What to do after year 12?

[Lolly]

I presume that many of us are asking the same question right now.

I've just been thinking of the possibilities.

I could go straight into an Arts degree at Melbourne or Monash. This is plan A.

However, I've also been looking at the RMIT writing courses and they look like they could be really great. I know for sure that I want to do some kind of writing as a career. I'm not sure whether that might be fiction writing,  academic writing, or journalism. The only problem is that there are other aspects of my education I'd like to continue which are not specifically vocational and I'm not sure if RMIT offers them. Does RMIT allow opportunities to learn about history, or philosophy, or German, if you're doing a vocationally specific course? ( Can somebody please clear this up for me? I actually have no idea.) If not, would a normal arts degree be a better choice?

I'm also wondering about whether to take a gap year. I like the idea of working for a year and become financially independent. That way I could qualify for youth allowance and move into a res college the year after, with no financial burden on my parents.  ( They have made it clear that if I want to move out, they're not paying for rent in any shape or form ) I've also thought about going to ANU and I'd have to save up for that.
There is incentive to do this because:
1. I share a room with my sister. It would be better for both of us if we had more space. (Not that we don't get along but...honestly...)
2. I need more time to get my licence.
3. Quite frankly, I need more time to grow up.
4. I want to start writing seriously. I think that this can only come with my own effort and making time to do so.
5. I want to travel.


AHHH CONFUSION :p :p


I'm sure a lot of you are like me and don't really know what they want to do next year! What have you been considering?

[Limista]

I know I would like to pursue something science-related at the very least. I also know that I absolutely dislike commerce/business oriented subjects. So I guess this helps somewhat as a deciding factor. 

[ninwa]

I'm fairly sure the Monash arts degree offers writing-related electives. I believe there's stuff like creative writing in the literature subjects. There's also a (really bludgy, apparently) academic writing subject. You can also take journalism electives (fair warning, you'll have to travel to Caulfield campus for those classes though).

Honestly though, looking back I really wish I'd taken a gap year to work, travel and actually think about what I wanted to do for a living. I think that kind of life experience is really valuable and far preferable to just jumping into the first degree that takes your fancy. Who knows, maybe you'll end up penning a bestseller and won't even need to go to uni! and if not, at least you'll have a nice little savings fund to support yourself with when you start uni. The university experience is as fulfilling and rich as you make it, and I would advise that you don't work for the first semester at least so you have the time to get really involved in university life (join all the clubs! go to all the events! do all the pub crawls! etc) without damaging your GPA too much.

[MonsieurHulot]

I presume that many of us are asking the same question right now.

I've just been thinking of the possibilities.

I could go straight into an Arts degree at Melbourne or Monash. This is plan A.

However, I've also been looking at the RMIT writing courses and they look like they could be really great. I know for sure that I want to do some kind of writing as a career. I'm not sure whether that might be fiction writing,  academic writing, or journalism. The only problem is that there are other aspects of my education I'd like to continue which are not specifically vocational and I'm not sure if RMIT offers them. Does RMIT allow opportunities to learn about history, or philosophy, or German, if you're doing a vocationally specific course? ( Can somebody please clear this up for me? I actually have no idea.) If not, would a normal arts degree be a better choice?

I'm also wondering about whether to take a gap year. I like the idea of working for a year and become financially independent. That way I could qualify for youth allowance and move into a res college the year after, with no financial burden on my parents.  ( They have made it clear that if I want to move out, they're not paying for rent in any shape or form ) I've also thought about going to ANU and I'd have to save up for that.
There is incentive to take to do because:
1. I share a room with my sister. It would be better for both of us if we had more space. (Not that we don't get along but...honestly...)
2. I need more time to get my licence.
3. Quite frankly, I need more time to grow up.
4. I want to start writing seriously. I think that this can only come with my own effort and making time to do so.
5. I want to travel.


AHHH CONFUSION :p :p


I'm sure a lot of you are like me and don't really know what they want to do next year! What have you been considering?

Your reasons- save for the rooming-with-sister part- are exactly the same as mine for wanting to take a gap year. I plan on working till I drop, every day, for four or five months of next year before buying a ticket to somewhere in Europe. Hopefully I then return spiritually, intellectually and emotionally enlightened and know exactly the path I will take. Seems unlikely though. At the least, I'll widen my world-view and mature a bit, which would be great. After that, I'll probably do a Bachelor of Arts at Melbourne and be able to explore what I want to study. But my plan is not set in stone, I guess I'll do what I feel like when the time comes. Reassure yourself with my indecision; not everyone has a single path for their life. I hope.

[BigAl]

you can do short courses at monash.

[brenden]

I would encourage you to take a gap year . It felt quite a radical idea to me and I think you'd have to be a little brave just to up and take one. You'll see from my blog I planned to take one for a long time and just... Didn't. Lol. We'll talk more about this later - but I reckon gap year's the way. I can confirm there are creative writing streams at Monash, haven't taken any myself.

[Professor Polonsky]

I'm gap-yearing, and pretty much everyone I know who's taken one does not regret that decision whatsoever. You won't often get the opportunity to do pretty much whatever you want for a year, while the rest of your life is placed on hold. You will later have a career, and then a family, and you'll probably be too old anyway to properly enjoy it. You mentioned that you want to travel, that is basically my main incentive in doing a gap year. You have the opportunity to do so now, and I don't see why not take it. You should be in no rush to start studying again, the rest of your life is still ahead of you.

Oh, and Melbourne offers creative writing as a major/minor, I know someone who's doing it there as the latter.

[Lolly]

Thanks for the advice, guys, I'm seriously considering a gap year now.

I know I would like to pursue something science-related at the very least. I also know that I absolutely dislike commerce/business oriented subjects. So I guess this helps somewhat as a deciding factor. 

Are you planning on doing a science degree somewhere, Starfish?

The university experience is as fulfilling and rich as you make it, and I would advise that you don't work for the first semester at least so you have the time to get really involved in university life (join all the clubs! go to all the events! do all the pub crawls! etc) without damaging your GPA too much.

I look forward to this

Your reasons- save for the rooming-with-sister part- are exactly the same as mine for wanting to take a gap year. I plan on working till I drop, every day, for four or five months of next year before buying a ticket to somewhere in Europe. Hopefully I then return spiritually, intellectually and emotionally enlightened and know exactly the path I will take. Seems unlikely though. At the least, I'll widen my world-view and mature a bit, which would be great. After that, I'll probably do a Bachelor of Arts at Melbourne and be able to explore what I want to study. But my plan is not set in stone, I guess I'll do what I feel like when the time comes. Reassure yourself with my indecision; not everyone has a single path for their life. I hope.

That sounds incredibly exciting.  The world is your oyster, my friend.

you can do short courses at monash.

Do you mean, enrolling in only a few subjects or...?

I would encourage you to take a gap year . It felt quite a radical idea to me and I think you'd have to be a little brave just to up and take one. You'll see from my blog I planned to take one for a long time and just... Didn't. Lol. We'll talk more about this later - but I reckon gap year's the way. I can confirm there are creative writing streams at Monash, haven't taken any myself.

You could always defer next year if you wanted though? You should do creative writing.

You also said in your blog that you felt a little lost in the summer break without the structure of school. Here's my rebuttal. In the past I have been warned against doing a gap year. I'd imagine that the longer you put off further study, the harder it is to take it back up again.   And some people "waste" their gap years, so to speak, because they have no constructive idea of what to do and just bum at home. Last year a teacher said that if I ever decided to take a gap year, it's better to travel somewhere with an organisation or become a volunteer or something like that. But that said, I guess that if I do make use of that time and have clear intentions from the very start, there's nothing to worry about.

I'm gap-yearing, and pretty much everyone I know who's taken one does not regret that decision whatsoever. You won't often get the opportunity to do pretty much whatever you want for a year, while the rest of your life is placed on hold. You will later have a career, and then a family, and you'll probably be too old anyway to properly enjoy it. You mentioned that you want to travel, that is basically my main incentive in doing a gap year. You have the opportunity to do so now, and I don't see why not take it. You should be in no rush to start studying again, the rest of your life is still ahead of you.

Oh, and Melbourne offers creative writing as a major/minor, I know someone who's doing it there as the latter.

Where do you want to travel, Polonius?

I'll have a look into the courses.

[brenden]

You could always defer next year if you wanted though? You should do creative writing.

You also said in your blog that you felt a little lost in the summer break without the structure of school. Here's my rebuttal. In the past I have been warned against doing a gap year. I'd imagine that the longer you put off further study, the harder it is to take it back up again.   And some people "waste" their gap years, so to speak, because they have no constructive idea of what to do and just bum at home. Last year a teacher said that if I ever decided to take a gap year, it's better to travel somewhere with an organisation or become a volunteer or something like that.  But that said, I guess that if I do make use of that time and have clear intentions from the very start, there's nothing to worry about.

I could defer next year . The breaks are quite long though... I'm 100% going to travel, but I'm not sure if I'll need a gap year to do it.
I did feel lost, but I gave up my life for Year 12 , it took a long time to reconnect with friends that I'd cast aside etc. I'm not so sure on making it harder to go back - a year of fully time work would be enough to make me wan to go to Uni forever hahaha. I definitely wouldn't take a gap year and waste it (which is why I didn't take a gap year; I would have wasted it). I'd want to have a plan before I took one - but I think if you have a constructive idea, and you do, then it would work really great. How you travel is entirely up to you if that's what you want to do.

[BigAl]

as far as I know, you pay some money and enrol into any course. for your interest go here http://www.shortcourses.monash.edu.au/communication.html

[lala1911]

What I'll be doing in specific order:
: After the final exam, take a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge sleep
: Going to gold coast by myself for a few days after exams
: Find a job and hopefully move out
: Go to RMIT


Also, I don't like the idea of a GAP year. I think it's a waste of a year, personally. 4.5 months before starting uni is plenty of time to relax, have fun and prepare for uni. 1 year lost = 1 years salary = perhaps $40,000 ?? (assuming you land a job straight out of uni). Again, life isn't all about money, but one of my extreme ambitions is to take out a home loan before 22 years old, so I'm really going to need money for a down-payment. Yeah, call me crazy,.
That's just how I view it personally, it may be a good option as people do work during the GAP year and go y0lo mode (lol y(o)lo is blocked)

[Checkmate]

think it's a waste of a year, personally. 4.5 months before starting uni is plenty of time to relax, have fun and prepare for uni. 1 year lost = 1 years salary = perhaps $40,000 ?? (assuming you land a job straight out of uni).
That's just how I view it personally, it may be a good option as people do work during the GAP year and go y0lo mode (lol y(o)lo is blocked)

Basically this is also my view of a gap year, but if you know what you're going to do in that year and it's been planned out, I reckon it's a great opportunity if the only one to get a whole year to do what you really want. But I've got nothing to plan for in a gap year with year 12 on my ass all day, and I reckon I'd just do nothing if I took one.

Travelling would be awesome and epic, but I can't exactly cop the expenses so it's off to uni straight away for me.

[lala1911]

Basically this is also my view of a gap year, but if you know what you're going to do in that year and it's been planned out, I reckon it's a great opportunity if the only one to get a whole year to do what you really want. But I've got nothing to plan for in a gap year with year 12 on my ass all day, and I reckon I'd just do nothing if I took one.

Travelling would be awesome and epic, but I can't exactly cop the expenses so it's off to uni straight away for me.

I probably should have added that in as well. If you have constructive ideas and will be making the fullest of the gap year, I'd say don't hesitate going for it. It's that personally, i) I think 4.5 months is enough of a break ii) I don't have any major plans

[iksvertim]

I'm pretty much settled on what i'm doing after year 12, although i'm sad to be finishing school i'm looking forward to all the new experiences next year.
At the moment the biggest thing that i'm looking forward to is finishing exams so that I can move out of my mothers house and move in with my Dad. Although it will be easier for me to get to University (i'm hoping to go to RMIT, so taking a 10 minute tram compared to an hour-long train is a plus) i'm just eager to get out of here and see my Dad more.

I always thought that I would do a gap-year, but knowing who I am, I don't think I would want to go to Uni after all that time off

I'm hoping to do a Bachelor of Communications (Media) and hopefully when I graduate I can get enough money to move to Sydney and become an entertainment reporter at a magazine publication, with the ultimate goal of writing movie reviews at Empire Magazine

But for those who want to do a gap year I say go for it!
*queue long speech about how you can use that time to find the inner you, and experience different things etc*

[physics]

Try taking a gap year...I regret graduating uni at 19...I guess it will be hard for me to find a job in my occupation at such a young age so I think that taking a gap year will allow you to mature and do all the teen things you want to do before getting into the hectic lifestyle of UNI. OMG