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B Arts and Sciences (1 Viewer)

Super Pig

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Hey I am just wondering how popular this new Bachelor of Arts and Sciences degree at Sydney Uni is going to be. Apparently it offers the most liberal/general education of all. But nobody has really talked about it on this forum. Does it imply that it doesn't have much popularity? What do you guys think its cutoff is likely to be, the high 80's or lower?
 

Mambomeg

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i dunno what the cutoff will be, its so hard to tell. I think the fact that it is so general might scare some ppl off, because it wont push them in any direction, and at the end they still might not know what they want to do in life. The fact that it is new and there are no graduates to follow and see where they have ended up may also scare ppl off.
 

joujou_84

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Super Pig said:
Hey I am just wondering how popular this new Bachelor of Arts and Sciences degree at Sydney Uni is going to be. Apparently it offers the most liberal/general education of all. But nobody has really talked about it on this forum. Does it imply that it doesn't have much popularity? What do you guys think its cutoff is likely to be, the high 80's or lower?

well i think B science is a backway into other courses....i know its my 4th preference....after medical science in UNSW, USYD and UTS.....so for me its a way into med sci....however i dont know whether its popular as ppl's first preference because it is a pretty general course.....so yeh...i think it could be down the preference list of heaps of ppl
 

Super Pig

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joujou_84 said:
well i think B science is a backway into other courses....i know its my 4th preference....after medical science in UNSW, USYD and UTS.....so for me its a way into med sci....however i dont know whether its popular as ppl's first preference because it is a pretty general course.....so yeh...i think it could be down the preference list of heaps of ppl
I reckon if you want a backup for medical science, you should put BSc rather than the B A&Sc that we are talking about. In 1st year you could do exactly the same subjects in BSc as in BMedSc.

Anyway back to B A&Sc. Sydney Uni introduces this new degree probably because the cutoffs for the general degrees (BA, BSc, BLib etc) were rising high in recent years, so there appears to be an increasing market demand for a US-style liberal education (whether the society would benefit better from that than specialised degrees is open for discussion).

In my opinion however, this degree is a bit too general. Students would need to take two commerce subjects and two legal studies courses (6 credit points each). Then at least 24 cps in Arts and 24 cps in Science. And it only lasts for 3 years, which makes it quite hard for specialisation or even just to dip a little bit further. Similar degrees in the US usually take 4 years. The degree completion rate might be low as most ppl would probably wanna transfer to more specialised degrees once they find what they want.

This brings up an important point. If the UAI cutoff is indeed low for this new degree, it can be used as a transfer platform for ppl who could not get into the courses they wanted due to relatively low UAIs. There is a high chance of getting full (or almost) credit for 1st year studies when they apply for transfer in 2nd year. But I don't think that's the uni's intention though. I could be wrong.
 

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I actually started to look up this degree today, but I'm not sure. Its a bit like Liberal studies in the sense that you don't get a whole lot of freedom like you would in Arts, or Science, Or Arts/Science combined degree, and i guess thats what alot of people who do general degrees want out of them. But, if it does mean that Cut-offs for Arts and Science degrees slow, then I guess its a good thing. I mean, 85 for Arts at USYD is pretty high!
 

Super Pig

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Yes it is similar in favour to BLib. The difference is BLib is a 4-year degree and it's quite well-established. It requires one major in Arts and one major in Science, allowing plenty of scope for depth and specialisation. It also has advanced and international streams for higher achievers. B A&Sc on the other hand, is lacking in almost all of the above attributes (it may be possible to squezze in a 2nd major, but that would leave very little room for anything else). So it's pretty much like a squezzed version of BLib. I guess the cutoff will not be higher than that of BA and BSc, i.e. mid 80's the highest. Any predictions from you guys?
 

dogbacon

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If doing this degree, would you be difficult or possible to transfer to LibArts or Arts/Sci double degree? Or would you have more of a chance of just doing Arts and attempting to transfer from there?
 

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Of course it would be possible... The only issue to consider is whether you will be able to claim credit for the units that you have already taken once/if you transfer, so you should keep that in mind when finalising your preferences.
 

claudia_p

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In the SMH a few days ago it said that demand for this course was quite high.
 

stazi

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Depending on what I learn about it during the open day I may do it. I'll try to negotiate for less science credit points and more arts.
 

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