I abondon my thread for 1 weekend and its taken off!!! Thanks for eveyones comments. I already work in arch. drafitng although am not an architect. Basicaly what im most interested to know is the following (from people who have studied the B Degree):
*Roughly how many hrs p/week are you at school and how many hrs study outside did you do?
*i did methods at high school but didnt do well. Do the Maths subjects are uni pressume you already have a good understanding of methods etc or do they start from the beggining again? I could learn it if i wanted but as Dave Chappell says - in high school i decided to “keep it real”
*Do you have much time to work outside of school studies or is it very time demanding?
*Has anyone applied as a mature age student or did every one og straight outa school? - im mature age and was wondering of any advice on what theyre looking for / test / quiz you on
My opinion: if you want to get out in the 4 years/minimum time you will be hard pressed to hold a real/adult job in the first couple of years (at least one with structured day-time hours.
as SS says, in later years there will be more opportunity for that, assuming you can self-learn/are coping with the load. i definitely knew people who held p/t industry jobs in their final year, though there was often a degree of flexibility in those jobs (as there was an understanding that they were still studying and that was a higher priority).
if you are ok with lengthening your time-to-degree, or are able adjust your working schedule outside normal hours, then you will have more options.
Roughly how many hrs p/week are you at school and how many hrs study outside did you do?
As many as you want. 1hr a week seemed be enough, some like to stay all day. Reading online lectures etc for assignments will get you a P/C without attending. Attending all the tutes will get you a D/HD. Attending lectures and tutes will get you an HD. Mind you the further you go the more group assignments you have (they love that shit) so you may have to hang around to meet up and do group work. Most years I had uni scheduled on 3 days a week.
*if you’re shit at exam cramming, this wont work
*i did methods at high school but didnt do well. Do the Maths subjects are uni pressume you already have a good understanding of methods etc or do they start from the beggining again? I could learn it if i wanted but as Dave Chappell says - in high school i decided to “keep it real”
1st/2nd years have maths subjects that are far more mathematical than youll need again, get thru them and youre fine. Tutes are pretty important for these.
*Do you have much time to work outside of school studies or is it very time demanding?
Yeh easy, obv not full time though. They encourage it in 3rd/4th yr.
*Has anyone applied as a mature age student or did every one og straight outa school? - im mature age and was wondering of any advice on what theyre looking for / test / quiz you on
About 10% of the course were “older” id say. After the first few semesters the age seems to spread a bit more as you leave the compulsory structure.
Conclusion: course is full of spuds and not particularly demanding/challenging (eg/ most exams they give you the previous years Q&A’s and usually dont bother to change them). generally fairly poorly run but sounds better than melb uni and gets you a piece of paper. monash sounds good from various sources. if you go into construction no one gives a shit how/where you went. if you wanna go work top tier design for arup or something, it doesnt take that much to keep top grades, but may require a lot more who you know
My brothers in final year at Latrobe Bendigo Civil. Apparently its as good as Melb uni/RMIT, with several students a year leaving the big city schools to go up there. I think it has better access to equipment and field/site experience. ie - surveying/geomatics at RMIT is taking a level bar into Bowen St and doing some spot heights and at Latrobe they went out on several trips with ex. army survey corp surveyors. Also I think they have pretty good geo - tech facilities up there.
As a first year, mature age entrant to Bio Med Eng at RMIT I can tell you there is no interview/quiz/anal probe.
They would like you to have some mathematical/engineering aptitude and one year 12 maths pass, but I think there are allocated places for mature age entrants so the odds work in your favour. If you don’t think you’re elligible talk (repeatedly if necessary) to department heads to convince them of your earnestness.
The summer school/bridging courses are a great way to ease into or refresh your maths & chem (for me) skills.
To restate Stovepipe’s comments - use your time at uni to get the best marks you can without totally flogging yourself (unless your into that).
Make as many industry and faculty contacts as you can while you’re studying, these will prove invaluable as you move into the workforce, and for your hopefully long term career.
Don’t think about your degree in terms of the least you can do to get through, think about it in terms of staying at the top of the class or in the H/HD range.
This is all assuming you want to go as far as possible in your new career - if you want a steady, secure income then by all means set the cruise controll and phone it in.
Good luck,
TBP