Give an aspiring Arts student advice!

[zomgSEAN]

Hey guys,
I am looking at doing a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Psychology and (I don't know what), next year at UoM.
I am also hoping to get into one of the University's wonderful Residential colleges.

I would greatly appreciate any advice on;
-Great subjects to take in both my major and minor sequences (I really have enjoyed studying Pavlov, and the texts of Plato on Socrates. I'm not big on maths and chemistry and would like to avoid biology too.)
-Which colleges you consider best(i've currently got my eye on St Hilda's, due to their generous intake of rural students)
-How to avoid ridicule on the basis of the 'arts student' stigma, from other students in more 'practical' degrees  
-Cool places/things to check out on Open Day
-How to survive O-Week, considering i will still be 17 for it  
-Uni-lingo
-Any other general first-timer University advice!

Thankyou!

[Abdi]

I've done the subject "Philosophy- The great Thinkers" during semester one that was really intresting, talked about Plato and different philosophers so that should be good!

I am currently studying the subject " from Plato to Einstein" which is the the study of the History of philosophical Science.... that too is good so far! so yeah. I'm also planning on doing Arts at Melbourne next year, Its a reasonably alright course from what I've heard from friends doing it now so yeah!

hope you get in!

[zhenzhenzhen]

I really liked Logic: Language and Information breadth..but it is quite a lot of work, but its a pretty cool subject. Is related with philosophy as well.
Psychology MBB1 in my opinion was pretty meh..but its a req so lol

Also remember that Arts students have to take one IDF subject per semester! So I recommend you look into that. From Homer to Hollywood I heard is the worst, and Democracy pretty much sucks too. Hell, all of them suck but I did Philosophy, Politics and Economics and that was okay I guess..

call all your tutorials 'tutes'

And nobody really cares if you do Arts, if you do psychology there will be a heap of Science students and eh nobody pays any attention to the course you're in anyway. All the same. IMO the only people that will laugh and tell you that arts is shit etc are the people you generally don't mix with anyway so w/e (douches etc)

[Russ]

-How to avoid ridicule on the basis of the 'arts student' stigma, from other students in more 'practical' degrees

Transfer to science.

That takes my arts students jokes for the day up to about a dozen. But seriously, everyone who says it will be joking, if they're serious then you don't want to know them.

Anyway. Actual answers. Well, if you're doing arts there's going to be minimal maths and chemistry. Since you want to major in Psychology there will be some biology (especially if you do biological psych.) but from what I gather it's not much harder than a high school standard. I'm sure there are some psych majors who'll post here...if there aren't I'll ask my friend for advice, she's doing it.

For Open Day, if you already know what major you're interested in, try to find a student who's doing that. Then just ask them questions, they'll be more than happy to answer. Have a look around Union House, there are some cool places there that will do giveaways or specials (and North Court, next to Union House, will probably have events or live music). South Lawn will have a gigantic set of BBQs and stuff like that, so swing by there for some free food?

O-week...well...I wasn't 18 and it didn't matter. There are enough events happening throughout semester that you'll be able to go out then. The uni pub will serve you without checking ID anyway, so you can go there if you want. And needless to say, the official O-week stuff doesn't require you to be 18.

General advice...work out the locations of classes beforehand so you don't walk around with your diary folded out to the map. Be as social as possible, nobody knows anybody at the start so meet everyone. Then later in the year you can go "oh i remember you" and sit next to them and chat etc. (and it gives you a conversation starter if you like them heh)

[zhenzhenzhen]

Ya the South Lawn M-ASS BBQs have lines about an hour long, plenty of time to chat up the people next to you who do arts and probably do the same subjects as u

[zomgSEAN]

I've done the subject "Philosophy- The great Thinkers" during semester one that was really intresting, talked about Plato and different philosophers so that should be good!

I am currently studying the subject " from Plato to Einstein" which is the the study of the History of philosophical Science...

Yes, i've had a look at that outline of The great Thinkers, it looks good. Not too sure about Plato to Einstein though; is the scientific emphasis on nature philosophy? All the best with your VCE and application too!

I really liked Logic: Language and Information breadth...

call all your tutorials 'tutes'

And nobody really cares if you do Arts..

I think i skimmed over Logic: Language and info breadth, it looked alright from what i can remember. Thanks for the tips.

Transfer to science.
That takes my arts students jokes for the day up to about a dozen...

...from what I gather it's not much harder than a high school standard. I'm sure there are some psych majors who'll post here...if there aren't I'll ask my friend for advice, she's doing it.

...The uni pub will serve you without checking ID anyway, so you can go there if you want..

General advice...work out the locations of classes beforehand so you don't walk around with your diary folded out to the map. Be as social as possible, nobody knows anybody at the start so meet everyone. Then later in the year you can go "oh i remember you" and sit next to them and chat etc. (and it gives you a conversation starter if you like them heh)

Care to share some of these Arts student jokes?
I'm glad about the biology thing. I just about flunked unit 1/2 (probably because i was in a dropkick-mentality back in '09)
The uni pub serving under-agers.. that doesn't seem quite right, but i won't complain.
Ahh, thanks for the social advice.

Ya the South Lawn M-ASS BBQs have lines about an hour long, plenty of time to chat up the people next to you who do arts and probably do the same subjects as u

Noted!

[Abdi]

yes it emphasises on Natural Philo!

[Russ]

The uni pub serving under-agers.. that doesn't seem quite right, but i won't complain.

He just assumes that everyone there is 18+ because it's a university. And yeah it's not right, but I'm not particularly concerned about a 17 year old having a couple of drinks at a bar compared to some of the other stuff that goes on.

I also just remembered, about colleges...friends said that Janet Clarke Hall is very strict, University College is awesome and laidback. Not sure how much that helps though.

Oh and arts students jokes:

"what class did you have earlier?"
"what do you mean, 'class', she's an arts student"

"i could never deal with six lectures a week for one subject"
"that's why you're in arts"

"what are you planning on doing after uni?"
"getting a job since, y'know, I don't do arts"

etc.
Just saying, the girl i was talking to is one of my best friends so she knows I don't actually look down on her. (the irony is that she had the marks to get into biomedicine with me lol)

[Eriny]

The most important time for your social life is definitely the first few weeks. I find that people are pretty friendly all the time, but not so much receptive and looking for social contact as much as in the first few weeks. So, even if you find it overwhelming, it's worth making an effort.

I find the best way to avoid derogatory arts student statements is to actually work hard. Not so much because people stop making them, but because you can feel a smug sense of satisfaction when you know it isn't true.

[Visionz]

Im thinking about doing arts next year at UoM majoring in psych and/or criminology.

Youre seriously concerned about ridicule? Just backhand anyone who has a go or tell them you were considering doing their degree but the prospect of spending the next few years of your life in the company of a bunch of self-indulgent wankers was just too overwhelming.
If I do arts at UoM I look forward to the banter.

Youll probably get more shit for being from a regional area.

[zomgSEAN]

I was only joking about that ridicule thing. Merely trying to spur on some humorous responses

[Russ]

Oh trust me, you'll get a lot of crap for it, but it's all in good humour. There's no need to call them a bunch of wankers, that's a great way to alienate people. Just laugh and mock them for having so many contact hours/early starts.

Then go get coffee and sit on south lawn and socialise

[Visionz]

I say go out of your way alienate them.

[Glockmeister]

Care to share some of these Arts student jokes?
I'm glad about the biology thing. I just about flunked unit 1/2 (probably because i was in a dropkick-mentality back in '09)
The uni pub serving under-agers.. that doesn't seem quite right, but i won't complain.
Ahh, thanks for the social advice.

If you go to some of the toilets on campus, sometimes they write on the toilet paper dispenser "Pull here for an Arts Degree"

I'm not a Melbourne student, but Psychology is quite standardised throughout any university so I'll make a comment about it. Generally speaking, whilst Biological Psychology does mess around with people's heads, I find that the bigger problem, in particular Arts students taking Psychology is Statistics. You'll be doing statistics throughout the entirety of the three-year degree if you want to major in Psychology, and since Arts doesn't have a maths requirement to join, you do get arts students without the maths background who do struggle.

[Gloamglozer]

Care to share some of these Arts student jokes?
I'm glad about the biology thing. I just about flunked unit 1/2 (probably because i was in a dropkick-mentality back in '09)
The uni pub serving under-agers.. that doesn't seem quite right, but i won't complain.
Ahh, thanks for the social advice.

If you go to some of the toilets on campus, sometimes they write on the toilet paper dispenser "Pull here for an Arts Degree"

I'm not a Melbourne student, but Psychology is quite standardised throughout any university so I'll make a comment about it. Generally speaking, whilst Biological Psychology does mess around with people's heads, I find that the bigger problem, in particular Arts students taking Psychology is Statistics. You'll be doing statistics throughout the entirety of the three-year degree if you want to major in Psychology, and since Arts doesn't have a maths requirement to join, you do get arts students without the maths background who do struggle.

I can second to that having done 1 semester of psychology and currently undertaking my second.  Arts students do tend to shy away from the maths involved with psychology and as a science student, I find that the way quantitative methods (pretty much statistics) is taught in psychology is little childish and been dumbed down if it makes sense.