Please help me! - UNI (1 Viewer)

[Propadanda]

I know this might look like a wall of text but it won't take long pleaseeee!!


General info:

- I am taking a gap year

- I don't know what I want to do yet and I want to keep all my options open!


Ok, so I was offered a conditional scholarship to UWS for Academic Excellence. The closest campus to me is Campbelltown and it would be the only one I would consider going to because of my location and fears of rape if I went to Bankstown.

I currently have no idea what I want to do but degrees of interest may be in the Business faculty or in Psychology. MAYBE.

That said, the Campbelltown campus seems rather useless unless you want to do an Undergrad. Medicine degree or a Law degree. From what I gather (PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong) they don't even offer an Arts degree, and a majority of the Business degrees are run out of Bankstown/Penrith, the same with Psychology.

I will also be in close proximity to Wollongong Uni and I hope you guys can give me some advice. I believe Wollongong to be a superior uni compared to UWS' CAMPBELLTOWN campus ONLY. It seems to have a lot more opportunities for degrees as it is more greatly focused in the one area.

SO!

This is what I plan on doing and someoneee PLEASSEE tell me if it is a bad idea, or if it is even possible.

I am applying through UAC today (I know I can change my preferences if a course allows after this date but this was just an idea I got today). I learnt that I can defer the scholarship to UWS for one year if I successfully enrol in a course and defer it.

What I would LOVE to KNOW!

As Wollongong does not allow a deferral of scholarships, I was considering applying there this time next year to see if I could qualify for a scholarship in 2010 - and hopefully I will have discovered what I want to study and can enrol in Wollongong.

Here are the questions! (THANK YOU SO MUCH IF YOU ARE STILL READING)

a) If I want to apply for a scholarship to UOW next year and consider going there in 2010, should I put UOW as a preference in my UAC application for THIS year. If I accept and defer a course FOR 2010, can I apply for a scholarship for that year after I have been accepted/offered a placement?

b) I am applying for UWS and if accepted I will defer my placement (and scholarship) until 2010. What I am wondering though, if I do get a scholarship to Wollongong for 2010 AFTER I have been "offered" a place at UWS and "successfully enrolled", can I just pull out of that deferred enrolment with no troubles, this time next year?

c) How difficult is it to get a scholarship to UOW? I am aiming for as high as possible UAI, but say I just get a UAI of 95, I get 3 bonus points as I come from a regional school which would boost it to 98. Anything raw above 95 and it will keep getting higher. So yeah, how hard would it be to qualify for a scholarship? And when applying should I just quietly tell them that I have been offered a scholarship to UWS as well just to kinda present all the options I have?

d) Stupid question, but if you were in my position which University would you choose?



Thank you so much if anyone answers this!

 

[*Buttercup*]

a) I think you can... You'd need to check it out with the uni, but i think that's how it works.

b) Are you sure you can defer a UWS academic excellence scholarship? Because I got one of those and im pretty sure i couldnt defer it. Maybe there's new rules tho?

c) It's hard to say, it depends on more than your UAI though - there'll be other things they'll want to see, like extra-curricular activities and your trial report... altho, actually, im not sure if that's true since you'll be applying next year so maybe they will just ask for ur UAI. But my friend and i both applied for uow scholarships, and we both got exactly the same UAI (96.5) and she got one and i didnt. So it must depend on more than UAI...

d) If i was in your position, i wouldnt choose any uni, because in my experience, people who dont know what they want to do end up dropping out because they pick a course they arent really all that dedicated to. I think you should work full time, and only go to uni if something really appeals to you.

I'm pretty sure you can do business at campbelltown tho, if you decide to do that. But yeah, bankstown and penrith are the arts/psychology campuses.

 

[Wooz]

a) Yes you should place the course you most want to get into at UOW, etc as your first preference and defer the offer you recieve. This will ensure that you will be guarenteed a position in the course you defered. This is a good safety net incase you don't get another favourable offer or if worse comes to worse, etc.

Remember that there are additional criteria for each scholarship that will differ. You will have to check with the scholarships department of the respective university. However most scholarships allow for recent yr 12 school leavers to apply as many students to take a year off, gap, etc.

b) Yes, you can pull out of your deferred position without any penalty. However, you must do this before the census date i.e. before the 4th or 5th week in which you start uni depending when the date is.

You may also have to notify scholarships at UWS of your decision to prevent any payment, etc.

c) It really depends on the applicants, your application/circumstances, type of scholarship and it's criteria, etc. A scholarship committee will review your application on it's individual merit so it is very hard to say.

No you don't have to tell them, unless it is stated on the application or they ask, etc. The most probable question they will ask is "have you commenced any tertiary studies, etc". In the case in which you have you will probably be deemed ineligible, apart from welfare scholarships, etc as most scholarships are targeted towards yr 12 students and school leavers who have completed the hsc within the last two years.

d) It really depends what you want to do, where you live, etc. I would go to UWS for psychology as it has the largest psychology faculty in Australia if im not mistaken and is one of the best.

 

[Propadanda]

Ahh thanks for the answers guys, even just two replies makes me feel a bit more confident/less stressed about what I will do. I didn't know who to ask, my careers advisor is shit and this was the next best place I thought of getting a general opinion from those with experience, so thanks!

The thing I am most scared about with Uni is that if I pick a course and graduate in that, it will restrict me to a certain area. It sounds stupid, but I mean like if I do degree in psychology say focusing on counselling psychology then I get scared that I will ONLY be able to be a counselling psychologist in a practice somewhere and if I can't find one I'm scared of not being employed in the future.

But people remind me, like a friend of my dad's studied Science at Uni and now he works for a company called Gasfuse, travelling everywhere and marketing this one product which attaches the gas bottle to a barbecue, and he is raking in money. So it's not like what I study at Uni means I am restricted only to that area, if you get what I mean. Probably not...ha, seeing as people usually study what they really WANT to study and work in, but yeah.

 

[*Buttercup*]

Your undergraduate degree is unlikely to limit your options too much. Eg, im in my third year of psych, and from here I can choose to be a counselling psychologist, clinical, go into research, teach, do consumer psych, be an organisational psychologist, criminal psychologist, educational psychologist, art therapist, etc. And those options are really quite diverse - Eg, being a school counsellor or doing clinical are the options that appeal to me, but if they didnt appeal to you then you could get your phd and teach, or you could go into consumer psych and do adverts and stuff, or could do research into any area u were interested in (Freudian psych, neuroscience, anything!) You really only start to narrow it down once you do postgrad. So if you choose something u really wana do then u should be fine, cos u can narrow down ur options later.

However, as i said before, if u really dont know what u want to do, dont go to uni.... well, thats my opinion anyway. Certainly dont choose psych, cos before you can practice you have to do at least 4 years, probably 6, and getting into fourth year is quite competitive so u need to be focused and really want to do it.

 

[OMGRX7]

I didn't read it all but when i got up to...

The closest campus to me is Campbelltown and it would be the only one I would consider going to because of my location and fears of rape if I went to Bankstown.

I had a good laugh. You funny one.Thanks Haha

(I'm not making fun of the suburb or anything, dont get me wrong. But i found it quite funny; I personally live around that area.)