I’m in my first year of a Bachelor of Commerce/Bachelor of Arts at the University of Melbourne, planning to major in International Commerce, French and Linguistics.

I knew I wanted to continue with French at uni and try to pick up as many languages as I can on the way, so Arts was definitely on my priority list. I did well in Economics in Year 12, but Commerce isn’t really my thing. So why am I doing it? Initially, it was because I could think of nothing else to study (I didn’t do any sciences for VCE) and my parents talked about it so much that I genuinely thought I liked it. When I accepted the offer, my parents were happy and I was confused and could no longer be bothered.

However, after reading about the many Commerce specialisations Melbourne Uni had to offer, I found something that I liked and that would complement my language studies and possibly even fulfil my love of travel – International Commerce. This involves subjects such as International Finance, Economic Development of East Asia and Global Marketing, all of which I became interested in after working with a procurement team of a large retail company over the summer holidays.

I have to admit though, that first year with all the core and prerequisite subjects needed for later years has been pretty dry, but all you’ve really got to do is get through it. After reading the subject outlines in the Undergraduate Handbook, I found that second year should be more interesting.

Since I’m doing a double degree, it might not actually be possible to complete all of the subjects as listed in the Handbook for my Commerce specialisation, I’m yet to talk to a course advisor about that. You might have heard about majors in degrees, where you end up doing most of your subjects in your chosen area of study. In Commerce at Melbourne Uni, there aren’t any majors as such, but there are specialisations, which are groups of related subjects that can help students choose from the wide range that the faculty has. Specialisation really only comes in third year subjects, so you’re pretty free to switch around.

In Arts, I only did French subjects for first semester and now, in second semester, I’m doing both French and Linguistics subjects. First year French (as far as I’m aware this applies for some other language studies too) has four subjects, two for each semester, which you must do together. It might seem like a big jump from VCE French as all the tutorials and lectures will be in French, and there is quite a lot of reading involved, including some French literature, but I found that as long as you do the work and readings that they ask you to do, it’s not all that hard. Grammar lessons cover pretty much the same aspects of the VCE course and only go a little further than what you might already know, so just remember to do the exercises to refresh your memory and pick up on some irregularities and specifics, such as idiomatic expressions.

In Linguistics, there are two core subjects for you to choose from in first year. One looks specifically at English and the other looks at many languages from around the world. I chose the latter but I don’t think it really matters which one you choose. They should both serve as an adequate introduction to linguistics. There are three short assignments, an essay and an exam, which is pretty typical of an Arts subject, except for the exam.

If you’re interested you can read the Undergraduate Handbook on the Internet from the Melbourne Uni website, but there’s no real hurry – do it during the holidays. You’ll get a rundown of the administration procedures sent to you when your results come out and you’ve accepted your offer.

Just a last note - if you can’t decide which subjects you want to choose, just enter a likely combination first (you can do it on the Internet – they’ll tell you how), as you usually have until the end of week 2 to change your subjects. Then you can just go to all the lectures of the subjects you might want to do in the first week of semester, providing you’re not on a pub crawl, and take a closer look at what is on offer.

Don’t stress – first year isn’t as easy as everyone tells you it is, but hey, you’re invincible after the VCE, aren’t you?