How would one go about doing 3 Bachelors Degrees at Monash?

[geminii]

Hi all,

Once I leave school I'm looking to do either two or three bachelor degrees (either engineering, law, science...depends on my ATAR and I'm still not 100% sure yet). I would be choosing Melbourne over Monash, but because of the fact that Melbourne doesn't offer double degrees, I'm leaning towards Monash.
Anyway, is it even possible to do 3 bachelors degrees at Monash? Would you have to do a double degree and then a single degree after that? I'm not well-versed in how any course is structured, let alone a double degree! So help in this area would be awesome.
I know that I will have to put in a lot of time and effort, but any and all help is appreciated!

Thanks

[keltingmeith]

Definitely possible, in exactly the way you described.

However, I have absolutely NO idea why on Earth you'd want to do 3 degrees. Care to elaborate?

[pi]

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=professional+student

Reminds me of this guy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrikant_Jichkar

Began as a Medical Doctor (MBBS and MD) he did his Law (LL.B.) with Post-graduation in International Law (LL.M.) and his Masters in Business Administration (DBM and MBA) and in Journalism (B.Journ). He did his Masters in ten subjects. M.A. (Public Administration ; M.A. (Sociology) ; M.A. (Economics); M.A. (Sanskrit); M.A. (History); M.A.(English Literature); M.A. (Philosophy); M.A. (Political Science) ; M.A. (Ancient Indian History,Culture and Archaeology); M.A (Psychology). He got his D. Litt (Doctor of Letters) in Sanskrit, the highest of any Degree in a University. Most of his Degrees are with First Merit and he has obtained several Gold Medals for his degrees.

[geminii]

Definitely possible, in exactly the way you described.

However, I have absolutely NO idea why on Earth you'd want to do 3 degrees. Care to elaborate?

Thanks!
I was just curious, also I wanted to do multiple Bachelors because I enjoy many different things and I don't think I could pick between a science-type bachelor and an English-type bachelor (I have an interest in science but my talent area is definitely English). Also, I think it's a great way to keep my options for careers open. I've wanted to have multiple qualifications for a long time.

Any idea approximately how many years it would take? And also, would I need special approval?

[keltingmeith]

Thanks!
I was just curious, also I wanted to do multiple Bachelors because I enjoy many different things and I don't think I could pick between a science-type bachelor and an English-type bachelor (I have an interest in science but my talent area is definitely English). Also, I think it's a great way to keep my options open.

Any idea approximately how many years it would take?

Minimum 7 years, but if you're looking at doing law or engineering, it'll easily be 8+. I don't think you'd need special approval.

IMO, not worth it. I'd suggest a science/arts double degree. If you decide you want to take a job that requires accreditation (eg, engineering, law, med), then consider postgrad studies like a masters or doctorate.

This way, you stay broad, can try a bit of everything, and it doesn't take you up to 10 years to finish undergrad.

[geminii]

Minimum 7 years, but if you're looking at doing law or engineering, it'll easily be 8+. I don't think you'd need special approval.

IMO, not worth it. I'd suggest a science/arts double degree. If you decide you want to take a job that requires accreditation (eg, engineering, law, med), then consider postgrad studies like a masters or doctorate.

Haha thanks!
I'm not totally scrapping the idea of doing two degrees and not three

This way, you stay broad, can try a bit of everything, and it doesn't take you up to 10 years to finish undergrad.

Would it be possible to do a masters degree while doing the third bachelors degree?

[Adequace]

I think you'd have to take in to account the cost as well, you don't want to accumulate a huge amount of HECS debt and not be able to pay it all off depending on your career you choose, I also think HECS has a limit as well. Although I think the government is changing something with HECS in 2016/2017, not exactly sure though.

[keltingmeith]

Haha thanks!
I'm not totally scrapping the idea of doing two degrees and not three

Would it be possible to do a masters degree while doing the third bachelors degree?

... not only is it not physically possible, but the idea would be to do the masters INSTEAD of the third bachelor, like so:

You do science/arts. You decide that you want to do engineering, so you do a Masters of Engineering instead of a Bachelor of Engineering.

[Joseph41]

I seriously considered doing Arts, Science and Education. I researched it quite heavily, and concluded that it wasn't worth it.

Honest opinion: you could spend your time more wisely (something along the lines of Euler's post).

[mahler004]

I think you'd have to take in to account the cost as well, you don't want to accumulate a huge amount of HECS debt and not be able to pay it all off depending on your career you choose, I also think HECS has a limit as well. Although I think the government is changing something with HECS in 2016/2017, not exactly sure though.

You run out of HECS after a while too (I believe it's seven years full time, although don't quote me on this).

Observation - a lot of people (myself included, somewhat) have the attitude that 'yeah, I'll study EVERYTHING' when they finish Year 12, because they can't/don't want to narrow down their options. It's not really practical for cost and time reasons, as said above, and it's important to keep long-term goals in mind although I'm not one of those people who thinks that every degree has to have a career outcome linked to it. You'll also find that you get sick of university pretty quickly.

Lots of people who start a double science/arts degree drop into one or the other after a year.

[appleandbee]

I'm seriously considering doing three degrees if I get into Teach For Australia, like Biomed at Melb uni (or maybe Arts as that would allow me to teach humanities subjects) and defer a graduate Med degree (if I get a CSP place) so that I can teach for two years. I get a Masters of Education as a result of Teach For Australia, although I don’t really want it tbh. I'm not too sure if it’s really feasible or realistic.

[geminii]

... not only is it not physically possible, but the idea would be to do the masters INSTEAD of the third bachelor, like so:

You do science/arts. You decide that you want to do engineering, so you do a Masters of Engineering instead of a Bachelor of Engineering.

Ah, I see. Well say if I did a double degree of science/engineering bachelors, how many years would that take? And how many years would the subsequent masters degree (engineering) take?

I think you'd have to take in to account the cost as well, you don't want to accumulate a huge amount of HECS debt and not be able to pay it all off depending on your career you choose, I also think HECS has a limit as well. Although I think the government is changing something with HECS in 2016/2017, not exactly sure though.

...I've never heard of HECS, what does it mean?

Also, I was thinking of doing an engineering degree and a science degree. The specialisation in the science degree would be something like psychology, would that be weird? Like having an engineering degree and a psychology degree wouldn't be strange would it? Another option I was considering was engineering/arts(behavioural studies) or engineering/arts(criminology).
When doing these mixes would I have to learn how they interrelate? Or would they be taught completely separately?

Thanks again everyone.

[Alter]

It's pretty clear to me that you still don't have a definitive idea of what you want to do. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I'd advise you to spend the next 2 years honing in on your interests and talking around/doing work experience. Put frankly, if you're jumping around from 3 bachelors to psychology and engineering, it'd be apparent that you're still very open to a huge array of courses. You don't have to pick now, and it would probably be better if you didn't prematurely lock yourself into a pathway. 

HECS is a Uni payment scheme by which students in Australia can defer paying off the fees of their course until they have a job above a certain wage theshhold. Put simply, you avoid paying for uni in the short term, but it catches up on you eventually.

[Clockwork]

Just as a note, the limit for HECS was actually abolished a few years back. So theoretically you could spend a lifetime using HECS.

[chasej]

Good luck having the motivation to do a third bachelors after completing a double degree.