Can someone help me with something? (1 Viewer)

[SeCKSiiMiNh]

what are you planning on doing with an arts degree?

 

[brendroid]

Get some skills to get a relatively decent day job, and then by night live off coffee and become a best-selling author ^^

 

[witide]

Don't worry about fees. Come to USYD, enjoy three years of arts doing what you want to do, then figure the rest out later.

 

[Topazkick]

I would of gone to usyd but they didn't have any undergraduate creative writing units when i checked but they do have a masters in it and a writer's society magazine thing. I hear their Arts is pretty good and English there was tempting. My sister completed a media and english major at unsw and that seemed pretty interesting too. I chose to go to Macquarie because they have a new writing major which includes creative writing workshops, travel and screen writing, music and arts journalism second year. For now, I'm doing a weird cultural studies prerequisite for it but it's just for one semester so it should be alright lol. So it doesn't really matter which uni you go to which ever one has the most appealing subjects and environment i guess.

 

[brendroid]

I've found the writing one on Macquarie's website ^^ been looking into that, while trying to find something similar for USYD.

Cultural studies prerequisite - could you talk me through what that's like?

 

[Topazkick]

For my writing major, I have two prerequisite subjects to take first year in uni - mmcs115 aka academic cultures and either an english, cultural studies or media subject. Academic cultures is alright, you mostly learn about these theories that critique the education system, plagiarism and journalism the first few weeks and the assignments aren't too bad lol. The assignments might change next year but the first 2 are group ones where you basically do some research and write up a journal article for the first question and for the second one you can choose between creating a brochure or book proposal. If you want to have a look at the subject/unit descriptions properly: 2010 Handbook - 2010 Course Handbook - Macquarie University

 

[brendroid]

That doesn't sound too bad...

 

[Andi0390]

I'd go to USYD. Fees are exactly the same for every university in Australia. The only thing that might cost more is accommodation around the area - or travel costs to get into uni everyday if you live close to one.

TBH I don't think people really care where you got your Arts Degree from, rankings seem to have the most impact on post grad and law (or business) degrees. With Arts I'm pretty sure your interview skills and individual skills will hold more sway than the university you went to - but USYD always looks good.

I've known a few people who have done creative writing courses and have been quite dissapointed with it. You can be a writer whether you do a course or not - most writers out there probably didn't do a creative writing course, its a skill you have and build, and a degree looks great when trying to get it published - but just read it over and check that creative writing is really what you want.

I've heard that USYD and UMELB are the best universites in Australia for Arts. This reputation does mean that theoretically they will attract more experienced lectures. Pick the uni you feel best with though, talk to some people, visit, check out the course and see which one suits you most.

 

[Topazkick]

I've known a few people who have done creative writing courses and have been quite dissapointed with it. You can be a writer whether you do a course or not - most writers out there probably didn't do a creative writing course, its a skill you have and build, and a degree looks great when trying to get it published - but just read it over and check that creative writing is really what you want.

I've heard that USYD and UMELB are the best universites in Australia for Arts. This reputation does mean that theoretically they will attract more experienced lectures. Pick the uni you feel best with though, talk to some people, visit, check out the course and see which one suits you most.

Yup, this is pretty good advice.

 

[brendroid]

Andi, I can see where you're coming from ^^

I've done a bit of looking into Mac's course, and it seems to be the sort of thing I'd be inclined to do. What I mean is primarily consolidating writing skills, looking into the form of the different mediums in a more indepth way, that kind of stuff.

That's at least the understanding I've gathered from some of the stuff on the Mac site.