rk's university journey

[rkjthguakj]

I guess this is my university journal, following perhaps quite a tumultuous journey.

After suffering a huge blow to my ego with quite a disappointing ATAR, I enrolled into the Bachelor of Arts at Melbourne for my first round offer. I was honestly quite excited with the options I could study within the course, as I've always been a passionate humanities student. I planned on majoring in either Economics, International Relations/Politics, Media & Communications or Chinese.

But by second-round offers, I was made a surprising offer for the Bachelor of Commerce. Having put my number one preference as the Bachelor of Commerce and having my heart set on becoming a corporate lawyer, I really thought I had hit the nail on the head with my dream course.

Having done my first semester, (with one more exam to go (Chinese)), I've come to the realisation that I truly cannot see myself doing further Commerce, whether it's continuing it until graduation or even working in the industry as something such as an analyst or consultant.

This semester I enrolled in:
- Principles of Finance
- Quantitive Methods 1
- Japanese 3
- Chinese 1

With my language subjects being my favourite subjects, whilst I found myself forcing myself to study for my Commerce subjects, I came to the realisation that Commerce isn't something I find myself enjoying. I didn't find PoF or QM1 particularly hard, although admittedly I could've done a lot more to make it less stressful.  I just don't find myself interested in these subjects and maybe at large, commerce in general.

My ultimate goal is Melbourne Law School, which would mean, I don't necessarily have to use my commerce degree when going into the workforce. But I truly can't stand the idea of having to endure three to four more years of being in this degree and at this point, I'm pessimistic about my WAM being competitive enough to apply for the JD.

When thinking about my 'ideal career', I'd say working in public policy. This is a career where a commerce degree does absolutely fit, but as I've stated before, I don't find it worth enduring my degree.

So, after finding myself in this dilemma and researching into it, I am deciding to transfer into the Bachelor of Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Monash in 2022. In the past, I've posted on AN about contemplating whether to study Commerce or the PPE, at two different universities and ultimately settled on commerce. Having studied and loved VCE Global Politics, I considered further study and love the idea of working in government, which is why I loved the idea of the PPE, and throughout this semester, I have constantly found myself asking "what if?". The ultimate reasoning for choosing Commerce, was because at the time I wanted to become a corporate lawyer and enjoyed the prestige of Commerce at Melbourne, which made it feel like a 'safe option'. Because the PPE at Monash is fairly new, I was a bit unsure about enrolling in it.

Having gone through all of this, I do have my heart set on transferring to the PPE at Monash. Can I guarantee that I'll love it and it'll be everything I imagined? Absolutely not. But never knowing and having to suffer through a degree I am not enjoying, feels like a much riskier option to make. Ideally, I would like to enrol in PPE/Law but I am not particularly confident in my WAM, but it's still worth a shot. I have no reservations to just follow through with a JD, as that was my original plan.

Applications for mid-year are closed, so I will be applying for the 2022 intake. My ultimate game plan is to apply through VTAC for the PPE and also try to improve my WAM for a shot at PPE/Law. I will be underloading next sem to avoid incurring the cost of subjects that I won't even receive credit for and try and work on getting better grades for the subjects I do take.

My subjects for next semester I'm planning to take:
- Introductory Microeconomics (credit is transferrable for PPE)
- Accounting Reports and Analysis
- Chinese 2 (I gotta change my Diploma to Chinese first tho)

Although, I am contemplating instead taking:
- Introductory Microeconomics
- Japanese 4
- Chinese 2

This is depending on how my Japanese 3 grade went, as I was demotivated leading up to the exam, after losing 20 marks on my last two assignments for not meeting the requirements, (which is absolutely my fault, just kinda sucks), and had my subject grade fall by 5%. 

For now, I shall see where everything leads me to. Signing off for now!

[hums_student]

Have you considered Arts at Unimelb? I'm currently doing BA and it's absolutely fantastic for public policy. In fact, I'm going into public policy after I graduate. You'd be able to transfer a lot more credits over too, since the comm subjects you did will count as breadth, and the Chinese subjects can become your major if you plan to do that.

Btw for public policy, I don't actually know anyone who were able to get into that field with a sole BCom degree. I'm sure it happens, but it's rare. Generally public policy grads come from arts, law, or even science backgrounds. I know two BCom grads who got into public policy but they also did a second degree in something else (commerce + public health and commerce + environmental science. And both are now working in departments that are relate to their non-commerce degree). So if your dream job is in policy, then I think switching out of commerce is 100% the right choice.

Anyway, keen to hear more about your uni experience! I don't actually know much about PPE at Monash so if you do choose it I can't wait to hear how you find the course.

[rkjthguakj]

Btw for public policy, I don't actually know anyone who were able to get into that field with a sole BCom degree. I'm sure it happens, but it's rare. Generally public policy grads come from arts, law, or even science backgrounds. I know two BCom grads who got into public policy but they also did a second degree in something else (commerce + public health and commerce + environmental science. And both are now working in departments that are relate to their non-commerce degree). So if your dream job is in policy, then I think switching out of commerce is 100% the right choice.

Yes, arts at UniMelb was definitely something I considered! I think my main reason for choosing PPE was that they had a specific focus on the relationship between philosophy, economics and politics, which piqued my interest. And the addition of doing it as a double with law!

I am quite relieved to hear that doing an arts degree would be more suited towards public policy than commerce, as that is just all the more to move courses.

Thank you so much for your support! And I am also interested in your journey in public policy! Is there a specific sector you would want to work in?

[rkjthguakj]

Semester Break

I hope everyone has had a lovely semester break! This semester has been relatively quiet, as I haven't made big plans for socialising. I've been primarily focusing on work (as a tutor) and training (I'm a competitive cheerleader).

My semester 1 results were unsurprising but still disappointing. I'm feeling rather pessimistic about boosting my WAM for Monash law entry, but it is still within reach (as long as I H1 all my semester 2 subjects).

This semester my subjects are:
- Intro to Microeconomics
- Chinese 2
- Principles of Business Law

As I have underloaded this semester, my contacts hours are 10 hours and I will only have to be on-campus two days a week. With all this time I will have this semester, I aim to dedicate more time to studying and training.

My aims for this semester will be:
- to average H1s for my semester 2 subjects
- aim for grand champs in my cheer division
- hopefully, be able to take on more students for tutoring (I currently tutor 6-7 hours a week)

Even though I do feel a weight on my shoulders for my academics, I am aiming to enjoy my time at Melbourne University as much as possible. Till next time.