Int'l Studies

[Sound&Fury]

You can hide this advertisement by registering.

Some of these questions were posted ages ago, but meh. I did one semester of International Studies before I transferred to Arts, but I know enough to be of some help.

Originally Posted by Miffstaa

Hi,
I was wondering if any of the streams in the degree have a larger focus on history?
I know that Macq do but i'm not so sure about UNSW.

The European Studies stream contains many European history courses. The other streams contain little or no history orientated courses at all, although you can study history as an elective in every single stream.

Originally Posted by oth16

Hi, i am keen on doing the International Studies degree @ unsw
but im torn between this course and the media&communications course
in the UAC guide it says students who do this course may have a career in journalism which is what i like about it. I was just wondering if anyone could tell me if they know of people who have done this course and what they are doing/planning to do as a career now.

I don't know any graduates, I'm afraid. International Studies itself is a relatively new course at UNSW - it's only about seven years old.

One thing though: I don't know much about journalism, but whether this degree is suitable for you depends on what career you want to pursue, and what employers in that area want. If you want go into journalism, I would check whether employers accept International Studies degrees. The problem is that International Studies doesn't actually have any courses on journalism itself, so this might be problematic if employers are looking for people who have studied journalism proper.

Originally Posted by -Cake-or-Death-

sorry ive written this in a few threads but i like to obtain as many opnions as i can. Is it better to do Int studies at Macquarie uni. or do BA/Int Relations at UNSW and attempt to internally transfer to Int studies at unsw with my current uai of 86.05 (91.05 with hsc plus scheme). my main issues being that macquarie is a little far, and the fact that macquaries int studies is 3 years while UNSW's is 4 years.

I would lean towards Macquarie, because their Arts faculty is generally better than UNSW's. UNSW's faculty has become increasingly substandard in recent years (don't let the comparatively high UAI fool you), and I think Macquarie offers more courses in the degree anyway.

The only reason that I can think of to go to UNSW is because of the compulsory overseas exchange program, which explains why the degree is a year longer than what most other universities offer. If you don't care about going on exchange, then this is obviously irrelevant.

[PwarYuex]

Originally Posted by Sound&Fury

The only reason that I can think of to go to UNSW is because of the compulsory overseas exchange program, which explains why the degree is a year longer than what most other universities offer. If you don't care about going on exchange, then this is obviously irrelevant.

There's a compulsory semester away for MQ students, although most decent students will do other trips (eg another semester or the short trips in the break) as well.

That being said, I would look at what you get out of the international options; where you can stay, what you will be studying, how much the uni gives you, etc. Learning a language at your home uni is almost irrelevant outside of preparing you for learning it in-country, so I would say to not look at anything outside of the latter.

As an example, I'd be personally unhappy with the semester-away options for MQ students learning German, but I'd be really happy with the options for MQ students learning Japanese. If you're doing Japanese, you can go to Waseda Uni, you're in the middle of the awesome districts of Tokyo, you get great support and language classes, etc etc. If you're doing German, I reckon you haven't got as great a deal because of the partner unis.

Tl;dr version: Look at specifics - what language are you going to do, what do you want to get out from your uni, etc?

Just my two Euros.

[eyetalian]

hey what does UNSW pay for if you do int'studies if anyone knows?

like just flights or accom as well or nothing?

[Arwon]

They give you a set grant now, somewhere around the 4K mark. It's supposed to cover flights and general costs.

[nunasdream]

For the overseas studies part, can you choose where to go? or is there a list of specific countries?

[Wehrmacht]

Hi, i'm currently in the midst of my HSC. I'm looking to do Int sudies at either UMAQ or UNSW. Does the degree from UNSW bring greater prestige i.e greater employment opportunities due to the fact you need an ATAR of 95 to enter whereas in you only need an ATAR of 82 to get into the same course at MQ? Also for one of my studied languages i was planning on doing Russian which is offered at MAQ but i can't seem to find it on the UNSW course information although i have heard it is offered by UNSW through correspondence which would be less then ideal. Anyway to my question. I have to achieve an ATAR of 90 to get in (with the HSC help scheme) but i fear i may fall just short, what options do i have in this case and is it worth it to pursue those options or should i just settle for doing the degree at Maq?

[mw12310]

Originally Posted by Wehrmacht

Hi, i'm currently in the midst of my HSC. I'm looking to do Int sudies at either UMAQ or UNSW. Does the degree from UNSW bring greater prestige i.e greater employment opportunities due to the fact you need an ATAR of 95 to enter whereas in you only need an ATAR of 82 to get into the same course at MQ? Also for one of my studied languages i was planning on doing Russian which is offered at MAQ but i can't seem to find it on the UNSW course information although i have heard it is offered by UNSW through correspondence which would be less then ideal. Anyway to my question. I have to achieve an ATAR of 90 to get in (with the HSC help scheme) but i fear i may fall just short, what options do i have in this case and is it worth it to pursue those options or should i just settle for doing the degree at Maq?

I really don't think the ATAR really brings much 'prestige' by the time you graduate - they will look at your university grades if anything. Also consider whether you want to go on exchange for one or two semesters - UNSW is two semesters and MQ is one semester - but with MQ you get to do an internship too. Based on your situation, if you are keen on doing Russian, I would choose MQ since they have quite an established department in Russian compared to other Australian Universities - both language and culture units. Also I couldn't imagine studying by correspondence for a language - it would be really difficult i reckon

Other options would be to do Arts at UNSW or Intstud at MQ and then transfer, I have heard that transferring into Int studies is really difficult at UNSW though because they have a very limited number of places (hence the high UAI), - i think i read that somewhere on here...

I'm in Inststud at MQ and I reckon it is pretty good, I was in the same boat as you - I always wanted to go to UNSW, but didn't make it in, I was thinking of applying to transfer into UNSW Intstud, but I decided I liked MQ better goodluckkk