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Joseph41

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Please help me construct my life
« on: January 14, 2015, 09:01:12 am »
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Hi there, friends.

I'm going to try to keep this concise, but I'm a perennial over-writer, so apologies in advance. Any thoughts on my situation would be greatly appreciated.

In 2012 (Year 12), I didn't know what I wanted to do at uni. Until the day before preferences were due, all of my preferences were design-related (industrial design, communication design and so on). But I ended up concluding that the design market is rather difficult to crack, and the industry would likely not have been great for my back.

Subsequently, I enrolled in the Dean's Scholars Arts Program at Monash University. I figured that, as I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do, the three years of Arts would give me a nice base from which to build toward something else. My vague plan has been something like finish Arts, do Honours (though I'm not sure if this is worth it), and then undertake a Masters of Teaching. Recently, though, I have realised that I don't particularly wish to teach my entire life, despite the fact that I am fairly sure I will end up teaching at some stage.

So here is my conundrum: I'm not finished studying - I still have the desire to learn new things - but I'm not sure what I want to study next. My main interests are education (which I will be studying at some point), psychology, health promotion, nutrition and dietetics, marketing, and English and writing. I have great interest, too, in other forms of science but, having not studied any science since Year 10, I am slightly hesitant.

I guess what I'm asking for is any advice or musings on potential courses to undertake after my present one. Also, considering 2015 will be my final year of my present degree, any suggestions regarding whether or not to pursue Honours would be grouse. For what it's worth, I'm double majoring in Linguistics and International Studies.

My ATAR was 99.65, and my WAM is 84.435.

Thank you in advance for any thoughts. :)
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Aaron

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Re: Please help me construct my life
« Reply #1 on: January 14, 2015, 05:26:50 pm »
+1
I honestly don't think honours is worth it unless you plan to do something in research (or academia, PhD etc). I'm in a similar situation as yourself. I am planning to do the Master of Teaching and this is my final year of my IT degree as well. There is however an option for me to enter into honours but I personally can't see any benefit other than having the extension on my degree title (or futureproofing just incase I decide I hate teaching and want to continue on with a PhD or something..)

Quote from: Joseph41
I figured that, as I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do, the three years of Arts would give me a nice base from which to build toward something else. My vague plan has been something like finish Arts, do Honours (though I'm not sure if this is worth it), and then undertake a Masters of Teaching.

I like this plan. My objective when I entered my IT degree was to have this only as a backup (and to use it as a tool to get into MTeach) but not to sound cheesy, I've really enjoyed uni (much more than school). Teaching was always a dream of mine.

If you want to teach, I think you should just proceed with MTeach next year. There is no need to be overqualified. Also remember that some universities offer cloud/online courses or night school so this is an option as well if you find teaching isn't right for you.
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Re: Please help me construct my life
« Reply #2 on: January 14, 2015, 06:10:30 pm »
+1
One option for you to do would be Teach for Australia, which is a one year program that qualifies you with a Masters of Ed (I think), but sees you earning 40k+ actually teaching in schools while you do it. I think it sounds like a pretty great program. You get a qualification that you can always come back to, and it functions as a nice 'interim' year where, if you want to study more, you've set yourself up with a bit of money (as well as the 'back-up' qualification that will always be there), and you get a pretty good experience of teaching and whatever else.

For my own reference:

Quote
psychology, health promotion, nutrition and dietetics, marketing, and English and writing

Personally, I've been getting very interested in learning to code. It's sort of amazing how valuable it is. Like, when I look at these interests, I'm like "wow, coding would be useful there (as well as web-based design). Health promotion/nutrition is just inviting a cool website [marketable]. Anyway... a bit tangential and probably not realistic for you, but if I studied further, I'd like to integrate some sort of IT into it.

I think with a linguistics major, any further study (copywriting certificates and stuff like that) might be less worthwhile regarding things you could write for. Like; marketing based study would be more beneficial in that regard, because it would complement linguistics but add a whole new element to you as an employee, whereas directly furthering your writing skills/qualifications, whilst valuable, might not be as valuable as something else. As far as health promotion and nutrition goes; I feel as if studying these things extensively is more of a "getting employed in that field" type of thing. If that's the case, we reduce the conundrum to "do you want to work in that field?". Here, I think even marketing based study could be beneficial for health promotion (leading to work for a company?), but probably no more or less helpful than direct qualifications. Marketing and IT based study could be pretty cool. Gives you lots of options... you could always start your own small business/initiative/website or again just proceed to work for a company.

A diploma of science would really neatly fit your interests. *At this point in writing, I pause for 5 minutes, scroll down, and see "Haven't studied since Year 10". Seeing that you've other scientific interests pushes me in that direction :P. Don't worry about the lack of study, you'll be fine. Especially after already doing an undergrad. lol. Can you imagine going back to first year in a generalist degree? Science makes a lot of sense here. (Also... coding)... (Okay, I'll stop shoving my fad obsessions into your face).

Honours... I'm neither here nor there. Re: 'worth it'... What's the outcome? Is the outcome worth it? You want to study more, but do you want to go deeper into the same stuff, or extend outwards? Honours seems like a 'stall' to me atm (without knowing further information).

Anyway, I'm out of thoughts. Have fun!
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Re: Please help me construct my life
« Reply #3 on: January 14, 2015, 06:46:12 pm »
+1
psychology, health promotion, nutrition and dietetics, marketing, and English and writing.

If these things interest you, have you thought about doing some health science/health promotion/epidemiology related stuff? These are covered extensively in the Bachelor of Health Science at an undergrad level, but a lot of people from Arts to Biomed (and Med) do an MPH (Master of Public Health) as postgraduate study to gain access to epidemiology- or health-related careers/research positions. I'm personally considering doing the latter at some stage because epidemiology is awesome.

Epidemiology, health sciences and health promotion are all obviously very broad fields with myriad aspects to focus on, but if you don't mind approaching the scientific side of things (to varying degrees, depending on what you're working on and what field you enter), this might be something to consider. Plus, if you decide to do the MPH you can continue with your Arts degree and give yourself more time to think things through.

Let me know if you'd like me to expand on anything :)
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Joseph41

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Re: Please help me construct my life
« Reply #4 on: January 15, 2015, 08:55:57 am »
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Wow, what a fantastic response. Thank you very much for three helpful responses. ATAR Notes truly is a fantastic community. I owe you all!

I honestly don't think honours is worth it unless you plan to do something in research (or academia, PhD etc). I'm in a similar situation as yourself. I am planning to do the Master of Teaching and this is my final year of my IT degree as well. There is however an option for me to enter into honours but I personally can't see any benefit other than having the extension on my degree title (or futureproofing just incase I decide I hate teaching and want to continue on with a PhD or something..)

I like this plan. My objective when I entered my IT degree was to have this only as a backup (and to use it as a tool to get into MTeach) but not to sound cheesy, I've really enjoyed uni (much more than school). Teaching was always a dream of mine.

If you want to teach, I think you should just proceed with MTeach next year. There is no need to be overqualified. Also remember that some universities offer cloud/online courses or night school so this is an option as well if you find teaching isn't right for you.

That's the problem: I very much may wish to pursue something in research or academia. I'm just not sure what (or even which major to pursue should I do Honours). But I agree with you in that if I decide that that's not something that I'll want to do, Honours is probably just an unnecessary year of likely frustration.

I've enjoyed uni too, particularly in the last year. Actually, that is a necessary qualifier, because I absolutely loathed it during my first year. Considering you've enjoyed IT at uni, do you think you might pursue that instead of teaching?

One option for you to do would be Teach for Australia, which is a one year program that qualifies you with a Masters of Ed (I think), but sees you earning 40k+ actually teaching in schools while you do it. I think it sounds like a pretty great program. You get a qualification that you can always come back to, and it functions as a nice 'interim' year where, if you want to study more, you've set yourself up with a bit of money (as well as the 'back-up' qualification that will always be there), and you get a pretty good experience of teaching and whatever else.

I have read about Teach For Australia a lot, and I was actually set on applying for it for a long time. But from what I can glean from their website, it appears to be a two year commitment. Admittedly, I haven't looked at it much recently, so I may just be misreading that.

It sounds like an amazing opportunity, though. What put me off slightly was a) I'm wary of the potential necessity of moving out, which I don't think I particularly want to do at this stage; and b) I don't think I am eligible to teach much, anyway. If you have a look at the learning area eligibility on their website, you will see that the requirements are quite specific. I would be most interested in English, Health and Humanities. For English, I need a Linguistics major (check) plus other studies in Literature or Literary Studies (nope). For Health, I need to have "[covered] the areas of Health, Human Development, Family and Nutrition" (nope). For Humanities, a major in any number of areas would suffice, including Anthropology, Cultural Studies, History, Philosophy, Politics and Sociology. Unfortunately, my major (International Studies) is not listed; however, it does seem very similar.

I wonder if I could somehow get my uni subjects approved to be able to teach English and/or SOSE/Humanities. If I could, I would be very, very interested in applying for intake in 2016/2017. I'm not sure if you will know, but say I have completed some units that were listed as both International Studies and Philosophy. If, hypothetically, I were to need a minor in Philosophy, could I use some of those overlapping units to contribute to the Philosophy 'minor' (even though I don't actually have a Philosophy minor)? That is, if I have completed four Philosophy units, and those units are not being taken away from any other required major/minor, would that be acceptable? Apologies if that made absolutely no sense.

Are you considering applying for the program yourself?

Quote from: Ned Nerb
For my own reference:

Personally, I've been getting very interested in learning to code. It's sort of amazing how valuable it is. Like, when I look at these interests, I'm like "wow, coding would be useful there (as well as web-based design). Health promotion/nutrition is just inviting a cool website [marketable]. Anyway... a bit tangential and probably not realistic for you, but if I studied further, I'd like to integrate some sort of IT into it.

I think with a linguistics major, any further study (copywriting certificates and stuff like that) might be less worthwhile regarding things you could write for. Like; marketing based study would be more beneficial in that regard, because it would complement linguistics but add a whole new element to you as an employee, whereas directly furthering your writing skills/qualifications, whilst valuable, might not be as valuable as something else. As far as health promotion and nutrition goes; I feel as if studying these things extensively is more of a "getting employed in that field" type of thing. If that's the case, we reduce the conundrum to "do you want to work in that field?". Here, I think even marketing based study could be beneficial for health promotion (leading to work for a company?), but probably no more or less helpful than direct qualifications. Marketing and IT based study could be pretty cool. Gives you lots of options... you could always start your own small business/initiative/website or again just proceed to work for a company.

I've never really considered IT or coding (more along my brother's line of interests), but that is an interesting thought. I wouldn't be adverse to completing an IT unit or two in order to enhance career prospects, but I'm actually a bit of a technology novice. And good advice in regard to the Linguistics/Marketing thing, too - you're completely right.

Quote from: Ned Nerb
A diploma of science would really neatly fit your interests. *At this point in writing, I pause for 5 minutes, scroll down, and see "Haven't studied since Year 10". Seeing that you've other scientific interests pushes me in that direction :P. Don't worry about the lack of study, you'll be fine. Especially after already doing an undergrad. lol. Can you imagine going back to first year in a generalist degree? Science makes a lot of sense here. (Also... coding)... (Okay, I'll stop shoving my fad obsessions into your face).

Honours... I'm neither here nor there. Re: 'worth it'... What's the outcome? Is the outcome worth it? You want to study more, but do you want to go deeper into the same stuff, or extend outwards? Honours seems like a 'stall' to me atm (without knowing further information).

Anyway, I'm out of thoughts. Have fun!

Diploma of Science. I like the sound of that. In looking at Monash's Diplomas, I'm quite interested in the Graduate Diploma in International Health. So many options!

Again, thank you for your detailed and thought-provoking response.

If these things interest you, have you thought about doing some health science/health promotion/epidemiology related stuff? These are covered extensively in the Bachelor of Health Science at an undergrad level, but a lot of people from Arts to Biomed (and Med) do an MPH (Master of Public Health) as postgraduate study to gain access to epidemiology- or health-related careers/research positions. I'm personally considering doing the latter at some stage because epidemiology is awesome.

Epidemiology, health sciences and health promotion are all obviously very broad fields with myriad aspects to focus on, but if you don't mind approaching the scientific side of things (to varying degrees, depending on what you're working on and what field you enter), this might be something to consider. Plus, if you decide to do the MPH you can continue with your Arts degree and give yourself more time to think things through.

Let me know if you'd like me to expand on anything :)

And a Master of Public Health sounds similarly interesting! What would be better here, do you think: a Graduate Diploma, or Masters? And how common is going from Arts into Med? Medicine itself interests me greatly (its content and applicability), but I don't have much interest in putting myself through the stress of the course. My girlfriend is doing her MBBS, and I have no desire to follow in her footsteps. I guess that's a bit of a shame, really.

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Re: Please help me construct my life
« Reply #5 on: January 15, 2015, 06:30:24 pm »
+2
And a Master of Public Health sounds similarly interesting! What would be better here, do you think: a Graduate Diploma, or Masters? And how common is going from Arts into Med? Medicine itself interests me greatly (its content and applicability), but I don't have much interest in putting myself through the stress of the course. My girlfriend is doing her MBBS, and I have no desire to follow in her footsteps. I guess that's a bit of a shame, really.

Well, the GDIH and the MPH serve different purposes despite the GDIH consisting of some MPH units. The GDIH has a strong focus on global development with a health context associated with it, while the MPH is much more broad and allows for specialisations in several areas that you won't get from a GDIH.

As a comparison between specialisations and course structure within the GDIH vs. the MPH (at Monash, anyway):

GDIH
  • 3-5 core units encompassing epidemiology, biostatistics and global health
  • An ethics elective stream
  • An 'international health" elective stream

MPH
  • 2-3 core units on epidemiology, research methods and biostatistics
  • A range of specialisations (sort of like majors):
    • Clinical research and epidemiology
    • Health economics
    • Disease prevention and health promotion
    • Health services management
    • International health
    • Occupational and environmental health

And the GDIH is 1 year full-time, while the MPH is 1.5 years full-time. Both are taught at Monash's campus at the Alfred hospital.

So, with the above in mind we can look at hat each course offers. Obviously the GDIH offers more in the field of global health and international development that the respective international health specialisation in the MPH, so if you're interested specifically in global health then that might be the way to go.

However, the MPH does offer much more than the GDIH in terms of breadth of study options, which logically would assist in 1) making you more employable in health-related fields and 2) giving you broader experience in health-related fields. Another benefit of the MPH over the GDIH is that the MPH has a devoted aspect to teaching in-depth research skills whereas the GDIH does not.

If this is grabbing your attention in any way, I would recommend taking one or two HSC-prefixed elective whenever possible to get a taste for what epidemiology/biostats/health promotion etc. etc. is all about. I personally adore epidemiology as an area of study and find it fascinating, but I know several people who can't stand it for whatever reason. As always, the best way to determine how you feel about an area of study is to be exposed to it yourself. Some HSC units at first-year levels I might tentatively suggest would be the following:



As for the commonality of entering into postgraduate medicine from a Bachelor of Arts: I honestly don't have any idea. I don't personally know of anyone doing so, but that doesn't mean it hasn't been done. To be able to do this nowadays would require a good deal of planning on behalf of the BA students, as they'd have to complete the prerequisite science subjects at level 2 in anatomy, biochemistry and physiology as electives, which in turn would require them to complete first year biology units as electives too. I would imagine that fitting all of these elective units into a BA would be difficult to say the least.

Regarding your lack of interest in going through the rigours of the medicine course; that's fair enough! However, my attitude towards that idea is that the difficulty of the course shouldn't really be a mitigating factor in deciding what you want to study or what career path you want to follow. At some point in your undergraduate or postgraduate studies, you're likely going to have several difficult subjects or periods that will in some way impact your lifestyle throughout that period; however it's likely that you'll not think too much about it, and just knuckle down and get through it. I'd imagine that the majority of graduating medical students will have had their fair share of adversity and difficulties throughout their studies, but I doubt they'd regret their study choices at all.

Tl;dr difficult and stressful things are obviously by nature difficult and stressful, but they're not limited to medicine (or law, or commerce, or medical research, or the arts - both creative and philosophical). It's important not to give up on a goal because you anticipate it to be difficult and stressful; rather, pursue the goal and deal with the adversity as it arises.
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Aaron

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Re: Please help me construct my life
« Reply #6 on: January 15, 2015, 07:41:20 pm »
+1
Quote from: Joseph41
Considering you've enjoyed IT at uni, do you think you might pursue that instead of teaching?
I have asked myself whether I should or not, many times. But then I think back to when I was in school and how much I really wanted to teach. I don't like the idea of working 9-5 sitting at a desk all day. It's not right to me. At least with teaching I can move around, go on camps, go on excursions, and do things that I wouldn't do if I was working in IT.

I ask myself whether i'm making a massive mistake not taking an opportunity to earn decent $$ working in IT. But in the end i'm satisfied with my choices.
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Joseph41

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Re: Please help me construct my life
« Reply #7 on: January 17, 2015, 12:05:04 pm »
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Well, the GDIH and the MPH serve different purposes despite the GDIH consisting of some MPH units. The GDIH has a strong focus on global development with a health context associated with it, while the MPH is much more broad and allows for specialisations in several areas that you won't get from a GDIH.

As a comparison between specialisations and course structure within the GDIH vs. the MPH (at Monash, anyway):

GDIH
  • 3-5 core units encompassing epidemiology, biostatistics and global health
  • An ethics elective stream
  • An 'international health" elective stream

MPH
  • 2-3 core units on epidemiology, research methods and biostatistics
  • A range of specialisations (sort of like majors):
    • Clinical research and epidemiology
    • Health economics
    • Disease prevention and health promotion
    • Health services management
    • International health
    • Occupational and environmental health

And the GDIH is 1 year full-time, while the MPH is 1.5 years full-time. Both are taught at Monash's campus at the Alfred hospital.

So, with the above in mind we can look at hat each course offers. Obviously the GDIH offers more in the field of global health and international development that the respective international health specialisation in the MPH, so if you're interested specifically in global health then that might be the way to go.

However, the MPH does offer much more than the GDIH in terms of breadth of study options, which logically would assist in 1) making you more employable in health-related fields and 2) giving you broader experience in health-related fields. Another benefit of the MPH over the GDIH is that the MPH has a devoted aspect to teaching in-depth research skills whereas the GDIH does not.

If this is grabbing your attention in any way, I would recommend taking one or two HSC-prefixed elective whenever possible to get a taste for what epidemiology/biostats/health promotion etc. etc. is all about. I personally adore epidemiology as an area of study and find it fascinating, but I know several people who can't stand it for whatever reason. As always, the best way to determine how you feel about an area of study is to be exposed to it yourself. Some HSC units at first-year levels I might tentatively suggest would be the following:



As for the commonality of entering into postgraduate medicine from a Bachelor of Arts: I honestly don't have any idea. I don't personally know of anyone doing so, but that doesn't mean it hasn't been done. To be able to do this nowadays would require a good deal of planning on behalf of the BA students, as they'd have to complete the prerequisite science subjects at level 2 in anatomy, biochemistry and physiology as electives, which in turn would require them to complete first year biology units as electives too. I would imagine that fitting all of these elective units into a BA would be difficult to say the least.

Regarding your lack of interest in going through the rigours of the medicine course; that's fair enough! However, my attitude towards that idea is that the difficulty of the course shouldn't really be a mitigating factor in deciding what you want to study or what career path you want to follow. At some point in your undergraduate or postgraduate studies, you're likely going to have several difficult subjects or periods that will in some way impact your lifestyle throughout that period; however it's likely that you'll not think too much about it, and just knuckle down and get through it. I'd imagine that the majority of graduating medical students will have had their fair share of adversity and difficulties throughout their studies, but I doubt they'd regret their study choices at all.

Tl;dr difficult and stressful things are obviously by nature difficult and stressful, but they're not limited to medicine (or law, or commerce, or medical research, or the arts - both creative and philosophical). It's important not to give up on a goal because you anticipate it to be difficult and stressful; rather, pursue the goal and deal with the adversity as it arises.

Brilliant! Thank you for this. From what you have said, I think the MPH better suits my interests. However, I will do more research on the two of them. Would you (or anybody else) happen to know much about the teaching style? You mention that they are taught at the Alfred Hospital. What does this involve?

I guess what I'm thinking about now is a career in health. I am, unfortunately, ignorant as to what kind of jobs are available. Any ideas on what kind of employment this kind of qualification may lead to?

Thank you again - great advice!

I have asked myself whether I should or not, many times. But then I think back to when I was in school and how much I really wanted to teach. I don't like the idea of working 9-5 sitting at a desk all day. It's not right to me. At least with teaching I can move around, go on camps, go on excursions, and do things that I wouldn't do if I was working in IT.

I ask myself whether i'm making a massive mistake not taking an opportunity to earn decent $$ working in IT. But in the end i'm satisfied with my choices.


I feel you in regard to the whole working 9-5 at a desk thing. Sounds gross. And yep, it definitely sounds like you're making the right decision. Thanks again!

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Re: Please help me construct my life
« Reply #8 on: January 17, 2015, 06:30:00 pm »
+2
The MPH at Unimelb is also pretty big if you want to check it out in addition to the Monash courses.  It is 2 years full time though.  I think the extra time comes from the optional:
'A Research Project with an expert in their field, or
A Professional Practice placement with a recognised agency,
institution or community organisation concerned with health, or
Further elective subjects'

Link: http://mspgh.unimelb.edu.au/study/degrees/master-of-public-health/overview

NB: I have just realised how seriously cheap an MPH is wtf
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Re: Please help me construct my life
« Reply #9 on: January 17, 2015, 10:05:04 pm »
+1
Brilliant! Thank you for this. From what you have said, I think the MPH better suits my interests. However, I will do more research on the two of them. Would you (or anybody else) happen to know much about the teaching style? You mention that they are taught at the Alfred Hospital. What does this involve?

I guess what I'm thinking about now is a career in health. I am, unfortunately, ignorant as to what kind of jobs are available. Any ideas on what kind of employment this kind of qualification may lead to?

Thank you again - great advice!

You're welcome!

I personally don't know much first-hand about the teaching style of MPH units (obviously, I've not yet studied anything at a postgrad level :P), but from what I can tell from the handbook entries for MPH-prefixed units the most common time requirement for on-campus units is either (often a selection of) 2 hours contact per week, or 15 hours over two days + off-campus study. Most units look to have assessment done via written, oral and online work; very few units in the cursory overview had exams.

One of my unit coordinators this past semester taught some units in the MPH, and he noted that the class sizes were small and much less formal than what you'd see in undergraduate-level classes (mainly because you're often at a similar age to your lecturer etc. and they're more likely to treat you like adults at postgrad level).

The Monash MPH course is conducted at Monash's campus at the Alfred - so it's on the hospital complex but usually not in the hospital proper. I don't know if you've been to the Alfred complex before but there are a lot of very large buildings aside from the actual hospital which house organisations such as AMREP, the Burnet Institute, Baker IDI, SPHPM etc. etc. and these buildings have plenty of teaching facilities.

As for jobs, the majority of people I know of who've done an MPH (who aren't doctors or nurses) work in epidemiology - mainly clinical. However, I should note that this is probably because most of the epidemiologists and MPH students I've met were at SPHPM where they were conducting research or classes in clinical epidemiology. Because the MPH covers a broad range of areas from clin epi, to health promotion, to biostats, to global health and others, there are ostensibly a wide variety of potential career options in a wide variety of fields. For a question like this, I'd recommend actually contacting the course coordinators or people who are working/have worked in those fields.
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Re: Please help me construct my life
« Reply #10 on: January 20, 2015, 11:38:12 am »
+1
The MPH at Unimelb is also pretty big if you want to check it out in addition to the Monash courses.  It is 2 years full time though.  I think the extra time comes from the optional:
'A Research Project with an expert in their field, or
A Professional Practice placement with a recognised agency,
institution or community organisation concerned with health, or
Further elective subjects'

Link: http://mspgh.unimelb.edu.au/study/degrees/master-of-public-health/overview

NB: I have just realised how seriously cheap an MPH is wtf

I'll definitely check it out - thanks for the link. I guess I should consider courses at other institutions, haha.

You're welcome!

I personally don't know much first-hand about the teaching style of MPH units (obviously, I've not yet studied anything at a postgrad level :P), but from what I can tell from the handbook entries for MPH-prefixed units the most common time requirement for on-campus units is either (often a selection of) 2 hours contact per week, or 15 hours over two days + off-campus study. Most units look to have assessment done via written, oral and online work; very few units in the cursory overview had exams.

One of my unit coordinators this past semester taught some units in the MPH, and he noted that the class sizes were small and much less formal than what you'd see in undergraduate-level classes (mainly because you're often at a similar age to your lecturer etc. and they're more likely to treat you like adults at postgrad level).

The Monash MPH course is conducted at Monash's campus at the Alfred - so it's on the hospital complex but usually not in the hospital proper. I don't know if you've been to the Alfred complex before but there are a lot of very large buildings aside from the actual hospital which house organisations such as AMREP, the Burnet Institute, Baker IDI, SPHPM etc. etc. and these buildings have plenty of teaching facilities.

As for jobs, the majority of people I know of who've done an MPH (who aren't doctors or nurses) work in epidemiology - mainly clinical. However, I should note that this is probably because most of the epidemiologists and MPH students I've met were at SPHPM where they were conducting research or classes in clinical epidemiology. Because the MPH covers a broad range of areas from clin epi, to health promotion, to biostats, to global health and others, there are ostensibly a wide variety of potential career options in a wide variety of fields. For a question like this, I'd recommend actually contacting the course coordinators or people who are working/have worked in those fields.

Again, a very helpful post. Thank you. I'll research epidemiology a little more.

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Joseph41

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Re: Please help me construct my life
« Reply #11 on: February 07, 2015, 04:22:17 pm »
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Hi all,

I've had a bit of a change of heart in the last few weeks. I'm now heavily considering a Bachelor of Science/Education. I have a few questions, though:

1. Are there any disadvantages of doing two undergrad degrees rather than one undergrad and one postgrad?
2. I've completed PSY1011 and PSY1022 as part of my Arts degree. If I were to do Science, I would more than likely do Psych. Could I get credit for these units?

Thanks again. :)

EDIT: Also, is it possible to obtain a scholarship for another undergrad course having already completed one?
« Last Edit: February 07, 2015, 04:47:05 pm by Joseph41 »

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Aaron

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Re: Please help me construct my life
« Reply #12 on: February 07, 2015, 06:15:34 pm »
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In regards to your first part, do you have adequate work experience or life skills to back up a Bachelor of Education? If you are to go into teaching, there is a slight disadvantage from the method you wish to pursue as opposed to a Undergrad/Postgrad combo.

When I was in Year 12 I was told by my career advisors to go into a BEd as opposed to my current plan. I chose not to take this advice.

I think in your situation since you'll have another bachelor's degree full of knowledge, you won't have problems. The idea of doing an Education degree alone doesn't allow enough time to learn in depth content in your subject areas.

I like to put myself in the shoes of a potential selection panel. Consider a teaching position you're after. Three or four candidates have applied. You have two bachelor's degrees. They have a bachelor degree and a Masters in Teaching. Who are they most likely going to choose (based on qualifications alone)?

My reasoning for the above is that most candidates who go into teaching are still being awarded a BEd instead of a MTeach. I believe that a MTeach distinguishes one from the crowd.

One could argue that my opinion is incorrect, and in some situations it just might be. As long as you have good marks and suitable working experience to back up your qualifications, then I see no problem.

Just remember that your ATAR/subject scores are essentially void when applying for a teaching position, so you need to find alternative ways of convincing a selection panel you're a better fit, than someone with a Master's.


So you're going to be doing further Bachelor's degrees or transferring? To be quite honest I don't think further bachelor degrees will have any benefit to you. If you really want to do science, do a Masters.
« Last Edit: February 07, 2015, 06:22:31 pm by Aaron »
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Joseph41

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Re: Please help me construct my life
« Reply #13 on: February 14, 2015, 11:02:44 am »
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Thanks for the response, Aaron!

In regards to your first part, do you have adequate work experience or life skills to back up a Bachelor of Education? If you are to go into teaching, there is a slight disadvantage from the method you wish to pursue as opposed to a Undergrad/Postgrad combo.

What would you deem to be adequate work experience/life skills? Out of interest, why is the undergrad/postgrad combination deemed superior? Is there a functional difference between a Bachelor of Education and a Masters of Teaching?

Quote
I like to put myself in the shoes of a potential selection panel. Consider a teaching position you're after. Three or four candidates have applied. You have two bachelor's degrees. They have a bachelor degree and a Masters in Teaching. Who are they most likely going to choose (based on qualifications alone)?

In this situation, I would chose the latter. But unlike the other applicant in this situation, I will have three degrees. The question is really whether it would be preferable to hold a B.A., B.Sci. and B.Ed., or a B.A. and a Masters of Teaching.

Quote
So you're going to be doing further Bachelor's degrees or transferring? To be quite honest I don't think further bachelor degrees will have any benefit to you. If you really want to do science, do a Masters.

The plan would be to finish my current degree, and then do a Bachelor of Education/Bachelor of Science on top of that.

Again, thanks for the response. :)

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mahler004

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Re: Please help me construct my life
« Reply #14 on: February 14, 2015, 03:42:08 pm »
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Don't forget about Teach for Australia. It allows 'high-achieving' undergrads to enter a classroom after their undergraduate degree, and study part-time. You end up with a Masters of Teaching/PGrad Dip, and you get to start (part-time) teaching very quickly after finishing your undergrad.
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