Monash General Chat

[keltingmeith]

Having my standard late-semester existential crisis:

Finish undergrad then try for med

Or

Finish undergrad, do honours, then try for med?

Could always try for the GAMSAT with minimal study, and let that decide for you.

[alondouek]

Haha! It's a possibility, but an expensive possibility at that.

[slothpomba]

Having my standard late-semester existential crisis:

Finish undergrad then try for med

Or

Finish undergrad, do honours, then try for med?

An extra year is really nothing compared to the experience and learning. I took an extra year to finish my degree, many other people take that long or more as well (holidays, defer, fail subjects, exchange, go part time, etc). Even then, they're just doing their regular old degree for an extra year, not honours!

I reckon if you're interested in it, you should give it a crack. Unless you're concerned it'll lower your grade to unacceptable levels to get into med.

[ninwa]

Having my standard late-semester existential crisis:

Finish undergrad then try for med

Or

Finish undergrad, do honours, then try for med?

Weren't you considering research as a career at some point? Might as well give honours a shot, you might find that you really love it

[alondouek]

Thanks for the replies everyone! Haha Nina, what I consider in terms of careers changes pretty much on a bi-weekly basis so I'd be wary of putting too much stock in that. I've tended towards an interest in medicine recently because I feel that I want (at the moment) to be more involved in health implementation and clinical practice instead of pure process development and research. Ideally (at the moment... lel) I'd want a combination of research and clinical practice but it's probably just me being typically wavering.

Also I've always enjoyed the communication- and clinical-based parts of my courses more than the pure science so I'm thinking, hell, why not make use of that?

I might just do what Euler suggested and sit the GAMSAT next year (albeit with study haha) and see where that takes me.


Une autre question: Hypothetically speaking, if I am offered a med place at Monash or UoM, is it possible for me to defer that for a year to do Hons?

[ninwa]

Monash:
The University will allow deferment of study up to a maximum of twelve months, or longer in exceptional circumstances, for all new coursework applicants who have been offered a place in a course, except where the applicant intends to study elsewhere.

Unimelbsucks
Deferrals are not granted automatically and will only be considered in exceptional and unforeseen circumstances. If you wish to apply for a deferral, you must submit a written request (with supporting evidence) to the MDHS Student Centre by the due date. Please read the Deferral Policy for information about the guidelines for approving deferral of entry. and the aforementioned Deferral Policy

tl;dr no you cannot

[alondouek]

Thanks!

Unimelbsucks

huehuehue

[datfatcat]

If taking 1 year allows you to apply for the 2017 medicine entry, you should definitely go for it!

http://med.monash.edu.au/medical/gippsland/mbbs-pathways.html

[alondouek]

If taking 1 year allows you to apply for the 2017 medicine entry, you should definitely go for it!

http://med.monash.edu.au/medical/gippsland/mbbs-pathways.html

Is that limited by the year you start, or only for the year you graduate? If it's the former, I can't (also I think I'd preference UoM over Monash (never thought I'd say that) because ideally I wouldn't want to spend a year in Gippsland hahaha)

[datfatcat]

Is that limited by the year you start, or only for the year you graduate? If it's the former, I can't (also I think I'd preference UoM over Monash (never thought I'd say that) because ideally I wouldn't want to spend a year in Gippsland hahaha)

I think it is the year you graduate. If you preference UoM over Monash, that is fine, but Monash would still be a good backup option since you don't need your gamsat for 2017 entry.

[slothpomba]

http://www.monash.edu.au/about/who/ambition/masterplan/clayton-campus-readdressing/
I'm confused enough as the current system is - makes no sense that buildings 63 and 64 are at opposite ends. More confused than ever now

Whats that quote? "The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy."

The place seems to be under constant construction and reconfiguration, i wish just for one year they could leave things the same. I'm surprised it took them til *this year* to put signs up! How did they not think of that earlier? I mean honestly...

Even though this idea has the potential to be even more confusing, i think its a move in the right direction. Monash has always felt more like a bit of a random mishmash of buildings rather than one cohesive place or plan..

[alondouek]

Speaking of Monash bureaucracy:

I went into the Science faculty enquiries place today to see if I could cancel credit for one of my first-year units (MTH1020), so as to allow me space to do both a psych and dev major. I'm one unit place short of being able to do a dev major as well. They (the faculty) won't let me cancel credit for MTH1020 because "they only allow for that to happen for your first major". This doesn't make sense to me, because technically neither of my majors is my "first" major, it's just that I have to do one of them.

To be able to do the DEV major I'd need to pay full fee for one DEV unit (a little less than $4000 as at now), which isn't really an option unless my financial situation improves remarkably over the next two years... which it won't. Has anyone had any experience with cancelling credit or negotiating such a thing to happen in the Science faculty? Pls help, I really want to be able to major in dev bio


Edit: (yes, I do seem to have daily crises nowadays lol)

[slothpomba]

How far off a major will you be if you cant get it cancelled? I mean will you just be one unit off? You're pretty damn close to a major then anyway, if all you care about is learning content. If you need it for like honours purposes or something it might be a bit more tricky.

Is the full fee up-front or can you put it on some kind of loan scheme?

I guess try talk to as many people as you can and work it out. Go in and talk to them, write emails, call, etc. Move up the hierarchy if you can.

[alondouek]

How far off a major will you be if you cant get it cancelled? I mean will you just be one unit off? You're pretty damn close to a major then anyway, if all you care about is learning content. If you need it for like honours purposes or something it might be a bit more tricky.

Is the full fee up-front or can you put it on some kind of loan scheme?

I guess try talk to as many people as you can and work it out. Go in and talk to them, write emails, call, etc. Move up the hierarchy if you can.

Cheers for the response, this is stressing me out immensely haha

I'll be just one unit off a DEV major, and ordinarily I'd just let it go and major solely in psych while doing DEV units for a minor, but Honours in DEV is one of the two areas I'd be interested in doing Honours in (if I were to do so). The Faculty sort of implied to me today that it's an up-front payment that needs to be made within 6 months of the end of my course, which is a pain because not only is it exorbitant in terms of monetary cost (for me), but it'll also mean I'll be back at uni doing one single unit for an extra semester.

I think I will try to take it higher though. Given the circumstances, the only scenario that would work out well for me is if by some miracle I can get dispensation to cancel credit for MTH1020.

Given that I performed reasonably well in MTH1020 (upper D), do you think that'd be at least a semi-valid point in my favour if I wanted to cancel credit for it (i.e. I'm not cancelling it because it's damaging my GPA, rather I'm doing it to be able to focus on an area I'm more passionate about. MTH1020 was just a random placefiller unit for me at the time too )

Cheers again Jake!

[jeanweasley]

To all first years who got an interview for the Ancora Imparo program, how did yours go? The interview process must be finished by now so I think we can talk about it.

Also to those that got in the program, can you tell us more about it?

I hope your enrollment process is going great and that the last two weeks are not too stressful for you.