For the last time, I am NOT taking up Environmental Science
For the last few weeks, I am growing to hate answering one particular question – “What course are you taking?”
For people who are taking, say, engineering or science this is no biggie. Not for me, though — coz each and every time I tell people I am an Environments student, they’d be thinking that I am an Environmental Science student, which is so not true. Being a person who would like to major in a design-related field, it’s been increasingly hard to just let this misconception pass.
For those who are ignorant about what Bachelor of Environments is, here’s the 411:
– students who take it are not a bunch of tree-hugging, environmental-loving people; sure a few would be like that but many are not
– it is under 4 faculties: Architecture, Building and Planning; Engineering; Science; Land Food and Resources
– the ABP faculty serves as the “caretaker” of this course
– as you can see from above, it is definitely not just for those Environmentally-inclined; sure we have the choice to major in something quite related to Environmental Science but we could also do Architecture or Civil Systems (Engineering) among other things
Well, now that that is out of the way, I could move on to better things. It was my free day yesterday! Yey! So what do I do during my free day? 1. Answer online test for my core subject 2. Went to the dentist to have my chipped tooth taken cared of 3. Went to the International Night Market in Uni tonight with my cell goup. Anyone else went there? I had this sticky/gelatinous cube desserts which were really, really good and so colourful— worth the 5 bucks I paid for them. Christian Union did churros, is that right? Because the market tent was just so packed, I wasn’t able to go to their stall. I also went to an evening talk titled “The Problem with Christianity”. Quite a mind-blowing talk. The speaker was good. His ideas are just so radical, in a way; made me ponder about stuff—especially about cats and dogs. Go figure.
On the academic side of things, I have one heck of a mixed bag that I dunno anymore how I am really doing with my subjects. One week I get relatively good to good marks, the next I’ll be downgraded to 60%. That last one has gotten me pretty upset Thursday afternoon, not because of the relatively low mark per se, but because I’ve spent the entire week 4 doing it to the point that I had a relapse of fever at the end of the week because of plain lack of sleep. Phooey. This is a good reminder that a student’s health should always be prioritised over academics.
Oh, and this week was the first week I’ve skipped one of my lectures. It wasn’t entirely my fault really. My bus and train route decided to be both dodgy on Monday, when I was supposed to be having a 9am lecture. I arrived in campus around 9:40, and I just decided that it’s not really worth it to hurry to some theatre just to hear 10-15 minutes’ worth of lecture.
That’s it for me… keep dreaming large people 🙂
I went to the night market after my Tango class, not realising it was mostly for International Students. Hence me wondering if I’d somehow been transported to Hong Kong or something. Bizarre.
Anyway your course sounds pretty cool. Does any part of it involve Urban Planning? That’s something that’s always fascinated me.
And yeah, that cliches question annoys me too… I like to throw people by asking something huge like “so what’s your story?” or “tell me about yourself”.
Oohh that must be a pain. Is it because people are unfamiliar with the Melbourne Model or something? If my memory serves me correctly Environments was a new course this year right? But yeah, I know a few people in doing Environments and there’s no way they’re tree huggers heh.
And I missed a lecture too this week! (Not my first though, second… tsk tsk. :P) My excuse was that I was halfway to uni when I realised that I had an assignment due at 12pm that day which I hadn’t brought with me. Had to go all the way home, then my train back to uni was cancelled… and so on. Lesson learnt: audio streaming lectures is a pain. It took me two hours to go through the one hour lecture… ugh.
Hey, I just joined this blog but don’t know how to actually post one up. Maybe u could give some advice? This “WprdPress” thing is confusing. I’m an Environments person as well and planning to a major in Environmental Engineering. Thanks
So if your course falls under 4 facutlies, does this mean you have heaps more subjects to pick from, in completely different fields, without it taking up your breadth subject space? I’m curious because I was one of those people who had no idea about ‘environments’ as a bachelor. My bad!
Hey there. I’m currently in year 12. I love reading this blog, uni seems so interesting!! I can’t wait to go next year. I recently when to this Access Melbourne Day and I now want to go to Melbourne uni so badly. I’m in love with everything!! The shops, the people, the facilities especially the libary, gym and rowing club!! However I’m not doing Maths Methods, which means I have no chance of getting into Commerce here! 🙁 I wish there was some way around it!!
To Sebastian: wh..uh? Did you just say “after [your] Tango class”?? As in the dancing sort? Wow. Anyways, my amazement aside (being a person with 2 left feet), yup my course could involve some Urban Planning coz one of the possible majors is urban design, which I am considering taking. And yeah, the night market did seem like Hong Kong at night— seems like there were a dozen people per square metre in Union Court. All you need is neon lights and voila! you’ll have a mini Asia downunder.
To Sara_: hmm.. that might be one of the major reasons (if not The only reason) for the whole Environments misconception. It is the 1st time this year that Environments is offered
To tesh: Engineering.. so you’re doing calculus and trig(?) as breadth then?
To SarahM: coz I’m still in first year, I can only choose from 8 subjects, all ending with the word Environments, for this year. However, I can choose my electives, which should be unrelated to my future major, from any of the 4 faculties later on. The disadvantage for this year is that for those of us who already know what we want to do, we end up taking subjects which are meant to give us a “wholistic” and “balanced” education. Translation: I end up taking subjects that I’m normally not interested in, e.g. those that are related to geology, economics, meteorology, environmentalism, etc. coz specialised subjects aren’t available till 2nd sem next year. Result: My breadth subject ends up being my most interesting and strongest subject
Righto! Yea that sounds a bit like why I decided not to do Biomed, because I don’t want to do physics! And I can do the exact subjects I want in Science anyway. It sounds like you will get to where you want to go anyway. Thankyou for enlightening me!