[Maerzin]

I've been thinking of switching to a joint honours (archaeology and anthropology from single hon. anthropology) and was wondering what the experience of people pursuing or who have finished a joint honours degree has been? I'm specifically interested in joint honours in which both the subjects are from different departments.

I've been reading a lot about how single honours students are given preferential treatment by either department and joint honours students are often left out of important mailing lists, extra information about workshops, get their module results later, etc. Is there any truth to this at UoM?

[tillytots]

Are you already at the university?



Also, I don't think any if that is true really. Results are released at the same time for everyone in the given course. If anything, at oeast within my dept. joint honours is encouraged.

[Maerzin]

(Original post by tillytots)
Are you already at the university?

Also, I don't think any if that is true really. Results are released at the same time for everyone in the given course. If anything, at oeast within my dept. joint honours is encouraged.

Nope, gonna start this fall.

I guess a program within the department would be different. The main issue I've heard being raised is that the departments don't co-ordinate and give preference to students in their department. I hope it's not true though.

How do you find the program by the way? Is it hard switching between the two subjects constantly?

[fretter778]

I did Biology and French this year, so two different departments. I'm not doing it next year though mainly because the French takes up too much time but also because of the following reasons:

- Because I only do one 20 credit module from the language school, everybody else who does pure French (or French + another language) will progress much faster and I'll quickly be left behind in the years to come. In fact it's already happened this year. Everybody else did a 1st semester phonetics module which I had no option to do, come second semester oral classes everybody was expected to know how to write words in the phonetic transcriptions, leaving me to sit clueless. Of course I could go learning all the symbols myself, but I have far too much to do for the biology side of things to be concerned about that. Having said that, French is a progressive skill and not just a subject like arch/anth.

- There really is a lack of communication between the faculties. On the first day when I had to go and sort out when my language classes are, I had no idea where to go. I stumbled across the MFL office and was told everybody got sent an email telling us when we have to go. Of course I hadn't received it (or any information before starting uni from them) and only starting getting emails after I'd enrolled with them. I've had numerous other issues to do with French (for example my lessons not coming up on Blackboard meaning when the timetables and rooms changed I've had to keep going to the office, the intranet saying I'm down for too many credits) and each time they just blindly blamed the Life Sciences department when each time the matter has had to be resolved by MFL.


I'll say again though, my example is a little extreme so your experience with archaeology and anthropology could work fine. It all just depends on the faculties and the structure of your dual honours degree.

[Aquinas]

I do Politics and Modern History and as far as I'm aware, the communication between the two faculties is pretty good and we've been told by our academic advisor that they're working on making it better. I get regular e-mails from the Politics and History faculties and I don't think we're left out from any mailing lists etc. Our course is one of the oldest History and Politics courses around though so that could be a reason why it works pretty well. Archaeology and Anthropology sound like they'd work well together too.

[ancientone]

There are many joint honours courses at the uni and arch and anth is a well established and respected one. Students I know on the course seem to enjoy the challenge, and both departments are within the same school in the uni. As far as I'm aware there's not been any complaints about being favoured less than single honours students.

[Maerzin]

(Original post by fretter778)
It all just depends on the faculties and the structure of your dual honours degree.

I don't know what you mean about structure but the thing about faculties makes sense, I guess. Did you have any problem dropping French or is it fairly hard to switch back to single honours?

(Original post by Aquinas)
I do Politics and Modern History and as far as I'm aware, the communication between the two faculties is pretty good and we've been told by our academic advisor that they're working on making it better. I get regular e-mails from the Politics and History faculties and I don't think we're left out from any mailing lists etc. Our course is one of the oldest History and Politics courses around though so that could be a reason why it works pretty well. Archaeology and Anthropology sound like they'd work well together too.

That's good to hear. You're also doing a program in the School of Arts and School of Social Sciences so I guess it gives me an idea about the co-ordination between those two schools.

Would you say joint honours is a bit harder even though we do the same amount of credits?

(Original post by ancientone)
There are many joint honours courses at the uni and arch and anth is a well established and respected one. Students I know on the course seem to enjoy the challenge, and both departments are within the same school in the uni. As far as I'm aware there's not been any complaints about being favoured less than single honours students.

The fact that both schools belong to the same department does seem reassuring.

[fretter778]

(Original post by Maerzin)
I don't know what you mean about structure but the thing about faculties makes sense, I guess. Did you have any problem dropping French or is it fairly hard to switch back to single honours?

Super easy for me to switch back. I've gone from Biology with French to Developmental Biology. The Life Science faculty are very flexible. Having said that, I used to want to switch over to neuroscience, but French meant I couldn't do one of the required optional modules for it (Instead of choosing four 10 credit modules I could only pick two, with French being 20 credits).

[Aquinas]

I couldn't comment on whether it's easier or harder. I suppose it depends on where your strengths lie. For example, I seem to perform better in the Politics side of the degree and find the History side a bit more challenging which leads me to think that a straight History degree would be a bit harder for me, and a straight Politics one a bit easier.

History and Politics do combine very well though. First semester modules, if you pick them right can help you in semester two and both History and Politics modules tend to overlap for example when learning about China in History and then Politics. The disciplines are also very complementary in my opinion.

I wouldn't say it's easier or harder than a straight honours degree, but I would maybe say that it gives you a greater breadth of skills.

[Maerzin]

(Original post by Aquinas)
The disciplines are also very complementary in my opinion.

Yup, same with arch and anth. In fact many places include arch in anth by default.

Have you had any timetable clashes so far disallowing you from taking certain, otherwise available, modules?

[Aquinas]

(Original post by Maerzin)
Yup, same with arch and anth. In fact many places include arch in anth by default.

Have you had any timetable clashes so far disallowing you from taking certain, otherwise available, modules?

We did have one bizarre one for the first semester during our summer when we were choosing modules which meant that H+P students couldn't initially take a Globalisation module but that was sorted out and people could then change if they wanted to or go ahead and choose it. As far as I'm aware, there hasn't been any similar problems thus far during second year choices. Have already been given confirmation of my History modules.

[Maerzin]

(Original post by Aquinas)
We did have one bizarre one for the first semester during our summer when we were choosing modules which meant that H+P students couldn't initially take a Globalisation module but that was sorted out and people could then change if they wanted to or go ahead and choose it. As far as I'm aware, there hasn't been any similar problems thus far during second year choices. Have already been given confirmation of my History modules.

Good to hear. More reassuring than the program admin's mail for my course.

Anyway, thanks (to everyone else as well) for being so informative. I guess I can make a better decision now.