• Congratulations to the Class of 2024 on your results!
    Let us know how you went here
    Got a question about your uni preferences? Ask us here

can you chill once you get accepted into a course (1 Viewer)

Hiheyhello

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2019
Messages
409
Gender
Female
HSC
2021
so i’ve heard that passing classes is sufficient once you get to uni, and get into ur course, is that true?

also

next year i don’t want to revolve my life around studying, because that’s what this year was for. there are so many other life experiences that i want to prioritise over getting good grades.

but i’ve heard from other people that you need to get like high distinctions to be employable? or is that just for competitive courses?

tbh my life vision changes everyday, so yeah i’m one of ‘those people’, but anyways you get what i mean thanks bye
 

BLIT2014

The pessimistic optimist.
Moderator
Joined
Jul 11, 2012
Messages
11,591
Location
l'appel du vide
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2014
Uni Grad
2018
I mean a lot of "graduate" programmes are a minimum of Credit to get into and Distinctions are not uncommon requirements.

Also, varies on which degree you are planning to do, and what you want to do as a job after University.
 

zizi2003_

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 18, 2020
Messages
1,471
Gender
Female
HSC
2021
so i’ve heard that passing classes is sufficient once you get to uni, and get into ur course, is that true?

also

next year i don’t want to revolve my life around studying, because that’s what this year was for. there are so many other life experiences that i want to prioritise over getting good grades.

but i’ve heard from other people that you need to get like high distinctions to be employable? or is that just for competitive courses?

tbh my life vision changes everyday, so yeah i’m one of ‘those people’, but anyways you get what i mean thanks bye
unless you want to do postgrad Med and/or law, you can chill im sure.
 

jimmysmith560

Le Phénix Trilingue
Moderator
Joined
Aug 22, 2019
Messages
4,580
Location
Krak des Chevaliers
Gender
Male
HSC
2019
Uni Grad
2022
Achieving pass marks being sufficient is true for a number of university degrees. There are however, university degrees that might require you to constantly achieve relatively high marks as a requirement to remain enrolled, which may be the case of degrees designed specifically for high achieving students. Therefore, it ultimately depends on the specific degree you wish to enrol in and whether or not there are any academic thresholds that you have to maintain throughout your time studying this degree.

You are able to prioritise other experiences while still embracing your university study commitment. Effectively managing your study load (i.e. the number of units you choose to take each semester/trimester) is a good way of determining the amount of time that goes towards studying and the amount of time that you can allocate to your personal life and means you do not necessarily need to sacrifice your marks and/or GPA/WAM in order to prioritise aspects of your life that you are keen to experience.

You do not necessarily need to consistently achieve high distinctions in order to become employable. In most degrees, achieving high marks maximises your chances of having access to great work opportunities either during your time at university (in the form of internships or part-time jobs) or after graduating from university. In the case of degrees that necessitate consistently high academic achievement, such as those relating to Medicine and Law, if your interest doesn't lie within the scope of those two fields, then you generally don't need to worry too much.

I hope this helps! 😄
 

Hiheyhello

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2019
Messages
409
Gender
Female
HSC
2021
Achieving pass marks being sufficient is true for a number of university degrees. There are however, university degrees that might require you to constantly achieve relatively high marks as a requirement to remain enrolled, which may be the case of degrees designed specifically for high achieving students. Therefore, it ultimately depends on the specific degree you wish to enrol in and whether or not there are any academic thresholds that you have to maintain throughout your time studying this degree.

You are able to prioritise other experiences while still embracing your university study commitment. Effectively managing your study load (i.e. the number of units you choose to take each semester/trimester) is a good way of determining the amount of time that goes towards studying and the amount of time that you can allocate to your personal life and means you do not necessarily need to sacrifice your marks and/or GPA/WAM in order to prioritise aspects of your life that you are keen to experience.

You do not necessarily need to consistently achieve high distinctions in order to become employable. In most degrees, achieving high marks maximises your chances of having access to great work opportunities either during your time at university (in the form of internships or part-time jobs) or after graduating from university. In the case of degrees that necessitate consistently high academic achievement, such as those relating to Medicine and Law, if your interest doesn't lie within the scope of those two fields, then you generally don't need to worry too much.

I hope this helps! 😄
THANK YOU SO MUCH!
 

idkkdi

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 2, 2019
Messages
2,588
Gender
Male
HSC
2021
so i’ve heard that passing classes is sufficient once you get to uni, and get into ur course, is that true?

also

next year i don’t want to revolve my life around studying, because that’s what this year was for. there are so many other life experiences that i want to prioritise over getting good grades.

but i’ve heard from other people that you need to get like high distinctions to be employable? or is that just for competitive courses?

tbh my life vision changes everyday, so yeah i’m one of ‘those people’, but anyways you get what i mean thanks bye
passing classes won't make you the most employable.

neither is hd's needed to be employable.

also depends on what degree, and what job.
 

enoilgam

Moderator
Moderator
Joined
Feb 11, 2011
Messages
11,906
Location
Mare Crisium
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2010
next year i don’t want to revolve my life around studying, because that’s what this year was for. there are so many other life experiences that i want to prioritise over getting good grades.

but i’ve heard from other people that you need to get like high distinctions to be employable? or is that just for competitive courses?
It really does depend on your chosen profession and the kind of organisations you want to work for as a graduate. Generally speaking, I wouldn't be killing myself to get D/HD averages. As long as you are sitting on a Credit average you should be good for most roles. The exceptions to that would be things like Law, Management Consulting or Investment Banking. I had a Distinction average and graduated top of my major and honestly, all interviewers wanted to discuss was my internship/undergrad role.

Personally, from a HR perspective I tend to place a higher value on grades then many of my peers/clients. When Im hiring graduates I like to see someone who is well rounded and has a good mix of grades, work experience, extra curriculars and personality. In a way, I believe doing well in school and uni is a good indicator for workplace success. When you think about it, at school you are required to complete tasks (i.e. exams, assessments etc) in a set timeframe to a certain standard, which is pretty much what you will be doing at work. However, in the workplace, attributes such as relationship building, gaining credibility and communicating with others are key skills which you just dont learn at uni (hence why you look beyond grades on a CV)

As I said before though, Im an outlier, most of the people Ive worked with on graduate interview processes dont look at marks at all beyond ensuring you meeting the minimum standard.
 

jazz519

Moderator
Moderator
Joined
Feb 25, 2015
Messages
1,955
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2016
Uni Grad
2021
In uni it's great if you can get high marks as like HSC receiving a good result is rewarding. The marks would be particularly important in some scenarios such as those wanting to do any further studies like a masters or PhD, were the main assessment on if you gain entry is based on how you performed in the undergraduate degree.

However, for the degrees where you are just aiming to finish it and then go for a job it is less important. Good marks here can be helpful in applying for internship programs, where as you don't have any or little experience, this would be the main way that the employers could understand your ability, along with performance in an interview and past unrelated work experience to show other skills like working in teams, presentation skills etc. A combination of decent to good marks and adequate internship or work experience, is what would be most desired. Of course higher marks along with the good experience makes you more competitive when applying and might be required for the roles in larger companies.

Just aiming to pass classes is not the right way to go about it in my opinion. This will probably mean you end up doing very minimal work and may even end up failing the classes because of approaching it in that way. Getting pass marks in many degrees may indicate your ability level is not that high and so an employer may end up choosing someone else with better ability, particularly in degrees that are focused on a certain skill like coding in computer science. In terms of the marking scale, this how I would classify it, pass (50-59 usually) = below average, credit = proficient and should be able to get a job if they have other good skills and experience, distinction = high level performance showing consistent performance, high distinction = outstanding performance and within top 5-15% of the class.

Ideally if you want to balance out experiencing other things in life, but putting in a decent amount of time into uni work then a mid to high credit should be what you are trying to get.
 

Hiheyhello

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2019
Messages
409
Gender
Female
HSC
2021
thanks everyone for the great advice!!

at the moment i’m considering taking psychology at USYD, and in hindsight, i think that i’ll aim for high credits which should give me the flexibility to engage in a range of other activities outside of my degree.

i think that my sudden minimalist mentality is just a reflection of the claustrophobia that i’m feeling (due to lockdown), but i probably shouldn’t set parameters for my future self.
 

idkkdi

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 2, 2019
Messages
2,588
Gender
Male
HSC
2021
thanks everyone for the great advice!!

at the moment i’m considering taking psychology at USYD, and in hindsight, i think that i’ll aim for high credits which should give me the flexibility to engage in a range of other activities outside of my degree.

i think that my sudden minimalist mentality is just a reflection of the claustrophobia that i’m feeling (due to lockdown), but i probably shouldn’t set parameters for my future self.
pretty sure psych needs high grades to apply for postgrad or smth
 

ExtremelyBoredUser

Bored Uni Student
Joined
Jan 11, 2021
Messages
2,479
Location
m
Gender
Male
HSC
2022
Uhh this is unrelated and probably not required but out of curiosity, for those people who did a double degree in a STEM degree or honours, was it extremely hectic or was it reasonable? Did you have plenty time to relax and go out doing whatever you want or did you have to have a strict timetable and routine you would follow everyday and most of your time was dedicated to uni itself.
 

Hiheyhello

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2019
Messages
409
Gender
Female
HSC
2021
pretty sure psych needs high grades to apply for postgrad or smth
do you know how high?

whilst i primarily want to become a clinical psychologist, i’d also be rlly interested in doing niche research
 

zizi2003_

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 18, 2020
Messages
1,471
Gender
Female
HSC
2021
thanks everyone for the great advice!!

at the moment i’m considering taking psychology at USYD, and in hindsight, i think that i’ll aim for high credits which should give me the flexibility to engage in a range of other activities outside of my degree.

i think that my sudden minimalist mentality is just a reflection of the claustrophobia that i’m feeling (due to lockdown), but i probably shouldn’t set parameters for my future self.
lol im aiming for the same course + uni.
i'm sure you'd need HD's and honours to do masters in clinical psych OR postgrad med (+gamsat- what im aiming for)- from what i know so far
 

icycledough

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 5, 2021
Messages
784
Gender
Male
HSC
2020
Uhh this is unrelated and probably not required but out of curiosity, for those people who did a double degree in a STEM degree or honours, was it extremely hectic or was it reasonable? Did you have plenty time to relax and go out doing whatever you want or did you have to have a strict timetable and routine you would follow everyday and most of your time was dedicated to uni itself.
I'm currently doing Actuarial Studies with Commerce, so I guess you can say the Actuarial component could be categorized as STEM, although there are some subjects in it which wouldn't be STEM (like economics and commerce). It definitely isn't hectic, if you can organize your time well. As we do trimesters, you will only have a maximum of 3 subjects each semesters, so as long as you stay on top of your work, the courses should be fine. Obviously, going out has been severely affected due to the current lockdown we're in (which doesn't look like changing the way we are going right now, lol), but there definitely isn't a lot of pressure associated with it. The good thing is that there isn't the pressure of maintaining a good rank in the course like high school, solely because you don't get a rank in university and that graduating and finding a job afterwards doesn't necessarily require the same high level marks like it does to be accepted into university, for some courses.
 

Hiheyhello

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2019
Messages
409
Gender
Female
HSC
2021
lol im aiming for the same course + uni.
i'm sure you'd need HD's and honours to do masters in clinical psych OR postgrad med (+gamsat- what im aiming for)- from what i know so far
HAHAHA I’LL SEE YOU THERE NEXT YEAR
(if i make it lmao)
 

ExtremelyBoredUser

Bored Uni Student
Joined
Jan 11, 2021
Messages
2,479
Location
m
Gender
Male
HSC
2022
I'm currently doing Actuarial Studies with Commerce, so I guess you can say the Actuarial component could be categorized as STEM, although there are some subjects in it which wouldn't be STEM (like economics and commerce). It definitely isn't hectic, if you can organize your time well. As we do trimesters, you will only have a maximum of 3 subjects each semesters, so as long as you stay on top of your work, the courses should be fine. Obviously, going out has been severely affected due to the current lockdown we're in (which doesn't look like changing the way we are going right now, lol), but there definitely isn't a lot of pressure associated with it. The good thing is that there isn't the pressure of maintaining a good rank in the course like high school, solely because you don't get a rank in university and that graduating and finding a job afterwards doesn't necessarily require the same high level marks like it does to be accepted into university, for some courses.
Oh nice, good to hear that. I have an inquiry for the actuarial degree, do you just learn the economics/commerce component for only the first year and just do majority of statistics/mathematics after that or is it an equal mix of business and mathematics throughout the whole degree? I've seen a bit of the content in actuarial studies and it seems cool such as the modelling you do and the topic of statistics you learn.
 

jazz519

Moderator
Moderator
Joined
Feb 25, 2015
Messages
1,955
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2016
Uni Grad
2021
do you know how high?

whilst i primarily want to become a clinical psychologist, i’d also be rlly interested in doing niche research
The main reason the marks are important for applying for postgrad e.g. PhD, is that basically everyone doing it requires a scholarship which means high marks are needed to prove that you are of a certain level and as there would be a limited number of scholarships they can give out, so they have to be able to distinguish different students. Essentially if you don't meet the marks requirement then you won't be offered the scholarship. A scholarship is quite important here because the fees involved with the postgrad are for most people way too high to afford themselves unless you are very rich.

In terms of how high you need to look into each uni and what requirements they have which will also vary per degree. For my application for a PhD in Chemistry I need to score a first class honours to be eligible for the scholarship which is scoring 85+ in the honours year (usually the 4th year of the degree). You can look on the uni handbook or website pages, they will outline what those marks are
 

jazz519

Moderator
Moderator
Joined
Feb 25, 2015
Messages
1,955
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2016
Uni Grad
2021
Uhh this is unrelated and probably not required but out of curiosity, for those people who did a double degree in a STEM degree or honours, was it extremely hectic or was it reasonable? Did you have plenty time to relax and go out doing whatever you want or did you have to have a strict timetable and routine you would follow everyday and most of your time was dedicated to uni itself.
Double degree is different to what honours is. A double degree is where you do two degrees from different areas. Honours is an extra year on a degree where you do some project and produce a thesis. These projects vary depending on the type of subject area you are doing, in sciences like bio, chem, physics, it would be an individual research project and in some other degrees they you might have a pair working on something.

The amount of commitment and time needed will vary based on each degree. For me personally it's been quite demanding because for a chemistry honours you need to go to the lab mon-fri, so you are at uni every weekday, so in my case basically all the time is dedicated to uni itself. For other honours programs where you don't have to be at uni and can do the work in your own time then I guess it would be a little less demanding in terms of the schedule.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top