RMIT Open Day

Recently, I had the pleasure of exploring Melbourne’s RMIT university.

My intention is to upgrade my skills and get a degree in a new field. And while my body says I’m in my late 40s, my mind is still in my 20s, so a university degree shouldn’t be a problem for me to do.

The big problem is deciding which one!

International Business?

Entrepreneurship?

Creative Writing?

Of course, the one I’d had in mind to do one day was Astrobiology, but this course is not offered at RMIT, and I don’t have the brain for mathematics and chemistry anyway.

So, I went along to some introductory lectures to see what would appeal.

I’d studied marketing thirty years ago, so I thought I’d catch a marketing presentation, while trying to remember why I didn’t pursue it. Then the lecturer added, ‘And there’ll be lots of maths. Excel is your friend.’ And then I remembered why!

So, I waited for the international business presentation, which was informative and helpful. I’d originally thought that an international business degree would be the best thing for me to have for my next 50 years of work (no plans to retire) but after learning more about it, realized it wasn’t really for me. The design of the course is to help you to gain the skills to work for someone else. I’m more interested in working for myself. Or, at the very least, in a fairly autonomous position with a reasonable amount of creative control.

I sat in on the entrepreneurship lecture but decided it wasn’t really what I was looking for either.

I then went along to the session entitled Application tips for non-year 12 students. The room was packed with ages 20 to 70, and the corridors outside were full. For fire safety reasons they couldn’t let anyone else in, and had to clear the corridor. It looked like many people my age had come to the same conclusion – time to get a degree. I found it helpful and planned to get online to apply as soon as I went home.

But the crème de la crème was the Creative Writing and Screen Writing presentation. The hair rose on the back of my neck as I sat there in the back row listening attentively, realizing that this was what I had been looking for the whole time. And, then I sat up straight when I heard that Sarah Dollard, who wrote for Doctor Who (Face the Raven and Thin Ice), had done a writing degree at RMIT. Just in case the universe thought I needed any extra encouragement, LOL.

So, as of today, I put my initial application through VTAC, and am now working on the requested folio.

It looks like I won’t be online much over the next few days!

Many thanks RMIT.