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Can I discontinue a course before Honours year? (1 Viewer)

Cyterg

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Hey everyone I'm in year 12 I was looking at UNSW degrees and found many honours degrees. I was wondering what would happen if I did 3 years and then withdraw before my honours year. Would I still get the degree, just instead without honours? Sorry I'm not really sure how it works.
 

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Hey everyone I'm in year 12 I was looking at UNSW degrees and found many honours degrees. I was wondering what would happen if I did 3 years and then withdraw before my honours year. Would I still get the degree, just instead without honours? Sorry I'm not really sure how it works.
Can I add on to that and ask what the purpose of an honours year is qualification-wise?
 

ExtremelyBoredUser

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Hey everyone I'm in year 12 I was looking at UNSW degrees and found many honours degrees. I was wondering what would happen if I did 3 years and then withdraw before my honours year. Would I still get the degree, just instead without honours? Sorry I'm not really sure how it works.
I would surely say yes and I am 99.99% sure it is but please do check your program for any special considerations. For my faculty at least, you're free to drop honours at any time and it is a requirement that your WAM (average marks in your courses) is above a threshold to continue doing the honours inbuilt program.

Normally the honours programs have "advanced" tacked onto the degree so advanced maths/science instead of bachelor of science since you are forced to take all "higher" versions of courses. It is very common for people to drop from adv science/maths to bachelor of science and continue in a normal stream due to difficulty or losing interest in honours.
 

carrotsss

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Can I add on to that and ask what the purpose of an honours year is qualification-wise?
For some stuff like engineering and psychology you need it to get the qualification, beyond that for other degrees it’s not strictly necessary but it shows to employers that you can undertake a big research project so it makes you a lot more employable, depends on the field like for comp sci it’s not too important I’ve heard but for stuff like maths/other science majors it’s pretty important
 

cossine

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Can I add on to that and ask what the purpose of an honours year is qualification-wise?
I will add to what Carrors has said. Honours is meant to be a research degree. It will increase the length of your degree by 1 year. In practice only about 2 subjects are research-based. The remaining subjects will be technical or soft-skills subjects.

If you want to do PhD then you most likely require honours otherwise it does not matter.

Taking a look at your uni handbook will reveal precisely what you will study.
 

Cyterg

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Thanks everyone for the replies. So if I took the Bachelor of Advanced Computer Science (Honours) at UNSW, and drop Honours, then it will say Bachelor of Advanced Computer Science on my testamur? Because there is only an honours degree for this specific (advanced) course at UNSW, not a normal 3-year one. (There is also a Bachelor of Computer Science (Honours) degree, which I assume is the less intense version of the same degree. There is no just 'Bachelor of Computer Science' degree).

Also, would having an 'Advanced' degree influence an employer's decision to hire me, more than a normal degree would?
 
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Luukas.2

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A degree without Honours is referred to as a "pass" degree. If you don't do the Honours, you still get the pass degree. If you do Honours and fail it, you still get the pass degree - though third class honours is so vanishingly rare that it is effectively a fail.
 

cossine

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Thanks everyone for the replies. So if I took the Bachelor of Advanced Computer Science (Honours) at UNSW, and drop Honours, then it will say Bachelor of Advanced Computer Science on my testamur? Because there is only an honours degree for this specific (advanced) course at UNSW, not a normal 3-year one. (There is also a Bachelor of Computer Science (Honours) degree, which I assume is the less intense version of the same degree. There is no just 'Bachelor of Computer Science' degree).

Also, would having an 'Advanced' degree influence an employer's decision to hire me, more than a normal degree would?
If you get enough work experience through internship then you will be good.
 

liamkk112

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Also, would having an 'Advanced' degree influence an employer's decision to hire me, more than a normal degree would?
depends, when it comes to most tech companies they could really care less about ur degree, search up most jobs in tech and they only list necessary skills or experience, some just have a degree as a "highly regarded" part of your resume. that being said the advanced degree will allow you to access more courses that the regular compsci degree wouldn't necessarily let you access, as you have more units of higher level courses built into the degree, which would allow you to broaden or solidify your skillset through classes. however it's probably equally as important to get internships and develop your own projects to show you have the skills needed for a job, i don't think the word "advanced" would necessarily make you more competitive compared to other applicants who don't have that word.
 

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