B Science more flexible at UNSW? (1 Viewer)

[Lainee]

I've been researching Science (Psychology) at both UNSW and USyd because I'm interested in doing Science (Psychology)/Law. While UNSW's Science/Law necessiates only 17-18 contact hrs per week, USyd's is in excess of 23 hrs. Furthermore, UNSW only requires me to take around 4 science elective courses over the first 3 years while USyd requires compulsory maths subjects and around 7 science electives.

While this kind of shows UNSW's flexible science degree it also raises concerns about the well-roundedness of UNSW's psychology degree and the comparitive ease of obtaining one. I'm tempted to choose UNSW just because I still graduate with Science/Law except with relatively less work (particularly because I'm not that interested in maths or other science areas) and because for some reason people consider Psychology better at UNSW.

Anyone have any ideas about this?

 

[Sarah]

Lainee,

I'm not a student at USyd but i do go to UNSW and study psychology. From what my friends who are studying science at USyd tell me, students are required to undertake 1 maths elective. Not sure if it's a common subject for all science students or if it can be any type of math but a friend of mine at USyd told me she did a Statistics course as her one.

For Science at UNSW, the only compulsory subjects are those that are necessary to meet the requirements for the intended major. At UNSW in 2nd yr Psychology, there's a statistics course (Psych2001) which is compulsory for those intending on majoring in psycholgoy (this also is the pre-req for Pysch 3001, a 3rd yr compulsory stats subject in psych). Both subjects are administered through the school of Psychology.

I can only offer a UNSW perspective but i think that Science at UNSW is very flexibile and also offers students opportunities that meet their interest whether it be the business side of science or the hard sciences. Also, bear in mind that at USyd, the credit points system works differently so the 7 science electives at USYD may equate to around the same amount that the 4 science electives at UNSW are worth.

Hope that helps.

 

[Lainee]

natstar - I'm a bit attached to USyd Law though, which becomes a problem when I know UNSW's Psychology is probably better suited for me. I don't especially dislike sciences (I dropped Year 11 Chemistry predominately because my teacher was terrible, so I'm not sure I hated Chem or the Chem teacher ).

Sarah - From what I understood of USyd's Science handbook, it appears that I need a minimum of 16cp of maths and statistics, which equates to 4 junior maths courses. It appears that it's necessary for all BScience students to take this minimum amount of maths. Statistics isn't really a big problem for me if it's purposeful and actually contributes to my understanding of something else (eg. Psychology). But compulsory maths units seem to be there just to 'pad up' the science degree.

Also, bear in mind that at USyd, the credit points system works differently so the 7 science electives at USYD may equate to around the same amount that the 4 science electives at UNSW are worth.

I took the different credit points systems into consideration (the 7 science electives at USyd are composed of 12cp of junior units, intermediate of 16 cp) and roughly translated that to the number of courses required. Or... were you suggesting that a science elective at UNSW might have a heavier work requirement than USyd's?