How hard is 75 WAM in b.Arts (1 Viewer)

[theloorloor]

I had a friend who tried this, fucked up, gave up and transfered to macquarie to do commerce.

lmafakfao

 

[Frostbitten]

I had a friend who tried this, fucked up, gave up and transfered to macquarie to do commerce.

That's what I fear. I can definitely get into UTS business or Macquarie - Professional Accounting. Simply the difference would be this, I do one of these lower tier courses and finish after 3 years and go into the workforce, or take a gamble and go through arts or science, hopefully get 75+ or = WAM and transfer to Commerce where I will finish after 4 years of uni and essentially have one year less of working and getting up some experience. The only benefit I could see with UNSW is the prestige behind its name and perhaps slightly better teaching standards. Of course because I haven't been in the industry I am fairly clueless as to what this difference means to employers. My plan is to get into either a big 4 company or high mid-tier company, get a CA and progress from there on.

I appreciate all your help guys.

 

[Emily Howard]

Is that inherent with an Arts degree that you get a "clusterfuck" of essays? Would it be perhaps better to get into Science and transfer at UNSW?

arts degrees yes

depends, science does get a clusterfuck of mid sem exams + finals can be clustered but best ask brent or something bout science

 

[brent012]

From what I have heard you usually have a bit of a trade off between essays or assignments and heavily weighted finals when comparing science or engineering to arts.

If commerce is your aim then don't do a B Science, it's far from easy and i'm guessing isn't what you are interested in. If you must start off at UNSW and really don't want to end up with a B Sc or B Arts just start off with arts and try to major in something like economics and do as many commerce subjects as you can in the early semesters under the guise of electives. The problem with that is if you don't get a transfer you might be in a strange predicament. But if a year or so down the line a transfer isn't looking likely you'd probably be able to abandon ship and transfer to Macq Commerce or UTS Business, they would probably be pretty lenient with credit recognition too.

On the other hand, from what I have seen having done a few subjects myself and talking to others, getting a high WAM and GPA isn't difficult in first year Business at UTS if you put effort in. The problem is Go8 universities are only lenient with credit recognition from other Go8 universities, so you'll probably get few subjects credited and maybe just as electives which almost equates to a waste of a year. There is also the possiblity you will never get that transfer or like the university you start at and never bother.

 

[Frostbitten]

Is it pretty hard to get into the big 4 accounting firms or high mid-tier unis if you do say UTS business and maintain a 70-75 WAM as well has having multiple extra curricular activities?

 

[Jinks]

Personally if commerce is what you want to do that's where I'd start, even if it's not at your first preference of uni's, stick it out for the 6/12 months then try and transfer. I'm not sure about arts specifically but I think a WAM of 75 is manageable if you do the required readings each week, answer the tutorial questions set, attend the lectures and do a few practice exams along with being organised when it comes to assessment. All together it's not impossible but it's not the easiest thing to do

 

[Frostbitten]

Imma bump dis shit.

Is it pretty hard to get into the big 4 accounting firms or high mid-tier unis if you do say UTS business and maintain a 70-75 WAM as well has having multiple extra curricular activities? Do you guys know of people which have gotten into the big 4 and such without getting like some ridiculous WAM in a degree like UTS business/Macq-Pro Accounting?

 

[brent012]

I've met some people at UTS on cadetships with big 4 firms. I don't think the big 4 discriminate a lot based on university. I have heard that they do have a bias towards CAs over CPAs though, and that a greater majority of UNSW students end up doing the CA program in comparison to other unis for whatever reason.

 

[Crobat]

Imma bump dis shit.

Is it pretty hard to get into the big 4 accounting firms or high mid-tier unis if you do say UTS business and maintain a 70-75 WAM as well has having multiple extra curricular activities? Do you guys know of people which have gotten into the big 4 and such without getting like some ridiculous WAM in a degree like UTS business/Macq-Pro Accounting?

http://www.uts.edu.au/future-students/business/business-study-areas/accounting/bachelor-accounting

Relevant to your interests.

 

[brent012]

http://www.uts.edu.au/future-students/business/business-study-areas/accounting/bachelor-accounting

Relevant to your interests.

To be honest, chances of B Acc are low if OP doesn't think he will get into commerce at UNSW with bonus marks. I believe the people (or at least one person) who were offered positions from the first round B Acc interviews were told that was on condition of 95+ ATAR.

 

[Crobat]

To be honest, chances of B Acc are low if OP doesn't think he will get into commerce at UNSW with bonus marks. I believe the people (or at least one person) who were offered positions from the first round B Acc interviews were told that was on condition of 95+ ATAR.

My friend currently doing the B Acc only had an ATAR of 91ish, but I think they are actually told they have been accepted way before the HSC exams even start. I remember our cohort was given his application template during the scholarship application season as an idea of what a successful application looks like. But I'm not sure if it's similar to UNSW co-op where they must meet the ATAR cut off for the actual degree too. And from memory, the UNSW kids were told that they got the scholarship the same time everyone got their first round offers.

EDIT: After trawling through our cohort's Facebook page, I've found his successful application posted on the 12th Sept 2012. There is a "circle the likely ATAR this candidate will get" thing to be completed by the school, so you might be right about some sort of ATAR cut off that they need to get.

 

[brent012]

My friend currently doing the B Acc only had an ATAR of 91ish, but I think they are actually told they have been accepted way before the HSC exams even start.

Yeah, i'm sure there are exceptions but someone told me they were accepted into the program for next year and then said all they had to do was "get 95 atar". That's what i'm basing that off, but it might have been a personal goal or something else rather than a condition on the place which is how I interpreted it.

The BIT program at UTS which is similar also only tell people if they have been accepted once ATARs come out, but that's because the ATAR is one of the selection criteria. Essentially places are offered to the people who get the highest combination of interview score and ATAR (but there was a certain floor interview score to be considered). I'm guessing that similar to how the UNSW co-op works but the B Acc is a bit different.

 

[Crobat]

Yeah, i'm sure there are exceptions but someone told me they were accepted into the program and then said all they had to do was "get 95 atar". That's what i'm basing that off, but it might have been a personal goal or something else rather than a condition on the place which is how I interpreted it.

The BIT program at UTS which is similar also only tell people if they have been accepted once ATARs come out, but that's because the ATAR is one of the selection criteria. Essentially places are offered to the people who get the highest combination of interview score and ATAR (but there was a certain floor interview score to be considered). I'm guessing that similar to how the UNSW co-op works but the B Acc is a bit different.

It would make perfect sense for an ATAR cut-off to be necessary. How high it is doesn't seem to be specified anywhere in writing though

 

[Frostbitten]

It is meant to be around 95, preferably over. Which is in no way what I will get ehhhh :alone:, so I am going to settle for something such as business and try smash it. But yeh if any of you have stories of friends that majored in accounting (not the actual selective 30 position course) in business and what they did for employment once completed would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Crobat]

It is meant to be around 95, preferably over. Which is in no way what I will get ehhhh :alone:, so I am going to settle for something such as business and try smash it. But yeh if any of you have stories of friends that majored in accounting (not the actual selective 30 position course) in business and what they did for employment once completed would be greatly appreciated.

As stated above, I have a friend doing the B Acc with 91 ATAR. Don't give up hope!

But anyway as a first year in UTS Bus/Law I can tell you that the Business side of the degree so far is really easy. There's no reason you can't simply ace the first semester and try a mid-sem transfer, or even finish your first year and try to transfer with your full end of year WAM/GPA. It is possible to actually go through the first year with a D/HD average, and actually I regret not applying myself a little more to go through this semester with straight HDs. And who knows, you might even like it here at UTS

I also have a friend in his second year of B Bus (Accounting) working in PwC as an associate. I'm not sure about what his position has him doing because he hasn't told me specifically, but he's been there since his second year at UTS.