Honours Dissertation (1 Viewer)

[Lara1986]

Hi everyone,

Anyone who has done/is doing their Honours dissertation I was just wondering how significant a workload it is?

I'm considering taking this unit as UWS now requires you to do the Honours Dissertation unit to graduate with honours (prior, it was just worked out based on your GPA alone).

Obvoiusly being a 15,000-ish word paper that requires extensive research it will be quite time consuming, but I've heard some conflicting things from people - one said that he would not recommend ever doing it unless it was your only unit, or you only had one other unit, that semester. Another said that doing it alongside 2 other units in the semester is perfectly manageable. Another said it was no problem to do it as part of a full 4 unit workload in addition to working a few days a week.


Any comments would be great Thanks

 

[Frigid]

i somehow managed to convince my undergraduate studies director allow me to undertake a honours thesis (12,000 words) while overloading. so basically i'm doing an elective, honours, jurisprudence, research subject and one subject from my other degree (5 subjects, 30 credits). contact hours have decreased to about 11 hours per week, but i've resumed paralegalling 2 days per week so it's been/going to be a hectic semester.

but the opportunity to explore, in depth, my own little niche (ISP liability for copyright infringement, ss36(1A)/101(1A) of the Copyright Act) is attractive. i'm still at the preliminary stages of it. it's due Nov 30, but i've only done part of the reading. i would say i'm between 5% to 10% progress.

 

[Lara1986]

Thanks for the reply

Wow! i am impressed, that sounds like a really heavy workload! I doubt i could handle that whilst maintaining my sanity.

Is there much beyond the actual writing of the paper itself as in class work or viva voce or anything like that?

The UWS ubit description says that it involves attending research classes and presenting to an honours class but beyond that it doesn't say much and since it's new it's hard to find out info.

I'm assuming the approach is fairly similar at UWS to other unis? particularly as part of the reason UWS is implementing it appears to be to align further with USyd/UNSW?

Just trying to decide whether i should do it during ordinary semester with a full workload + work + other committments or if i'm better off delaying it until 2010 and doing it whilst begining the GDLP and instead of graduating from LLB in 2009, graduating mid 2010.

 

[melsc]

I'm interested in how you guys find it because it looks like it will have a semester where I only need to do half a normal study load due to overloading at one stage so I am unsure whether I want to (if I manage to get into the honours program) do it in a semester where I have less than a normal load so I can get the mark required or do it in a normal semester.

Also at mac we have the option of a 10 000 or 20 000 thesis one taken over one semester and the other taken over two.

 

[Lara1986]

...Also at mac we have the option of a 10 000 or 20 000 thesis one taken over one semester and the other taken over two.

Just read some more stuff on the UWS one - it's a 8,000 to 10,000 word research paper only which seems smaller than others.

I suppose my main concerns as far as doing it as part of an ordinary 4 unit semester workload are that firstly, I don't see the point in doing it if you don't do well, and secondly, because i don't want my other marks to suffer because of the time i'll be investing in it.

UWS requirements ( i don't know if its the same elsewhere?) say that for Honours I you need a 6GPA plus a HD in the dissertation; Honours II/1 is a 5.8GPA and a D; and Honours II/2 is a 5.5 GPA and a C so it is really quite pointless if you get an outstanding mark for the dissertation but everything else is let slide or vice versa...



I suppose also I was curious as to what other people thought about how useful/worthwhile it is if you do not plan on going into academia or working in a top tier firm (at least in the near future) - eg my ideal near future direction would be in Family Law mid size firm.

 

[melsc]

Congradulations by the way Lara on getting the marks for it.I think it will be useful to have in case at some point you feel like a change, I don't envisage a top tier firm but it cannot hurt I presume for other jobs and its something I want to prove to myself. Also you can tell the 'UWS is shit people' to stfu I have first class honours

Ours is...

Award of LLB with Honours

For students commencing their Law studies in 2003
and beyond:
_ Eligibility for honours in the LLB is based on the calculation
of a "Course Weighted Average" (CWA) for
all units studied at Macquarie with the prefix LAW.
The CWA is the sum of the scaled marks for each unit
with the prefix LAW, multiplied by the credit points
in that unit, summed across all units with the prefix
LAW for which a scaled mark has been recorded,
divided by the total credit points for the student in
those units.(The calculation of CWA will not include units studied
at other universities, including units taken while
on an international exchange program.)
A student must have completed a minimum of
44 credit points of units with the prefix LAW at
Macquarie to be eligible for graduation with honours.

Students will graduate with First Class Honours if
they have obtained a CWA of 76 or higher, and they
have completed a LAW511 or LAW514 research project
with a grade of at least a Credit.

Students will graduate with Second Class Honours if
they obtain a CWA of 71 or higher.

They don't use GPA with us because its a bit stupid at Mac with D and HD being the same.

 

[Lara1986]

Thanks for the replies everyone but - spoke with our course advisor and i can't do it anyway. They're making it a 20 credit point unit (i.e. equal to 2 units) and i only have space for 1 more unit so i can't fit it in.

Doesn't matter too much though as since I started the degree before they brought in the new system, I can opt to qualify for honours under either the new or old system, the new being research based, the old being purely mark based.

I would have much preferred the new system though as it feels a little more valid as you have to work harder to earn it.

Plus the old system requires a 6GPA for core units and then a 6 GPA overall for Honours I and my core units GPA is currently just under 6 so even though overall its above 6, unless i get 5 Ds and 1 HD in my remaining cores I will have to settle for II.

Oh well, any honours is great i guess

Congradulations by the way Lara on getting the marks for it.I think it will be useful to have in case at some point you feel like a change, I don't envisage a top tier firm but it cannot hurt I presume for other jobs and its something I want to prove to myself. Also you can tell the 'UWS is shit people' to stfu I have first class honours
.

Haha yeah it would be useful in that way, although since I have no intention on going into commercial-related law it doesn't affect me as much as other students. Although, I did have one lovely North Sydney law firm tell me after they asked what uni I attended that my "family law related marks" probably needed to be "one level higher" to account for the fact that I attend UWS even after I told them that i got 94 and 1st place in Family Law - seems they expect perfection from UWS students and nothing less!

And another firm, Sydney based family law firm - when they found out what uni I attend asked what my parents did. I told them what they did - both my parents jobs require tertiary education - and I was asked if any family members were "real professionals", after a few responses from me (i won't detail as it was a long and ridiculous conversation) the gentleman proceeded to say "no i mean a real professional, you know, someone who wears a suit to work".

Another friend from uni was told she lives "too out west" - she's lives like, 20 minutes from the city near the strathfield area - i wasn't aware that to lawyers in sydney based firms that was west...?

Was such a refreshing change to have the interview with my new boss as of next week compared to these lovely conversations

 

[Frigid]

as long as the bigotry in recruitment you've described exists, it is a disincentive to enrolling in UWS law... i guess the only solution to that in the short term is to look elsewhere. in the longer term, UWS graduates will start their own firms, become partners and be less biased against so-called 'second-tier' law school graduates.

 

[Lara1986]

as long as the bigotry in recruitment you've described exists, it is a disincentive to enrolling in UWS law... i guess the only solution to that in the short term is to look elsewhere. in the longer term, UWS graduates will start their own firms, become partners and be less biased against so-called 'second-tier' law school graduates.

Your last sentence is thankfully exactly what is happening. That and, UWS grads have been in existence long enough now to have jobs at the bigger firms and in more prestigious roles. Certainly helps the image that Kirby's new/last associate is a UWS grad.

Just unfortunate that much of the criticism people have of UWS as far as graduate calibre when it comes to law of late is pretty true a lot of the time so it really screws over those of us who do work hard and are committed.

I guess we'll have to wait and see I suppose too there's that kind of ridiculous attitude to every uni so as long as you're in law it can't be helped. Obviously it's not as wide spread with regards to some unis but its everywhere - eg a lot of the really big western sydney firms are anti usyd/unsw because they think that all students from these unis have the bigoted views of the "sydney firms". Kind of ironic in a way.

 

[KellyChandler]

There are many online essay services provided for the students. they have professional and expert writers to write the dissertation. they will help you in writing the academic task with no tension.

 

[wannaspoon]

I know three people who did it... There one was only 10,000 words though... they didn't find it too hard, they were really, really busy during that time though...

One of them breezed through it and finished it over three nights (you can guess, he did not get honours at the end of the day)

It is certainly doable, if you get on it early though... I regretting not doing mine...