Help with choosing university (1 Viewer)

[helllo]

Hi,

So I just graduated and I don't really know what I want to do with my life, but I have decided to go to uni next year anyway.

I want to (maybe) do an arts degree but I am torn between which uni to go to- please help and if possible offer me some advice, ATARS come out in less than 2 weeks and I need to change my preferences ASAP , these are my options:

USYD- Arts
Pros: it offers an arts degree with electives I like
Cons: it seems like a very competitive environment (school has made me so sick of exams I don't think I could deal with being in a uni with so much pressure on me) + I don't want to sound lazy and I know I am capable of it but I don't know if I am prepared to work THAT hard in regards to exams and study

UTS- If I were to go here I would probably do Bachelor of Management (Digital Creative Enterprise) as its very general.
Pros: easy to get to, course sounds kinda interesting.
Cons: I'm not 100% sure I will enjoy it as my interests change so quickly + UTS does not really have any campus life

Wollongong- Arts
Pros- nice location/ campus life, offers interesting electives
Cons- long travel time- is it worth it if other unis closer to me offer the exact same degree?

someone helppp please!!
Any advice/ insight is appreciated. Thank you in advance

 

[Cherrybomb56]

I think you should try into Usyd, Because even tho it's competitive you will feel motivated to try harder please you will meet peers who are in the same boat as you. Make sure you organise you work efficiently, study in groups and have a life. Plus that uni is good for job employment and stuff

 

[TeheeCat]

USYD- Arts
Pros: it offers an arts degree with electives I like
Cons: it seems like a very competitive environment (school has made me so sick of exams I don't think I could deal with being in a uni with so much pressure on me) + I don't want to sound lazy and I know I am capable of it but I don't know if I am prepared to work THAT hard in regards to exams and study

Honestly this was my exact concern in regards to studying at UNSW/USYD as well! I was worried that someone like me who attended a public high school would never compete well against those from private or selective schools. However after talking with current and past university students + as the others said, competition against your peers shouldn't be a concern. It is ultimately up to you to score sufficient grades as you are required study independently. So as long as you are self-motivated and study effectively, you should be fine. As an above user said, get motivated into doing well by surrounding yourself with hardworking students. Just make sure you don't compare yourself to others to the point it stresses you out.

I think Bachelor of Arts will be the safer option for you, especially considering that you're already interested in the electives offered by those courses. Even if the UTS course is general (haven't really looked into what the course offers), there's still no guarantee you will enjoy studying it. Also, which electives are you interested in for Bachelor of Arts?

 

[BLIT2014]

Travel time should be a big consideration. It impacts your ability on studying (longer commutes can be very tiring!) and ability to participate in campus events. Not to mention, if your University has evening exams that finish around 9pm or so, you probably will not want a long commute home, especially if you end up with a 9am the next day!

 

[sida1049]

USYD- Arts
Pros: it offers an arts degree with electives I like
Cons: it seems like a very competitive environment (school has made me so sick of exams I don't think I could deal with being in a uni with so much pressure on me) + I don't want to sound lazy and I know I am capable of it but I don't know if I am prepared to work THAT hard in regards to exams and study

This isn't necessarily USYD specific, but not every arts unit has an exam. In fact, many arts units don't have one - maybe a take-home exam/essay at most. You'll know this beforehand, so you can choose units which don't have exams.

That said, don't be afraid of exams - you have to do them at some point, so don't let the prospect of exams and/or hardwork deter you from taking units or majors that you're personally interested in.

 

[helllo]

Honestly this was my exact concern in regards to studying at UNSW/USYD as well! I was worried that someone like me who attended a public high school would never compete well against those from private or selective schools. However after talking with current and past university students + as the others said, competition against your peers shouldn't be a concern. It is ultimately up to you to score sufficient grades as you are required study independently. So as long as you are self-motivated and study effectively, you should be fine. As an above user said, get motivated into doing well by surrounding yourself with hardworking students. Just make sure you don't compare yourself to others to the point it stresses you out.

I think Bachelor of Arts will be the safer option for you, especially considering that you're already interested in the electives offered by those courses. Even if the UTS course is general (haven't really looked into what the course offers), there's still no guarantee you will enjoy studying it. Also, which electives are you interested in for Bachelor of Arts?

Thanks so much. This really helps. At the moment I like the sound of Film Studies, Marketing, Digital Culture or maybe some kind of business course as electives within an arts degree.
As you mentioned, it would probably really help if I could talk to some past uni students that have studied these.

 

[helllo]

This isn't necessarily USYD specific, but not every arts unit has an exam. In fact, many arts units don't have one - maybe a take-home exam/essay at most. You'll know this beforehand, so you can choose units which don't have exams.

That said, don't be afraid of exams - you have to do them at some point, so don't let the prospect of exams and/or hardwork deter you from taking units or majors that you're personally interested in.

Oh ok thanks. I had no idea.
It would probably be helpful if I talked to some USYD uni students as knowing stuff like this definitely helps.

 

[Janet C. Pitre]

It would probably be helpful if I talked to some USYD uni students as knowing stuff like this definitely helps.

That must be a good idea,but do you know anyone from USYD uni?

 

[dontbeasavage]

That must be a good idea,but do you know anyone from USYD uni?

IK someone from USYD thats not a friend but she's from Indo.

 

[helllo]

Hi so, update -
Somehow I ended up with a atar of 93.7?!?!
I did not expect this at all. So anyway, now I have SOO many options and I am very overwhelmed.
Someone please help!! I have till midnight tomorrow to decide what uni + course I want to do ahahah

 

[Drdusk]

Hi so, update -
Somehow I ended up with a atar of 93.7?!?!
I did not expect this at all. So anyway, now I have SOO many options and I am very overwhelmed.
Someone please help!! I have till midnight tomorrow to decide what uni + course I want to do ahahah

Well done to you! =)

 

[Time&moretime]

Well done to you! =)

I have a question and thought you might offer some insight into this. UNSW operate its academic year divided into three terms. UON for example operate in two semesters, having a holiday break in each, quite like the high schools, I think. Correct me if I’m mistaken. How does UON deliver the same courses with same credits as UNSW but under different time arrangements?

 

[Drdusk]

I have a question and thought you might offer some insight into this. UNSW operate its academic year divided into three terms. UON for example operate in two semesters, having a holiday break in each, quite like the high schools, I think. Correct me if I’m mistaken. How does UON deliver the same courses with same credits as UNSW but under different time arrangements?

Well obviously between universities courses do vary and generally higher ranked universities have more difficult courses so aside from the differences that arise from that, UNSW's trimester system has compressed the courses a bit. Some of the courses have cut down on a bit of content to accommodate for it but there are courses that have not. They kind of just expect us to keep up with a shorter time frame. Yes Unsw is hectic with assignments back to back and lots of coursework so I guess that's one way of accounting for the shorter time frame of the Trimester system and how it 'keeps up' with universities that are still in the Semester system.

Note that what I have said is purely for the Trimester system vs Non Trimester system without accounting for what university. UON is NOT a GO8 university which generally means and I'm speaking very broadly here that the courses are not at the same 'level' as that of USYD for example which also employs the Semester system. So what I've said in my first paragraph is really more if your comparing the Unsw courses with courses of the same 'difficulty' which could correspond to USYD for example but not UON. It also means transferring from UON to UNSW is harder because it is not a GO8 and so less courses are accredited at UNSW.

 

[brent012]

I have a question and thought you might offer some insight into this. UNSW operate its academic year divided into three terms. UON for example operate in two semesters, having a holiday break in each, quite like the high schools, I think. Correct me if I’m mistaken. How does UON deliver the same courses with same credits as UNSW but under different time arrangements?

There's many ways they can offset the reduction in the length of the semester.

I can't speak for UNSW, but when UTS switched to trimesters they had to cut some of the fat from the subjects and do some restructuring to account for the shortened semester.

Stuff like shifting administrative stuff into pre-work so you can get stuck into work from week 1. Surprisingly there's a lot of efficiencies that can be picked up like this. Another example is avoiding revision of content from pre-req subjects or shifting that to be pre work rather than taking up lecture or tute time.

Additionally, I recall some subjects removing the week delay from tutorials/labs to make full use of the first week of class. One subject I had that was notoriously difficult even doubled the contact hours to account for the reduced semester length (and existing feedback about students struggling in the full semester).

The concern at UNSW was that content may be cut for the compressed schedule (which was a more aggressive change than UTS). This might be a problem if the content getting cut is important - but there's probably some fat to be trimmed from the actual content too.

Finally, this might differ from uni to uni, but under the longer semesters I felt you could clearly pick the busier periods of the semester. After the switch, it just felt like we had less breaks/lower workload periods between those busy periods.

 

[pikachu975]

USYD isn't that competitive. It's just like every other uni - everyones minding their own business just trying to get through the course.

This is late but definitely agree with this statement. Really haven't seen any competitiveness from anyone at uni. Most people are just helping each other do their best and studying together to do well. Unless someone's a snake then most people are friendly and help each other. Ranks don't matter in uni like they do in high school, marks now are just for your personal goals/targets and possibly for first in course awards etc.

 

[Cherrybomb56]

Hi so, update -
Somehow I ended up with a atar of 93.7?!?!
I did not expect this at all. So anyway, now I have SOO many options and I am very overwhelmed.
Someone please help!! I have till midnight tomorrow to decide what uni + course I want to do ahahah

Just wondering what uni did you end up choosing?