[Undergrad] Pros and Cons of each Uni

[kashmuq]

University = The University of Queensland

1. Campus: St.Lucia Campus and PACE campus
St.Lucia is massive. No joke the location has its own postcode and the Great court reminds me of Harry Potter.
PACE is a nice new building for Pharmacy students. Very modern and great facilities.
2. Social: Many clubs like soccer, basketball, aerobics, gym, rugby etc etc The list goes on forever. The pub is the Red room. Food is awesome. We have subway, pizza cafe, Boost, bakery, coffee shop etc etc
3. Student Society: UQ Union. They organize events.
4. Accommodation: There are many on campus colleges e.g St.Johns, Leos, Cromwell, Kings, Womens etc Not sure about fees.
5. Cost of living: it ranges depending on college.
6. Amenities: Heaps of car parks if you get in early haha
7. Study assistance: Biological Sciences Library, Hawken Library, Social Humanities library, Architecture library, Med library, Dentistry Library, Pharmacy Library, Law library etc etc
8. International links: Oversea electives in England & America
9. Location: 5-10min from the city. Bus stops on both sides off uni which go directly to city.
10. Number of students: Too many.
11. Entertainment: Colleges hold some parties. But mostly you need to go to city for night life stuff.
12. Worst thing: Ducks that attack you by the lakes
13. Best thing: Seeing your friends.

Thought I'd add to Hutch's post since I'm bored

University = University of Queensland (UQ)

1. Campus: Main campus is St. Lucia about 7km from the CBD. Small cohort of 90 med students also at Ipswich (40 mins West of Brisbane). In terms of location and campus quality St. Lucia wins. Herston is where the medical school is but there are few if any classes there.
2. Social: Lots of sport both competitive for the uni and social, they have a lot of stalls at market day in O-week. Red room is the bar. Uni refec has quite a bit of choice with subway, souvlaki hat, pizza cafe etc. as well as other cafes and coffee shops around campus.
3. Student Society: UQMS is the med society, but this is separate from UQ union which is the uni's student society. UQ union organises lots of activities throughout the year (e.g. toga party) as well as many college parties. UQMS also holds many events including kegs, sports day, tomfoolery etc.
4. Accommodation: Plenty of rental available in St. lucia and surrounding suburbs. Colleges on campus range from about 10k to 18k a year. Rental can probably range from $120-$280 a week depending on location.
5. Cost of living: Depends on where/how you live I guess. Should be fine on about $250-$300 a week in St. Lucia.
6. Amenities: Lots of parking but not sure of the pricing. Heaps of facilities tennis courts, pool, gym + fitness centre, squash courts, indoor courts, basketball courts and various outdoor fields as well.
7. Study assistance: Heaps of libraries. Main ones are biological sciences (now 24/7), law library, social sciences & humanities, engineering and architects. Usually quite full but plenty of computers (all macs, many run windows though). Medical library not in St. Lucia (Herston I think...)
8. International links: UQ SoM has overseas clinical schools in Brunei, Malaysia and the USA (Oschner in New Orleans) where you can complete core rotations in years 3 + 4. Otherwise electives can be done here or anywhere else reasonable (i.e. not Afghanistan).
9. Location: St. Lucia main campus is on the banks of the Brisbane river and only 7km from the CBD (access by bus or ferry).
10. Number of students: Med cohort of about 500, but class sizes still quite good (apart from lectures for which size doesn't really matter). 10 people per PBL and 5 per clinical coaching class. Pracs are a bit larger 40-70 spread across quite a few tutors.
11. Entertainment: Sure there's plenty to do in Brisbane (Southbank and Fortitude Valley mainly for night life). A lot of college parties happen.
12. Worst thing: Refec gets too packed at lunch time.
13. Best thing: St. Lucia campus is really nice, especially the great court and the lakes.

 

[CrusaDora25]

University = The University of Newcastle

1. Campus: For medicine, Callaghan in Newcastle is the location of the campus, which is also the main campus for UoN. It is built on a natural bushland hence has plenty of trees. The downside is there are many, many mosquitoes.
2. Social: The Forum is the gym within the Callaghan campus, equipped with a standard (50m) swimming pool as well as two full-sized basketball court. NUsport provides many sporting clubs for the students to choose from, including rowing, hockey, Jujutsu, rugby, soccer, water polo, fencing and many more.
3. Student Society: University of Newcastle Medical Society (UNMS) organises both social and academic activities. The most popular events are First incision, the halfway party, the ER party, the great debate and the wedding. There is also Wake Up!, which focuses on global health awareness promotion and Cutter’s Club, a surgical interest club.
4. Accommodation: On-campus accommodations are very limited, though as a 1[SUP]st[/SUP] year student, your chance of getting a spot is the highest compared to older students. Many off-campus accommodations are available and you can find them through the university’s website. Some local real estate companies also provide specific search functions on their website for students to find off-campus accommodations.
5. Cost of living: Depends on where you live and how much you eat I suppose? Doesn’t cost more or less than anywhere else in NSW I think.
6. Amenities: There are tennis courts. Student car parks are, again, extremely limited. You will never find a park after 10am unless you spend 30 minutes looking for one.
7. Study assistance: There are two libraries located within the Callaghan campus, as well as one in the Newcastle city. We have many copies of Talley, but I do suggest you buy yourself one regardless. There is a med reserve in the main library (Callaghan campus) which has lots of med books and computers for medical students. We have also plastic models in the reserve. The anatomy lab is always open during regular times (ie Monday to Friday, 9-5) for use.
8. International links: Overseas electives allowed anywhere in the world besides 1)USA and Canada and 2) dangerous regions/countries (which changes from year to year). Exchange to Oslo University or Nottingham University possible in 4[SUP]th[/SUP] year for 1 semester.
9. Location: Newcastle is not a busy place but is close to many good beaches.
10. Number of students: about 140 in a year I think. About 8 people per PBL group and about 5 PBL groups go to an anatomy lab together.
11. Entertainment: Night life is OK. Nothing like Melb/Sydney of course. It’s still the 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] largest city in NSW and one of the top 10 recommended cities to visit according to Lonely Planet. We have many beaches. No winter sports I don’t think.
12. Worst thing: mosquitos.
13. Best thing: beaches and Newcastle pride

 

[Igloo1994]

Flinders? If it's not too much of an inconvenience

 

[kashmuq]

Bring us someone from Flinders and you can get us all a list.

 

[BobSmith159]

Thought I'd add to Hutch's post since I'm bored

University = University of Queensland (UQ)

1. Campus: Main campus is St. Lucia about 7km from the CBD. Small cohort of 90 med students also at Ipswich (40 mins West of Brisbane). In terms of location and campus quality St. Lucia wins. Herston is where the medical school is but there are few if any classes there.
2. Social: Lots of sport both competitive for the uni and social, they have a lot of stalls at market day in O-week. Red room is the bar. Uni refec has quite a bit of choice with subway, souvlaki hat, pizza cafe etc. as well as other cafes and coffee shops around campus.
3. Student Society: UQMS is the med society, but this is separate from UQ union which is the uni's student society. UQ union organises lots of activities throughout the year (e.g. toga party) as well as many college parties. UQMS also holds many events including kegs, sports day, tomfoolery etc.
4. Accommodation: Plenty of rental available in St. lucia and surrounding suburbs. Colleges on campus range from about 10k to 18k a year. Rental can probably range from $120-$280 a week depending on location.
5. Cost of living: Depends on where/how you live I guess. Should be fine on about $250-$300 a week in St. Lucia.
6. Amenities: Lots of parking but not sure of the pricing. Heaps of facilities tennis courts, pool, gym + fitness centre, squash courts, indoor courts, basketball courts and various outdoor fields as well.
7. Study assistance: Heaps of libraries. Main ones are biological sciences (now 24/7), law library, social sciences & humanities, engineering and architects. Usually quite full but plenty of computers (all macs, many run windows though). Medical library not in St. Lucia (Herston I think...)
8. International links: UQ SoM has overseas clinical schools in Brunei, Malaysia and the USA (Oschner in New Orleans) where you can complete core rotations in years 3 + 4. Otherwise electives can be done here or anywhere else reasonable (i.e. not Afghanistan).
9. Location: St. Lucia main campus is on the banks of the Brisbane river and only 7km from the CBD (access by bus or ferry).
10. Number of students: Med cohort of about 500, but class sizes still quite good (apart from lectures for which size doesn't really matter). 10 people per PBL and 5 per clinical coaching class. Pracs are a bit larger 40-70 spread across quite a few tutors.
11. Entertainment: Sure there's plenty to do in Brisbane (Southbank and Fortitude Valley mainly for night life). A lot of college parties happen.
12. Worst thing: Refec gets too packed at lunch time.
13. Best thing: St. Lucia campus is really nice, especially the great court and the lakes.

Just to add:
3. Student Society: UQMS is the med society, but it does not cater to premed students except, from what I can see for the UQMS touch games. UQPMS is the specific premed society which was just initiated last year, and it's aiming to fill in the gaps that have been left by the UQMS and SUSS (the undergrad science society) in catering to premeds, as well as biomedical major students and those seeking GAMSAT entry. Whether UQPMS will be effective is still to be determined, but what they have to offer as a given from this year looks promising.
6. Amenities: Decent amount of parking, though a fair bit of it is a reasonable walk away. I've never actually had to park though, so I'm not 100% sure on how difficult parking is. Athletics track available now I think too if you're a bit of a track junkie like I used to be.
11. Entertainment: South Bank isn't the greatest for night life in the bars/clubs sense IMO, though it does have the Fox and a few others. Definitely the Valley though, except avoid it on Saturday nights if you can. Generally not the safest place to be then.
12. Worst thing(s): More a premed specific thing, but the potential for animosity between provisional entry and graduate entry students given that we should all be adults. Generally rectifiable though if you adhere to most socially acceptable behaviours. If not, well... (To all you prospective UQers, don't be stuck up about whatever amount of work you had to do over others or how much better you think you are than the other group, or you will have a very hard time, particularly as a provisional entry).
For a general uni thing, I agree, the refec gets very crowded, but I just found if you go from 1pm onwards its not really that bad at all. What I dislike most is that everything at the refec is overpriced - eg just about every sub at Subway is a good dollar or more more expensive than at any other Subways I've been to.
Maybe that and the fact that the nearest Dan Murphy's is in Woolloongabba which isn't extremely easy to get to by bus and is a bit of an annoying car ride away.
13. Best thing(s): Campus environment in general, specifics have already been stated.
Relative proximity to the city and Indooroopilly for whatever shopping needs.

 

[clintmyster]

Bond University

University = Bond University

1. Campus: Main campus is located at Robina in the Gold Coast. All students study in this campus however in Clinical Years, students are more based at Robina Hospital where they get their lectures. Cohorts are generally 86 people though some drop out or shift to other universities.
2. Social: Very social. MedSoc puts on a lot of events, some every 2 weeks and combined with the rest of the uni, there is a lot of things to do. Thursday nights are our unibar's night so people start their and head off too Surfer's Paradise via a complementary bus and get a bus back! As an on-campus student, you can participate in weekly sports on the Wednesday. Students also get a free bbq every Wednesday. People are just generally keen to go out, gym and party!
3. Student Society: MSSBU is the med society. It has recently joined up with the Bond Uni Student's Association however we hold separate events and occasionally get their support. They ensure things like Thursday nights at Don's, weekly bbq's and discounted entry to other faculty events. You can take a look at our medsocs website in my signature.
4. Accommodation: Plenty of opportunities for on and off campus accomodation. On campus is great however you have to pay for a meal plan. Only real perks are that you're central so you can get anywhere within about 5 mins. The other thing is you don't pay for water, electricity and other stuff and don't pay for accommodation during the semester breaks. There's common rooms too and areas designated for laundry. Unfortunately only some rooms allow you to cook meals. Many don't have stoves because that is Bond's policy. Off-campus accomodation is very very good. It is only a bit further away (if you want to stay within walking distance). Obviously no meal plan so you can buy food or make it yourself. Much better facilitaties, some even having their own private beaches within the complex. That said, it can be slightly dearer. Prices range from $150 up to $280 for a single bedroom room and depending on whether you have room-mates and a bathroom.
5. Cost of living: On campus, the most you pay for accommodation + food is $15000/yr unless you finish your food (which you probably will). I generally buy about $20-30 worth of groceries a week in addition to this but it varies person to person and also how good your room is on campus.
6. Amenities: Lots of parking that is all free for students. Heaps of facilities tennis courts, pool, gym + fitness centre, squash courts, indoor courts, basketball courts and various outdoor fields as well. Cricket nets too.
7. Study assistance: Two libraries, a main and a law library. That said, most people study in a couple of other areas that aren't libraries because they don't always have staff there I guess and there are no books but just general study areas like the MLC or Bat Labs. Online, you can find out where there is an available computer (particularly important closer to exam time). Variety of computers ranging from macs to pc's and have new software on them (most have windows 7 now).
8. International links: Can complete electives in other places around the world in 4th year. Bond is prided on their international students that are found amongst most other faculties however since 2011, there has been no more international students accepted into the Medical Program. A lot of people are from Canada, the States, Africa, Europe and the Middle East.
9. Location: Robina, Gold Coast. About 20 minutes from the airport. 15 minutes from Surfer's Paradise.
10. Number of students: Med Cohort per year of 86. Very very small class sizes all the time which is great. Bond prides itself on this.
11. Entertainment: Parties galore if you're into that kind of thing. Lots of things happen around campus. Musicians sometimes come on the weekends amidst all the other events.
12. Worst thing: With only about 3000 students, it can seem really dead and quiet at times but in reality, with less people, you can keep in touch with a lot more people because you will see them far more often.
13. Best thing: With lakes and fountains all around, it really looks great at night. Great to relax when you've done studying.

 

[platonically yours]

Selling/Advertising goods is against mso rules, [MENTION=8606]sale123kuzman[/MENTION].

 

[mewhenim]

lololol med school smells like sheep! I thought I'd escaped my sheep smelling days when I left the country last month!

 

[miss_universe]

lololol med school smells like sheep! I thought I'd escaped my sheep smelling days when I left the country last month!

Adelaide certainly does. And its so disheartening to hear the 'meeeeehhhhh' at the beginning of the year, just to let you know the smell is going to stay :3

 

[Havox]

Adelaide certainly does. And its so disheartening to hear the 'meeeeehhhhh' at the beginning of the year, just to let you know the smell is going to stay :3

[offtopic]"You smell that? You know, that sheep smell? I love the smell of poo in the morning, smells like education!"

10 points to the first person who understood that reference.[/offtopic]

 

[joobazhie]

I went to Newcastle Uni. After first year they did away with tutors. We had about a day of ENT in the whole course and not much more of other areas relevant to GP-land where I'm working now. To say the course was rubbish would be an insult to litter and refuse worldwide. Not sure whether any of the other courses are that great either though. Sydney Uni graduates I've met don't rave about their degrees. Best of luck to you!

 

[Droppagrogan]

JMP vs UTAS vs UWS

After trawling through the forums for a while I have a decent feel for each uni and before this weekend I had sorted out my preferences to have 1. UNCLE 2. UTAS 3. UWS (Only ones I can qualify for and I didn't bother with a JCU app).

This weekend I attended RAW 12 (Rural Appreciation Weekend, if you don't know what it is then look it up especially if you are at uni already). I have a large interest in public health which extends into indigenous and rural/remote inequality in Australia. After speaking with some rural GPs, current UTAS and current JMP students over the weekend I think I have decided to change UTAS to my first choice.

My reasons are as follows:

1. Students attitude towards their course. Every UTAS student was loving their course so far, they like the way it was delivered and the mix of prac and theory. JMP students only had minor gripes but they were definitely not as pleased as the UTAS students.

2. Availability of scholarships. UTAS separates school leavers and mature age applicants (which I am) so the opportunity of getting the MBRS is increased.

3. Smaller course size. Whilst this could both be a positive and a negative I favour smaller courses.

4. Rural School. The UTAS rural clinical school was spoken so highly of both by students and the rural GPs at RAW.

5. Seachange. Though I live in Canberra now, I have previously lived in Newcastle and it would great to get the chance to spend a few years in Tasmania for something new.

I understand this does not effect the way I apply at all as UTAS is outside of the UAC system but I would be interested to hear the opinions of other people, especially current students of the JMP and UTAS medicine courses. I could not care less about perceived rankings of universities as in my university experience the "worst" uni that I have attended was in fact the best in my opinion.

I would also be interested in hearing about UWS though I cannot see myself choosing it over the other two without a pretty good argument being put forward.

 

[Syn]

What were these 'minor gripes' the JMP students had? Maybe I could explain them (if they're true) or disprove them if they're not? I think the JMP is a great course, I've heard about students from courses talk about theirs, and I just think, wow, we have it good. Although, I did meet a few UTas students recently, and they did seem to love their course. But just the general way our course is set out, along with the multitude of opportunities we get, that's the reason I chose the JMP.

 

[JeremiahGreenspoon]

Hmm interesting, I met a few UTASers a month or so ago (2nd years) and they were all somewhat unexcited by the course. The major gripe was the endless hours in the anatomy lab, and the feeling that without a desire to enter surgery, it was largely useless. An additional problem they had was the lack of clinical exposure in the early years. With only one small local hospital, they were amazed that as a first year at UWS (and JMP too I suspect), we were in hospitals every week from week 1, seeing patients most weeks and generally getting some really useful exposure.

Worth thinking about what your priorities are. If it's where and how you want to live, or specific aspects of the course, or scholarship things etc.

qualification: I am so impressed with UWS med and incredibly biased.

 

[Matt]

qualification: I am so impressed with UWS med and incredibly biased.

Overall you're impressed, but you wouldn't be a medical student if you didn't have some serious gripes with many of the aspects of how your course is taught. It's only natural.

 

[JeremiahGreenspoon]

[offtopic]

Overall you're impressed, but you wouldn't be a medical student if you didn't have some serious gripes with many of the aspects of how your course is taught. It's only natural.

I would have denied that until yesterday when we had the shittest prac session and crappest anatomy lab session and it all felt like a waste of time.
Could just be because it was the first day back after 3 weeks overseas and the day had a pretty tough act to follow.
Otherwise I'd really just say the 80% attendance rule is my only gripe.
[/offtopic]

 

[Matt]

[offtopic]

I would have denied that until yesterday when we had the shittest prac session and crappest anatomy lab session and it all felt like a waste of time.
Could just be because it was the first day back after 3 weeks overseas and the day had a pretty tough act to follow.
Otherwise I'd really just say the 80% attendance rule is my only gripe.

What's your beef with attendance? [/offtopic]

 

[JeremiahGreenspoon]

[offtopic]

What's your beef with attendance?

I think it's a new thing, at least the consequences might be. They basically instituted a rule that, if your attendance falls below 80% in any of PPD, PBL, Prac or ICM, then you're considered 'at risk of failing' the course. i.e. they can fail you based on attendance. That's fine in theory, people should attend classes. But the rule is enforced fairly poorly in that you have no idea if you're below 80% (unless you have an idea at the start of the year that you're going to be missing classes and decided to keep track), and they withhold your exam results in a fairly unsavoury manner if you do fall below 80%.

It's just silly, particularly when eg PPD only has 6 tutorials for a semester and if you miss 2, you're considered 'at risk of failing' and have an appointment scheduled with the year coordinator prior to your results being released. And if you're scoring Ds and CRs anyway, should you really be considered at risk of failing?
[/offtopic]

 

[Matt]

[offtopic]

I think it's a new thing, at least the consequences might be. They basically instituted a rule that, if your attendance falls below 80% in any of PPD, PBL, Prac or ICM, then you're considered 'at risk of failing' the course. i.e. they can fail you based on attendance. That's fine in theory, people should attend classes. But the rule is enforced fairly poorly in that you have no idea if you're below 80% (unless you have an idea at the start of the year that you're going to be missing classes and decided to keep track), and they withhold your exam results in a fairly unsavoury manner if you do fall below 80%.

It's just silly, particularly when eg PPD only has 6 tutorials for a semester and if you miss 2, you're considered 'at risk of failing' and have an appointment scheduled with the year coordinator prior to your results being released. And if you're scoring Ds and CRs anyway, should you really be considered at risk of failing?

I suppose, playing devil's advocate, if you're missing 2 out of 6 of your PPD tutorials and tutorials constitute a large part of PPD teaching, and PPD is considered to be a significant part of the course, then it may be difficult to say that you're actually being taught PPD in a meaningful way.

Distinctions and credits, in and of themselves, I think, do not mean very much except perhaps at the extremes. Grades are a fairly simplistic measure of how much you've gotten out of a course - after all many medical courses are pass/fail and many subjects even award grades for participation alone. For more complicated learning pursuits such as medicine (as opposed to simple, easily-quantifiable learning like science or maths) I think a lot of learning is ingrained within the process of being there.

A chord has sort of been struck here a little bit with me (unintentionally, of course) because I've been doing a bit of thinking lately about teaching because all of a sudden I have become responsible for a lot of medical student teaching. Slowly, but surely, I'm learning that simply lecturing my students on topics I already have a good understanding of is not the most effective way to teach them. The most effective way is to involve them in a learning process. Sorry, I've gotten a little bit off-topic in this off-topic discussion!
[/offtopic]

 

[Havox]

[offtopic]

I suppose, playing devil's advocate, if you're missing 2 out of 6 of your PPD tutorials and tutorials constitute a large part of PPD teaching, and PPD is considered to be a significant part of the course, then it may be difficult to say that you're actually being taught PPD in a meaningful way.

Distinctions and credits, in and of themselves, I think, do not mean very much except perhaps at the extremes. Grades are a fairly simplistic measure of how much you've gotten out of a course - after all many medical courses are pass/fail and many subjects even award grades for participation alone. For more complicated learning pursuits such as medicine (as opposed to simple, easily-quantifiable learning like science or maths) I think a lot of learning is ingrained within the process of being there.

A chord has sort of been struck here a little bit with me (unintentionally, of course) because I've been doing a bit of thinking lately about teaching because all of a sudden I have become responsible for a lot of medical student teaching. Slowly, but surely, I'm learning that simply lecturing my students on topics I already have a good understanding of is not the most effective way to teach them. The most effective way is to involve them in a learning process. Sorry, I've gotten a little bit off-topic in this off-topic discussion!
[/offtopic]

[offtopic]If you wanted whinging about the course all you needed to do was ask.[/offtopic]