transferring into computer science

[Chazef]

hey I'm currently enrolled in engineering at monash and I've decided that I made the wrong decision choosing engineering. I can handle the difficulty at this point and I get the baseline satisfaction of getting answers right when I'm doing homework but that is all the satisfaction I get out of this course. I know it's not going to get any better because later on it will be less theory and more building stuff and that doesn't even appeal to me either. I basically convinced myself that I'd enjoy having a solid salary with engineering whilst making video games as a hobby but I've decided I'd just rather have a job in computer science and make video games as a hobby (I'm not under the impression that I'll get a job making games but that's okay with me), because I'm actually passionate about software development and the theory of computation and all that stuff. So I want to pull-out of engineering before the census date, spend the rest of semester getting a head-start in CS and working and making games. I'm going to be talking to someone at monash about this but for now, I want to ask a few questions about this process:

1) Will I incur any fees for the 3 weeks I've spent at monash so far if I drop out now?

2) Have I got a chance getting into mid-year intake of CS?

3) Is attendance to CS lectures compulsory because I live far from uni and I would not be able to handle that much travel time

thanks

[Kanon]

As long as you drop your course before the census date (31st of March), you won't incur any fees.
 http://www.monash.edu.au/enrolments/dates/census.html

This semester I'm only undertaking two units of CS because I'm doing a double degree, but none of these have compulsory attendance. FIT1029 - Algorithmic Problem Solving, does however have a 5% allocation of marks for attending 80%+ of the lectures.

[Chazef]

that's good to know about the fees . Is there any way to be exempt from that 5% allocation because I just can't handle commuting to uni everyday, it's 3 hours out of my day that I would much rather spend studying at home

[slothpomba]

that's good to know about the fees . Is there any way to be exempt from that 5% allocation because I just can't handle commuting to uni everyday, it's 3 hours out of my day that I would much rather spend studying at home

As always, ask the lecturer and ask early. Try make the case as best you can that it would significantly disadvantage you. That said, it takes me four hours to commute (in total) and i dont expect anything special. If you mean three hours *each way* that is massive (6 hours out of your day! Only awake for 16!) and grounds for asking. I don't know if a total time of three is dire enough to get you out though. That only works to 1.5 hours each way, if that depending on the times and days. I dont know if you'll get anything special for a total of 3 but a total of 6 is when you have some serious standing.

If you need help or you dont like their response, contact the MSA and they might be able to help with options/advocate on your behalf.

[Fyrefly]

As always, ask the lecturer and ask early. Try make the case as best you can that it would significantly disadvantage you. That said, it takes me four hours to commute (in total) and i dont expect anything special. If you mean three hours *each way* that is massive (6 hours out of your day! Only awake for 16!) and grounds for asking. I don't know if a total time of three is dire enough to get you out though. That only works to 1.5 hours each way, if that depending on the times and days. I dont know if you'll get anything special for a total of 3 but a total of 6 is when you have some serious standing.

If you need help or you dont like their response, contact the MSA and they might be able to help with options/advocate on your behalf.

Honestly, three hours travel time isn't grounds for any sort of exemption. I was the same as KP with four hours travel time, and it didn't even cross my mind to expect some sort of concession for that. If you make the decision to go to a university like Monash, you just have to deal with the travel times. There were people in my Japanese class who commuted even further than me with longer travel times.

[Chazef]

no it's 1.5hrs both ways, not 3 I think the case can be made that the benefit of other people being there to have me use the polling device during lectures is nothing in comparison to the wasted time of commuting and the sacrificing of all the great aspects of just watching recorded lectures. I just feel strongly that getting graded on attendance is obstructive to the idea of independent learning at uni and I think if you need to give people an attendance mark, it demonstrates that students would rather not attend (perhaps due to wanting to utilise recorded lectures or maybe use a completely different source of learning). I understand marking attendance for tutes and pracs but I disagree with the idea in lectures. I'm not talking about myself specifically I'm referring to the whole idea of giving attendance marks

[slothpomba]

I don't believe many (if any) lecturers will give you any sort of symapthy or special consideration for your travel time being 1 hour 30 minutes each way. As Fyrefly and myself have said, we have traveled further than that and expected nothing. I suppose its worth a shot but to be perfectly frank, i don't expect for you to gain any special ground with a time like this.

It doesn't matter whether or not you feel strongly about X or Y, the unit is designed that way and you have to cope within that framework (unless you have either (1) valid acute special consideration - sick that week, significant relationship breakup, other factors or (2) a long term disadvantaging condition, circumstance or disability - these should be self-evident). In my experience, unless they are the nicest of the nicest, criticism of the structure of their unit (which they designed), is likely to be met with exasperation, frustration or even offense by the co-ordinator.

That's for practical matters of trying to change how they assess you anyway. You may have your own theoretical concerns about learning enviroments but i'm not really sure what you'd do about that or why that is a question. In terms of practical matters though, i wouldn't expect any special consideration for you, provided the conditions you have told us of. Unfortunately, you'll just have to go.

[pi]

no it's 1.5hrs both ways, not 3 I think the case can be made that the benefit of other people being there to have me use the polling device during lectures is nothing in comparison to the wasted time of commuting and the sacrificing of all the great aspects of just watching recorded lectures. I just feel strongly that getting graded on attendance is obstructive to the idea of independent learning at uni and I think if you need to give people an attendance mark, it demonstrates that students would rather not attend (perhaps due to wanting to utilise recorded lectures or maybe use a completely different source of learning). I understand marking attendance for tutes and pracs but I disagree with the idea in lectures. I'm not talking about myself specifically I'm referring to the whole idea of giving attendance marks

Sometimes you've just got to grin and bear it. At least you get marks for attendance (or so I read), we have attendance marked for every lecture and tute just as a hurdle requirement. You've got it easy