Question about acceptance for an international student... (1 Viewer)

[GenHalfWhit11]

Ok... if anyone could help me with this or give me some kind of input it would be greatly appreciated.

My name is Whitney and I am currently applying to Macquarie as an international student from the US. My application is in and all of that stuff; however, I really have no idea where I would stand compared to other people and what my chances are of getting in. I guess I know very little about how y'all's university process works.

I did this UAI converter and it says I would be somewhere between a 91 and a 97. That is still only going off of an outdated converter and my high school grades and test scores, plus I have very limited understanding of the UAI and HSC. I went to college for a while after high school and am trying to transfer some of my credits regardless so... does that mean the school will only look at my college grades or will they look at high school grades too?

Also, what are the chances of an international student getting into a college there? I am obviously nervous about it and am still waiting to get accepted so I suppose I just wanted some kind of reassurance or information from somebody who has a little more insight than I do. This is definitely very frustrating to wait and not really know how hopeful I should be towards getting accepted... I am so ready to come back to Australia though...

Thanks a lot,

Whit

 

[Gilbert1]

If you did your UAI converter thingy right you should have the UAI needed for most courses. And at MacU I have met plenty of international students so that shouldn't be an issue.
I would imagine they would count your marks from your college over your high school.
So yeah looks good. hope to see you here

 

[xeuyrawp]

Hmm, if you were Australian, I think a year already at a tertiary level would place you in the non-recent-school-leavers ranks, which is generally a good thing if you've got okay marks (which you do). Not sure if the timing applies to you.

However, you are an international student, so I'm not 100% sure how it works. Definitely ring up the uni for this one (regardless of what we tell you here). Their contact details are here. Ring them up, though, don't email them.

With colleges -- a lot of Macquarie college students are international. Also, a lot of places at colleges are opened up continually by people dropping out / moving out / etc, so definitely stay positive about it. Hopefully it works out for you.

Let us know what the uni says when it comes to the whole admissions thing.

 

[GenHalfWhit11]

Thanks a lot for the reassurance! I am still waiting on an answer... I don't really know what the timeframe is for sending in an application and getting accepted or not. It has been a little over three weeks so I suppose I might have a little bit more to wait. If y'all happen to know, how is the psychology program at Macquarie? I am trying to apply for a BS in Psychology and Bachelor of Health combined degree. I am actually almost a senior at my present school studying psychology and Arabic and I have a 3.75. I don't know how GPA's are determined in Australia... but I have almost gotten all A's since I've been in college. Is that generally good enough to make it into a program as long as there are spots available? Does anyone know how quickly somebody can come to Australia once they get a student visa? I am really looking forward to come back to Australia after visiting in February... in my opinion it is probably the best place in the world.

Thanks for your help!

Whit

 

[havy]

I think in australia:
A = high distinction = 4 gpa
A- = distinction = 4 gpa
and then its credit 3gpa, pass 2gpa etc

 

[Cyan_phoeniX]

Thanks a lot for the reassurance! I am still waiting on an answer... I don't really know what the timeframe is for sending in an application and getting accepted or not. It has been a little over three weeks so I suppose I might have a little bit more to wait. If y'all happen to know, how is the psychology program at Macquarie? I am trying to apply for a BS in Psychology and Bachelor of Health combined degree. I am actually almost a senior at my present school studying psychology and Arabic and I have a 3.75. I don't know how GPA's are determined in Australia... but I have almost gotten all A's since I've been in college. Is that generally good enough to make it into a program as long as there are spots available? Does anyone know how quickly somebody can come to Australia once they get a student visa? I am really looking forward to come back to Australia after visiting in February... in my opinion it is probably the best place in the world.

Thanks for your help!

Whit

Cool, another psych student!

Although the GPA's are not directly comparable across universities, I doubt you would have much trouble getting into one of the psychology program with your GPA. Macquarie offers three different degrees: Barts-psychology, Bscience-psychology and Bpsychology(honours). your 91-97 range is more than enough for the first two. The Bpsychology(honours) needs about 94, but it is possible (and very common) to transfer into a Bpsychology(honours) degree after being initially enrolled in the Barts-psychology or Bscience-psychology strand.

Just out of interest, when you say you have studied psychology, do you mean you have studied psychology in a university or high-school? I get a little confused with the terms 'school' and 'college' because some people use it meaning high-school, others use it as meaning university. (Note for people who may think this is a silly question: you can actually study Psychology in high school in the US).

 

[MaryJane]

Note for people who may think this is a silly question: you can actually study Psychology in high school in the US).

And in VIC. Bastards

 

[xeuyrawp]

And in VIC. Bastards

I'm sure it's watered-down shit comparable to any HSC subject.

 

[MaryJane]

I'm sure it's watered-down shit comparable to any HSC subject.

Yes! Keep my spirits high that I haven't been robbed of two years of extra beautiful psych knowledge!

p.s. There is something wrong with the time... 2:10am?! Try 6:15pm.

 

[Cyan_phoeniX]

oooohh Psychology in VIC. Dam them.

And I also noticed the weird time. I've noticed that it is almost always one-two hours off, but never 17 hours too slow.

 

[GenHalfWhit11]

Time might be off because I am in Central Time Zone... it is around midnight here. I think that is around 17 hours too slow for your time! Sorry for the confusion... Hopefully I will be in Australia in a month or so and my time zone won't be completely different from everyone's.

I actually started college while I was in high school, so I technically have only studied psychology in college, but most high schools here offer Psychology as a 12th year class or Advanced Placement course for college credit... even crappy high schools like mine. I have an associate's in Social Psych and another in Arabic already and I was almost 4th year in college for Psychology here. So I definitely have studied Psych outside of high school for a while now. I don't really mind everything not transferring over though because I would really rather go to school in Australia than the United States.

The GPA thing is almost the same as here I believe... hopefully there will be enough room for me in the program, but I guess my grades are good enough to get in... a 3.75 is still around an A+ here. Y'all's system is very confusing! I would have applied for the BPsych with Honours but... I wanted July entry and apparently you can't apply for that program for July. I just wanted something having to do with Psychology that would allow me mid-year entry and I put down three different combinations or Psychology majors. Is it fairly easy to do an internal transfer into an Honours program if one's grades are high enough?

When y'all applied to Macquarie... how long did it take for you to receive a letter of offer? On the site, I have found answers saying as little as 10 days to as long as 2 months. I think it has been about 3 weeks for me so far... I am just wondering because if they do happen to accept me I have lots of stuff to do in order to move half way across the world. Kind of hectic I guess right now trying to figure out what I should do and shouldn't do quite yet.

Thanks,

Whit

 

[glitterfairy]

Our system works a bit differently - the massive end-of-high-school exam is very closely linked to the uni acceptance system. Everyone puts in their preferances by such-and-such date, and then roughly around the same time the vast majority of people get their offers.

Hrm ok so that doesn't explain much, other than "I don't really know, if you go straight from high school to uni everyone gets their letter on the same day anyway so I've never really bothered counting how long it takes"

 

[xeuyrawp]

Our system works a bit differently - the massive end-of-high-school exam is very closely linked to the uni acceptance system. Everyone puts in their preferances by such-and-such date, and then roughly around the same time the vast majority of people get their offers.

Hrm ok so that doesn't explain much, other than "I don't really know, if you go straight from high school to uni everyone gets their letter on the same day anyway so I've never really bothered counting how long it takes"

I think we're very similar to the US, except a) SAT scores have a much wider distribution at high levels (which is what UAIs need, imo), and b) some US students do the school/junior college stint between high school and college/university proper.

College Boards are really comparable to things like UAC, UMAT, etc. So in relation to admissions, Australian and US students go through the same thing... That is, unless you're on one of those infamous US sports scholars, which we really don't have here.

 

[Cyan_phoeniX]

The GPA thing is almost the same as here I believe... hopefully there will be enough room for me in the program, but I guess my grades are good enough to get in... a 3.75 is still around an A+ here. Y'all's system is very confusing! I would have applied for the BPsych with Honours but... I wanted July entry and apparently you can't apply for that program for July. I just wanted something having to do with Psychology that would allow me mid-year entry and I put down three different combinations or Psychology majors. Is it fairly easy to do an internal transfer into an Honours program if one's grades are high enough?

Its pretty easy to do the internal transfer to honours if you get the marks, and a 3.75 gpa is more than enough. It sounds like you have done quite a lot of psych already, so i'm guessing they will take all that into account too.

 

[inara]

When y'all applied to Macquarie... how long did it take for you to receive a letter of offer? On the site, I have found answers saying as little as 10 days to as long as 2 months. I think it has been about 3 weeks for me so far... I am just wondering because if they do happen to accept me I have lots of stuff to do in order to move half way across the world. Kind of hectic I guess right now trying to figure out what I should do and shouldn't do quite yet.

I wouldn't worry yet. It generally takes 4 weeks minimum, and 2 months isn't unusual at all, especially since only one person processes the applications from the Americas.

Also, don't panic about accommodation - Macquarie International has an Accommodation Office set up to help you find accommodation and there is a lot of campus housing that is mainly used for international students.

 

[GenHalfWhit11]

Good news!

Ok... good news finally today. I haven't gotten an offer yet; however, my representative sent me an email that was forwarded from the university saying that they needed more information towards how much more credit I needed to actually complete my Bachelor's degree because... I am definitely receiving a full offer (yay) and they need to know the information before April 30 because I am up for the MUIS scholarship (yay again) and they would like to know which year to place me in towards my degree before they are able to assess me for this scholarship thing. I know the chances of getting a scholarship are dependent on the caliber of applicants; however, I think I have a good chance. I should at least have a very unique application. That means, I will hopefully be receiving my full offer within the week and then hopefully getting to Australia by the end of May (hopefully). Very very excited! Probably one of the greatest days ever )

Whit

 

[GenHalfWhit11]

I got my full offer last week so hopefully I will be in Australia very soon.

Thank y'all for helping,

Whit

 

[AsyLum]

Congratulations and welcome to Macquarie

 

[GenHalfWhit11]

Just wanting to add... I got a full international scholarhip today! So... I am pretty excited to not be paying for school but I have purchased my ticket and will be arriving in Sydney on June 15th. Thanks a lot for y'all's help again!

Whit

 

[AsyLum]

Woo congrats! And welcome to MQ