Hi I have been offered a CSP for Monash and (pending but likely) at Melb JD. I have a dilemma about which school to choose. Currently I prefer Monash's time table as it allows me to work part time (20 hours) whereas I am not sure about Melb Uni. I was wondering if someone could give me some advice. I might be starting in Mar 2010. I need to work part time to survive and my current employer is flexible with hours for me.. I just don't know if I can cope with the workload.

Can anyone tell me if it's possible to work about 16-20 hours each week whilst studying at Melb Uni? Say 2 arvos after 430pm on Monday - Thursday and then the entire Friday. How many hours do I need to study/read/prepare for the classes the next day? Also are there assignments and if so when will they be due? Also I see there is 2 of every subject. Does every subject has a lecture and a tutorial? I don't know how it works at all. Any information would be very much appreciated.

Hi theexodus,

The Monash JD is designed for part-time students whilst the Melbourne JD is pretty full on and I have heard that they have classes pretty much from Mondays to Fridays. They have tons of extra-curricular programs as well so I think it would be highly disruptive for someone working part-time like yourself. I appreciate that your employers are flexible but travelling between work and uni would be extremely tiring after awhile.

I would recommend UniMelb if you are able to devote yourself to 2 (accelerated) or 3 years of your life to full-time study but Monash Uni if you are working part-time. I have studied at the law school of both institutions and I can assure you that their standards are comparable. Monash's JD program is delivered right smack in the city so this would be a plus if you are working in the city.

Something to look into would be their LLM course offerings as you can pick JD electives from them. You will need to see which university has more subjects which is of interest to you (you are interested in media law so I would think Uni Melb's electives would be of more interest to you given their suite of communication law courses - e.g. privacy law etc).

I can't really help you with specific timetabling queries - sorry about that!

Cheers,
G