conversion degrees

StormWarrior

If I have a degree in philosophy but decide that I want to become an archaeologist, do you think it's possible to take a one year conversion degree? If so, how can I learn the amount in one year that others have learnt in 3?

rain on

It depends on the subject but there are a lot of conversion courses out there alright. Usually they are in the form of one year graduate diplomas that then qualify you to go on and do a masters in the subject, but there are a few conversion masterses out there too. As far as I can tell the graduate diplomas usually consist of a selection of modules from the last year or two of the undergraduate course.

As for how you can learn the same amount -- by working like a demon I'm doing a conversion masters at the moment and I'm up to my neck in work. Seriously though, I guess you don't cover as much ground as you can in a three year course, but it's intensive enough that you in theory come out the end with a good enough grounding in the subject. In the case of archaeology you might want to do a masters on top of the graduate diploma to learn that bit more. That'd be two years though.

randylonghorn

There used to be a conversion Higher Diploma in Archaeology in UCC ... not sure if they still do it. AFAIR, though, it was available to people with reasonably relevant degrees, e.g. History, Geography. Not sure that Philosophy would count?

StormWarrior wrote: »

If so, how can I learn the amount in one year that others have learnt in 3?

Well, one full year of one subject would be 60 credits, while most people do 2 subjects for degree, in other words 30 credits of one subject in Second Year and 30 credits in Third Year.

I guess they consider that what the student has learned in History or Geography that is relevant for Archaeology equates more or less to the 15-20 credits of the subject they would have taken in First Year.

rain on

randylonghorn wrote: »

There used to be a conversion Higher Diploma in Archaeology in UCC ... not sure if they still do it. AFAIR, though, it was available to people with reasonably relevant degrees, e.g. History, Geography. Not sure that Philosophy would count?

I was thinking that existed alright but I couldn't find any details on it earlier.. the UCC website is a bit of a pain in the nips. Found it now though, they're still running it for the current academic year anyway:
http://www.ucc.ie/en/CKA03/

It seems to be open to all graduates too.

randylonghorn

rain on wrote: »

It seems to be open to all graduates too.

Oh right ... maybe they've broadened out the criteria (or maybe I'm mixing it up with something else, which is entirely possible! :rolleyes: )

mdebets

UCD also has a Higher Diploma in Archaeological Studies. It's for all graduates and it's either 2 years full time or 3 years parttime. have a look here

StormWarrior

Thanks for the replies. It seems like if I want to become an archaeologist I will have to spend longer than one year studying then. I don't mind the studying, it's just the finances that are a problem!

Or, is it possible to go straight into a masters in archaeology with a Ba in philosophy?

Esmereldina

StormWarrior wrote: »

Or, is it possible to go straight into a masters in archaeology with a Ba in philosophy?

The individual departments may all have different rules about this, which might also be flexible depending on factors like how popular the course is and how much you can convince them you really want to be an archaeologist... so I'd check with the department and even course co ordinators of individual masters courses.