Summer school for fast-tracking Arts? (1 Viewer)

[Got2Kno91]

Do you think it's feasible/possible to use Summer school as an 'extra semester' to fast track an Arts degree? I personally would be very tempted to use two summer school periods to effectively wipe off a year of an Arts degree. I know it might sound a bit intense, but the sooner I can get Arts 'out of the way', finish a post-grad, and get a career underway, the better!

**Edit: I would like to ask also, how effectively mild overloading, perhaps combined with some winter school, could be used for the same effect (i.e. reducing duration of Arts). Furthermore, if good performance and GPA after, say, the first semester, could be used as justification into the entry of some sort of fast-tracking program?**

Thanks =)

 

[izzy88]

Well there is the arts advanced course, which skips first year so you arts (honours) in three years rather than four. That is the extent of any 'fast-tracking' course- but i'm not even sure if you can transfer into this course, you have to start it at the beginning.

The cons for summer school: (the same can apply to winter school)
- Its expensive; there's no commonwealth supported places available (at usyd in any case), so it's full fee. If you have money, fine, but otherwise it's an expensive option.
- I'm not sure if its possible to do more than two summer school subjects at a time, purely because of timetabling. Summer school crams a lot more class into a shorter period of time, so you might have issues with classes clashing etc. (So i'm not sure you could do a full semester worth of courses, ie. four, in summer school).


Overloading by one subject is possible and people have done it, but its not that fun and can negatively impact your marks etc/ social life. However, i'm fairly sure USYD doesn't allow overloading in first year, so you could only do it second/third year. Also, university can be a big change from school, you can't be sure what it's going to be life, how you'll cope etc until you get there.

This is just my opinion based on friends experiences etc, I haven't taken summer/winter school subjects (too expensive), and I haven't overloaded (four subjects is enough for me, five and I would probably go crazy/not have any fun/i think my marks would suffer).

Finally, university is about learning and having fun- do you really want to rush it that much?

 

[zombie omie jay]

fast tracking your way to unemployment

yayy

 

[Got2Kno91]

Well there is the arts advanced course, which skips first year so you arts (honours) in three years rather than four. That is the extent of any 'fast-tracking' course- but i'm not even sure if you can transfer into this course, you have to start it at the beginning.

The cons for summer school: (the same can apply to winter school)
- Its expensive; there's no commonwealth supported places available (at usyd in any case), so it's full fee. If you have money, fine, but otherwise it's an expensive option.
- I'm not sure if its possible to do more than two summer school subjects at a time, purely because of timetabling. Summer school crams a lot more class into a shorter period of time, so you might have issues with classes clashing etc. (So i'm not sure you could do a full semester worth of courses, ie. four, in summer school).


Overloading by one subject is possible and people have done it, but its not that fun and can negatively impact your marks etc/ social life. However, i'm fairly sure USYD doesn't allow overloading in first year, so you could only do it second/third year. Also, university can be a big change from school, you can't be sure what it's going to be life, how you'll cope etc until you get there.

This is just my opinion based on friends experiences etc, I haven't taken summer/winter school subjects (too expensive), and I haven't overloaded (four subjects is enough for me, five and I would probably go crazy/not have any fun/i think my marks would suffer).

Finally, university is about learning and having fun- do you really want to rush it that much?

Thanks for your help =) For some background, i'm currently doing another, far more technical degree, but i'm not quite happy with it. I'm still going to get P's and C's, but what's the point if i'm not enjoying it? Arts is more suitable to my humanities bent. I realise it could potentially be quite stressful, and I see your point, but frankly I always worked better under pressure/deadlines. Furthermore, long periods of time from study in the past have proven detrimental to me 'getting into the rhythm' of things again. Summer break for me seems like waaay to much time away from uni or structure that could be spent getting the course completed. 4 weeks would be OK and a worthy holiday, but months and months is silly imo.

@ zombie omie jay
Shouldn't feed the trolls, but meh. Your just a '11er who hasn't even begun or completed HSC, let alone had uni experience. Many people do Arts to get a broader perspective on things, and then do a post-grad in something completely different.

Anyways people, interested in hearing more opinions/suggestions/ maybe even experiences?

 

[witide]

I don't think it's worth it. It's only three years, so you might as well enjoy doing what you want while it lasts. I'm personally adding an extra year onto my degree and only doing 3 subjects at a time, at least for the moment.