Tertiary and Continuing Which degrees are useless/useful?

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A lot of the most prominent people in the world have law degrees, and that's coming from a guy who is anti-law degree. There's no doubting its utility.
 
Selective Retention said:
Doesn't help you much. I have 75 average from Monash and it's pretty much impossible to get anything in Finance/Economics. Well, outside of s**t sales jobs like financial planning and retail/business banking. I sort of wish I did accounting but then even that is similiar in that the easy jobs to get are in auditing and would be torture.
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What sort of job do you want?
 

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breeno said:
A lot of the most prominent people in the world have law degrees, and that's coming from a guy who is anti-law degree. There's no doubting its utility.
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Law degrees are important in structuring how you think.

Philosophy and English Lit. have similiar benefits.
 
Teffy said:
Law degrees are important in structuring how you think.

Philosophy and English Lit. have similiar benefits.
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Agree on Philosophy, but not so much English Lit. Unless it gets better in the 2nd and 3rd year?

However, for my original point - Law degrees are hard to get into, people who work hard get into such a degree. Not only is the workload heavier than most degrees, there is a higher standard of students compared to say a Philosophy or just Arts in general. As you said, it structures how you think, and due to all of these factors there is a high correlation between prominent contributors to society and those who study Law.

I'm not shooting down other courses, and I hate the fact that Law is some hoop people have to jump through these days; I'm merely addressing the person who suggested that people who study Law aren't likely to become prominent societal figures.
 
breeno said:
Agree on Philosophy, but not so much English Lit. Unless it gets better in the 2nd and 3rd year?

However, for my original point - Law degrees are hard to get into, people who work hard get into such a degree. Not only is the workload heavier than most degrees,
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Law degrees have a high workload? I've always been told the opposite; but then again, most people I discuss it with are fairly biased: we've been through science degrees, which are notorious for their hours.

I'm hoping to start a med degree next year, and terrified of the workload...especially for someone who's been lazy in the workforce for the last few years!
 
BomberGal said:
Law degrees have a high workload? I've always been told the opposite; but then again, most people I discuss it with are fairly biased: we've been through science degrees, which are notorious for their hours.

I'm hoping to start a med degree next year, and terrified of the workload...especially for someone who's been lazy in the workforce for the last few years!
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I've done a law degree and would say that workload is definitely perceived to be greater than it is.

It is true that law degrees are about developing a structured, analytical way of thinking in graduates. The actual content is of secondary importance. Some people obsess over reading every prescribed case or piece of set reading, but really a basic understanding of the content and knowledge of how to apply that content to a predictable set of facts is what's required.

The beauty of law, when contrasted with medicine, engineering or even maths-oriented commerce subjects is its subjectivity. You're never completely out of the game. With the other subjects, it's more black and white and thus requires a higher workload.

Things like nursing scare me with their workload (all the unpaid placement hours) whilst receiving little respect. Law is the opposite of this in my opinion.
 
BomberGal said:
Law degrees have a high workload? I've always been told the opposite; but then again, most people I discuss it with are fairly biased: we've been through science degrees, which are notorious for their hours.

I'm hoping to start a med degree next year, and terrified of the workload...especially for someone who's been lazy in the workforce for the last few years!
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Do it :thumbsu: There's a lot of graduate places around currently...the workload will hit fairly hard, lots of hours and much quicker than other degrees' teaching.
 
cartel said:
Do it :thumbsu: There's a lot of graduate places around currently...the workload will hit fairly hard, lots of hours and much quicker than other degrees' teaching.
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Oh, it's not about deciding - I'm in the application process at the moment, got good GAMSAT results, and recently invited for an interview. So will find out after that. :)

I know there's lots of hours and I anticipate a much higher workload and very fast learning will be required, but in terms of contact hours at least it's pretty similar to the degree I already did.

First semester should be easier but after that it'll be all new!
 
CNB1990 said:
I'm doing a Bachelor Of Arts at La Trobe. I find there are three steps you need to take *if you're doing a generalist degree* to make it significant.

1. When someone asks you what you're doing, don't say 'Arts'. I say

Bachelor of Humanities & Social Sciences - Shut's them right up.

When I mean 'them' I mean the idiots that ask 'oh can you draw?'
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I don't think that's good advice. You're completing an arts degree majoring in ...... There's no point in lying in the real world.
 
There's no such thing as a useless degree. For business positions I've recruited for (and applied for) it isn't always the content of the degree that matters. What does matter is that completing a degree is a form of evidence of learning to think and approach problems in different ways, and an ability to stick at things.
 
Ellis2WeightsRoom said:
An undergraduate science degree in most cases here in Australia isn't going to get you very far.

The US is a little more progressive in terms of R&D investment, therefore more scientists will be hired into the corporate sector.
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This.....unless you do Honours (or a PhD), you can forget about getting a decent with the exception of a DipEd. And even with an Honours degree, unless you are studying something like Geology/geophyics, environmental science (where there are a plethora of jobs) it will be very hard to get a good challenging job (which doesn't involve analyzing rock or soil samples)

I did a Chem/Geo major with hons in Geo. Put it this way, as a geo I can get a really good job, with the ability to one day become a manager etc. If I were to have done hons in Chem, I would be lucky to have a lab assistant job .........

This is really sad, as science is really important and quite interesting

Also wanted to agree with what nighttrain said, going to Uni, isn't always about what you studied, but rather the fact that you are willing to and can further your education
 

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BomberGal said:
Law degrees have a high workload? I've always been told the opposite; but then again, most people I discuss it with are fairly biased: we've been through science degrees, which are notorious for their hours.

I'm hoping to start a med degree next year, and terrified of the workload...especially for someone who's been lazy in the workforce for the last few years!
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Agree BomberGal, 16 hours of practicals a week, just for my Chem class....that was longer then some friends spent at uni total studying other degrees, and that was only one aspect of one course!!

Law degrees are only hard to get into because of the number of spots allocated to them vs the number of applicants. Like Med, physio, vet studies etc. You have 1000 people applying for 80 spots compared to 1000 people applying for the 500 spots available in a BSc or BA........Of course the Unis will always take the top 80 students as they take the top 500 for BA's and that's why the TERs (TEEs etc) are always higher. I honestly dont think that law would be harder then physics, but then I hate maths.
 
Contact hours don't mean anything. I know people doing Law with only 12 contact hours but they are doing 2-3 hours of reading every night.
 
BomberGal said:
I would offer a different perspective on this. Undergraduate science ANYWHERE in the world will not get you a science job. Science has two aspects: the theory, and the actual research component. All undergraduate science degrees can really teach you is the theory, and to consider a body of knowledge. Research is another thing altogether and I don't believe it can be taught in an undergraduate degree. Of course it requires postgraduate training (or at least the honours year) - learning how to be an efficient researcher is a long and difficult process. I've been in a lab four years now and really am still very much at the bottom of the 'how to do research' ladder. I get quite annoyed when people say a science degree is worthless: there is a HUGE dropout (of which I will soon be part, if I get into med), but it's the only way to be a scientist. And we need scientists.

Of course, the government won't give a ****ing penny so we can have more scientists, but that's another story...



Are/were you a law student? What are your contact hours?
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I think I have to better explain. What I meant was an Undergraduate science degree majoring in Geology (with no honours) WILL get you a job and a career, and quite a high-paying job at that. A lot of people in my year did not go on to complete their honours, and were scouted for jobs in the mining industry on 100k+ first year out....in fact I know of some people dropping out of 2nd year and finding employment, the desperation for geos was so great at the time.

I do agree with you when referring to Chem/Phys and Bio do you really need to pursue a PhD to get anywhere. But thats because most of these careers are research-based, whereas geology (and even environmental sciences) have non-research careers associated with them (I do very minimal "research" in my job)

But you are right, we do need scientists and I think this is what puts off a lot of people from continuing with it....the career prospects can be pretty poor....even an honours degree might only get you a job analyzing rock samples. I love chemistry, but I did not pursue a career with it because of this.

And "science" not as glamorous as studying medicine, law etc...
 
breeno said:
Contact hours don't mean anything. I know people doing Law with only 12 contact hours but they are doing 2-3 hours of reading every night.
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where are these people studying and what sort of grades are they getting?

i'm guessing melbourne uni and straight hds?
 
checkraiseulite said:
where are these people studying and what sort of grades are they getting?

i'm guessing melbourne uni and straight hd's?
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Couple at Melbourne, a couple at La Trobe.

Also know a guy who has done a science and a law degree - reckons that the law degree has more work involved despite having 10 or so less contact hours per week.
 
checkraiseulite said:
where are these people studying and what sort of grades are they getting?

i'm guessing melbourne uni and straight hd's?
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Most Law students I knew at Melbourne Uni were doing at least that much work, and very few got straight hd's.

The courses with high contact hours are often the easiest, because you don't take your work home with you, so to speak.
 
mdc said:
Most Law students I knew at Melbourne Uni were doing at least that much work, and very few got straight hd's.

The courses with high contact hours are often the easiest, because you don't take your work home with you, so to speak.
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Yepp! That's what I was trying to get across.
 
I'm a law student now. Contact hours are 3 per subject but that's nothing. It's all the work you must do outside of class. I have 5 assignments due over the next month. I'm in court roughly a day and a half for one of them for one of my reports. Not to mention the tutorial questions which take days to complete and the readings which go on forever.
 
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