Ask Monash University

[AngelWings]

Hi,
I am considering doing commerce and law and was wondering what this double degree is like. How many contact hours are there and is the course difficult. How is the course structured and what does this course involve?
Thanks,
Abi

Here's a course outline (including what's involved) for the Bachelor of Laws/Comm double degree and some of the units (subjects) have been reviewed here, including difficulty ratings. Course structure can be found with the course map. Contact hours depend on your units but you can probably expect about 12-18 hours/week IIRC, with the majority closer to the shorter half of that range.

[vceme]

@ashleyyy
Did some playing around with the calculator for you. It seems that raw ATAR scores in the 60-70s have higher adjustment points, where an ATAR of 90+ has lower adjustment points (<5). Also, make sure you look at the Monash Guarantee section.

'Location' category seems to give out the most points compared to all the other categories, which, in my opinion, should receive more points than living in a low socio-economic area since it seems more disadvantaged.

But yeah, I'm kinda skeptical if my adjusted ATAR is actually that high! So if anyone could clarify, that would be great - thanks!

Got kinda confused reading this, but I think you meant to say less. If you're living in a low socio-economic area, the schools probably aren't that great compared to other schools such as lack of resources, teachers etc. It makes it really hard to study if you don't have the necessity resources, whereas the other sections, you'll have at least some of the good basic resources. That's just my interpretation- I could be completely wrong 

[addition]

So my question is what kind of jobs are available for students on campus? Are positions available in the food stores or other shops, or are there any other types of jobs available? If not on campus, what are some jobs nearby?

[AngelWings]

So my question is what kind of jobs are available for students on campus? Are positions available in the food stores or other shops, or are there any other types of jobs available? If not on campus, what are some jobs nearby?

Once you're enrolled in the uni, there are a few sites that offer jobs on campus. It's a range from the stores on campus to helping students with disabilities take notes in class. If you don't want a job on campus and you're studying at the Clayton campus, there's a strip of restaurants and shops down the road, a hospital and other services to try and get a job at, depending on your experience and qualifications. All other campuses are generally within the vicinity of shops or restaurants as well, so you could also find random jobs around the place too.

If you're after your first ever part-time or casual job, then you might try a restaurant, cafe or small shop down the road from campus and, if you're lucky, on campus. 

[ChangingOfTheSeasons]

I'm likely to do a double degree - Commerce/Law. However, what would be the process if I had to drop - let's say Law - and just study Commerce. What would happen then?

[AngelWings]

I'm likely to do a double degree - Commerce/Law. However, what would be the process if I had to drop - let's say Law - and just study Commerce. What would happen then?

You'd be applying for an internal transfer during the degree, probably after a semester or two, assuming you have competitive enough grades (something like a 70+ WAM to be eligible usually). If you apply for transfer after one semester, ATAR and uni grades will be considered. If after a year or more you transfer, just uni grades will matter. IIRC, any law units you've done (and passed) would eventually become your electives in your new BComm degree and then you'd have less electives. Earlier transfers means more elective spaces you'll have free and remaining.

If you're certain you're going to go via this path, you can try to studying fewer law units in the BLaw/Comm to begin with (i.e. generally postponing as many law units as you can in the first semester or two) to ease this transition.

[krl2301]

Hi Monash, I'll be doing a Bachelor of Commerce and Finance this year but I am clueless about electives. The course progression map shows that have one elective to chose for first year however does it need to be from the Faculty of Business and Economics? For example, can I choose Chinese to do as an elective? What electives I can choose from and what would be most beneficial?

[AngelWings]

Hi Monash, I'll be doing a Bachelor of Commerce and Finance this year but I am clueless about electives. The course progression map shows that have one elective to chose for first year however does it need to be from the Faculty of Business and Economics? For example, can I choose Chinese to do as an elective? What electives I can choose from and what would be most beneficial?

Your electives don't have to be within the Faculty of Business and Economics, if you don't want to. For example, I did a minor in Japanese, despite doing a Bachelor of Science, via my electives. As for which electives, electives can be from anywhere pretty much - in the Faculty of Business and Economics or in another faculty altogether. As long as your faculty says you can do the unit you've chosen, the sky's the limit. Usually this means you can try most units that you have done the prerequisite and/or co-requisite units for in practically any faculty at Monash, with usually exceptions in medical and allied health areas. Electives can be anything from science to arts (e.g. languages, social sciences, humanities) to music, or, if you don't want to venture too far out, your entire degree can be done with your faculty, if you so wish. As to what's beneficial, that's really up to you to decide.     

[regal]

Hi, I am doing a Bachelor of Science and Arts and I was wondering how bad of an idea it would be to do Japanese as a minor (I'm 100% going to be a Linguistics major so I will do a language anyway, for the love of it) if I've never ever EVER learnt a lick of Japanese. How hard is it to learn? Is the grading difficult?
I am a quick learner of languages and I know 3-4 with high fluency, for reference.

[Jigsaw]

Hi, I am doing a Bachelor of Science and Arts and I was wondering how bad of an idea it would be to do Japanese as a minor (I'm 100% going to be a Linguistics major so I will do a language anyway, for the love of it) if I've never ever EVER learnt a lick of Japanese. How hard is it to learn? Is the grading difficult?
I am a quick learner of languages and I know 3-4 with high fluency, for reference.

I'm a little biased because I've been studying Japanese since year 7 (properly since year 10) and I'd recommend you go for it! I'm not from an Asian speaking background at all and I've found that the language is extremely accessible if you put in the work but also have a genuine interest in learning it. Considering you have such a passion for languages, I don't think it will be overtly difficult for you (however difficulty is a subjective measure).

The first thing you'll need to learn is the 2 main scripts: Hiragana and Katakana. These are characters that represent the phonetic sounds of the language. (You can find a chart with stroke order with a simple google search). The good thing about Japanese is that each word is pronounced phonetically, so you don't need to worry about changing your pitch up and down like in other languages such as Chinese. I'd recommend watching a few movies in Japanese to get a feel for the sound of the language.

I'm not sure about grading because I haven't done Japanese at uni (yet!) so I'll leave this for someone else to comment on. Best of luck

[AngelWings]

Hi, I am doing a Bachelor of Science and Arts and I was wondering how bad of an idea it would be to do Japanese as a minor (I'm 100% going to be a Linguistics major so I will do a language anyway, for the love of it) if I've never ever EVER learnt a lick of Japanese. How hard is it to learn? Is the grading difficult?
I am a quick learner of languages and I know 3-4 with high fluency, for reference.

I'm a little biased because I've been studying Japanese since year 7 (properly since year 10) and I'd recommend you go for it! I'm not from an Asian speaking background at all and I've found that the language is extremely accessible if you put in the work but also have a genuine interest in learning it. Considering you have such a passion for languages, I don't think it will be overtly difficult for you (however difficulty is a subjective measure).

The first thing you'll need to learn is the 2 main scripts: Hiragana and Katakana. These are characters that represent the phonetic sounds of the language. (You can find a chart with stroke order with a simple google search). The good thing about Japanese is that each word is pronounced phonetically, so you don't need to worry about changing your pitch up and down like in other languages such as Chinese. I'd recommend watching a few movies in Japanese to get a feel for the sound of the language.

I'm not sure about grading because I haven't done Japanese at uni (yet!) so I'll leave this for someone else to comment on. Best of luck

I’ll take it from here, Jigsaw, thanks. For the record, I have a minor in Japanese, despite being a Science student. The structure of Monash Japanese is quite formulaic and predictable: you do X activity in Y session. Although I did do VCE Japanese and went immediately into Japanese Intermediate I, I found a number of students who had done Japanese Beginners the year prior to me starting uni. They generally did okay, although usually found the classes a little fast. Difficulty, as mentioned, will vary for each person.

[lorennnz]

Doing eng/sci here. How did you set up your timetable and what have you found to be the most useful setup? As in did you have all your lectures in one day etc.

Also, what is a workshop? I only have two lectures this sem, 4 workshops, 1 tute and 1 prac a week. Is that normal?

Thanks!

[AngelWings]

Doing eng/sci here. How did you set up your timetable and what have you found to be the most useful setup? As in did you have all your lectures in one day etc.

Also, what is a workshop? I only have two lectures this sem, 4 workshops, 1 tute and 1 prac a week. Is that normal?

Thanks!

You can use Excel, Allocate+’s planner feature (the one that shows blocks with all the different preferences) or this site to plan out your timetable. Timetable set up is a bit personal because you might have other obligations e.g. work to add in or you might have to travel for long periods of time to get to campus. Personally, as a BSci student (especially since I did Bio and Chem, probably the two with longest contact hours) and living a reasonably short distance away from campus, I preferred to spread things out so I had two afternoons off after a certain time, one for work and one for study/ group work meetings. All breaks were a minimum of 2hrs as much as I could because 1hr breaks meant I barely sat down for lunch before having to think about leaving again. But this is purely personal preference. You should figure out what works for you.

Workshops are usually like tutorials. Meanings will vary, but usually it’s where you’ll refine skills learnt elsewhere (like in a lecture) or put them into practical use. The classes you’ve listed are pretty normal for your course, however, people usually talk in the number of contact hours, the number of hours you’re meant to have class, when comparing workloads with others.

Pro tip: Try making your first preferences what you want the most, but make as many of the preferences (second to second last preferences) clash with other classes as much as possible. After finding as many clashes as possible, put all others in order of what you wanted second most onwards. (Basically chuck as many clashes in the middle, but order the first and the last few preferences in the order you actually want them in, from most to least.) This is a trick that should give you your most (or closest to most) preferred timetable.

[geek123456]

Hi,
I was wondering whether seas applications were read by Monash panel who interview you for undergrad med?
Or is the seas department separate from the interview panel!
In short can I be asked anything about my seas application during the interview?

cheers

[cookiedream]

Hi,
I was wondering whether seas applications were read by Monash panel who interview you for undergrad med?
Or is the seas department separate from the interview panel!
In short can I be asked anything about my seas application during the interview?

cheers

No, your interviewers will not know anything about you other than your name (and VTAC ID pretty sure), so you will not be asked anything about it in the MMI.

Your SEAS application is a part of your overall VTAC application, and can be used in many other ways such as possibly making you eligible for a Monash Guarantee and adding points to the ATAR which the university considers (e.g. if someone's original ATAR is 95, this can potentially be made into a 98, depending on which categories you can come under and at what level you meet each SEAS criterion).