WAM needed for UoM Honours in Science?

[raushaanseychell]

So I am a third-year BSc Student at Melbourne (atarnotes didn't let me say that I graduated in 2015), and I am interested in Honours for the BSc, majoring in Physiology. My WAM currently sits at exactly 65% and I still have 6 subjects left.

A bit of context here: I struggled badly in first year, was incredibly unmotivated and did not study and by the end of 2016 my WAM was at a lowly 54, scraping passes in all my core subjects. I managed to pull myself together and improve drastically over the next year and a half, and by the end of third-year semester 1, I have improved my WAM by 11 points to 65 (hard to believe, but yes I did it with A LOT of hard work). With 6 subjects in hand, I aim to get my WAM closer to 67-68. My question is, would 67-68 be enough for honours?

[Alter]

Big props for your huge improvement - pretty sure 65% is the minimum you need to get into BSc honours. You've obviously switched into gear in order to get where you are now, and I think it's very much possible for you to do honours. I think if you can show potential supervisors the huge improvements you've made, they would be more than happy to take you on, assuming other parts of your application are solid.

While it might be true that not having a crazy high WAM (like 80) might preclude you from some bigger labs (I've heard that places such as WEHI are very academically selective), that isn't the end of the world. You have a wide scope of places you can pick from, and there are more things to honours applications than just a number on your transcript.

To do honours, you need to meet the criteria set out on this page - the most critical is your wam being 65.
https://bsc.unimelb.edu.au/overview/bachelor-of-science-honours

This next link shows a bit more about how your application will go down. The tl;dr version is that, later on during semester 2, you should attend physiology honours info sessions and use the booklets that they publish to identify a bunch of supervisors that you could work with to complete your honours year. You'll need to arrange meetings with them to talk about your interest, and this is a great opportunity to show off any CV stuff you have, and also explain your academic transcript.
https://biomedicalsciences.unimelb.edu.au/departments/physiology/study/honours-And-masters-by-coursework

Best of luck

[raushaanseychell]

Big props for your huge improvement - pretty sure 65% is the minimum you need to get into BSc honours. You've obviously switched into gear in order to get where you are now, and I think it's very much possible for you to do honours. I think if you can show potential supervisors the huge improvements you've made, they would be more than happy to take you on, assuming other parts of your application are solid.

While it might be true that not having a crazy high WAM (like 80) might preclude you from some bigger labs (I've heard that places such as WEHI are very academically selective), that isn't the end of the world. You have a wide scope of places you can pick from, and there are more things to honours applications than just a number on your transcript.

To do honours, you need to meet the criteria set out on this page - the most critical is your wam being 65.
https://bsc.unimelb.edu.au/overview/bachelor-of-science-honours

This next link shows a bit more about how your application will go down. The tl;dr version is that, later on during semester 2, you should attend physiology honours info sessions and use the booklets that they publish to identify a bunch of supervisors that you could work with to complete your honours year. You'll need to arrange meetings with them to talk about your interest, and this is a great opportunity to show off any CV stuff you have, and also explain your academic transcript.
https://biomedicalsciences.unimelb.edu.au/departments/physiology/study/honours-And-masters-by-coursework

Best of luck

Thanks mate!! I'm hoping to get into physio if I do honours (as my terrible first year grades will no longer be used to calculate my GPA), so really any project in the physiology dept. would be fine for me. My third year subjects as of now have been pretty solid (H2A/H1's so far), so as long as I keep that up I'm guessing that'll be fine. Do research subjects like experimental phys or the biomed research project improve somebody's application for honours?

[Alter]

Thanks mate!! I'm hoping to get into physio if I do honours (as my terrible first year grades will no longer be used to calculate my GPA), so really any project in the physiology dept. would be fine for me. My third year subjects as of now have been pretty solid (H2A/H1's so far), so as long as I keep that up I'm guessing that'll be fine. Do research subjects like experimental phys or the biomed research project improve somebody's application for honours?

Sounds like a solid plan, stoked you've got it figured out. In terms of your question, I reckon that having those subjects under your belt definitely wouldn't hurt. If you can show your supervisor in the meeting that you've gone out of your way to get a taste of what research/an honours year might look like, they will probably be impressed and you'll at least stand out. I think that's definitely true for a subject like BIOM30003. I can't say for sure because I'm a 3rd year as well, but based on the info I know, it would seem many honours applicants even go into their meetings with supervisors not having done subjects such as Biomed research project - in this way, I think it would work to your advantage (not only superficially in terms of impressing the supervisor, but also actually setting you up with a potential future supervisor and helping you develop necessary skills).

[vox nihili]

Just adding my agreement to what Alter's said here. Having a lowish WAM will restrict your selection of projects, but definitely won't stop you from doing Honours at all. I remember having a chat with someone in Phys years ago who said they often relax the 65 rule for students that are keen anyway

[mahler004]

I can't speak for physiology specifically, but continued improvement over your degree will be looked on favourably generally. If you're getting H2As/H1s in your third year subjects, you won't have too much trouble finding a supervisor (even in big labs/competitive institutes). People will pretty much ignore your first year results if your later year results are good. You might be asked about them, but just say that you had trouble adjusting to uni and worked hard to improve.