Early this year I made the decision to go back to study. The goal was to attend university for the very first time and complete a Bachelor of Arts. Knowing it was rather late in the enrolment process I checked Monash Uni’s website fairly thoroughly and emailed through a question. The answer duly came back that I’d have to complete two units. Nowhere did they happen to use the magic words ‘units at uni’ and I just assumed they meant year 12 units.
So, as the next day just happened to be enrolment day at CAE where I’ve studied before I trundled along there, filled in all the forms and spoke to someone who knew what they were doing, she did me the courtesy of listening to why I was choosing English Language and English before telling me I should be enrolling for the Professional Writing and Editing course instead but she was being selfish and keeping me there for their classes.
Imagine how I felt having someone tell me I should be doing something else but they wanted me there instead. She also wanted me to sign up for her experimental class but I chose to continue with my selection.
I’ve been doing reasonably well, I thought I needed 60% for uni and I think I’m going to get there with English Language despite its challenges, but I’m doing even better with English and I’m going to be getting something better but I’m not sure what as my marks vary between 70% and 90%.
Cut to August for the university open days and I’m actually at Monash Uni talking to someone when I realise I needed to do uni units rather than VCE units. I’m realising the value in open days, you get to attend, look at as many courses as possible that you might possibly be interested in and everyone you need to talk to is there at the one time. Why do I say that? I only looked at the BA at Monash and now I need to go back and see if they have the Writing and Editing course. It’s a good idea to compare like with like at different studying places.
I’ve also been to Melbourne Uni and RMIT. Melbourne Uni is out for me as I just wasn’t enthused by the selections there, also they’re very selective and I’m nowhere near the criteria they want. RMIT is very probable, they have two courses to do with Communication and writing, one is only one year (Diploma of Professional Writing and Editing (Business)) and they reckon I’m definitely in, I just have to write 1,500 words in one to three files and they’ll snap me up. The other is three years (Associate Degree in Professional Writing and Editing) and I’m not eligible as I’m currently doing year 12 subjects, but once I’ve done the first one I can transfer across.
Once I’ve done the three year course at RMIT I can then transfer to a BA at Monash. Why do I want to study at Monash? Besides the location, I really don’t have an answer. I am leaning towards the one year at RMIT as it’s really tempting to be job ready in only one year. The course is amazing and formalises many of the things I’ve been doing over the past few years, but then the three year course does also.
The big question. Do I feel I’ve wasted my year? I want to say ‘yes’ but the answer is ‘no’. I’ve got so much from these two subjects, I’ve found I really do love writing and I do have some sort of talent, maybe not enough to be a published author but I’ll settle for helping other people along their journeys and am just waiting for a friend to finish his second book so I can proofread that before it gets published. I’ve met some lovely people and time out of the house studying is always a good thing.