what career path to choose…

ahh I’m in year 11 now and I’m already torn between doing Material/ Chemical Engineering and doing a design course at COFA 🙁

yeah I know, COFA is such a cool place, it’s got good courses but they require fairly high ATARs so I’ve kind stayed away from that haha – what’s material/chemical engineering about?

haha I’m currently doing 5 units of artsy kinds of subjects so COFA seems the way to go.
Material/Chemical engineering it like developing special materials for specific purposes e.g. fuels, alloys etc. to me it’s like chemistry and innovation rolled into one! 🙂 But you need an ATAR of over 98 to get into that course at UNSW

I was exactly the same as you – had no idea what i wanted to do so that made it hard to aim for something. My mum told me to go through the UAC guide and write down every course that even vaguely interests me then go from there. In highschool I studies visual arts, modern history, Related English (no idea what that is called now) as well as 3U maths and chemistry. I always thought that i was more artsy fartsy but knew that i wasnt talented enough to be a professional artist. When i went through the UAC guide i ended up writing down about 20 different course and to my absolute shock, every single one of them was a science degree. I had no idea I was that way inclined! So i ended up doing a bachelor of biomedical science, then went on to do an honours degree and loved that so much so I did my PhD…turns out that i really like science!

ahh I’m in year 11 now and I’m already torn between doing Material/ Chemical Engineering and doing a design course at COFA 🙁

yeah I know, COFA is such a cool place, it’s got good courses but they require fairly high ATARs so I’ve kind stayed away from that haha – what’s material/chemical engineering about?

If you love photography don’t discount that as a career just because it’s not always a goldmine. Do a career that can correspond with that. For example, one of my friends in the UK wanted to be a photographer so she 1, did an arts degree and then got her airhostess license or whatever you need to be a airhostess and also got some certificate as a tourist guide. She’s got 3 jobs that don’t collide and on trips she’s always gots her camera and sometimes can make a few extra thousand a trip on selling prints. I know 3 jobs may seem nuts but she’s still got a heavy social life and time for her family.

Photography is such a versatile side profession and could work with whatever else you wanted to do so what else are you interested in?

she sounds really cool, being able to handle all these different things and still balance out the social life, I envy people like that ridiculously much. Yeah I’ve really thought about photography, I even sent an enquiry to SCA (sydney college of arts) and asked if i could do a master of documentary photography there after I do a Bachelor of Fine Arts at COFA and they said it would be fine, but I’m just worried I’ll end up regretting it because there’s other things I like and they might get me a job easier/faster.

I’m fairly interested in industrial design so I’ve been looking at the bachelor of that at UTS which sounds pretty good, since 82.20 seems achievable and it seems really interesting and fun

If this will make you feel any better:
I finished year 12 with straight A’s. I had no idea what I wanted to do, so I started a Bachelor of Arts (a bit of everything). I then decided I wanted to do forensics, so I changed uni’s and started a Bachelor of Applied Science. Discovering that uni took all the fun out of science, I quit that degree and spent a few months last year doing a Cert. via online TAFE in I.T… but then I found that just so boring. So I then decided I wanted to do a bachelor of physiotherapy at a small uni nearby (which I had wanted to go to when I left school, but none of their courses appealed to me… until they introduced physio), but I couldn’t get into physio coz I hadn’t done biology at school. So this year I’m doing a Bachelor of Exercise Science, to get the credits to change over to physio next year.
But now I’m starting to like Exercise science, so I might just stay here yet… And I’d like to point out that I’ve never been much of an exercise person.
So, this is my 4th year out of school, some of my friends have finished their 3 year Bachelor degrees, and I’m just starting another one…. Hahahaha!!! I hope this makes you feel better. I think it’s so silly for people to have to decide their career/life paths when they’re just 16 or 17. When I was in year 12 I was so focused on getting good grades, I didn’t even think about what to do after school, so I was a little lost for a while 😛

hahaha oh my gosh, i laughed so many times at this story, gosh i’m actually lost for words, it’s quite amazing how many different things you wanted to do, and it doesn’t seem like you’ve even decided on this one but hey we’ll see 🙂 I think it’s great that you had these options though, its much better than sticking to a course that you’d disagree with for the rest of your life, so I guess you’ve made many right choices

and yes it did make me feel much much better 🙂 thank you 🙂

ahh I’m in year 11 now and I’m already torn between doing Material/ Chemical Engineering and doing a design course at COFA 🙁

If you love photography don’t discount that as a career just because it’s not always a goldmine. Do a career that can correspond with that. For example, one of my friends in the UK wanted to be a photographer so she 1, did an arts degree and then got her airhostess license or whatever you need to be a airhostess and also got some certificate as a tourist guide. She’s got 3 jobs that don’t collide and on trips she’s always gots her camera and sometimes can make a few extra thousand a trip on selling prints. I know 3 jobs may seem nuts but she’s still got a heavy social life and time for her family.

Photography is such a versatile side profession and could work with whatever else you wanted to do so what else are you interested in?

If this will make you feel any better:
I finished year 12 with straight A’s. I had no idea what I wanted to do, so I started a Bachelor of Arts (a bit of everything). I then decided I wanted to do forensics, so I changed uni’s and started a Bachelor of Applied Science. Discovering that uni took all the fun out of science, I quit that degree and spent a few months last year doing a Cert. via online TAFE in I.T… but then I found that just so boring. So I then decided I wanted to do a bachelor of physiotherapy at a small uni nearby (which I had wanted to go to when I left school, but none of their courses appealed to me… until they introduced physio), but I couldn’t get into physio coz I hadn’t done biology at school. So this year I’m doing a Bachelor of Exercise Science, to get the credits to change over to physio next year.
But now I’m starting to like Exercise science, so I might just stay here yet… And I’d like to point out that I’ve never been much of an exercise person.
So, this is my 4th year out of school, some of my friends have finished their 3 year Bachelor degrees, and I’m just starting another one…. Hahahaha!!! I hope this makes you feel better. I think it’s so silly for people to have to decide their career/life paths when they’re just 16 or 17. When I was in year 12 I was so focused on getting good grades, I didn’t even think about what to do after school, so I was a little lost for a while 😛

My advice is to follow your heart and do what interests you no matter how hard you think it may be right now. As an example, I always wanted to go to law school but I didn’t get a high enough score in yr12 because where I live you needed at least a 96 to even be considered….but I didn’t let that stop me from pursuing the career that I always dreamed of. I just went to tafe, then got into uni and got into law school that way & finished my degree 1 year later than all my friends. The moral of my story is that nothing is too hard to reach if you have your sights on it and work hard to get where you want to go. So if you want to be a designer, go for it and if you don’t get into UNSW straight away then do another (preferably related) course to help you get in later.

Good luck with your studies, and remember that it is not the end of the world if things do not turn out the way you want first time around. You are young and you have plenty of chances to make things happen 🙂 xoxo

thank you MsBilliLilli for your advice. Yeah I think it’s just better for me to do what I can now but also realise that there are going to be so many options and opportunities for me at the end of this year so I can just hope to do my best and make my way to what I want to do, and yes you’re right nothing is too difficult, so I guess I’ll have to produce my own results and make my own luck 🙂 thank you again for your great advice and story, it was very motivational and helpful

My advice is to follow your heart and do what interests you no matter how hard you think it may be right now. As an example, I always wanted to go to law school but I didn’t get a high enough score in yr12 because where I live you needed at least a 96 to even be considered….but I didn’t let that stop me from pursuing the career that I always dreamed of. I just went to tafe, then got into uni and got into law school that way & finished my degree 1 year later than all my friends. The moral of my story is that nothing is too hard to reach if you have your sights on it and work hard to get where you want to go. So if you want to be a designer, go for it and if you don’t get into UNSW straight away then do another (preferably related) course to help you get in later.

Good luck with your studies, and remember that it is not the end of the world if things do not turn out the way you want first time around. You are young and you have plenty of chances to make things happen 🙂 xoxo