Hi, everyone! My name is Winona Dewi, I’m a recent business graduate, majoring in both Accounting and Marketing at Monash University. I was raised and born in a northern Kalimantan border area of Indonesia called Tarakan. I have spent 2 years in Singapore to study Foundation and Diploma there before finishing my degree in Monash. In this column I will share some of the tips and knowledge I got from studying overseas. Things I wish I knew before I start. Hopefully it can be a blessing to you as well!
Apa cita-cita kamu?
The scenario always changes, be it an external auditor to a coral conservationist. But it never had not involved me as a business woman. Mainly, I hope I could use resources around me to reach and help greater people.
Apa yang membuatmu tertarik dengan jurusan ini?
Growing up with both of my parents being a full-time entrepreneur makes business always on my radar. My interest grows more when I was in college, having an accounting teacher who was very supportive and passionate in helping me to build my confidence in the subject.
After college, I decided to take Banking and Finance & Accounting as my major, just because I felt like that was the combo that everyone’s taking. On my first semester as a university student, I decided to drop out of my Banking and Finance Major. My grades were okay, but studying for the subjects have been consuming my time and preventing me to get into other things (extracurricular activities and church ministry).
During the holiday period to get back into next semester, I know I did not want to take Banking and Finance major, yet I wanted to finish my bachelor degree with double major. After reflecting on what is lacking in the past semester, I realized I wanted more interaction in my classes and learnt that as a future accountant, it is important to upskill my communication levels to represent myself to future clients and colleagues.
After all, being an international student with having Bahasa Indonesia as my native language makes communicating with English on professionalism basis a challenge for me. So in my 2nd year, I decided to change my major to Accounting and Marketing. Up till now, that was one of the best decision I made in my Uni year!
Apa yang membuatmu mendaftar di universitas/kampus ini?
Monash Business School offers interesting educational program and had triple accreditation, making it one of the top 1% business school in the world. The major’s option, high employability rate and how the subjects are being structured impacted my decision as well. Moreover, you could choose to study 3 years of Bachelor degree or the pathways from Monash College, which is to study for 8 months (or more) and go straightaway 2nd year of University.
Apa syaratnya masuk ke jurusan ini? Ada syarat khususkah untuk International Student?
If you have just finished your high school diploma in Indonesia, you will need to pass the English language standard. This can be done by getting IELTS or TOEFL test. For those of you who’ve done your previous studies in English Language, you could get an exemption for this (it depends case by case, Course Curriculum will be needed to be analyzed). The University will also assess your score in last academics course taken, before admitting and providing the Letter of Acceptance for you. As students admitted comes from various academic backgrounds and the admission process can be a bit handful, but you can also get help through an education agency nearby to your location.
Personally for me, the trickier process was getting the student visa as the documents they needed were very specific and sending the incorrect document once could get your visa rejected. Moreover, medical check-up is required from listed accredited hospitals as well.
Kalau boleh tahu, berapa, sih, biayanya?
I would expect to pay around $40K AUD per year for the tuition fee. This was around 2017-2019. Disclaimer: Monash Business School had full rights to increase the tuition fees every year (around 6%-15%). Therefore, please expect and prepare higher budget before you’ve decided to study there. For most up-to-date fees, Monash website is the best place to go to.
Apa saja tantangannya?
In tutorial class, we would go through questions about topics that have been discussed in lecture. Therefore, I need to understand concepts from the lectures to catch up with the tutorial class. Most of my accounting subjects had a structure of build-up material. Therefore, it is important to understand each week topics, to understand later on through the semester.
Dan apa keasyikan terbesarnya?
There are quite a few. Outside of class, I look forward to meeting my friends from different classes. There is a lot of good food-stop in Clayton or Caulfied. You could go to different campus by free Monash shuttle bus. If I were alone, I would go in student lounge, listening to some songs or watch some episodes of my favorite TV shows and do a recap on slides or materials that will be discussed in the next class.
Inside the class, the most exciting thing would be the people (I know it a cliché). But, I love meeting people from various backgrounds. The age range in my class alone would be 20 years. There are some that comes from working in accounting field, straight from college or even someone who’ve finished another degree. So it is always interesting to get to learn and discuss topics through different perspectives.
In my marketing class, I have learnt a lot of practical and useful things. In tutorial class, there is there is sometimes sections where we have to give short presentation about the topics that we’ve discussed. At first, this is quite challenging as I have to think on the spot and many of my classmates presented their idea fluently. Now looking back, I realized it push me as an ambivert to express my thoughts and agility to think on the spot.
Tips kamu untuk mereka yang ingin masuk jurusan ini?
1. Never procrastinate. Do time management wisely and plan your week ahead!
2. Try to come to tutorial classes (especially last few weeks). As sometimes, there are some tips and hints about the exams. Most of subject does not include topics that they have reviews in the mid-semester test.
3. Do not be afraid to take majors that seem opposite to each other (like mine!). The impact that I felt is nothing but adding compatibility to each other and could be a great combo of major if it’s right for you!
4. Be friends with a lot of your classmates, start to build connectivity from the smallest group.
5. Take subjects that is challenging and exciting for you. Don’t take a subject solely because it’s one of the ‘easy’ one just to increase your GPA. (IM)
