PPE or Law at ANU?

[zenia.v]

Hey there, I'm a student from Melbourne hoping to attend ANU next year (2018). I definitely want to do a double degree, however am considering 3 different subjects. I don't know what the best pairing would be, etc. So my three options are:

- Law
- Politics, Philosophy and Economics
- International Security Studies

The subjects I did in year 11/12 were: English, German, Economics, Global Politics, Extended Investigation and Monash University Extension: International Studies. I loved them all!

So my concerns are:

1. I didn't do ANY maths in year 11 or 12, and Maths Methods is 'assumed knowledge' for PPE. So should I just cross that out, even though I am really interested in economics  PLUS it's one one part of the 3 discipline degree?

2. I'm interested in law and think that it's a super important thing to know about, however didn't enjoy Year 11 Legal Studies (the prereq units to the Year 12 course). Should I give it a go anyway and then drop if I don't like it? Is JD a better idea if I'm not 110% sure?

If anyone is doing a double degree in any of these or knows anything that could be useful to me/ advice on choosing, please help!!!

Also while I'm here, thoughts on ANU and moving there in general? I'm pretty set on it, and I've read the upsides and the downsides, but this is my first time asking from my personal stance. Let me know your experiences!

Thank you

[extremeftw]

Some thoughts on the PPE:

Very interesting degree and quite varied in its content, I can definitely see the attraction to it. But one thing that makes me hesitant about PPE is that there isn't really enough economics in it to make you particularly competitive for pure economics roles at say the Treasury or the RBA. From discussions on other forums, the consensus seems to be that you kind of need to do honours in economics after the PPE if you really want a decent shot at those kind of roles.

I think you have to ask yourself what kind of career you are shooting for. PPE would be a great generalist degree to apply for most public sector graduate programs. But for some of the more 'rigorous' or specialised jobs, you might need a little more. If you want to be an economist, you'd probably be best off doing straight economics. Also remember that unlike the UK where PPE is well-established degree (many Prime Ministers have graduated with a PPE degree at Oxford), in Australia it is a much more novel idea.

In response to your specific questions:

1. Maths will not be much of an issue. Whilst the ANU economics faculty does have a reputation of being highly quantitative, the mathematics for your entry level economics units will not be particularly difficult. You will just need to know algebra and some basic calculus (like how to differentiate a function).

2. Is the JD a commonwealth supported place? If not, it would be very expensive and quite costly if it turns out Law is not really your thing!

3. As for ANU, it is very well regarded. Canberra has polarised opinions however (as I'm sure you are aware).

[strawberries]

(edit: extremeftw answered your questions better)

Hi,

I'm also from Melbourne and currently finished my 1st year at ANU.

I've also considered law but right now I'm considering doing a JD afterwards but I'm not 100% certain. Doing a LLB is cheaper though.

Lots of students do the PPE/Law double, as well as quite a few doing Security/Law and even PPE/Security as well.
- a lot of students do PPE or Law in general. Very few unis offer PPE and it's good that it can combine the 3 aspects and PPE is like highly recognized in like the UK, but on the other hand, you don't get much depth into the 3 areas (roughly a minor equivalent) than say if you were to do a major in each. But then again, it is up to you and how deep you're willing to go in the fields. I believe if you want to do PPE honours you must have completed a major equivalent so might not be applicable to double degree PPE students.
- Int'l Security is run through the College of Asia and the Pacific. One of the smallest colleges, but has a great research and teaching and stuff. not many unis at all offer programs or courses in international security

I would definitely recommend doing a double degree though, regardless of which 2/3 you choose.
You could do PPE/Security + JD but that would take 7 years.
You can definitely transfer or drop something if you don't like it as well

Regarding life at Canberra/ANU, I made a post here, but if you have any more questions about ANU/life in Canberra, feel free to ask

Good luck!