Advice please D': (degrees)

[simba]

Hey everyone,

So I've just finished my first semester of science/engineering at Monash and I am having SERIOUS second thoughts about whether I want to continue this degree. The more and more I think about a career in engineering the more unappealing it sounds I am finding the labs extremely stressful and am just so drained after only a semester. I don't mind the science component of the degree, but I don't think I want to continue with engineering.

I guess I don't really know where to go from here. I'm thinking about switching into science/commerce, straight science or completely switching paths and going into nutrition and dietics. This semester I am dropping down to three units and if I transfer I will do so at the end of the year.

Does anyone have any experience in transferring or what it is like in commerce or nutrition? Gosh I'm just so confused right now I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing haha. (undecided about what I want to do once I've finished uni too!)

I know a lot of my questions are pretty open ended and a bit ambiguous but I'm just trying to gather as much information as I can before I make any decisions

Thanks!

[brenden]

If it makes you feel any better, two days ago I put my degree on excel, said "I'll just rearrange a few units" and all of a sudden my Law degree is done and I have a double Arts major! Tough times in the uni lyf.

[pi]

Why do you want to consider dietetics? Are you thinking more of a hospital/sick people/old people role in the future or something else? I've seen the hospital ones at work during my placements, personally don't think it's the most exciting job out there but I'm interested to see why you're keen on it

[keltingmeith]

So, while I can't talk for commerce, nutrition or exchanging, I can say that if you're not liking your engineering units/the idea of engineering, swapping out is definitely a good idea.

I'd also like to say that you shouldn't worry about job outcomes if you have a science degree - I seriously hear so many stories of people with science degrees getting good careers all the time, even if the career isn't a science one. While I'm definitely not the most experienced (lolJAFFY), here's my advice:

Do what you enjoy - as long as you take a path you won't regret taking, things will turn out all right.

[simba]

Why do you want to consider dietetics? Are you thinking more of a hospital/sick people/old people role in the future or something else? I've seen the hospital ones at work during my placements, personally don't think it's the most exciting job out there but I'm interested to see why you're keen on it

I've always been really interested in nutrition and for a fair amount of time was considering becoming a dietitian. But then other people around me tried to convince me that med would be a better option so I kind of reluctantly changed my path to med and then just dropped the whole thing totally since the only path I thought I could follow in health sciences without disappointing everyone was med (which sounds really stupid now, but it all made sense back then ) But yes I actually am quite keen on nutrition considering other people tried to push me away from it but I still feel strongly about doing it

So, while I can't talk for commerce, nutrition or exchanging, I can say that if you're not liking your engineering units/the idea of engineering, swapping out is definitely a good idea.

I'd also like to say that you shouldn't worry about job outcomes if you have a science degree - I seriously hear so many stories of people with science degrees getting good careers all the time, even if the career isn't a science one. While I'm definitely not the most experienced (lolJAFFY), here's my advice:

Do what you enjoy - as long as you take a path you won't regret taking, things will turn out all right.

Yeah you're right. I listen to the advice of others too much. I'm so scared of doing straight science because all I can hear is my brother telling me I won't get a job out of it Thanks for the advice man (PS we were in a tonne of the same units this semester apparently? Woo, twins! Dropping physics too as well )

[simba]

oh I just realised I didn't answer your question properly pi! I was considering being a clinical dietitian!

[keltingmeith]

(PS we were in a tonne of the same units this semester apparently? Woo, twins! Dropping physics too as well )

Hahah, I came to the AN game way too late, I'm finding people in here everywhere! Should've joined last year when I randomly ended up here looking for help with spec, hahah.

You now make 5 out of 7 I know dropping physics after that disaster. xD

[Reckoner]

Hey everyone,

So I've just finished my first semester of science/engineering at Monash and I am having SERIOUS second thoughts about whether I want to continue this degree. The more and more I think about a career in engineering the more unappealing it sounds I am finding the labs extremely stressful and am just so drained after only a semester. I don't mind the science component of the degree, but I don't think I want to continue with engineering.

I guess I don't really know where to go from here. I'm thinking about switching into science/commerce, straight science or completely switching paths and going into nutrition and dietics. This semester I am dropping down to three units and if I transfer I will do so at the end of the year.

Does anyone have any experience in transferring or what it is like in commerce or nutrition? Gosh I'm just so confused right now I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing haha. (undecided about what I want to do once I've finished uni too!)

I know a lot of my questions are pretty open ended and a bit ambiguous but I'm just trying to gather as much information as I can before I make any decisions

Thanks!

Hey Simba! I'm in almost the opposite situation, being a commerce student considering switching to engineering. Seriously, I know what its like too think waaay too much about this stuff.

Something that helped put my mind at rest (at least a bit) was taking an eng subject as an elective, however I don't think you have that luxury in the eng/sci double. What I do recommend though, is watching some of the ECC1000 Lectures on MULO. The lecturer (Steven King) actually started in I think a forestry degree or something before changing to economics. Microeconomics basically sums up most of commerce too, with all the other majors essentially being applied subsets of economics at their core. It could just give you a bit more of an overview of what commerce is like. If you get bored of looking at only the slides, MIT have some introductory microeconomics lectures on youtube that are perhaps a bit more visually interesting.

In terms of finding out if you actually like commerce related jobs though, try to talk to people in the industry. Youtube videos are a start but they sometimes come across a bit puppies and rainbows (at least to me anyway?). Try seeing if any of the older people on your family or friends know anyone who works in a commerce field, and try to talk to them about it. Even calling up some of the big 4 accounting firms could be helpful. They have lots of resources.

Also, something one of my stats lecturers said helps me not too worry about this stuff too much - "good decisions don't necessarily lead to good results" or something like that anyway. If you're worried about making the wrong decision, try not to. As long as you think things through a bit then that's the best you can do. If you feel that you'll be happiest now and in the future transferring to something else, then transfer. And if it turns out that you hate it in a few years time, so what? Your preferences changed. You can't control these things most of the time. As long as you gave it some real, logical thought and did some actual research, then you would have made a good decision. Things just changed later on.

I don't know anything about dietetics, so I'll save that for other people

[pi]

Nice! The way I see it is that if you're not enjoying engineering after this sem (yep, I think give it another sem, apparently first yr physics is some of the worst of it all!) then change to the nutrition pathway We hear stories all the time about people who continued with eng/med/law/etc without enjoying their work and those stories don't usually have happy endings; I'm sure you'd like a happy ending . You seem to have a real passion for something here and it's definitely worth a shot if things don't work out this sem

Just a word in science, most jobs seem to be research or teaching focused, with neither being a real certainty with a lot coming down to meeting the right people at the right time and getting good publications under your belt from there. It's risky unless you're very passionate about it.

Edit: the above user's point on sussing out units via MULO is an excellent one, friends have done it to much satisfaction

[simba]

Hey Simba! I'm in almost the opposite situation, being a commerce student considering switching to engineering. Seriously, I know what its like too think waaay too much about this stuff.

Something that helped put my mind at rest (at least a bit) was taking an eng subject as an elective, however I don't think you have that luxury in the eng/sci double. What I do recommend though, is watching some of the ECC1000 Lectures on MULO. The lecturer (Steven King) actually started in I think a forestry degree or something before changing to economics. Microeconomics basically sums up most of commerce too, with all the other majors essentially being applied subsets of economics at their core. It could just give you a bit more of an overview of what commerce is like. If you get bored of looking at only the slides, MIT have some introductory microeconomics lectures on youtube that are perhaps a bit more visually interesting.

In terms of finding out if you actually like commerce related jobs though, try to talk to people in the industry. Youtube videos are a start but they sometimes come across a bit puppies and rainbows (at least to me anyway?). Try seeing if any of the older people on your family or friends know anyone who works in a commerce field, and try to talk to them about it. Even calling up some of the big 4 accounting firms could be helpful. They have lots of resources.

Also, something one of my stats lecturers said helps me not too worry about this stuff too much - "good decisions don't necessarily lead to good results" or something like that anyway. If you're worried about making the wrong decision, try not to. As long as you think things through a bit then that's the best you can do. If you feel that you'll be happiest now and in the future transferring to something else, then transfer. And if it turns out that you hate it in a few years time, so what? Your preferences changed. You can't control these things most of the time. As long as you gave it some real, logical thought and did some actual research, then you would have made a good decision. Things just changed later on.

I don't know anything about dietetics, so I'll save that for other people

Wow, thank you so much for all the advice, I'd totally forgotten that I could watch lectured from other faculties on MULO!
Yeah that's a fair point to consider though, thank you for putting my fears of transferring degrees in perspective. I'd much rather waste a year or two figuring out what it is I want to do rather than ending up in a job that I despise.

Nice! The way I see it is that if you're not enjoying engineering after this sem (yep, I think give it another sem, apparently first yr physics is some of the worst of it all!) then change to the nutrition pathway We hear stories all the time about people who continued with eng/med/law/etc without enjoying their work and those stories don't usually have happy endings; I'm sure you'd like a happy ending . You seem to have a real passion for something here and it's definitely worth a shot if things don't work out this sem

Just a word in science, most jobs seem to be research or teaching focused, with neither being a real certainty with a lot coming down to meeting the right people at the right time and getting good publications under your belt from there. It's risky unless you're very passionate about it.

Edit: the above user's point on sussing out units via MULO is an excellent one, friends have done it to much satisfaction

Yeah, well I will do the same and watch some lectures on MULO for nutrition and dietics and see what I think of them! My main issue with the course is that I chose to do drama in VCE rather than biology, and I know nutrition will be very much centred around biology (but I guess watching some lectures could help to determine whether I'd find it as interesting as I believe I would!)

Yeah, that's my concern about science, and considering that labs are really not my favourite thing at all I don't even think I'd want to go into research!

[slothpomba]

So I've just finished my first semester of science/engineering at Monash and I am having SERIOUS second thoughts about whether I want to continue this degree.

Keep in mind you've only done one semester, its not much to judge an entire degree off. For all intents and purposes, each unit is totally self contained from all the other units and the university as a whole. It must be considered whether it is the handful of units you've had so far (quality varies) or it is the degree you don't like. That said....

I guess I don't really know where to go from here. I'm thinking about switching into science/commerce, straight science or completely switching paths and going into nutrition and dietics. This semester I am dropping down to three units and if I transfer I will do so at the end of the year.

Does anyone have any experience in transferring or what it is like in commerce or nutrition? Gosh I'm just so confused right now I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing haha. (undecided about what I want to do once I've finished uni too!)

If you really sense you don't like the degree, staying in it makes about as much sense as staying in a building as it burns. If you are strongly convinced you don't like it, jump ship. Keep in mind there is never such a thing as "too late" in uni. Everyone is there for different lengths of time and for different reasons; people fail, defer, go part time, go on exchange, add more units, etc. There is absolutely no pressure to stay up with the pack or get out of their quickly, dont be afraid to try different things.

I dont know if we can really help you much with the actual choice of degree, i guess at the end of the day thats up to you. If you really don't like it, you could always (theoretically) swap back.

Wish you all the best.

Just a word in science, most jobs seem to be research or teaching focused, with neither being a real certainty with a lot coming down to meeting the right people at the right time and getting good publications under your belt from there. It's risky unless you're very passionate about it.

[BigAl]

It is very normal that you've encountered this problem in uni...I had the same thoughts, particularly I wanted to drop the science component because I thought I wouldnt survive through second year physics. Since I got a relatively decent score in my science units, I decided to continue with science one more semester.

To decide whether or not continue one of the degrees might be deceptive in the first year. After all, you havent chosen your engineering area and the first year can affect your decision. Just dont rush...Choose a variety of first year units (electrical, materials or structures) and decide which one suits you most..And if you dont like any of them, just drop engineering

[Phy124]

To decide whether or not continue one of the degrees might be deceptive in the first year. After all, you havent chosen your engineering area and the first year can affect your decision. Just dont rush...Choose a variety of first year units (electrical, materials or structures) and decide which one suits you most..And if you dont like any of them, just drop engineering

Just like to note that BEng/BSci students only get to take one core engineering unit, ENG1060, and one engineering elective (ENG1010, ENG1020, ENG1030, ENG1040 or ENG1050) in first year, as such they do not choose their stream at the end of the year like single degree engineering students or students taking other double degrees e.g. BEng/BComm or BEng/BArts

[TrueTears]

I'm so scared of doing straight science because all I can hear is my brother telling me I won't get a job out of it

Science is one of the most employable degrees! For example, commerce firms these days favour science/engineering kids much more than a typical BComm grad.

[slothpomba]

Science is one of the most employable degrees! For example, commerce firms these days favour science/engineering kids much more than a typical BComm grad.

Wouldn't it depend how high your WAM is, id imagine itd have to be extremely high here.

OP Certainly if you just want jobs *within* science, you might come up against some walls but its still certainly doable.