UNI: MONASH (sorry if some of this has been said, but I thought I'd give some input)
1. CAMPUS: Yes, Monash is the butt of many jokes pertaining to its location. Clayton is not the most convenient place ever, and is situated pretty randomly in Melbourne. However, I actually don't mind the location. Do I wish it were a bit closer to the city? Sure. But it really isn't that far - only takes me 15-20 minutes to drive from my house near the city. However, I don't always drive so I hate that the public transport to Clayton is super inconsistent. It's so unreliable.. Can take me an easy 30 minutes or it can take an hour and a half. The best thing about having a campus in Clayton is that it sort of forces everyone together. While at other unis near the city people spread out during breaks to go to various nearby places, in Clayton we have to stay on campus to eat and hang out. My group of med friends sits down to eat lunch together every day, since we can't disperse and go elsewhere. It's actually kind of a blessing in disguise, so don't let the location turn you off.
2. SOCIAL: Socially, I have found Monash to be fantastic. I love it. Monash Clayton is a huge campus, with tens of thousands of students there every day (I think it has the most students in Aus, but someone correct me if I'm wrong), so there are always things going on. Teams for every sport (both social and competitive), successful theatre and music groups, countless other clubs... The parties are also really fun, especially the AXPs (after exams parties), which get crowded and rowdy pretty quickly. Also the campus bar, Sir John's, is great, especially if you sneakily get yourself an Engineering Society membership to qualify for $1 drinks on Thursdays (not sure why the discount only applies for eng kids, but weird prejudice aside it's still awesome). But the best thing is the social aspect within med. I didn't really know anyone coming in and now I have a great and extremely close group of friends. Most of us met at the first med O-Week party and now we hang out every lunchtime and go out every weekend. Med has heaps of events, and we are all really close within the preclin crew.
3. STUDENT SOCIETY: Monash's med society, MUMUS, is incredibly well-organised and active. It's a very professional organisation that is constantly working hard and organising amazing things. We have a fantastic med revue, an inter-year sports festival, great parties (especially med ball and booze cruises), a choir, an orchestra, all organised through MUMUS. All sorts of things. They're really great. Plus the students on the committee are really nice and fun, and very approachable.
4. COST OF LIVING: Average. Melbourne tends to be one of the more expensive cities, especially with things like public transport and food, but I've found the cost to be less than other cities like Sydney and Perth. It's very easy to get around high costs, especially at Clayton where food is actually pretty cheap. Myki (public transport) does tend to add up, as does petrol since traffic is always pretty awful (classic Melb). In terms of what most kids living out of home spend, I'd take a wild stab at $180 per week for rent and $50 for groceries. It's really not too bad.
5. ACCOMMODATION: Personally I live at home, but many kids in med live away from their families, and none have really struggled with finding accommodation - it's pretty easy to find and relatively affordable. Rent prices can be pretty cheap, especially if you get a sharehouse near uni as many med students do. Mannix (the college on campus) is expensive, but it does include food and all kinds of parties as well. The Mannix kids have a fantastic time, both socially and academically, as the college is like 70% med students and they're all super close. However, the college is notoriously hard-partying; the Mannix pub night is Wednesday before an 8am start on Thursday, so I have a huge amount of respect for their stamina. The halls of residence are considerably cheaper (around $170-$200 a week), and tend to be good value. There are also some new halls which have just been built and which are really nice and modern. And halls generally also have a great social life and support network.
6. AMENITIES: Again, the campus is big and so has heaps of stuff. Monash Sport is a large complex with all kinds of sport facilities, including a great gym that is quite well-priced. There are technically heaps of places to park but with the huge number of students it can be very hard to find a spot, especially in the mid-morning. And parking permits are expensive. So most of my friends use the carpooling service, where you just need another two students in the car who can scan their student IDs there, and you can park for free. In terms of other amenities, there is a dance/yoga studio, music rooms, a random pool table hidden in a basement under the campus centre.. All sorts of things.
7. STUDY ASSISTANCE: Study help within med is great. Our student society organises revision lectures, study groups, case nights, clinical skills nights, first aid courses and notes/textbook exchanges. We also have great study groups (especially first and second year ones), which are extremely helpful. However, there are some minor problems. The libraries are great but if you go at a peak time (eg lunchtime, early afternoon), it can be really hard to find a spot to study as, despite being pretty huge, they are still not quite big enough for all the demand. Especially the Science/Eng/Biomed/Psych/Med library, which is a great facility but really needs another floor to accomodate all those who frequently use it. Yet if you know where to look there are some great quiet places that are pretty well-kept secrets. We are one of the only big unis without a 24-hour library service, which is a constant annoyance throughout the campus. The Monash Student Association has been campaigning for 24-hour library supervision for years to no avail, but hopefully they'll win soon. Also there are not many copies of textbooks at the library, but we almost all have the e-books so it doesn't really matter. Overall, study assistance is mostly great.
8. INTERNATIONAL LINKS: There are some international opportunities, not heaps for med students but there are some. The uni at large has heaps of exchanges and they're really popular but med doesn't have quite as many. There are, however, options to volunteer overseas (which heaps of kids do), visit the Malaysia or South Africa campuses or do some clinical rotations overseas.
9. LOCATION: See answer 1. Clayton is a fairly random location.
10. NUMBER OF STUDENTS: Monash has a large cohort (320ish per year level) but it actually never seems like that many. We all pretty much know each other, get on well and it never seems overcrowded. The classes are still quite small despite the number of students, with about 15 per PBL, 16 per clinical skills class and 18 or so in an anatomy tute. Yet here are only 5/6 kids per cadaver in dissection so it's really easy to see everything and not overcrowded.
11. ENTERTAINMENT: Directly near Clayton, there is pretty much nothing. Except a couple of pubs which are frequented every week by the Halls and Mannix kids (and which are actually really fun). Apart from that, Clayton is dead in terms of nightlife. However, if you take the 25 minute trip into the city you have the entire Melbourne scene to work with, which of course (in my completely objective opinion) is the best nightlife in Australia. There are heaps of things in the city, so if you venture a bit away from campus you're spoilt for choice.
12. WORST THING: Public transport. It might seem a bit nitpicky but if I'm not driving to uni on a given day I never know how long it's going to take me to come in. The Melbourne transport system is fantastic usually, but for some reason it sucks near Monash. There's a shuttle bus that takes kids the 2 minute drive to the nearest train station, but for some reason (no one has any idea why), this bus is not free. A bit silly considering there's a free shuttle bus that goes between campuses, yet the other shuttle is quite expensive for a trip that is literally 3 or 4 streets away from uni. So a trip home for me can cost over $5 which is way too much. And the trains are always late.
13. BEST THING: Everything else. The course is fantastic, everyone is lovely, the med community is beyond amazing, the faculty are great, the social scene is awesome and the campus is nice, despite what some people will say about Clayton. Plus free Boost Juice days, a gazillion free barbecues, intermittent free pancake days... I really, really love it here.
) There's a swimming pool and tennis centre practically right next door. Uni-gym, with discounted prices for students. 