And just like that, you have officially past the end of your first year 🥳! Good job for getting through this far, and hope you didn’t get too demoralised by certain courses which I shall not name. I’m sure y’all got plans for this big summer break, now that the Auckland is gradually opening up. Enjoy the break while you can, before next year starts 😉.
Speaking of next year, do you know what else is also coming up? That’s right, your specialisation selection deadline on 29th November! If you answered that, good job, you remembered. Or if you just heard of this date from a random blogger, just… quietly write it down somewhere prominent, you’ll be fine.
Nevertheless, I trust that now, most of you would at least have some idea as to which specialisation you want to go into. Maybe you already got your entire career planned out? Maybe you have several choices that you are debating between? Or maybe you just want to do whatever is the easiest? In the end, only you know yourself the best, and only you can be the judge, jury, and executioner of your degree planning.
Even if you already have a rough idea, you might still have trouble figuring out which exact specialisation is the the best for you, speaking from experience here. Yeah of course, I could give some cliché advise on “choose the one you enjoy the most”, “don’t do something because your mates are doing it”, or “don’t be afraid not to make the GPA cut-off”, but I’m not. Instead I’ll suggest something more specific, a decision matrix. Before you raise your ENGGEN 115 pitchforks, do note that you might be very well facing a multi-criteria decision making problem here. After all, you might have been considering different decision-affecting criteria with different weighting without realising it, of which a decision matrix, like MART, would suit nicely. If you do decide to produce a decision matrix for choosing a specialisation, I’d recommend doing it with an unbiased observer, eg. a mate who doesn’t do engineering. This way, you can discuss why you’ve ranked the criteria and the specialisations the way you did, which could help to minimise any effects of pre-conceived opinions you might have formed. Feel free to give it a try, you might get surprised.
Alas, you are a proper uni student, who am I to dictate how you should do things? So yes, do take great care making a choice that could affect your future career, but also remember to enjoy while you are here. You’re one-quarter way through your degree, and trust me, time flies. So, once you made this one final choice of the academic year, go catch up with your mates, go hang out, go to parties, and enjoy all the benefit of uni life while it lasts.
And just for a proper wrap-up, this is my very last post for this blog. Thank you all who’ve read, commented, and supported my writing in this strange period of a year. Good luck for your Part 2 studies and beyond, and enjoy this long-awaited break you all absolutely deserve. Who knows, maybe you’ll run into me on campus when we go back. If you (somehow) have any questions for myself personally, feel free to leave a comment or mail me at zsun482@aucklanduni.ac.nz. Enjoy, and have a good day.
So long and thanks for all the fish,
So sad that it should come to this,
We tried to warn you all but oh dear!
Jerry