OMG! YESSS!!!!!!!! I CAN ANSWER A QUESTION! ecom141, anybody?
Firstly, have a look at teh
course structure here.
Ok, well, Jimmy I do this course, and there are a few hidden things to note.
The obvious question worth answering is 'Why do this course over a BArts?' That is a good question. There are a few things that makes the BAncHist (hons) course
worth doing rather than the BA:
1. You can do any ancient language in your first year (you can't in a BArts)- this includes Hieros, Greek, Latin, Classical Hebrew, and German for Special Purposes. I really would have liked to have done hieros this year, but I couldn't.
2. It gives you automatic admission to honours and certain other subjects. If you didn't know, an honours in a humanity generally means an extra year where you write a thesis and do a few seminars. Doing honours is really great and allows you to do a PhD straight after you graduate. The other subjects you can get admission to is the 'Masters Subjects'. These subjects are wide and many, but include specialised things, like Greek Coinage and Roman Papyrii. There are a tonne of these to chose from.
3. The same argument applies to 'why do a BMedia when you can do a BArts?' I have no idea what that argument is, but it has something to do with letting the uni focussing your study for you.
4. You still get 24 Credit Points (CPs) of electives- with me doing all my electives in HIST (Modern History) subjects. The AHST subjects are the Ancient History subs.
5. It's
much more hard to transfer into the BAncHist (hons) degree from a BArts than vice versa. If you didn't know, Macquarie's great with transfers, with the general rule applying that, if you get the marks, you can transfer. To tranfer from a BArts to a BAncHist, you need marks slightly above average. To transfer from BAncHist to BArts, you need Passes. (Pass and above tends to be around 95-80% of the course; average (medium credit) seems to be around 50% of the courses)
There are, of course, a few
cons-
1. If you start to like your electives a lot (like I did with HIST), you'll have to transfer to do a substantial amount of them. In my case, there are only a few HIST subjects that I want to do, so I can do a lot of these whilst doing the obligatory AHST subs.
2. If you don't get marks that I would call 'good', (ie, in the top 45-40% of the classes), you can't get admission to honours- you'll graduate withouth doing a thesis and the '(hons)' tag
. Nb: if you're passionate about history, it's hard not to get good marks. A lot of people in your classes won't even like history, so you've already got an advantage.
3. You get a pretty well-structured degree, and you'll find that you do 3-4 (you do 4 subjects a semester maximum, usually) AHST subjects. I would say that my literacy skills are excellent, but 4 AHST subjects is a
lot of work.
4. You can really do all the same subjects in the BAncHist(hons) taht you can do in a BA (Hons). You just can't initially do the languages. To gain entry to the Masters Subs, you just have to prove yourself and the lecturers will let you in.
NB: at Macquarie, there is a lot of flexibility. I say that you would do 3-4 AHST subs a semester, but you don't have to. You can extend your degree out, and as long as you don't wait till the cows come home, they won't care. You could do it part-time, and still have a casual job.
Also, the lecturers are reasonable, and if you prove yourself, they will let you take up more subjects that you may have only been able to do in the BAncHist(hons), you just have to show them that you work.
Furthermore, the subjects that you like and take up do not have to count towards your degree. You could go over 24 elective credit points and not get penalised- the worst you're doing is learning and making your degree go for a bit longer. Say if you do 24 credit points of electives and have done all your cores. You're thinking about graduating next year, but say 'I want a job and won't have time for the thesis. I need a car'. You could, if you want to, take up a few general units (languages, philosophy, sociology are all relevant to history, as is doing a general history unit) and delay your thesis by a semester.
Usually, I would have to sell you people on doing history, but thankfully that was already done by some sleak salesman at open day!
Did you have fun at open day, Jimmy? If you want to anything else, ask away
My honest recommendation would be to enrol in a Bachelor of Arts. That way, you can do different subjects if you like. You can also, in second year, concurrently enrol in a Diploma of Ancient Languages, which you could count a bunch of AHST language subjects towards.
