The original thread for context
Damn AN looks different…
It has been over a year and a half since my last update - and honestly, a long time since I last logged on. Now out of uni (yes, I've graduated!), I'm coming back for one final update to reflect upon my entire BA journey with 20/20 hindsight. This is honestly more of an update just for myself I guess, to finally close off that chapter.
Uni went by way too quickly. It has been over eight months since I attended my last lecture, completed my last exam, submitted my last essay. Part of me regrets finishing off my degree in 3 years. It still doesn't feel real.
Honestly, I'm not too sure how to end this thread, so I thought I might as well revisit the BA degree review I wrote on AN back in first year and make some amendments, because amendments are certainly necessary.
Name of degree / qualification: Bachelor of Arts, major in Economics, minor in History (in my last update I said I dropped history... I ended up picking it back up again)
Institution: University of Melbourne
Course duration: 3 years full time
Progress: Completed
Contact hours: Generally 2.5 to 3 hours per week per subject (for standard arts subjects).
Class structure:
That awkward moment when you read back on what you wrote in first year and realised you completely misunderstood the prompt and talked about course structure instead.
Arts classes are generally quite theoretical and involves a lot of in-class discussion during tutorials. Lectures can be less interactive but depending on the subject coordinator, you could still have some very insightful debates during them (for politics students - Clayton Chin's lectures are amazing)
Assessments/exams:
Most arts assessments are essay-based and add up to 4,000 words in total. This generally includes a research essay (2,000 words for first & second year subjects, 2,500 for third years) and two shorter essays.
Networking/opportunities:
I am absolutely rolling at what I wrote here back in first year. "Join MASS for gReAT nEtwOrkiNG opPoRtuNitiES" oh my lord, bless my jaffy heart. There are really great faculty clubs but most of them are focused on social events, not professional development.
Instead, commerce clubs was what I found to be the most helpful. They aren't for everyone but are definitely worth checking out if you're into that sort of thing.
As for general arts related networking, I recommend skipping clubs and societies and grab a coffee with your tutors and lecturers instead.
Friends/Social:
This is where MASS shines. Arts camp is absolutely fantastic and they also run a number of other events throughout the year. One thing to note is that you don't have to be a student of the faculty to go to that faculty's event (generally), so it's also worth checking out social events by SSS and CSS.
Any surprises?
I really want to address the "arts is not employable" stigma. I will admit that most people I know doing arts are not going straight into the workforce after they graduate, but are rather doing honours or postgrad. But that is because the careers they are aiming for require or at least highly recommend these qualifications. Thinking arts is merely the degree to do when you don't know what to do with your life couldn't be more wrong.
I went into my arts degree wanting to be a teacher because everyone told me that was the only viable career option. But that couldn't be further from the truth. There are literally so many options, and I wish I was aware of this before I started uni. I wasted so much of first year being boxed into the teaching path without looking at other options, as I didn't know other options existed.
That pretty much ends this thread... except there is one thing I still need to get off my chest. I loved my degree and my uni. That said, I don't want to portray my degree through rose tinted glasses and act as if every criticism against arts is unfounded. I would not hesitate to defend arts degrees when people call it useless, unemployable, or a waste of time, effort and money, but I also cannot ignore that the stereotype partially stems from truth. Now having graduated, I want to give (as much as possible) my unbiased thoughts on the Bachelor of Arts, particularly at the University of Melbourne.
A humanities student's brutally honest thoughts on BA
I personally believe that arts is one of the most employable degrees out there (yes you read that right, no you're not having a brain aneurysm). Just not the way UniMelb is teaching it, where there is hardly any focus on connecting students with the industry outside of academia and each assessment feels like JSTOR 101.
Credit where it's due, they have made efforts to connect us with the world beyond academia, though efforts have been laughably poor. Allow me to introduce to you the "Job Ready" program by the Faculty of Arts, where every year, students can attend a series of talks that prepares them for the workforce. In one event, they invited a few alumni to come speak to us. Where are the alumni from? Deloitte and AustralianSuper. Oh please. If I wanted to hear from Deloitte and AustralianSuper, I could've attended any event held by the commerce faculty or one of their 20 clubs. As arts students, we want to hear how people used their arts degree and succeeded in areas relevant to their fields. The uni insists arts is worth studying, but then give us ""success stories"" of people who studied arts, couldn't find a job with it, then went back to uni to study something completely different. I found it frustratingly ironic coming from an event made by the arts faculty for arts students.
In my final semester, I attended a number of events from both the Arts and Commerce faculties, and the culture difference between the two is seriously striking in a worrying way. In the FBE, the vibes are very much "embrace the grind and you can do anything" type of feel. They really motivate you and push you to aim high. Of course, commerce has problems of its own, but that's not what I'm here to talk about. The point is, it's such a stark contrast to what goes on in arts.
Here's the general vibe in Arts, which is that we are highly intelligent but tragically misunderstood. At each event, the talks we were given were all variations of "I know the world outside of uni seems scary and you probably won't find a job but at least you can think critically and say you have soft skills".
I grew incredibly frustrated by this towards the end. I found that the Arts faculty has an underlying sense of arrogance which stops any improvement from happening. We see ourselves as highly intelligent and capable critical thinkers with superior soft skills who cannot find jobs in our fields because the system is against us. Because the world only cares about STEM. Because wE LiVE iN a sOciEtY. If you can't find a job, blame others.
In the final weeks of uni, I had attended a student consultation session which was advertised as a way for graduating arts students to provide feedback on the faculty. The one-hour session spent 40 minutes parroting the message above - the same message we've been fed from day 1, 10 minutes in break out rooms where students discussed our "feedback" among ourselves, and less than 5 minutes reporting back actual feedback to the organisers.
One of my friends once said, "if I had a dollar for every time we were told we have critical thinking skills, I would've paid back my HECS by now".
The way they drill the 'critical thinking' message into everyone's heads makes you wonder whether the faculty staff somehow thinks that STEM students are robots who pump out maths equations and can't think critically.
It is indeed ironic that, for a faculty which prides itself in critical thinking, we can really be trapped in an echo chamber of refusing to see what parts of Arts need to change.
Here's the truth: Arts is an incredibly valuable degree that is 100% worth studying. But make sure you use it right.
There's this YouTube channel which reviews degrees and majors, and once he made a video titled "Is a History Degree Worth It?"
His opinion? Absolutely not.
(Watch the video only if you have excessive brain cells you want to lose)
Being the die hard humanities student, I commented a long as rant which no doubt is buried in the comments section now, but this was my response. Copy-pasting it here because I am currently too cooked to re-articulate my opinion. I wrote it from a history perspective but it applies to most arts majors broadly too.
Most people don't study history with the INTENTION of becoming a historian, like how most maths students don't study it to become a mathematician.
History is inherently different to vocational fields like nursing and teaching where the degree to employment pipeline is clearly mapped out for you. This gives off the illusion that history is unemployable as most students don't end up in a job 100% related to their degree.
When a history major goes into another field, people see this as "oh look, they couldn't find a job in history" when in fact, it should be "look how history opens so many doors!"
My advice to history students is to keep an open mind. Many are too adamant about getting a "history-related job" to see opportunities beyond museum curating/archiving/teaching etc. Your history major is very valuable, but make sure you use it right.
Bottom line: I would still choose Arts over anything else in a heartbeat if you rewind the clock. There is something special about Arts which you don't (commonly) find in other degrees - the passion students have for each subject (how often do you hear a someone preaching their love for corporate finance?). Arts is an amazing, rewarding degree which would be an incredible asset if you have the right approach.
Well that was an excessively long conclusion. It has been 8 months since I graduated and 7 months since I started my first job in an economics/public policy graduate program. I am starting a new role on Monday - also in the space of public policy. I'm more than happy to answer any questions from current/prospective arts students. With the start of semester 2 at uni, I wish all the uni students reading this good luck with your new semester!
