Preferenced bioinformatics engineering but not sure

[jasn9776]

Alright just finished HSC, so i choose to preference the bioinformatics engineering degree. So that will be guaranteed entry and i'm pretty happy with that. Now i'll just need to work out work to do for the next round. I am also considering doing a general science degree, hopefully at UNSW/USyd. My atar was 93.8 with a couple of bonus points. So i am likely to get an offer in the next round right?. Anyways has anyone taken Chem A? I'm thinking of just self-learning chemistry since only year 11 is required. Anyone know whether i would have to do courses i missed in Comp sci e.g. the electives. I assume you would have to do the two discipline electives and COMP2521 - Data Structures and Algorithms. But anyways i guess my WAM would also have to be 65 or above over 36 UoC. This should be relatively achievable right? keep in mind probably my HSC Maths scores were a little low since i was freaking out in the exam, not necessarily indicative of my ability. And also the Engineering Design course seems so tragic in first year since its basically a group project without having learnt anything.

Also could i transfer from Bioinformatics engineering to General science easily? Thanks Anyways i'm starting to doubt my preferences since you can easily just do a bioinformatics major in a science degree and pretty much learn the same things but without the need to specialise early and i'm not totally sure i would prefer bioinformatics to say microbiology or something. I looked it up online and i guess you only need to have a WAM of 70 in 12 UoC of science courses (and math is included) and a WAM of 60 overall to transfer.

IDK what i'm writing but yeah just doubtful and whatever.

[RuiAce]

Before I construct a proper reply, what do you mean by "General science"? Do you just mean the regular bachelor of science degree?

[jasn9776]

yes bachelor of science. Thanks so much.

I'm pretty sure going from bioinformatics to comp sci would be a piece of cake but what about from Bioinformatics to Bachelor of science or something after 1 year of study. And what do you think the probability of me getting a offer in later rounds for say advanced science/ science. Like advanced science is basically just science expect your forced to do advanced courses right? (and is honours worth it? i mean your forced to do it for engineering anyways but idk if it is really that good)

[RuiAce]

Well considering the guaranteed entry for BE is 92 and BSc is 85 (and the combined Eng/Sc degree is also 92), depending on whichever is currently your top preference you will certainly get an offer for it from UAC.
But if, say, you get an offer for BE in the first round. If you want to wait for a second round of offers from UAC for the BSc, you'd have to change your preferences and put BSc as your new #1.

Of course, there's also the option of just doing an internal program transfer after two trimesters worth of study. That is, if you enrol for BE, find that you don't want to be there anymore, and decide to go to the BSc later. (After all, you're right in saying that there is a bioinformatics major for both of them, so you can do either or.)

Regarding Chem 1A, I can't speak from experience, but from what I have heard yes Year 11 chem is necessary and sufficient. If you wanna avoid the bridging course route, self learning Year 11 chem is highly recommended - you're not gonna keep up without Year 11 chem, but you'll be fine without Year 12.

According to the handbook entry for the bioinformatics entry in the BSc route, COMP2521 is going to be necessary no matter what. There's no obligation for you to do it in your second trimester or anything (i.e. you can probably delay it a little), but you're gonna have to do it somewhere down the road.

ENGG1000 is usually pretty tragic because there's no guarantee you'll get good team members and you may end up in one of the bad streams if you pick too late. (Basically for that course you pick a stream to do once they open up the spots, but the spots fill up in a matter of minutes.) At this stage, the only good feedback I've heard from with it is from Jamon, and a select few giving me ok feedback.

The 65 WAM to transfer into the BSc is generally easy. So long as you're not one of those people who put little to no effort into uni, it's fine. (Almost everyone who puts effort in gets rewarded with 65+, i.e. credit WAM.)
Should you decide later on you really want to transfer into the BSc with the bioinf major, doing a BE with bioinf major is certainly a good choice as a lot of your courses will get carried over.

Feel free to ask more questions if you need to or if some of the stuff I said was unclear. Was a little hard reading what you said but I had some idea

[jasn9776]

Yes thanks for the reply. I was just confused what my options were if I did the BE(bioinfomatics) then decided to change my mind(never heard of the 2nd trimester transfer.). But yeah, i'll probably put in BSc as my first preference for the next round to try to get an offer.

[RuiAce]

UAC should give you an offer in the next round for the BSc if you put that as your first preference. But if they don't, the transfer basically works like this.

Ordinarily speaking, a course (subject) at UNSW is worth 6 units of credit (UoC). The criteria to transfer is to have 36 UoC completed in advance, plus any WAM requirements. Because the standard load is to do three courses in trimester 1 and three courses in trimester 2, implying 18 UoC per trimester, this means that in theory the earliest you can apply for transfer is leading into trimester 3.

(Back when UNSW had a semester system, because the standard load was 4 courses per semester (i.e. 24 UoC per semester), in theory you had to wait out the whole year before you could apply for transfer.)

Info regarding transfers

[jasn9776]

According to the handbook entry for the bioinformatics entry in the BSc route, COMP2521 is going to be necessary no matter what. There's no obligation for you to do it in your second trimester or anything (i.e. you can probably delay it a little), but you're gonna have to do it somewhere down the road.

so does this imply that you can choose what order to do your courses (provided the timetable works out). Like can i choose to do molecules, cells and genes before I do Chemistry A later (since there are no prerequisites). Like the Sample Degree outline is just a guide right?

[RuiAce]

so does this imply that you can choose what order to do your courses (provided the timetable works out). Like can i choose to do molecules, cells and genes before I do Chemistry A later (since there are no prerequisites). Like the Sample Degree outline is just a guide right?

Yep, it's just a guide. So long as you research all the prerequisites (use UNSW handbook) and which trimesters the courses are offered you can change the sample outline however you wish

[jasn9776]

I guess why i'm so semi-regretful is because i know that with my ATAR and bands i was guaranteed into a usually higher demand course like Medical Science/ Commerce or some dual engineering/commerce degree (i'm 80% sure i don't want to do them). I guess i did the right thing by putting a course I actually wanted to enrol in but i guess there is little chance i would get those degrees now after the main round since those courses usually go up in cutoff. Like idk maybe i would have enjoyed a medical science degree (and you can't transfer into that) whereas for a bachelor of engineering with a lower cutoff it might have been likely that i could have gotten it in later rounds anyways and then i could choose in January even though it is unlikely i would actually accept the medical science offer. I followed the advice that there is no such thing as wasting my atar but now i feel like i sortof wasted it.

[Bri MT]

The point of getting a high ATAR is to give you lots of options.  If you are pressured into making a particular decision due to it,  wouldn't that be truly wasting the power of choice it gave you? 

[RuiAce]

I guess why i'm so semi-regretful is because i know that with my ATAR and bands i was guaranteed into a usually higher demand course like Medical Science/ Commerce or some dual engineering/commerce degree (i'm 80% sure i don't want to do them). I guess i did the right thing by putting a course I actually wanted to enrol in but i guess there is little chance i would get those degrees now after the main round since those courses usually go up in cutoff. Like idk maybe i would have enjoyed a medical science degree (and you can't transfer into that) whereas for a bachelor of engineering with a lower cutoff it might have been likely that i could have gotten it in later rounds anyways and then i could choose in January even though it is unlikely i would actually accept the medical science offer. I followed the advice that there is no such thing as wasting my atar but now i feel like i sortof wasted it.

As a hypothetical you can transfer into medical science provided you meet the corresponding WAM cut-off. I transferred from actuarial studies into computer science perfectly fine, so I don't see why that would be an issue.

[jasn9776]

As a hypothetical you can transfer into medical science provided you meet the corresponding WAM cut-off. I transferred from actuarial studies into computer science perfectly fine, so I don't see why that would be an issue.

Unfortunately medical science is special. You can't actually transfer into it. I was sortof considering it but it wasn't my first preference. I guess theres no harm it putting it first preference in the next round in case i do actually get in, like my bonus points would be easily maxed out anyways so i might actually have a chance. Then again, a normal science degree would allow me to do pretty much those majors anyways and not be restricted to 'medical' majors. Not sure if employers would really care if you had done 'medical science' instead of science.

[RuiAce]

Unfortunately medical science is special. You can't actually transfer into it. I was sortof considering it but it wasn't my first preference.

Right I see, my bad there. Was taken aback by it but I guess it makes sense because some people use medical science to bridge their way into medicine. It's unfortunate I suppose, but there's no real point dwelling over it - won't matter too much in the long run