Is Mid-Year Entry difficult? (1 Viewer)

[ajn_sth_aust]

Hi!

I've been a member of Bored of Studies for some time, but this is my first post here.

I am considering applying for mid-year entry to the Bachelor of Journalism or Bachelor of Media Studies at La Trobe University (Melbourne campus).

What I would like to know is: is mid-year entry difficult?

I don't mean with regards to how difficult it is to gain admission, but instead is it harder in terms of adapting to university life by starting in mid-year rather than at the start of the academic year?

Does it mean that you are always 'out of the loop'?

Do many second-semester courses require you to have already completed the first-semester units of study in a particular subject?

Does it seriously affect the 'flow' of the degree?


Sorry, about so many questions and they're not exactly precisely worded, but I just wanted some general opinion on the experience of mid-year entry to university course.


Thanks in advance to anyone who answers!

 

[DTFM]

It's fine.

 

[ajdlinux]

I obviously don't have any experience here, but I think it would depend on the exact nature of the courses and the uni. At ANU we have Bush Week at the start of Semester 2 which I've heard is sort of O-week-ish and probably helps the mid-year entrants a bit.

As for prerequisites, my Science courses in Semester 2 have quite a few requirements because they continue on from the intro courses, but my Arts courses don't have any. You'd have to check with the exact courses you plan to do.

 

[DanielJW]

I started biomedical science at the midyear intake last year and i did pretty well that 1st semester (1HD, 3D).

You will most likely find a few scheduling problems, but they're usually minor.
Problems will mostly come from some units having prerequisite units and some units only being offered in semester 1 or semester 2. A simple shuffling of units solves these, i'm sure your uni will help you plan out your units.

for example:
My "Intro to pharmacology" unit had as a prerequisite that you had to have completed either "human structure and function" or "systems physiology".
So i couldn't take it. I simply switched it for another unit and will be taking it in semester 2 of this year instead.

Then there are some units where, while they don't have prerequisites, there is some assumed knowledge. For instance, you usually go
"human structure and function" --> "systems physiology",
but i went
"systems physiology" --> "human structure and function".

I found that when doing systems physiology, there was a few concepts and terms that were necessary, but weren't taught as it was assumed you would have learnt them in "human structure and function". But they were a minor thing and it was pretty easy to just look up any term that i didn't recognize.

Of course, it works the other way around too, now that i'm doing "human structure and function", it's assumed that i have no previous knowledge, when i do . Having already done "systems physiology" i'm finding this unit so darn easy. This will probably be the easiest HD i ever get .

At any rate, being a mid-year entry really doesn't change your uni experience that much. A few changes to your unit plan and you're good to go.

 

[t3ardr0p]

I started mid-year. A lot of walking around absent minded-ly, a lot of 'huh?' moments, but there was actually a lot more help for the mid year students then the normal ones... but then, i didn't really attend any of the orientation or anything. XD