economic and social policy aspects of the Economics or Commerce degrees, without the finance/accounting emphasis. It allows you to do subjects from the Arts faculty, which include a major in Social Policy, as well as subjects from the Economics and Business faculty, which include subjects in government, economics and political economy.
In an Arts degree, you have to do at least one Arts (Table A) major. If you do two or three majors in an Arts degree, only one of those majors can be a non-Arts (Table B) major. Social Policy is an Arts (Table A) major, but "Government and International Relations" or "Economics" or "Political Economy" would be non-Arts (Table B) majors. So you would have to choose between them in an Arts degree.
It's up to you how many majors you do. You will not be doing any more work by doing more than one major. However you will have less choice in picking your subjects, as you will need to make sure you satisfy all the requirements for a major (which include compulsory subjects or mimimum numbers of subjects - known as "credit points" - in that discipline). So you may find yourself doing subjects you're not so interested in to satisfy cumpulsory or credit point requirements for a major in that discipline.
Posted by: Ghassan | January 4, 2007 05:35 PM
Hello Thai,
Yes, this university accepts students from across the globe. Check out our information for international students here: http://www.usyd.edu.au/fstudent/international/undergrad/index.shtml
Posted by: Ghassan | January 4, 2007 05:37 PM
If you're doing an arts degree you need at least one major from Part A - which are the Arts Faculty subjects. Sociology and social policy are in the Arts Faculty. There're the new Global Studies units that might interest you too.
Posted by: Jane | January 5, 2007 08:27 PM
hey ghassan,
i was totes at usyd (again) for the info day, and i totally saw you (and i've met you at some other usyd thing too, im such a groupie). but the point is i saw you and wanted to say hi, but i only whispered to my friends "omg its ghassan i read his blog it's pretty darn cool".
BUT MY QUESTION IS: are you taking english? what's it like in uni? i used to be really great at english, and i always really liked it, but i didnt do so well in hsc english, and i didnt enjoy it so much. i think that was just because how the syllabus required us to approach texts from a conceptual pov, instead of just studying and appreciating the texts for themselves. um, anyway, i keep rambling. so, question: what's english like in uni (if you know), and should i do it?
Posted by: hum | January 5, 2007 10:25 PM
Hi Hum,
This comment made me laugh. Blog groupies... how funny!
To answer your question, I have taken English before but it hasn't been the focus of my degree. The two English subjects I've taken were "Inventing Modernity" and "Fiction, Film and Power".
The first was a look at big texts written, pretty much since industialisation. We looked at Virginia Woolf, Gothic literature (e.g. Frankenstein), Coleridge's poetry etc. You are invited to analyse how a text is put together (it's features, techniques etc.) to convey its message/theme/theoretical concepts.
The second subject I did looked at fewer texts, but with more depth. My focus was on 1984 by George Orwell, Again I closely read the text to make comments on society and bring out the author's ideas.
There are similarities between HSC English and university English. I actually like the premise behind HSC English (I think it unfairly gets a lot of flak it doesn't deserve). At university, you may be asked to analyse how a text is constructed to make comments on the social world. The biggest difference between HSC and uni English is the depth of your reading - you go into texts at a deeper level. Also you don't try and fit texts into concepts like "Change", "Journeys" etc... but you will analyse comments a text will make based on its cultural context. For example, you can't understand texts of modernity without understanding the changing social world and industrialisation. Similarly, you may use theories such as ideas from feminism(s) or postmodernism to critique texts.
You can actually look at a full range of English subjects, to get an idea of the sort of thing you can study: http://edutech.arts.usyd.edu.au/Artsonline/v2_1_UOST/dsp_uosList.cfm?SID=2 (Just scroll down to the ENGL XXXX codes - these are the English subjects).
Also, contact the Arts faculty to get more information.
Posted by: Ghassan | January 5, 2007 11:16 PM
Hi Hum,
I also forgot to say. You can enrol in subjects and change your mind later - as long as you do it before a certain date(you'll have to check that date at the Student Centre; it is the last day you can withdraw from a unit without penatly or having to pay HECS/Fees for it).
So if you like, you can enrol in a few subjects that seem interesting to you and if you don't like them in the first couple of weeks, you can change.
Posted by: Ghassan | January 5, 2007 11:19 PM
Hi Mel,
Congrats on finishing the HSC, and also on coming to our Info Day!
I completely empathise with you - choosing your degree is one of the most difficult things you've ever had to do, so taking your time is really important.
If you did Arts/Law, you would have to choose at least one 'Table A' major - the traditionally 'arts' subjects like English, History, languages, Art History...and then you could choose a Table B major, from the faculties of Economics and Business, Education, or Science. However, you don't have to choose your majors right away. In fact, your first year is basically a 'survey' year, where you get to choose subjects you think you might enjoy, with no obligation to continue doing them. If there is a subject you think you'd like to major in, though, you can definitely start doing it in first year.
In terms of the number of majors, most people have two. It doesn't really mean your study load will increase, as you will be doing the same amount of subjects as anyone else, you'll just concentrate your focus on a particular area.
Good luck with all the decision-making, Mel!
Lauren
Posted by: Lauren | January 8, 2007 05:39 AM
Hey Ghasasan,
I got a couple info from the uni I wanted to go(which is UWS) concerning about entry gain(UAI of mine was about 60.90).Another university gave me a main round offer at Albury-Wodonga(Latrobe Uni).Now I got a question to ask....If I were to accept my offer and enrol down at Latrobe would I lose being in the late and final rounds for other uni's?I only got little over a week to decide as well because the day my offer lapse is the day when late round offer starts showing.I am in a position now where I would gamble or choose a risky option.Could you please advice or help in any way possible about this situation.That would be fully appreciated.
Adam
Posted by: Adam | January 22, 2007 06:13 PM
Nerida is awesome! So very very cheerful and perky... all the time!
Posted by: Tamika | January 26, 2007 12:04 PM