Welcome to my insight into conjoint degrees and whether or not you should do one (or pick one up ;0) !!! First off, please don’t blindly follow my advice because I think it is quite obvious by now that my mental state is not that amazing and I tend to forget a lot of things (uni am i right) – but also, after 2 years of doing 5 papers per semester (and doing 11 papers total this year w an ok gpa so far), maybe I am not the worst person to ask 😃
I do Engineering and Arts, majoring in Engineering Science and Asian Studies. I chose asian studies because I’ve always been interested in learning about Asian culture, politics, and history, and from the papers I’ve done so far, it’s been awesome. I’ve done papers on Chinese and Korean culture and history, politics in Chinese foreign policy, the core asian100, and comparative literature (east vs west, orientalism, colonisation). This sem I was class rep for POLITICS254 and COMPLIT206, and it was really swag, enjoyed both papers a lot so basically my arts papers were just stress relief from engsci and got to meet some cool people
CONJOINT FAQ!Â
Why do a conjoint?
I think if I didn’t have my arts papers, i would lose my mind doing just coding and data analysis every day, so it’s a really good choice for me. Yes, it’s time consuming, and sometimes I have weeks where I have 3 engineering assignments are due and 2 arts readings and an arts essay, but I like that I can learn about things that I’m actually super interested in, and I get to write discussions and essays that are just enjoyable to sit down and think about. It doesn’t hurt that I can skip ENGGEN 303 and the second elective in part2engsci sem2 as well. I reckon if you’re interested in a variety of different things, conjoints are always a good idea
What should I conjoint in?
A lot of engsci conjoints do commerce because it really suits the degree (cause we do coding and data analysis and lots of other really cool things). That’s always a really good option, seems to be the ideal? But if you’re like me and you don’t like business or finance or something idk then do what you’re interested in- no point doing a conjoint that you don’t even enjoy, you’re going to end up hating it and it’ll just get harder and more time consuming. Could conjoint in arts, science, music, the world is ur oyster 🦪
Is it hard to do a conjoint?
I won’t lie, if you’re not that good at time management and you find yourself struggling already with the engineering workload, it may not be the best idea. I think the reason it is okay for me atm (pls i am not trying to jinx it though) is because I do all my arts assignments as soon as I get them, I always give myself one weekend to finish and submit an essay, and I keep track of all the stuff i have due and always try to submit at least 2 days in advance. It is very much not a good time but it’s my way to keep on top of everything- if i chillaxed a bit i think it’d still be okay, but better to be safe than sorry. In saying that though, even if you’re struggling now, once you get a hang of things it’ll probably get easier, and the stress of having to stay on top of everything will probably make you better at time management anyway, so never say never !! If you want to do it, just do it so that you won’t regret anything in the future.
So this is my very short and simple insight into conjoints- I think at the end of the day, do what you think is best for you. I reckon it probably isn’t the best idea to do a conjoint just because you think it’ll help you get a better gpa or job or something, I think conjoints are great when you like different things and you want to study both, or if you think it’ll really help you in the future and you still do find it interesting. My best advice to you is to do a conjoint in something you actually enjoy, because then you’ll find yourself actually wanting to put in more time and effort to do the work, and it becomes less of a burden/chore. Hope this helped😎