Engineering/Commerce (1 Viewer)

[Black Hawker]

Hi,

I'm thinking of doing Engineering with a degree in Commerce (Engineering/Commerce double degree). The field I'm interested in are Biomedical, electrical, photonic/renewable energy.

Since Biomedical Engineering is a masters course, will I be able to do say, an Electrical Engineering/Commerce degree and then do a biomedical masters course on top of that?

I might be a little confused here...

Thanks.

 

[watatank]

You'd be better off doing mechatronic rather than electrical if you intend on doing biomedical.

 

[elfm]

I'm fairly certain you can't do comm/eng/biomed... but you can do a masters course after you finish your comm/eng degree

 

[Black Hawker]

I'm fairly certain you can't do comm/eng/biomed... but you can do a masters course after you finish your comm/eng degree

So I can do the commerce/enginering degree then add Biomedical engineering on top of that as masters?

And electrical was only an example.

 

[elfm]

no i said you CAN'T do them together. you can only do 2 at once and then do the 3rd one later after you graduate.

the uni only offers you a degree in comm/eng or eng/m.biomed... and you will graduate with that.

BUT you can do a postgraduate masters course once you graduate from comm/eng, which will add like an extra 1 or 2 years (only guessing) after you graduate. there's more info about graduate biomed in the 2nd link.

http://www.handbook.unsw.edu.au/undergraduate/programs/2007/3715.html

http://www.handbook.unsw.edu.au/undergraduate/specialisations/2007/3727BiomedicalEngineering.html

ofcourse u can always do eng/biomed and then do commerce after you graduate

but why do u wanna do so many courses!!??!

i'd suggest doing mechanical eng/comm and forget about biomed.

 

[Black Hawker]

Alright. Thanks for the link. I'll have a look at it now.

I want to do biomedical because I just came back from a week's work experience at Ventracor, and found it quite interesting...

I want commerce because that's another one of my option and I want to start a business later when I have the money.

 

[elfm]

when you have enough money (i.e. when you have some experience) most engineers are already very good at management. you don't need a commerce degree to start your own place. banks and other stats firms hire engineers all the time because of their ability to think outside of the box and to get to an answer without fairying around.

edit: i think i misinterpreted ur sentence but oh well

 

[elfm]

also i'd suggest not to do comp/IT unless you have experienced a computer programming course before and liked it. i was once fairly eager to do a comp course because yea, i like computers and do stuff on them all the time... but literally spending your whole day there looking at some code, trying to make a crazy loop or find an error in the script is massively shit. it bores the hell outta you.

of course this is only my experience of doing a comp subject in my degree.

plus it's not like IT is a good job nowadays anyway engineering (especially mining) is where the jobs and money's at!

 

[Black Hawker]

when you have enough money (i.e. when you have some experience) most engineers are already very good at management. you don't need a commerce degree to start your own place. banks and other stats firms hire engineers all the time because of their ability to think outside of the box and to get to an answer without fairying around.

edit: i think i misinterpreted ur sentence but oh well

Yeah that's true...

I'll probably think about it, but I was thinking if I do commerce now and if/when I get bored of engineering I can go straight into another career, instead of taking a couple of years longer to do a commerce degree.

But thanks for the info.

 

[Black Hawker]

also i'd suggest not to do comp/IT unless you have experienced a computer programming course before and liked it. i was once fairly eager to do a comp course because yea, i like computers and do stuff on them all the time... but literally spending your whole day there looking at some code, trying to make a crazy loop or find an error in the script is massively shit. it bores the hell outta you.

of course this is only my experience of doing a comp subject in my degree.

plus it's not like IT is a good job nowadays anyway engineering (especially mining) is where the jobs and money's at!

Yeah, I'm not thinking of doing that. I had some exprience at the work experience, and I was like WTH, I'm lost. But as a hobbie learning to do programming is alright.

 

[elfm]

Yeah that's true...

I'll probably think about it, but I was thinking if I do commerce now and if/when I get bored of engineering I can go straight into another career, instead of taking a couple of years longer to do a commerce degree.

But thanks for the info.

lol a lot of my friends doing eng/comm have only done a few subjects of eng and have done comm only for about 2 years straight. the easier work hours (comm people are bludgers ) and probably easier work is certainly appealing to most people

 

[Black Hawker]

lol a lot of my friends doing eng/comm have only done a few subjects of eng and have done comm only for about 2 years straight. the easier work hours (comm people are bludgers ) and probably easier work is certainly appealing to most people

Do I get to choose the subjects or does the faculty chooses it? Sorry if I seem a bit lost...

 

[elfm]

first yr you have to do everything they give you

but after that you can do anything you want

 

[Black Hawker]

Do you know how long the Biomedical engineering masters course is?

 

[elfm]

the postgrad masters biomed course goes for 3 sessions or 1.5 years

http://www.gsbme.unsw.edu.au/crsinfo.htm

 

[Black Hawker]

the postgrad masters biomed course goes for 3 sessions or 1.5 years

http://www.gsbme.unsw.edu.au/crsinfo.htm

Oh alright. Thanks.

 

[Black Hawker]

You wanna do Electrical at UNSW??

Your mad good luck being the 20% that get the degree (the rest drop out and im not kidding)

Why? Is it better at UniSyd? Is it only 20%?!

 

[Testpilot]

Do I get to choose the subjects or does the faculty chooses it? Sorry if I seem a bit lost...

You must do the core subjects for each degree. Then you must do the subjects required for your major (e.g. accounting in commerce, mechanical in engo).

Uni's will differ in the structure of their degrees. E.g. At UOW you are recommended to complete the engineering part first (therefore the first few years are mainly engineering subjects) then do the commerce subjects so that for the first 3-4 years you'll do 4 engo subjects and one com subject per session with the last year being straight commerce. However you can structure your degree how you want so long as you meet the requirements to be awarded the degree the uni won't care.

Why? Is it better at UniSyd? Is it only 20%?!

Engineering generally has a high failure rate. This is due to people either not being capable of doing the degree in the first place or not wanting to do the work (because they aren't enjoying the subjects). First year subjects have high failure rates (one of my maths subjects had a failure rate around 50%). Be prepared to do a lot of maths, physics and chem (and practical applications of those sciences). The commerce subjects should then be a walk in the park compared to engo.

 

[Black Hawker]

Hmm, thanks for that heads up Testpilot. I'm reconsidering my options.

I currently don't do Chemistry - will that be a problem?

 

[elfm]

just do a bridging course for chem before uni starts... it covers most of the important stuff from yr12 and only goes about 2-4 weeks (depending on where you do it... i did mine at usyd and it lasted for 2 weeks, unsw is 4 i think).

electrical/telecom engineering are known to be the hardest eng courses, so unless you're very interested in electrical stuff already, you might want to look at other options like mechanical eng which would complement biomed eng more IMO.

unsw tends to be better at most forms of engineering than usyd, but it all really comes down to what you like about each uni. they both have pros and cons so weigh them up and decide... going to an open day usually helps.

edit: might i point out - most of the people that fail eng are people that shouldnt be there in the first place anyway... if you truly think you can do engineering then you should be fine. a lot of people are there because of the relatively low uai cutoff (it was 78-80 a few yrs ago, but now they made everything 85 to sort out the wannabe engo's)