Combined degrees (2 Viewers)

[Lazarus]

You certainly have time to do other things - you don't really have homework to do, so you can quite easily get away with just working on assessments when they come around and taking notes during lectures.

Although, depending on your degree, you might not feel like going out and doing something when you get home... I had long hours this semester and was largely too tired to do anything during the week.

 

[!meeee!]

Originally posted by Ultimate
By other things I mean part time work, playing weekend sport etc

from what i've heard the workload isn't that terrible. you are doing two years more than a 'normal' degree anyway so that should even it out a bit
and yes, you should have time to actually have a life beyond uni

 

[-=«MÄLÅÇhïtÊ»=-]

Minai
"but isnt the cutoffs for Actuarial studies much much higher at Macquarie than at UNSW/Usyd ?"
..yes exactly...thats why i thought i'd get scaled up more. coz im in a smarter group of ppl


a quote form laz "there'll be hundreds of other people from other degrees and other faculties."
This means that i will be competing against ppl at my uni who are doing say bachelor of sumfin really low. And since actuary is one of the few high uai courses in mq, that puts me up at the top of mq (im assuming i get into actuarials...might now).

 

[utopian731]

Originally posted by Ultimate
Just wondering, do you still have time to do other things if you do a combined degree at university? I hear reports from everywhere that the workload is full-on.

Well, seeing some fo my cousins and friends go through uni already has shown me that im probably gonn a hvae mroe time now than i did at highschool with all the extraxurricular stuff, prefect duties etcetc and all the sttached garb

Im also thinking about BA/BSc, but at usyd, although i would probably do B Liberal Studies instead, it s ayear less

im not sure which other unis offer liberal studies

 

[utopian731]

so if im doing actuarial studies, and i get a credit, that credit isnt a ranking for juz the ppl doing my course, but every1 in the whole uni? And this is done by aligning the marks?

My understanding was that acurial studies was a little more cutthroat than a credit average. There is no such thing as a n acturial studies degree by itself, rather B Commerce (Actuarial Studies), so a credit average in a commerece degree is hardly likely to keep you in actuarial studies?

 

[-=«MÄLÅÇhïtÊ»=-]

actuarial studies is a single course at mq

its very cutthroat, but the lecturer at the open day said a credit average is what was needed.

 

[utopian731]

kewl

i stand corrected, didnt kno bout macq

 

[!meeee!]

Originally posted by utopian731

Im also thinking about BA/BSc, but at usyd, although i would probably do B Liberal Studies instead, it s ayear less

whatever happened to doing medicine?

 

[utopian731]

postgraduate at sydney darls

might end up doin somethin eles, who knows

 

[flyin']

Originally posted by -=MLhtʻ=-
actuarial studies is a single course at mq

its very cutthroat, but the lecturer at the open day said a credit average is what was needed.

hey ... thats a great course ... and apparently only a third pass ... but it isnt a single course, you can double it with others like eco, maths, stats, app finance ...

 

[dvse]

Actuarial studies

For those who are wondering about doing actuarial studies..

You have to get credits for actuarial subjects in order to get
exemptions from the institute of actuaries exams. It is considerably harder to do than in any other commerce major.

Sometimes they give out credits to ~30-40% for 3rd year subjects and you have to keep in mind that people who stayed
that long are reasonably dedicated already.

In short, it takes quite a bit of work even for those who are bright.

As far as the choice between Macquarie and UNSW...

Now that Prof. Pollard has retired, I see little reason to go to
Maq, but it can still be argued that the quality of teaching for actl is better there. Of course UNSW is not hard to beat, being nothing short of awful ; )



If you want to combine Commerce with Arts or Science, UNSW is the only choice.

In general I think it's a very good idea to do a combined degree, as every school only has a few really good subjects, the rest being more or less a waste of time. Doing a combined degree, you take fewer subjects from each school/faculty, but you get a chance to do the best subjects from the other discipline as well.

In my opinion, time well spent.

 

[flyin']

Re: Actuarial studies

Originally posted by dvse
In general I think it's a very good idea to do a combined degree, as every school only has a few really good subjects, the rest being more or less a waste of time. Doing a combined degree, you take fewer subjects from each school/faculty, but you get a chance to do the best subjects from the other discipline as well.

im still thinkin about a double .. and the problem is if i do a double like com/science, then i would be missin out on art and stuff like philosphy and literature ...

 

[dvse]

Re: Re: Actuarial studies

Originally posted by flyin'


im still thinkin about a double .. and the problem is if i do a double like com/science, then i would be missin out on art and stuff like philosphy and literature ...

Well, you should do com/arts or arts/science then.

I don't think you can take a significant number of subjects from
all three areas (com, arts and science). Of course you could always abuse the system with some well timed transfers and take as many subjects as you like ; )

You probably won't be able to graduate with 2 degrees simultaneously, but the extra subjects will count towards yr second undergrad degree.

 

[flyin']

Re: Re: Re: Actuarial studies

Originally posted by dvse

I don't think you can take a significant number of subjects from
all three areas (com, arts and science). Of course you could always abuse the system with some well timed transfers and take as many subjects as you like ; )

i dun understand this bit - the well timed transfers ...

 

[Ultimate]

If I'm good at maths is it a good idea to go into actuarial studes?

 

[dvse]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Actuarial studies

Originally posted by flyin'


i dun understand this bit - the well timed transfers ...

You can change your major or degree as many times as you like.
As long as you pass more than half the units of credit each session and have not yet met the minimum requirements for
any degree, the uni can't kick you out, so in effect you can do a lot more subjects than you are supposed to.

Then you can use these subjects to get another undergrad degree.

Of course, this will also take longer.

 

[dvse]

Originally posted by Ultimate
If I'm good at maths is it a good idea to go into actuarial studes?

I would suggest you look at a combined commerce/science
degree.

Applied maths or statistics with actuarial studies at UNSW would probably be the best. It's only 4 years.

Alternatively, you could take exams through the institute of actuaries and choose other commerce major, such as finance.

In this case you can still get exemptions for 4 out of 9 part I exams through uni.

Personally I wouldn't worry about choosing commerce majors right now, you can always decide when you are in the second year.

 

[Ultimate]

Thanks dvse. I think I would need a UAI of 94.3 to get into commerce/science, well within my reach. It's one of my preferences.

 

[-=«MÄLÅÇhïtÊ»=-]

flyin "apparently only a third pass ... but it isnt a single course"

I wish it was 1/3 that passed. That fraction gets smaller and smaller everytime i ask sum1.

And it can b studied as a single course (i wouldnt prefer to do it as single course tho). It was 96.1 at mq last yr. You start actuarials on day 1.

 

[flyin']

Originally posted by -=MLh?ʻ=-
flyin "apparently only a third pass ... but it isnt a single course"

I wish it was 1/3 that passed. That fraction gets smaller and smaller everytime i ask sum1.

And it can b studied as a single course (i wouldnt prefer to do it as single course tho). It was 96.1 at mq last yr. You start actuarials on day 1.

i know, im gonna do actuarial at macq next year ... and its around a third ... it better not be dropping any lower ...