B Economics/B Info Technology (1 Viewer)

[Heart.O.Gold]

Howdy all,

I;ve just got a few questions about this combined degree....

1) How many days off will i have per week? cause im going to need to work while studying on account of my complete failure to get a job during x-mas rush 'cause i missed the applications (I fear).

2) How hard is the work load in terms of balancing study/work and social?

3) I put down Ursula as my accomidation 1st preference....right choice? also if it is "self-catered" does that mean the weekly cost doesn't include meals, so then how much a week would a food bill be? worth the hassle?

4) I hear alot about how great ANU is for B Arts especially international relations and law, but are economics and IT good? they should rank fairly highly right...?

5) Do many people do IT or Eco? it seems from this forum that most people are doing international studies or law.

6) is it worth emailing the uni with these questions, obviously i'd fix up spelling/grammar and make it more professional. But i'd rather have a response from you guys since you go to the university

7) Applications for accomidation require you put in acadamic/community roles, do they take that serious, anybody have a way to put in pretty computer gifted and sportingly gifted?

8) In the UAC 2008 Guide book it lists the degree as 75 UAI, but on the website they say 83, who should i believe?
ALSO one final question/statement, is anyone from Sydney going to the "ANU Advisory Day" on the 21st?


~!GIVE PEACE A CHANCE!~

 

[Evilo]

1) i asked my mate whos doing a combined commerce/psyc studies degree. you do the same load as someone fulltime (4 subjects), anywhere between 12-25 hrs a week. Depending on how flexible your subject are, most people are able to get a day per week off.
2) Hard at start, but you get used to it
3) Ursula has good clean facilites, they've got a good little community there. It's catered - meaning they provide 21 meals a week! Its good cos you can spend that time working/socialising/partying/studying etc - instead of cooking.
As far as self catered goes - from what ive seen you need to be very strong willed in cooking etc - otherwise you get lazy and order pizza etc
4) & 5) - i dont know. I know asian studies is very highly regarded.
6) if you email the uni, you will get a very "straight" responce. Just like the front of any university magazine. Id would eaither a wait here for a responce, or b get facebook and ask there.
7) Depends which hall you are trying for, johns is selective, maybe burgmann? Just talk abut your hobbies, skills etc - i think they just want to get a feeling of what you are like.
8) - maybe thats a good question to ask on the Anu advisory day - i went last year - make sure you bring questions - otherwise its pretty pointless.

 

[Krieg]

ANU economics is as highly regarded as anything else at ANU (bar maybe it's international law) and is a really good program. The economics department marks really harshly though and has some of the more difficult courses at the ANU, especially during the first year. There's a lot of people in the economics courses since they're core parts of a of other degrees like Actuarial and Commerce. I'm not sure how common it/eco is, i'm sure there's plenty of people though...

You will probably be able to get 1 maybe 2 days off a week in addition to your weekend although you can be unlucky and have to go every day but going to classes wont take up your entire day thats for sure.

 

[Evilo]

yeah Kreig is right - i had classes 5 days a week, but for 3 of those days, they were over by midday anyway.

 

[Heart.O.Gold]

hey, thanks for the replies evilo and kreig, im definately gonna write some questions for the ANU Day on the 21/12, noone else going to that ANU Day?

 

[jas0nt]

Howdy all,

I;ve just got a few questions about this combined degree....

1) How many days off will i have per week? cause im going to need to work while studying on account of my complete failure to get a job during x-mas rush 'cause i missed the applications (I fear).

2) How hard is the work load in terms of balancing study/work and social?

3) I put down Ursula as my accomidation 1st preference....right choice? also if it is "self-catered" does that mean the weekly cost doesn't include meals, so then how much a week would a food bill be? worth the hassle?

4) I hear alot about how great ANU is for B Arts especially international relations and law, but are economics and IT good? they should rank fairly highly right...?

5) Do many people do IT or Eco? it seems from this forum that most people are doing international studies or law.

6) is it worth emailing the uni with these questions, obviously i'd fix up spelling/grammar and make it more professional. But i'd rather have a response from you guys since you go to the university

7) Applications for accomidation require you put in acadamic/community roles, do they take that serious, anybody have a way to put in pretty computer gifted and sportingly gifted?

8) In the UAC 2008 Guide book it lists the degree as 75 UAI, but on the website they say 83, who should i believe?
ALSO one final question/statement, is anyone from Sydney going to the "ANU Advisory Day" on the 21st?


~!GIVE PEACE A CHANCE!~

1. depends entirely on the timetable generated for the semester, which is different every year. there's a strong chance you'll get friday off.
2. i work 15 hours on mon/tue/fri and manage to keep a D average. i advise you to 1) work in 5-hour blocks and 2) get friendly with your manager. i tend to socialise on my few hours off on tue/wed.
3. ?
4. IT i dunno... think it's pretty average, by economics yep.
5. micro 1/macro 2 are anu's most popular units in ANU as every student from the business faculty (commerce/finance/economics/actuarial) have to do them.
6. i wouldn't hold my breath for a response.
7. ?
8. 75.

 

[jas0nt]

The economics department marks really harshly though and has some of the more difficult courses at the ANU,

i wouldn't agree with this at all. understand the material quite well, practice questions and exams, network with buddies to study with and i don't see why you wouldn't get a D/HD.

the first half of micro 1 is quite straight-forward... i think the hurdle is when tax/subsidies/international trade is introduced. game theory is pretty fun and if you get jane as your lecturer she'll make it such that it's quite hilarious (especially with her "chicken" example) also the fact that the assessments have variable weighting is extremely beneficial.

macro 1 is fuscking dry and the textbook is boring as hell. still, the lecturer certainly knows his stuff and although he may look like he'll bite your neck when you ask him something he'll answer your questions extremely thoroughly.

 

[Krieg]

i wouldn't agree with this at all. understand the material quite well, practice questions and exams, network with buddies to study with and i don't see why you wouldn't get a D/HD.

You could say this about any course at ANU, that doesn't mean none of them are more difficult than others. I think for the economics courses more than others if you don't put the required work in it would be harder to scrape through than others or even fluke a good mark if you didn't do the work. You also don't mention EMET when it actually has the reputation for being the hardest first year course at ANU.

I don't know what other departments you associate with but economics is marked pretty harshly. You can give the correct answer to a question and only get 50% of the marks, they pretty much always want you to analyse the question more and come up with other scenarios with explanations even when they don't ask for it. They even say to get full marks for a question you need to tell them something they didn't already think of.

I'm not saying the courses are too difficult or anything like that, you'll certainly do well if you put in the effort and don't mess up any final exams but if you don't understand everything come exam it's pretty difficult to limp across the line you'll either do pretty well or fail (Even micro/macro had like 20% failure, EMET way more). I've done a few courses where I haven't attended any lectures and just done everything the night before and got D/HD's where as there's no way I could do that with eco.

 

[jas0nt]

crap.

i have to do that next year in semester 2. i have a mate who literally skipped 70% of his lectures due to sheer laziness and HD'ed EMET.

will two units of first-year maths (calc/linear algebra) help? how's the lecturer?

also mind if i ask how you know x% of folks fail a certain unit? (just curious)

 

[Evilo]

as per your 3rd comment jas0nt (just confirming what you've written) - the courses are usually standards based. i.e. once you reached a standard you've passed. However if a high number of people are getting HDs, or opposite - failing. The course conveynor has to justify why this is occuring. If they can, then it can continue. Most of the courses are able to find a mid point.
When Kreig says '20% of sudents fail' - thats '20% of students didn't reach the required standard', Not - 'we failed the bottom 20% of students just 'cos we can'.

 

[Heart.O.Gold]

as per your 3rd comment jas0nt (just confirming what you've written) - the courses are usually standards based. i.e. once you reached a standard you've passed. However if a high number of people are getting HDs, or opposite - failing. The course conveynor has to justify why this is occuring. If they can, then it can continue. Most of the courses are able to find a mid point.
When Kreig says '20% of sudents fail' - thats '20% of students didn't reach the required standard', Not - 'we failed the bottom 20% of students just 'cos we can'.

hey, thanks for clearing that up, i was freaking out about bottom 20% failing, but if it is just cause they suck i can live with that.

are you guys doing a B IT or B Econ?

 

[jas0nt]

hey, thanks for clearing that up, i was freaking out about bottom 20% failing, but if it is just cause they suck i can live with that.

are you guys doing a B IT or B Econ?

most of those guys who fail are those who attend no tutes (for econ they are worth 15-20%) or lectures.

i do b fin/b econ and i did a subject in which all IT students do in their first semester (comp1100)

 

[Evilo]

most of those guys who fail are those who attend no tutes or lectures.

true.
I remember at the start of the year i asked the older year students how to pass the course. *All* of them said: "go to evey lecture and tute". lol

 

[jas0nt]

true.
I remember at the start of the year i asked the older year students how to pass the course. *All* of them said: "go to evey lecture and tute". lol

i wouldn't say all lectures/tutes is necessary.... i say attending 80% of them should give you a good standing for the course (i can only comment on first year courses)

 

[Krieg]

crap.

i have to do that next year in semester 2. i have a mate who literally skipped 70% of his lectures due to sheer laziness and HD'ed EMET.

will two units of first-year maths (calc/linear algebra) help? how's the lecturer?

also mind if i ask how you know x% of folks fail a certain unit? (just curious)

Dunno emet is a bit annoying to skip lectures since the lecturer doesn't put the notes online, you have to get them out from the 2hr loan section of the library. Skipping lectures doesn't mean you can't learn all the stuff though.

Ya they will help, lecturer is/was japanese he's ok.

You can ask lecturers what % fail a unit but the eco lecturers have tend to mention it sometime throughout the course anyway in my experience.

 

[jas0nt]

Dunno emet is a bit annoying to skip lectures since the lecturer doesn't put the notes online, you have to get them out from the 2hr loan section of the library. Skipping lectures doesn't mean you can't learn all the stuff though.

Ya they will help, lecturer is/was japanese he's ok.

You can ask lecturers what % fail a unit but the eco lecturers have tend to mention it sometime throughout the course anyway in my experience.

so if there arent notes online... what do we bring to the lectures?

 

[Krieg]

so if there arent notes online... what do we bring to the lectures?

what he did was make like these notes that have some material on them but with massive boxes for you to fill in at the lectures. Without the boxes filled in the notes are so inconclusive that they're pretty much useless.

 

[jas0nt]

what he did was make like these notes that have some material on them but with massive boxes for you to fill in at the lectures. Without the boxes filled in the notes are so inconclusive that they're pretty much useless.

damn.

hey could you give me a rough indication on how i would fare in EMET? i've done essentially all first year subjects a commerce/finance kid would do (with a D average) and HD'ed two first year maths units (1013/1014).

 

[M-turkey]

I'll just like to assure possible I.T. students, that the ANU faculty is pretty well respected. I do Eng/Sci, so I don't to a lot, but I have done some IT courses and just the faculty a bit.

It's mainly Linux and control systems research, but there are some very well respected people in the department.
An Example, Andrew Tridgell created rsync and Samba here, programs used to Sync things like iPods .

We also have Australia's best Supercomputer on campus

 

[Evilo]

We also have Australia's best Supercomputer on campus

where is that? CSIT?
is it connected to partch? or webct? or other?