How to apply for Honours/Masters!

I have so far told you about the pressures and crazies involved with honours, but if you have read The 12 stages of honours thesis and this one about the Thesis defence and are still keen to do your honours/masters.. well.. welcome! This is how you should go about applying!


First off, all Universities should have a list of requirements that you need to meet. Most forms you need can either be obtained via Student services or your University's website/portal. Check these out and anything you aren't sure about, ask someone! I did Honours but this process is similar for Masters (I checked with other Masters students).


I was pretty chummy with my course coordinator, so I had a chat to him about my concerns with the low mark I received in Pollution Biology (which I said was BS and got it reassessed) and if it would effect me getting in. He said there was no way I wasn't going to get in considering I had done a 3rd year project which got the highest mark in the University overall. He gave me the forms I needed to fill out also where to find them online. 


Now my main supervisor will tell you about how persistent I was. In my second year, I was already sussing out how to get in her good books (purely because she was the only marine biologist at the uni). By my 3rd year, I was asking her about possible 3rd year projects I could do (we have an option to not do an elected subject and replace it with a 3rd year project). She had an honours student who was in his final write up stages and did his sampling during peak tourism season. It was the end of spring so she said some extra data on the same sites he did would be interesting and the technique was simple enough, we learnt it in second year. This then lead on to my honours thesis and that guy who was doing his honours? Well he was my second supervisor! His paper just got accepted and I will definitely link it to the journal once it's published. My report version of my thesis should be available via DPI website soon, so when I find out I will link it.


This is all well and good if you are applying via your current uni, but "what if I am applying to a different university?" I hear you say. WELL! As I expected, go to that institutes website and search! They will have a general FAQ and requirements needed to meet. If you really hate your current uni you can do this, but it is much easier to apply within your institute. 


The process for mature age or external applications I actually have had experience in! After I finished highschool, in Victoria we have VTAC which does all the applying for courses for you. Yeah this sounds fantastic doesn't it? Well it's flawed. I am going to bold the next thing I am going to say to you because it's insanely important.

If you did not get into a course which you think you should have, call up that university and ask them why. They may not have gotten your application in the first place 

Did you read that? Well read it again! I was so appalled that I didn't get an acceptance letter so I called them up demanding an explanation. After talking to the course coordinator, he couldn't understand why I wasn't accepted either. I called up VTAC and their response? "Sorry but it looks like there was a computer glitch when we were submitting your application. There is nothing we can do, better luck next year". Yeah that happened. I had to apply as a mature age student which is how I got the experience. You would be surprised how many people I have told this to, who then proceeded to call the institute and found out the same thing had happened to them.


SO, if you are applying externally anything extra can help! Work experience related to that field, volunteering can all help with them wanting you. This only really works for undergrad courses, after doing a quick search through most of the Australian universities, most of them just want to know your academic record. Speak to whoever is in charge of that department before applying, whether or not they tell you to. Speaking to them means they now know your name and when they are sifting through all the applications they are going to remember the extra effort you did to get in. Also you can get an idea of various areas/projects available. 


Fortunately some courses offer the honours qualification if you did awesome in your undergrad. It's the same thing. With Masters I know if you go the thesis route it is similar to Honours but a bit more hectic. You need to submit detailed dated plans for EVERYTHING. Also because it is 2 years long, they ask for an updated plan. There is a lot more structure and strict rules, the standard of work is higher than honours. Get a scholarship if you can, you get paid to study. 


My boyfriend is doing his Masters currently, but he is doing it via course work. He had an application which was "tick a box to do masters". This is specific to his Engineering course at Melbourne University. His first year of Masters, he did 4 subjects per semester as normal. His second year involves him still doing 3 subjects as normal, then a final year project. I can tell you it slightly annoys me that he gets a higher qualification for doing course work. But he has to do a group project which involves him getting an insane amount of phone calls every day causing him to face palm making this heavily circulated pie chart relevant to him.

I can't express how important it is to talk to your lecturers and coordinators to help you figure out how to get into further study. Every uni is different. Don't leave it until the last minute. Now read that bold line again.