Selection Process

2010/2011 AMS students, please log into your AMS Unit Preferences submission form. Please note, you will not be able to access your form after 5.00pm, Thursday, October 1st, so please ensure your preferences are entered correctly by this time. You will receive an email confirming your list of preferences the following week.

Information sessions will run throughout the first and second semester of each year. You will have to make your selection in early October in the year preceding AMS, i.e. semester four. Prior to selection, it is important to approach the Unit Coordinators of the unit(s) that interest you to ask questions and generally indicate your enthusiasm.

It is strongly advised that you choose your units based on INTEREST. You will be dedicating a solid year to your project so it is important that you are fundamentally interested in the topic of the research.

The selection process is simple. Early in October you will submit an "AMS Unit Preference" electronic form, allowing you to list up to 10 AMS unit codes in preferential order (you do not have to list 10, many people list only 4 or 5, as the overwhelming majority of people get their first or second choice).

There is also a notes column next to the column for the unit code. This space is to be filled in if you have a specific request for a particular supervisor or a particular project - this is very important if you would like this project and or / supervisor exclusively, or you have several preferences for one unit.

Remember, you can only select an overseas unit if you have notified the AMS office of your intention to do so earlier in the year and you have an aggregate score of 70% or over.

Shortly after this we will email you confirmation of your selection and give you a few days in which to inform us of any errors. We will then forward each unit a list of those students who have selected them as their first choice. This list will include student email addresses, as units MAY wish to contact you to request additional information on your research interests, or perhaps to arrange interviews. Please keep an eye on your unimelb email accounts.

Units then respond to the AMS office with a list of students they are willing to accept. We then approach the second preference of those students who were not accepted into their first preference, and so on until all students are allocated.

All students should be informed of their final allocation by early November.

Those students who have confirmed independent units will enter the code 90000 as their first preference and in the notes section will list your unit coordinator and the institution you have been allocated to.

What to do once Selection is complete

Once you have been allocated to your unit, we recommend that you commence meeting with your Coordinator as soon as possible. This is particularly relevant to those units with a wide array of existing topics and if you haven't yet been allocated to a particular project. It is important for you to know as many details as possible about your project ahead of the commencement of the program. A few months prior to the start of AMS, Unit Coordinators will nominate supervisors and research project topics for each of the students allocated to their unit.

Swapping Units

Students are NOT permitted to exchange placements with students from other AMS units unless:

•  the semester has not yet commenced

•  there is 5-party agreement: ie. the supervisors of both of the units, the AMS Coordinator, and yourself and your fellow student need to authorise the exchange

Any proposed swaps should also be brought to the attention of the AMS Administrator at the earliest opportunity.

For the 2010/2011 cohort of AMS students, the final date for swapping AMS units is Monday, July 5, 2010.