Business Isn’t Just the Business You Think It Is! Under-the-Radar, Practical Business Majors: Top Universities AND a Fast Track to Migration — Or Head Home to a High-Paying Career, You Can Have Both!

Most clients wanting to apply for an Australian business degree seem to have looked into studying in the US first, and they always ask us a few questions:

1. What GMAT/GRE score do I need to get into the Go8?

Answer: Just to clarify for everyone, the GMAT/GRE are both US exams, only needed when applying for a master’s in the US,and the Australian Go8 basically don’t require them.

That said, please note that what I said above was “basically don’t need to” — there is also anexception: one of the top three Go8 universities, the University of Melbourne,which nothing — not even the pandemic — can stop from keeping its aloof standards, requiring a GMAT for a small number of business programmes to prove its top-dog status. But really, this policy only applies to students from certain countries,and if your bachelor’s degree is from Australia, the US, the UK, Canada, New Zealand or similar regions, the GMAT isn’t required either!

2. So does Australia have its own postgraduate entrance exam? Do I need to pass an entrance exam as well as English?

Answer:No. The whole admissions logic of the Australian education system leans towards assessing your overall academic performance during your studies, rather than a single exam score.It mainly looks at your undergraduate average, your GPA, WAM and other ongoing average marks.

3. What is C9?

This isa C9 tier that the University of Sydney Business School only split out in the last couple of years, requiring an average of just 65. Melbourne Uni is far more aloof, requiring an 80 average.Other universities don’t distinguish C9 — they just look at whether your undergraduate degree is from a 985 or 211 institution

4. What are the Go8 business master’s admission scores for 985/211 graduates?

ANU and UWA are as low as 70 this year (out of 100); UNSW is 72 (out of 100); Monash is 73 (out of 100); USYD/UQ/Adelaide are all 75 (out of 100). UniMelb wants 85 (out of 100), though they’ve cooked up their own MBS Tier 1 that can bring it down to 80.

4. What if my undergraduate degree is from a non-985/non-211 university?

Friends of non-985/non-211 grads — Monash and UNSW — take note?

First, as the only Go8 university whose business school doesn’t distinguish between 211/985, Monash will admit non-211 students at scores as low as 73; hit 80 and you can get into UQ; ANU requires 80 as a starting point, 85 for most programmes. However, ANU admits five finance-related universities from 70 as if they were 211/985, and independent colleges affiliated with 211 institutions can get in at 75 — these non-985/non-211 students are mainly who the business school targets. Students planning to migrate should consider ANU, UWA and the University of Adelaide for the regional bonus points, at 80/75/80 respectively. UNSW and USYD are 88/87 respectively; the University of Melbourne: 90.

5. How can a diploma get you into a Go8 business degree?

Within the Go8, the only university that lets a diploma lead directly into a master’s isthe University of Adelaide. A 9-month Pre-Master’s counts towards the first semester of the Master’s, and the English requirement even drops by 0.5 of an IELTS band — pretty much a win in terms of tuition, effort and time.Because of the pandemic, the University of Adelaide has been really practical about it, and has also handed out a huge number of scholarships.And theyalso have a Melbourne campus, though anyone wanting to migrate should of course choose the Adelaide campus itself. But not every diploma is recognised — if yours isn’t on the diploma list, consider Australia’s other 5-star universities, such as Deakin, RMIT, Newcastle, UTAS… and if it’s a two-year diploma, ACU also lets you go straight into a Master’s.

*Note: each university’s admission average and English entry requirements (IELTS or PTE, TOEFL) are always changing — please message us directly for the current requirements. The above summary still applies for Semester 3, 2021 and Semester 1, 2022.

There’s too much to cover on admission requirements, so I can only give you the general picture — if you’d like the specific requirements for a specific major at a specific university, feel free to contact me directly

Also: today we’re starting frombusiness master’s degree admissions, and we’ll cover undergraduate admissions in each university’s own admission-requirements article,so if you’re a Year 11 student, sitting the Gaokao this year, or a parent, feel free to message us directly.

Broadly speaking,in the study-abroad world, Australian business majors are usually grouped into 7 major popular streams:

— Accounting(a major that migration hype once inflated, and current migration policy has since put out to pasture — though that’s not to say accounting can’t lead to migration at all: Queensland’s Subclass 491 small business stream, Subclass 188 business and investor migration, plus Subclass 482 and 186 employer sponsorship, are all routes plenty of people are working hard through on the path to migration).

— Finance(Banking and Finance — when I was studying, this major was hugely popular, and a lot of people had it planned out by their families to finish the degree and go home to work in a bank)

— and then there’s actuarial studies, economics, international trade, marketing, and management.

Since today’s theme is“best of both worlds”, let’s break it down again bycareer development:

1. The endless cycle of professional exams:Accounting, finance, actuarial studies:

these three majors are all standardised, have a clear promotion pathway, and are recognised globally. The formula is exam, exam, exam, then climb, climb, climb on the back of your performance. Students considering these 3 majors,are typically planning to get into one of the Big Four accounting firms, or an investment bank, in future!That’s the job and future everyone dreams of — if you’re strong at exams, choose these majors. And as we all know, accounting used to be the darling of Australian migration, and now it’s a major that’s gone cold. But according to my (Nicole’s) inside source, a classmate of mine at one of Australia’s Big Four accounting firms let slip thatbecause of the pandemic, all of Australia’s Big Four are now short-staffed.But if you start studying now, what happens over the next 2 years really depends on how things play out across different countries~

2. “Amphibious” majors

Everyone knows that accounting, auditing and other pure-blood business migration occupations are a single-plank bridge with a thousand troops trying to cross it, while actuarial studies not only needs a year of post-graduation work experience to pass the skills assessment, but isn’t something everyone can actually finish,so a whole batch of “amphibious” majors have gradually caught our attention.What these majors have in common isbusiness and management-typecoursework, but they can still get certified by other assessing authorities — a few common examples:

— Business Information System (BIS):can get you ACS (Australian Computer Society) certification, opening up an IT migration pathway.

— Construction Management:can get you a skills assessment as a Quantity Surveyor

–Property Managementand other majors can get you a skills assessment as a Land Valuer;

and majors that are generally good for migration in Australia are, in theory — and note the emphasis on “in theory” — also good for finding work, so these 3 majors are a solid choice for anyone wanting the best of both worlds!

3. Majors for gilding your CV and heading home:

— Management-type: Management, HR, Logistics, etc.

Many people ask about a major that a lot of foreign companies have lately been keen to hire for— Business Analytics (BA).Note that this major is stilla management discipline built on a business foundation, similar to BIS above,but apart from Deakin’s BA, most of these degrees can’t get an ACS assessment, so they’re not great for migration and suit going home instead. That said, we’ve also had plenty of clients who, after graduating, found work on a graduate work visa, then smoothly stayed in Australia, found true love, and ended up going through Subclass 820 partner migration~

— The aristocratic major: Economics

Economics generally has a lower admission score.Because there’s no particularly clear career direction, it suits people who want to do a PhD and become an economist who publishes books in future,for example, aspiring to become a thinker like Luo Zhenyu or Xue Zhaofeng, or students whose family has a business empire, or even a throne, to inherit (this isn’t a joke — there really are students like this doing this major at the University of Sydney).Its main function is to teach you to think about problems using economic reasoning, and become an excellent decision-maker.

Of course, since I’m worried about getting flamed for this — this major has a lot of genuine value as a humanities discipline behind it, and there’s nothing here suggesting the major is a bad choice~

Migration information sharing & Q&A group

Employer sponsorship — right now a brilliant Plan B for international graduates!Click “Original Link”What are the conditions for getting PR directly via Subclass 186?