Help with Academic Transcript unsw (1 Viewer)

[wyho]

Hi there, my little brother is currently in his final semester of uni at unsw. During the duration of the degree, he has been in a year of depression due to the death of one of our loved ones. He is currently at an overall wam of 47 and is expecting to get around 48 or 49 after this semester (since he is confident of getting good marks for the final subjects in the final sem). The low wam was a result of either doing bad in the subject , or enrolling into the subject and did not attempt it (therefore just getting 0).

Say if he gets an overall WAM of under 50, then does it mean he gets graduated but with a fail or pass conceded overall average? or do they just consider it as pass overall? Anyone ever heard or got a failed overall graduation wam before? please advice. thanks

 

[Aerath]

Moved this to UNSW forums.

 

[Timothy.Siu]

I've never thought that it mattered what your WAM was when you graduated, but I guess it's pretty extreme to graduate with a WAM of <50. My understanding was that you just had to complete the required courses for your degree, no matter what your end WAM was. But I could be wrong.

You should ask student central for the answer on this.

 

[TheStallion]

Yeah he'll still get the degree, I think - from what I know degrees are awarded ungraded, the only mark related thing on it will be whether you got honours or not, but with a fail this might be different - not that it matters much, with a WAM that low, I really doubt any sane employer would ever employ him.

If I were him, I'd be seriously worried about if he's just wasted 3+ years.

 

[miaowsha]

Yeah he'll still get the degree, I think - from what I know degrees are awarded ungraded, the only mark related thing on it will be whether you got honours or not, but with a fail this might be different - not that it matters much, with a WAM that low, I really doubt any sane employer would ever employ him.

If I were him, I'd be seriously worried about if he's just wasted 3+ years.

Absolute crap. I love it when kids hear things and assume.

Your brother will have trouble applying for masters degrees, but he'll likely be able to apply for graduate diplomas and graduate certificates if he wishes to do further study.

At this stage, if he has no work experience anywhere, he will be worse off than a kid with better marks and/or with work experience.

However, if he has work experience, he will be hired. I'm not talking about things like graduate programs where they're so flooded with candidates that they do need to weed people out. I'm talking about regular jobs.

If he has no work experience - tell him to look for an unpaid internship in his field and work somewhere to support himself, all whilst applying for jobs. Obviously they have to be entry level jobs (for everyone who applies, by the way).

 

[TheStallion]

Absolute crap. I love it when kids hear things and assume.

Your brother will have trouble applying for masters degrees, but he'll likely be able to apply for graduate diplomas and graduate certificates if he wishes to do further study.

At this stage, if he has no work experience anywhere, he will be worse off than a kid with better marks and/or with work experience.

However, if he has work experience, he will be hired. I'm not talking about things like graduate programs where they're so flooded with candidates that they do need to weed people out. I'm talking about regular jobs.

If he has no work experience - tell him to look for an unpaid internship in his field and work somewhere to support himself, all whilst applying for jobs. Obviously they have to be entry level jobs (for everyone who applies, by the way).

I suppose this is a fair point, and I did seem like a bit of a fuckwit in my previous post, but you have to admit that the majority of companies won't look too favourably on with a fail wam when there are people with really a high wam. Of course wam isn't that important, interview skills + work experience matter far more, but when up against people with work experience and high marks as well, it will be difficult.

We don't know what degree the OP's bro has either, employment prospects/wam requirements vary so much from degree to degree.

TL;DR yeah he can get employed, but I do think it's going to take a bit of time to find a position.

 

[unsw-maths-guru]

It isn't that uncommon for someone to come to uni, bomb out for a few sessions, take a break to get themselves together and the start afresh. I know someone who went from failing to getting HDs. The first go really stuffs the WAM up, so it wouldn't be that hard to graduate with a sub50 WAM. (I also know people who swapped unis to get a neater transcript the second time)

Employers will be more interested in how you did in the last couple of years of your degree than the fact that you bombed when you were 18....but you should be ready to explain your messy transcript in that situation. (My parents beat me, I got very sick, the GFC happened then I saw the light and ....)

 

[miaowsha]

I suppose this is a fair point, and I did seem like a bit of a fuckwit in my previous post, but you have to admit that the majority of companies won't look too favourably on with a fail wam when there are people with really a high wam. Of course wam isn't that important, interview skills + work experience matter far more, but when up against people with work experience and high marks as well, it will be difficult.

We don't know what degree the OP's bro has either, employment prospects/wam requirements vary so much from degree to degree.

TL;DR yeah he can get employed, but I do think it's going to take a bit of time to find a position.

For one's first graduate position, sure. However, if he goes for a graduate certificate and then articulates into a graduate diploma & masters, which is all very doable - he just would need to work in the grad cert and get a credit average (that's the standard), his masters transcript would be what is counted.

Alternatively, he could just pick an entry level job in any industry that he's interested in and then they'd let him in. Graduate programs would only look twice at him if he absolutely blitzed his initial application though, or had a contact that could overlook the wam for him.