hahaha
is it that obvious?
scholarships are great, and university can get verrry expensive, so it's a tough one for you. if you're going to take a scholarship, take it at usyd, and not uws.
csu also has a great reputation for journo (quite a trekk though if you're based in sydney).
if you're in sydney, i'd entirely recommend uts. i know the whole clubs and society thing seems important (i'm a big music person and was sorely disappointed by the music society at uts) howeverrrrr, i'd say you should base it more on the degree as opposed to things like clubs/societies. music theatre, you can always pursue that in different ways, and find other ways to get your kicks. you know? once you're in a degree/uni, it's too much of a hassle to move out. inter-uni transfers are much easier, as opposed transferring to a diff uni.
journo is tough, because it can be a little confronting as a degree, especially in your first year to just come out of high school and find yourself having to find story ideas, interview people, and learn things like style and structure. they teach you how to really cut back the crap and write well succinctly. i find that it has actually made me a much better writer in my law degree.
the thing is, they force you to grow up - they toughen you up. it's hard to teach this and learn this from a lecture theatre. there are no lectures for "journalism" subjects. they are all seminars/tutorials. you only have lectures for other subjects like media law and so on that require actual lectures, notes and textbooks. for the actual journo subjects like print, tv, and so on, they teach you how to use all the material/facilities in small classes. you get so much more out of this than learning all the theory in a lecture hall.
also - uts already has established relationships with the abc (conveniently across the road) so there are abc cadetships and internships that are run every year, as well as established tv placements with sbs, abc, 7, 9 and 10. there are also regular internships running with ninemsn, crikey (in melbourne) and several others. not to mention the MASS amounts of other internships, work experience, and paid work opps that are sent to uts lecturers, who then forward every single email on to uts students. there are some great established relationships with overseas unis for journo scholarships and journo exchange.
p.s; they're all former journalists or current journalists. one of the news tutors writes for the SMH extensively, and so on. this is just one example because i don't have time to rattle everything off. i guess you see my point though - great lecturers, great contacts, great opportunities, and they teach you things that you can't learn from theory.
one of the first years about 2 years ago had his story published on the front page of the australian. a few of my fellow students have had articles published on the front page of the SMH, and a few on the SMH website and other pages within the SMH. uts has this culture of toughening you up in your degree right from the very beginning.
also, the journalism kids are all really supportive of each other. when people see opportunities, they also pass it on to all the other journo students. journo is competitive, sure, but the journo culture is great at the uni.
even the most passive of people find themselves really confident by the end of the first year. you can't learn confidence from a textbook.
so i'd say uts if you're going for a sydney based uni, despite the scholarships.
