Random Question @UoM students

[Eventful]

Hi everyone,

I have a hypothetical question. I noticed that for both the Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Commerce you can major in Economics. My understanding is that you would also take breadth subjects, but if you do a Bachelor of Arts you are limited in choosing Commerce related subjects relative to actually studying a Bachelor of Commerce.

However, I imagine if one would not be concerned with this, and instead choose other breadth subjects then you could hypothetically have two people that complete the exact same Major and other subjects but graduate with different degrees. What am I missing; if not, how can this be possible?

Kind regards,

Eventful

[vox nihili]

Hi everyone,

I have a hypothetical question. I noticed that for both the Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Commerce you can major in Economics. My understanding is that you would also take breadth subjects, but if you do a Bachelor of Arts you are limited in choosing Commerce related subjects relative to actually studying a Bachelor of Commerce.

However, I imagine if one would not be concerned with this, and instead choose other breadth subjects then you could hypothetically have two people that complete the exact same Major and other subjects but graduate with different degrees. What am I missing; if not, how can this be possible?

Kind regards,

Eventful

That’s all correct.

Your degree is more than just a major though. Obviously if you do commerce, you’ll graduate with a deeper knowledge of commerce topics, because you will have had to do a bit of finance etc, whereas if you do Arts you’ll come out with knowledge from whichever subjects you choose to do there. Many in Arts, for instance, combine it with Politics, which leaves you with different skills than if you did commerce.

It’s not unusual for the same majors to be offered within different degrees. 

[Eventful]

Would it not be possible to study the exact same breadth subjects for both?

[Orb]

Would it not be possible to study the exact same breadth subjects for both?

Nope. Because most comm students tend to study 2 majors (eg. Finance & Eco). You don't have enough Arts breadths to study the necessary finance subjects, you've got just enough to cover your Economics subjects (and if you wanted to have some other breadths in science, you're probably deprived of the opportunity).

[izzydes]

For breadth, you must take subjects that are outside of your faculty. If in commerce that eliminates any subject within departments of accounting, economics, finance, marketing, etc - and in Arts vice-versa.
As well as this, for your elective subjects, you must take subjects within your faculty. So if you took commerce you may compliment a economics degree with some maths or marketing subjects (idk not my area), but then if you did it through arts you might take electives in politics or psychology, etc.

[Eventful]

Thank you all for responding. Just to clarify my hypothetical question:

Student A majors in Economics (BoC) and chooses breadth subjects that are not restricted to degrees (e.g. subjects x,y,z)

Student B majors in Economics (BoA) and chooses breadth subjects that are not restricted to degrees (e.g. subjects x,y,z)

I.e. not choosing any subjects (like the aforementioned Finance) which cannot be universally chosen due to restrictions.

Would you then not have two students studying identical subjects, but graduating with different degrees?

[Eventful]

For some reason I cannot edit my last comment...consider this a p.s. to the last one.

In the case of having to choose certain subjects from within faculty: if BoC select x mandatory subject and take y subject as breadth, if BoA select y mandatory subject and take x subject as breadth. In each situation identical subjects are studied.

[Orb]

You still can't, if you're doing a BA (bach. of arts) with major in econ, you can't do the first year compulsory subjects that are present in Bcom (like principles of finance, ara, etc) or at least not all of them.

Also, if you're doing a BA you're not part of the FBE (faculty of business and economics) and there are some amazing FBE-exclusive things that comm students can do, which BA's can't. Likewise i'm sure there are BA-exclusive activities too

[Eventful]

Thanks Orb, your response has satisfied my curiosity.