Social life at UNSW and USYD? (1 Viewer)

shumphrey

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I've heard a variety of things regarding the social life of both UNSW and USYD and want to know what is true

In terms of positives I have heard both sides say they all have a vast amount of activities and clubs to do so I'm going to assume they are equal in regards to clubs

The negatives in the social life for both Unis differs and here is what Ive heard

UNSW

-High proportion of asian students who do not interact with anyone outside there asian subdivision (that sounds racist-sorry)
-Selective school kids who don't interact with others and are kinda up themselves

USYD

-Also significant number of antisocial asian students but less so
-Higher number of private school kids who are kinda sometimes shitty
-Social groups that do form are kinda cliquey and once are formed they usually dont accept new people
-More politically divisive, more politically aggresive groups that further divide social circles (im aware politics is a heated topic but apparently more so at usyd)


How much of this is true? can someone please correct if I'm wrong.
 

integral95

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You only hear this because they're one of the things that stand out, however they only represent a small minority of the students there.
While maintaining a healthy social life is a bit more difficult since people have different courses etc, a lot of people I've met are very open minded and have a lot of things to talk about, this is including the non-asian people.

So basically it's like the media who likes to blow things out of proportion but in reality it's really not a big issue.
 

Queenroot

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I've heard a variety of things regarding the social life of both UNSW and USYD and want to know what is true

In terms of positives I have heard both sides say they all have a vast amount of activities and clubs to do so I'm going to assume they are equal in regards to clubs

The negatives in the social life for both Unis differs and here is what Ive heard

UNSW

-High proportion of asian students who do not interact with anyone outside there asian subdivision (that sounds racist-sorry)
-Selective school kids who don't interact with others and are kinda up themselves

USYD

-Also significant number of antisocial asian students but less so
-Higher number of private school kids who are kinda sometimes shitty
-Social groups that do form are kinda cliquey and once are formed they usually dont accept new people
-More politically divisive, more politically aggresive groups that further divide social circles (im aware politics is a heated topic but apparently more so at usyd)


How much of this is true? can someone please correct if I'm wrong.
It's only the intoe Asians that are antisocial, not the local ones
 

sida1049

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A lot of people tend to stereotype the social lives of students in the two universities so they have something to compare, but most of the time, it's a misrepresentation of both unis.

A lot of students coming into uni tend to stay with their same friend groups from high school. For my high school cohort, this is most prominent in UNSW, whereas most of us don't keep in touch at USYD. But this is specific to my high school only.

Generally, Asian cliques tend to form not because they don't want to talk or socialise with you, but due to the language barrier; most of them are international students who are not confident in speaking English, so making a good impression with domestic students is usually much harder. Some people also tend to paint international students poorly, so that's another reason why. But if you talk to them, they're usually pretty responsive and friendly.

Students from private schools or selective schools aren't worse when it comes to socialising with them; that's a huge misconception. When I started in uni, I have no idea how (I went to a public comprehensive school), but most of the people I ended up knowing were from private schools, and they've all been fantastic people so far.

Cliques happen naturally; once people are comfortable enough, meeting new people stops being a priority. This happens at every high school and uni. What I personally recommend is not to be pressured into going to the same unis as your high school friends; most of my friends from high school ended up going to UNSW, and I have to admit, meeting new people has been a fantastic experience.

The student politics at USYD is a real thing though, but it really just becomes background noise, and not something that'll interfere with your social life.

Good luck!
 

Squar3root

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asians are cunts

u can make friends with your race tho usually by joining a society
 

Jaxxnuts

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apparently if you go to UNSW and you're part of BSOC, most of the society is dominated by cliquey selective school asians and all the leadership positions are filled in by those selective kids
 

Jakulore

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I can't speak for USYD, but going to UNSW I might also be able to help shed some light.

Yes, I think to an extent you are going to get a lot of Asian students grouping together, particularly if they are international students. However, this does not represent the majority population, nor is it necessarily a negative. If you talk to them or engage, you will likely be fine, it is merely that they would do so likely because of a language or cultural barrier.

In terms of private schools, I don't think it really matters and I feel that you get an equal mix of all types of people, regardless of their background. Though I myself went to a public school, my clique at uni that I have made has people from performing arts schools, catholic schools, private schools, public school etc. and I don't see much difference, as we pretty much all act the same.

All in all, the way I have found it is that, if you go in with an open mind, and you are looking to be able to make friends, then you will be able to, as it isn't that hard to talk to people at uni. But if you go in and don't talk to anyone/isolate yourself from the get-go, it is more unlikely that you will be able to do this, so ultimately, your social life just depends on you.
 

Soulful

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it's very hard to generalise across universities. Thinking about universities in terms of "cliques" is a very high school mentality I feel, especially when 1/2 the cohort at both unis seem to be "go uni for classes and then go straight home" types.
 

captainneuro

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USYD

-Also significant number of antisocial asian students but less so
-Higher number of private school kids who are kinda sometimes shitty
-Social groups that do form are kinda cliquey and once are formed they usually dont accept new people
-More politically divisive, more politically aggresive groups that further divide social circles (im aware politics is a heated topic but apparently more so at usyd)
that better not represent the entirety of usyd lmao :(
 

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