Is the trimester here that bad? (1 Viewer)

[Horses88]

I have been seeing a lot of posts regarding how bad trimester are on Reddit and people who post it seem to be in a very bad mental state. I am thinking of doing engineering here and am a bit worried about this. Does anyone have insights into this, specifically for engineering courses with the trimester system if possible?

 

[vajayjay]

bump bc im stressed asf abt this too

 

[Armon]

miserable. regret not taking the 30k scholarship from uts

 

[vajayjay]

miserable. regret not taking the 30k scholarship from uts

What about it? The pace?

 

[liamkk112]

I have been seeing a lot of posts regarding how bad trimester are on Reddit and people who post it seem to be in a very bad mental state. I am thinking of doing engineering here and am a bit worried about this. Does anyone have insights into this, specifically for engineering courses with the trimester system if possible?

i don’t think anyone likes trimesters. simply put they make things compressed needlessly and increase stress compared to semesters, arguably there are some advantages in that you have greater variety of courses at a given time, slightly more flexibility and content is slightly more accelerated, but overall not worth the trade off at all imo. plenty of people still get by fine at unsw though, and similalrly a lot of people at other unis are also really stressed and in a bad mental state. i’d consider it as a factor to not choose unsw but, if you really want to go there, it shouldn’t prohibit you from doing so at all

 

[Armon]

What about it? The pace?

It just never ends bro the holidays are non existent

 

[raspberriesandpears]

haven't been active on here for a while but trimesters are okay for me ngl - i've been lucky with early exams so i've had month long holidays twice which are more than enough + i like the shorter terms
the one annoying thing is lack of a euro summer but for me that's not enough of a game changer

 

[wollongong warrior]

Reddit and people who post it seem to be in a very bad mental state

Ofc people on reddit have a very bad mental state I recommend taking opinions from there with a large grain of salt, or better yet, taking no opinions
But aside from that, what can you really do? Not trying to glaze but unsw's engineering faculty is leagues ahead of every other uni
So if you want to have an advantage over your competition in the job market, you'd just have to push through
And also, it's not that bad, I've met a lot of engineering people with HD wam and their lives aren't completely filled with studying

 

[scaryshark09]

it depends on the person
i personally dislike trimesters cause ur holidays and entire timeline doesn't line up with other unis. also the lack of holidays is horrid.
however there are some positives, being greater selection of subjects each term, more flexibility, fast track ur degree with 9 subjects a year (3 each term). some people say its more stressful due to 3 exam blocks a year, but im personally finding it less stressful (i havent experienced semesters so cant say for certain). I like the fact that each exam block is only 2-3 exam at most, meaning the workload at any one time is super manageable compared to 4 exams at once with the semester system. I also like that its more free flowing throughout the year (meaning that the workload and stress is quite stable compared to other unis where its intense stress followed by big break).
but everyones different so depends on personal preference

also to consider is that theres likely only 2 more years of the trimester system after this year. they are thinking about changing back to semesters.

 

[assmuel]

Ofc people on reddit have a very bad mental state I recommend taking opinions from there with a large grain of salt, or better yet, taking no opinions
But aside from that, what can you really do? Not trying to glaze but unsw's engineering faculty is leagues ahead of every other uni
So if you want to have an advantage over your competition in the job market, you'd just have to push through
And also, it's not that bad, I've met a lot of engineering people with HD wam and their lives aren't completely filled with studying

is the advantage over competition rlly that large over other unis i.e usyd and uts? ive heard that unsw is at least the strongest? when it comes to engineering and stem but is that rlly a game changer

 

[wollongong warrior]

is the advantage over competition rlly that large over other unis i.e usyd and uts? ive heard that unsw is at least the strongest? when it comes to engineering and stem but is that rlly a game changer

I personally don't have any experience with other universities but you hear anecdotes all the time. Some I've heard:
Finals at uts are a joke since there are so many people that just gpt since it's all online
Usyd neglects their engineering faculty; you can head there and see their labs for yourself on open day

 

[carrotsss]

is the advantage over competition rlly that large over other unis i.e usyd and uts? ive heard that unsw is at least the strongest? when it comes to engineering and stem but is that rlly a game changer

usyd engineering faculty definitely seems a fair bit worse than unsw but tbh I don’t think it makes as much of a difference in the job market, and esp if u might work internationally the usyd brand/reputation is quite strong. for the rest of stem like maths/physics/etc though usyd is good

 

[natsnapshoot]

Trimesters are certainly full on but if you can time manage well, you'll be fine. Personally don't love them because you always have things to do, and the short breaks. UNSW certainly has the biggest engineering faculty, but as @carrotsss mentioned above, probably wouldn't make that much of a difference if you went to a uni like USYD in the job market.

 

[liamkk112]

is the advantage over competition rlly that large over other unis i.e usyd and uts? ive heard that unsw is at least the strongest? when it comes to engineering and stem but is that rlly a game changer

tbh unless if ur gunning for some really high level job like finance, law, google etc employers (especially in engineering) generally don't care about which uni you went to. not to mention that uts and usyd are also pretty respected unis for engineering by employers, so i really wouldn't make it too much of a consideration. what i would consider more is the environment at each of the unis. from what ive heard, experienced in my classes and from what ppl i know say about engineering (i can speak the most about uts as that's where i go):

usyd:
- classes are more on the "academic" side of engineering as in classes are based on theory more than projects, higher weighting for finals as a result (sometimes up to 65%)
- has a lot of "professional engineering practice" stuff as in you'll be forced to go to volunteer/mentor/network/etc a lot
- a wide range of elective units, usually will allow you to dip your feet into other related disciplines a lot and overall fairly flexible
- better if you want the "academic" experience and want to emphasise the physics/maths/etc behind engineering rather than "making stuff" (though of course you will still be doing that obv)

unsw:
- fairly even mix of projects, labs and "academics", some subjects still have high finals weighting (~60% at most) but usually ~50%
- most flexible out of these 3 unis, usually disciplines will have multiple in-depth specialisations and there is a large variety of classes to choose from as discipline electives + trimesters is just generally more flexible
- supposedly has the best industry "prestige" but this really means that some companies like atlassian and canva pretty much cherry pick unsw grads (but generally considered to have the best industry rep)
- better if you want the most wellrounded (but most intense, for better or for worse) experience, you'll get a fair amount of projects and lab based assessments but also have a fair amount of pure theory knowledge

uts:
- moreso project and labs based than "academic", less emphasis on finals (usually ~30-40%, 50% at most) -> you have to take ~4-5 "studio" subjects which are all about major projects (as well as getting deeper into the theory your project is based on)
- less flexibility in elective classes you take within your discipline, usually there will be a few branches that you can choose to specialise in (eg for electrical there's electrical machines, renewables, embedded systems etc) but compared to unsw/usyd who usually have tens of different elective paths not too many options
- a bit more supportive in terms of finding internships and things like this compared to the other unis (uts runs a few in-house internships so if u can't get one they'll basically give u one for free lol)
- better if you're really into the "making stuff" part of engineering, there is going to be less emphasis on pure theory (for instance in our c programming course the lec was literally doing functions and talking about how it was applicable to embedded systems lol)

in terms of teaching the unis are gonna be similar imo. every uni has those 3-4 courses that everyone says has a bad lecturer and complains about, the majority of courses are gonna be pretty well run and then there will be a few classes you take where the lecturer is really good and engaging. overall i'd just pick on location and what environment u think u will succeed the most in, eg there's no point going to unsw for the "prestige" if u know that trimesters are not gonna allow u to do well, similarly if u don't want to go and do a lot of volunteering and networking then maybe u should consider uts/unsw instead of usyd (although these factors aren't absolute obviously)