Trouble Deciding Major & Minor (1 Viewer)

[*rUsTy*]

I'm doing the BA/DipEd this year and I'm having trouble deciding whether or not I should major in English and minor in Ancient History or vice versa. I don't know if I can change my mind once I've started maybe that's possible.

I just wanted to hear from some students who have done it or are doing it and see what their thoughts were. In school, English was my favourite subject but I did better in Ancient History in the HSC (thanks to the awsome teacher I had). I have a feeling History would be cool to learn about as I'm pretty interested in it and think it'd be fun to teach. English is just something I always enjoyed when all my friends dreaded it.

I took a look at the units and the English ones didn't seem very appealing to me for some reason. I have to admit I'm not the biggest reader of books, don't know if that's a bad sign or not.

At the end of the day, I'll be teaching to a syllabus anyway.

Just some advice would be great. I hear that Mac has a great Ancient History department as well, can anyone vouch for that? Which subject has the better units? Which one is harder? Cheers.

 

[AsyLum]

You'll find that its probably harder to major in English than in Ancient, as English has a pretty concrete set of 'core' units for you to major in, that's why most people suggest majoring in it when doing the English/Ancient combo.

I was thinking of doing it, but there were far too many English units I just didn't want to touch so I ended up majoring in Ancient/Modern History and minoring in Society and Culture (already did a Media degree). I'm majoring in Roman history mainly, and touching up on the general Mod His stuff this year. I've loved all the Roman units, most of my friends have also done some history, and they've enjoyed the majority of them, even if they were a little challenging, so I've felt vindicated by my choice in a major.

Ultimately, from what I've seen from my own friends now teaching, if schools are short on staff in a specific field, they won't hesitate to get those without 'training' in that field to teach it anyway, so I don't think you'd be too disadvantaged by it all.

 

[*rUsTy*]

Cool... thanks for that. I just want to be a little more prepared for Enrolment Day and firgued I should try and make up my mind.

Still undecided... I had no idea you could do Society and Culture, I just came from studying journalism so that might be something to consider.

As for that last thing you said, I guess that's true. As soon as you're in the system they could get you to teach whatever they want you to basically.

I just hope the Academic Advice is actually helpful because at the moment it's a bit overwhelming lol.

 

[AsyLum]

Cool... thanks for that. I just want to be a little more prepared for Enrolment Day and firgued I should try and make up my mind.

Still undecided... I had no idea you could do Society and Culture, I just came from studying journalism so that might be something to consider.

As for that last thing you said, I guess that's true. As soon as you're in the system they could get you to teach whatever they want you to basically.

I just hope the Academic Advice is actually helpful because at the moment it's a bit overwhelming lol.

*thumbs up* Yeah I'm still a little daunted by all the requirements in teaching degrees, lots of little hoops to jump through. Which area of ancient are you interested in btw? Can give you a better run down of the subjects that way

 

[*rUsTy*]

Pretty interested in Egyptian history and also Roman.

 

[ac91]

Hey you can change it.
I am going to minor in english and major in history.
in english 1st semester you only have to do approaches to english literature and in semester 2 you have to do childrens literature.

In the following years I know you have to do linguistics and tep english but I don't think there are any other compulsory subjects. You just have to do english subjects to make a minor.

 

[ac91]

You'll find that its probably harder to major in English than in Ancient, as English has a pretty concrete set of 'core' units for you to major in, that's why most people suggest majoring in it when doing the English/Ancient combo.

I was thinking of doing it, but there were far too many English units I just didn't want to touch so I ended up majoring in Ancient/Modern History and minoring in Society and Culture (already did a Media degree). I'm majoring in Roman history mainly, and touching up on the general Mod His stuff this year. I've loved all the Roman units, most of my friends have also done some history, and they've enjoyed the majority of them, even if they were a little challenging, so I've felt vindicated by my choice in a major.

Ultimately, from what I've seen from my own friends now teaching, if schools are short on staff in a specific field, they won't hesitate to get those without 'training' in that field to teach it anyway, so I don't think you'd be too disadvantaged by it all.

hey I was just wondering what you meant by subjects i didnt want to touch is this like the compulsory subjects of childrens literature, approaches to english literature ,linguistics, tep and stuff or something else??

 

[*rUsTy*]

Thanks for that ac91. I'm thinking of majoring in History and minor in English as well.

How many units are you doing in first semester? 4? Also, I know that for the major it needs to be 24 CP's, what about the minor? How do you know which units are compulsary for the minor and major?

Ah, so confusing. I'm trying to find all the info but this degree seems complicated. There's the Education units then your major and minor and I don't know what to pick lol. I just want to be prepared for my Enrolment/Academic Advising Day.

 

[ac91]

Oh I already had my enrolment yesterday.

you need 18 cp in a minor so I'm doing them in english.

I'm doing 4 units because thats what they advised us all to do yesterday 1 in history 1 in english 1 in edu and 1 in sociology.

You do edu105 in sem 1 and edu106 in sem 2.

You get a book there that tells you.

I had a look for you in english you must do;

approaches to english literature, linguistics, tep english in year 4 and a study of literature.

For ancient history you have to do just 24 cp in ancient history.

 

[*rUsTy*]

Ah excellent. Sociology is interesting, didn't occur to me that they'd reccomend that. Cool, thanks again.

I think I've decided to major in Egypt and Near East rather than Greece/Rome. It was a tough choice. Unless Asylum, you have some stuff to say about Roman history that could swing me towards it lol. I think both would be interesting in their own right.

 

[ac91]

They don't tell you to do sociology lol.
They tell you that you can pick some electives for cp's.

 

[*rUsTy*]

Oh right cool

Just realised if I pick Egypt and Near East I might have to learn Hieroglyphs *gulp* hope it isn't too hard! lol Migh be fun though.

 

[-may-cat-]

Oh right cool

Just realised if I pick Egypt and Near East I might have to learn Hieroglyphs *gulp* hope it isn't too hard! lol Migh be fun though.

You should be able to get along without hieroglyphs so long as you don't plan to do anything post-grad. btw i do recommend at least taking AHST103 Rome: Republic to Empire (not sure what the new unit code is), it truly is a kickass unit and if you're lucky you'll get Tom Hillard as a lecturer, one of the best lecturers I've had.

 

[*rUsTy*]

Oh so I could do that even though it's not part of my planned major? That's cool, I might look into that.

 

[-may-cat-]

Oh so I could do that even though it's not part of my planned major? That's cool, I might look into that.

sure, you just take it as an elective