Course Advice

[Azzzz]

Hello all,

I’m currently in a huge dilemma bout my current course and what to do with my life and degree.
I’m currently enrolled in engineering/commerce at Monash and completed my first semester only doing three units (ENG1002,ENG1090,ACC1100) due to a medical problem at the start of the semester I lost all motivation to do well and ended up just passing my Eng units but did well in my commerce unit (ACC1100) I loved the accounting unit but despised doing the engineering ones as I never tried properly. As a result my WAM and GPA are quite low now and I am quite upset. I was planning to drop engineering and do science/commerce as I wanted to do med. Now since second semester is starting and I wasn’t able to transfer to science/comm as my wam was so low I decided to do just comm units this semester to raise my wam and gpa as I’m still planning to drop Eng at the end of the year. However, my parents wish for me to do engineering and engineering will boost my job prospects and potentially they pay I will get. But I really don’t enjoy engineering at the moment and I’m not sure if that’s the sort of career I really want. Thus, I have three paths within my mind.
1. Raise wam and GPA and transfer to science/comm and possibly do a masters in finance or MBA
2. Do just commerce at Melbourne and do a masters in finance, MBA or attempt to get my CFA
3. Stay with Eng/comm and do PHS1001 over the summer and try to get through the engineering degree with a civil major.
Any help with this matter would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.

[codsta769]

Hey mate,

In my opinion, go with what your future aspirations are and not what others want you to do. I know how you feel in how your parents want you to do engineering because the same thing happened to me when my father wanted me to do a major in economics despite myself hating it and being more of a marketing + HRM guy.

In terms of boosting your WAM/GPA, its only your first semester, you still have many more semesters to lift up your WAM/GPA to your goal so don't worry about that too much if you are confident that you can do better in the future and that you didn't do well in the first semester due to your medical condition.

Unfortunately i cannot help you further than this besides tell you that if you want to do finance/MBA postgrad, is it really worth spending the extra time and money for the second degree in engineering or science if it won't relate that much to what you want to do after your studies ?

I hope you make the right choice.

[AngelWings]

While I agree with Codsta that you shouldn’t do a degree purely to satisfy your parents, I’m a little confused as to what your aspirations are. Do you still want to study medicine? How set are you on doing the MBA? Or are you confused as to which of these you want to do?

[Azzzz]

Hey mate,

In my opinion, go with what your future aspirations are and not what others want you to do. I know how you feel in how your parents want you to do engineering because the same thing happened to me when my father wanted me to do a major in economics despite myself hating it and being more of a marketing + HRM guy.

In terms of boosting your WAM/GPA, its only your first semester, you still have many more semesters to lift up your WAM/GPA to your goal so don't worry about that too much if you are confident that you can do better in the future and that you didn't do well in the first semester due to your medical condition.

Unfortunately i cannot help you further than this besides tell you that if you want to do finance/MBA postgrad, is it really worth spending the extra time and money for the second degree in engineering or science if it won't relate that much to what you want to do after your studies ?

I hope you make the right choice.

Thank you for your advice. I honestly don’t know how I’d go in the further if I continue with Eng but I feel like I won’t do super well.

However, if I do science I do feel like I can expand my job prospects more than just doing straight comm and I would like to keep my options open. I also wish to pursue science/comm as I would still like to get into medicine and this is one of the paths to take however if I fail I can use commerce as my backup. Sorry I’m a bit all over the place :p

[Azzzz]

While I agree with Codsta that you shouldn’t do a degree purely to satisfy your parents, I’m a little confused as to what your aspirations are. Do you still want to study medicine? How set are you on doing the MBA? Or are you confused as to which of these you want to do?

Hey,

I’m sorry for being quite confusing but my dream since I was young was medicine. As I progressed through my academical career I realised how hard it is to get into med. Thus, I became a bit unmotivated as a result I switched to engineering. Now after doing Eng/comm I would like to pursue a career in commerce and doing post grad degrees but I would still love to do medicine if given the chance hence my consideration of science commerce. So I guess my heart is still with medicine as of this moment. But I’m using commerce as my backup plan.
I’m sorry for any confusion.

[AngelWings]

Hey,

I’m sorry for being quite confusing but my dream since I was young was medicine. As I progressed through my academical career I realised how hard it is to get into med. Thus, I became a bit unmotivated as a result I switched to engineering. Now after doing Eng/comm I would like to pursue a career in commerce and doing post grad degrees but I would still love to do medicine if given the chance hence my consideration of science commerce. So I guess my heart is still with medicine as of this moment. But I’m using commerce as my backup plan.
I’m sorry for any confusion.

All good! Glad you cleared that up.

In this case, you sound like your mind is set on the BSci/Comm, so I’d probably try to raise the WAM by doing Comm units and transfer over. Make your way through the double degree and try for postgrad med. Plan A will be to get into postgrad med. Plan B will be to study the Masters in Finance or MBA. (Basically it’s Option 1 from your OP.) I’d double check this plan with the Comm (and maybe engineering and/or science?) faculty to be duly sure this’ll be all good. (Also, please be careful with overworking yourself, given your health.)

Also, re: parents
While they do have the best intentions for you, you’ll have to talk to them and clearly state that you’re unhappy about doing engineering and that your employability will not be as greatly affected as they may think, etc.. (You’ll have to formulate this much better.) Hopefully they will understand.

Side note: You can quote multiple people in one post. Please give that a go in the future. Would be much appreciated.