Questions about Courses (1 Viewer)

[DeathB4Life]

For most of this year i felt i had a faint idea about the "year 12 to uni" process, but after browsing through the UNSW site i feel totally lost. ive tried to find some answers with a bit of googling but to no avail.

im sure i want to do a course specifically involving 3d animation + modelling. ive been into it since around year 8 till now and i cant think of too many other things which i would be interested in studying in. and it would be cool to have a bit of an advantage over everyone.


ive come across these courses of interest:
http://www.handbook.unsw.edu.au/undergraduate/courses/2006/SOMA2609.html
http://www.handbook.unsw.edu.au/undergraduate/courses/2006/SOMA3609.html
http://www.handbook.unsw.edu.au/undergraduate/courses/2006/SOMA4609.html


ok the first requires that im enrolled in a program in the college of fine arts. digital media appears to fit under this category.

first question:
How does the Faculty (COFA), Program (Digital Media) and Courses (3d animation) all relate? do i simply do the courses of my choosing and the faculty and program are just a category they all come under?

second question:
UAI requirements. is it the course or the program that has the UAI requirements place on them? and would anyone have a rough idea of the UAI i would need to enroll?

third question:
lets say i dont make it into the courses. would anyone have any idea how i could get into this industry. uni would be the first choice, mainly because of the "family honour" that seems to come with it...and i think my parents are trying to bribe me with a new computer if i make it in (im talking FX-62, quad SLI 7950gtx, 4GB RAM, high speed super fast ultra...*continues rambling on about dream system)

TAFE is always an option, but i think my parents may possibly disown me if i end up there.

fourth question:
Can i do all three of the above courses at once? the prerequisite for the second course is just that ive done/(am doing?) the first course.

ive come across this in the unsw digital media page:
http://www.handbook.unsw.edu.au/undergraduate/programs/2006/4810.html

"General Education Requirements Students are required as part of their studies, to complete 12 units of credit in General Education courses or their equivalent. No more than 3UOC may be taken from COFA General Education courses."

ok what would a "general education course" be? and the "no more than 3UOC"....all the courses under digital media are 6UOC...

6UOC > 3UOC???
therefore they cannot be taken?
*confused


and i might need a few more things to be cleared up.
bachelors, honours, majors, undergraduate, credits...
i think i have a vague idea about what they each mean but a proper explanation would help greatly.



argh my head just feels blank after about 6 hours of doing maths, im sure a few more questions will come to me once my mind is clear.

thanks for any help, really appreciate it. *pre emptive hugs to anyone may possibly help

 

[Rekkusu]

Most courses or using Iruka's wordings, 'Subjects' at UNSW consist of 6 UOC. The only courses that are 3 UOC are General Education.

In answer to your first question mate, the UAI is what decides the DEGREE you get into. So in your case, you must get into the degree - Bachelor of Digital arts at our uni. Roughly, this requires a UAI cutoff of 85 - 90 (For 2005, it was 85 and 2004, it was 90) You will receive a UAC book sometime around your Trial HSC period, which outlines the degrees you can take and from which university within NSW, as well as the UAI cutoffs for this course in the previous years.

You choose the 'courses' when UNSW sends you an offer to this B Digital Arts, and you accept this offer at the myunsw Portal (To give you a hint, this is the page that UNSW will direct you to at UAC website that you've successfully received an offer from our University --> https://my.unsw.edu.au/student/commencing/AcceptUAC.html )

The faculty has nothing to do with the courses you take, all it does is place all the courses relevant to their faculty and/or School into their category. (Sorry for the confusion, a School is a further division within a Faculty)

2nd Question: I believe I answered this in my first answer - 85 - 90 UAI, so you're looking at least 1 to 2 HSC subjects in Band 6, and the rest in Band 5, allowing only 1 subject to be in the Band 4 range to achieve this UAI.

The Program is the one that has the UAI requirements on it. A Program is the same definition as Degree.

3rd Question: Should you be unable to achieve a UAI of 85 - 90, let's say um, you get a UAI this year as 89, but the UAI cut-off is 90. And you've missed it by 1 UAI point. Here you can take either of the options I've stated below.

> 1st Option: Go to UNSW - Faculty of College Arts, and find the DEAN i.e. Professor of that faculty direct, and convince him or her that you're a capable student who really really wants to get into this degree, show him some competitions you've entered such as say Graphic Design comps, bring in your HSC results (if you've done particularly well in subjects related to this degree such as Graphic Design, chances are the Professor will accept you into UNSW).

> 2nd Option: Place another degree at our University or even the same degree at another University as a 2nd or even 3rd preference that you believe you can get into. So it could be UTS, um USYD, etc. It doesn't matter which uni or which degree. Just take a degree that you think that you will do REALLY GOOD, and give you good marks. Then after you've completed say 1 semester, but most of the times it's after 1 year in the degree that you're in, and you get a good WAM (This is the UAI-like mark you get every year at Uni), and use this WAM to switch degrees via UAC to get into UNSW's B Digital Arts.

> 3rd Option: dude Do not even consider going into TAFE or even 'colleges' or even repeat Year 12 for the sake of getting into this course. Because if you can get a UAI of at least 70, you can choose a good degree you like, and do well in it, then switch degrees the next year.
ONLY repeat Year 12, or do TAFE or Colleges if you get a UAI less than 50, in which cases you'll get something like an automatic unsatisfactory, or cannot be disclosed UAI. Then...well you would be pretty screwed by then unfortunately.

4th Question: Have a look at your degree here: http://www.handbook.unsw.edu.au/undergraduate/programs/2006/4810.html

The courses that you really want to do, will pop up in your degree sometime. I had a look at the courses you stated above. SOMA2609 will be a course that you'll be completing in your first year of this B Digital Arts degree, most likely in Semester 1.

SOMA3609 will be done in Semester 2 of your first year. SOMA4609 will be done in Semester 1 of your 2nd year of this degree. You will only be able to do these other 2 degrees provided that you pass 2609 first, then pass 3609, in order to get 4609. A pass is getting 50% - 64% for that course.

But bear in mind, in your first semester, you will be doing a total of 4 courses, 1 of them (SOMA2609) may or may not be a compulsory course, but you can still choose it as an elective.

As for General Education have a look here: http://www.handbook.unsw.edu.au/generaleducation/2006/generaleducation.html?StudyLevel=Undergraduate

Don't even worry about Gen Ed courses until your 2nd year of uni, because you can't choose gen ed courses in your first year. In fact, you don't even need to do Gen Ed courses if you're doing a double degree such as B arts/education.

Basically here's how it works, you need to do 12 uocs worth of Gen ed right? But each Gen ed is worth 3 UOC, so you will need to do 2 Gen Ed courses in your 2nd year and 3rd year (some gen eds run in winter session holiday and summer session holiday).

When they state that you cannot do more than 3 UOC at college of Fine arts, it means that you can ONLY choose 1 general education course from this faculty, have a look here:
http://www.handbook.unsw.edu.au/vbook2006/brGenEdByFaculty.jsp#College of Fine Arts

Thus, you will do 3 other Gen Ed courses in other faculties, such as Science, Medicine, Commerce etc. This may be slightly annoying, because all of these other faculties are at Kensington...so you'll need to catch a bus from your COFA campus to UNSW's kensington campus just for these gen ed courses.

>_> Hope this has helped...

 

[DeathB4Life]

yes thats helped heaps

thanks alot

 

[Rekkusu]

Cool ^^ Good luck for 2006 mate!