questions regarding majors, honours and overloading (1 Viewer)

[fleepbasding]

OK, I've got a few questions related to choosing units of studies and getting in enough units for certain majors. Now, I'll be doing an Arts (languages) degree, but if anyone can help out I'd appreciate it. I'm actually deferring untill 2007, but I'm curious about some stuff.

Can I do units that are 3xxx in my 2nd year, or 2xxx units in my 1st year if I've completed the prerequisites?

Example: 1st year, 1st semester- 2 history 1000 units of study. 2nd semester- 1 or 2 senior units (2000) in history.

Is this possible? Because I'd have completed the prerequsites of 12 junior credit points. So essentially asking how binding are the 2000 3000 labels? Do they actually mean that they are for 2nd year, 3rd year etc?

Overloading... is it doable and/or advisable? if you have examples, please share.

triple major... doable? madness? I was thinking french, history, and govt and international relations. Keep in mind that Arts (languages) is a 4 year degree. There is a compulsory overseas exchange in the 3rd year, of either 1 or 2 semesters. The 4th year is an optional honours year, but you can choose to do more senior units instead (I'm thinking I could finish off majors that I didn't quite finish before my semester exchange). I would also try and complete the requirements for an honours year, which I guess would be another 1 year (making the whole thing 5 years).

I'm in interested in both specific answers to my questions as well as your personal opinions as to my plans... I'm by no means set on them. I was just mucking around last night and it got me thinking.

I did up a bit of a table to try and figure it out, which you can look at it if you want. Its by no means my specific plan or subject selection.

Oh, one more thing: whats all the stuff about doing honours during your degree? Like, I've heard about people being offered honours after 1st year.

I really don't know much about how university works... everything I've figured out is based on my own research, so please don't ridicule me for stupid errors or misconceptions.

 

[fleepbasding]

Thanks so much brogan. And they say your a troll!

 

[Wolfowitz]

Thanks so much brogan. And they say your a troll!

Hey, trolls are only mean to people we hate. USyd people are teh rocks.

 

[chepas]

Oh, one more thing: whats all the stuff about doing honours during your degree? Like, I've heard about people being offered honours after 1st year.

In BA (Lang), you have the option to take the forth year of your degree as an Honours year with one of your majors, instead of continuing with the four undegrad subjects a semester. Like brogan said, in some cases you'll have to do some special Honours entry units to satisfy prerequisites for Honours. To take your forth year as an honours year is more like a time-saving thing for those who want to finish their uni studies quickly, so it's good...

(For French honours, the requirements are a Credit average for your French major, and 2x Senior units including, this year: FRNC3631 Senior French Lang 7 and FRNC 2666 Research Methods in French Studies. Also, the French department rules say that the Honours thesis must be written... in French.)

As for being offered Honours entry in the first year, this is usually just a letter that the department sends out to people who get an HD in the a unit inviting them to take the path to Honours, and telling you how to go about it.

 

[fleepbasding]

Ahhh, thanks for that information wiki and chepas, I appreciate it very much.

wiki: I look at the table b units of study (for Arts students) and see that for govt + int rel the 3xxx UOS are "internships". Do these require you to work away from the uni (eg, in canberra or somewhere)? Are they a nessesary part of a govt and int relations major/honours?

chepas: Do you reckon you'll do honours in your 4th year? And do you think you'll do 1 or 2 semesters of overseas exchange? And on that exchange, I'm led to believe that the language units count as credit for your language major. Would subjects completed in other areas (for example, history) count towards a history major (subject to approval of faculty/course supervisors)?

 

[chepas]

chepas: Do you reckon you'll do honours in your 4th year? And do you think you'll do 1 or 2 semesters of overseas exchange? And on that exchange, I'm led to believe that the language units count as credit for your language major. Would subjects completed in other areas (for example, history) count towards a history major (subject to approval of faculty/course supervisors)?

For Honours: Personally I'm interested in doing it as a seperate year after the four year undergrad, purely because I want to be able to do certain units and sequences.

For exchange: I'm looking at doing 2 semesters for exchange. The thing with doing study overseas is that you have to get every single overseas unit approved by the faculty (and departments (?)) before you go. You're right, the language units that you do at Sydney are included in your major. Also I think that it is pretty much expected that you do language units and equivalent options overseas* in order that you complete your language major. As for overseas history units counted towards your major, yes they will, but it will depend what kind of units they are and what kind of history major you will do. Again, that 'yes' is up to the department accepting the overseas units as credit - again, all of which is sorted out beforehand.

And doing so will be the headache I'll be embarking on this year .

*(...which shouldn't be a problem seeing that the French 1er cycle (undergrad) Arts system sees that you do language study as well as set subjects and electives. In many French Arts degrees ('Lettres' in something...) they actually have a set programme of subjects you have to do, and then a few free-choice electives on top of that.)

Just re-reading your first post, about three majors. You may find that doing three majors and an exchange will be a bit difficult to satisfy everyone's requirements, because you'll simply run out of units depending on what/how many options you want to do. Perhaps you could overcome this problem by underloading subjects in the first year by just doing 18cpts(3 subjects) a semester for that year, freeing up 12 cpts/2 subjects for your majors. This is what I did as I wanted to do more of the senior subjects in my majors than do random junior units.

I attach a copy of the BA (Lang) degree structure plan that was in the handout they gave us at enrolment last year. Hopefully that can shed some light onto a suggestion on how to structure your degree. Note this is just an example, the way you do it may be entirely different, especially if you want to do honours in the 4th year. Please excuse my handwritten scribbles and the crappy Paintbrushness .

 

[fleepbasding]

thanks a lot guys.

 

[bugs]

ok seriously, what are trolls? are they a bunch of idiots or sumthing not associated with usyd??