BIT Applications '09 (2 Viewers)

[tehpyro]

1) Are the other students WoWfag weirdo's?
2) Can i transfer during the course if i dont like it? (I can't right?)
3) Can i work/TAFE during the period of the course or is there no time??
4) Will the work AFTER uni limit my ability to pursue education in another field?? because even if i LOVE I.T which i know i will, i still want a psych degree and to combine that with law would be useful learning.
5) What do u DO in the industry placements? What exactly IS the "business side of IT" ? ? ? Project management / analysis OF WHAT???
6) WHAT IS THE AVERAGE GRADUATE PAY?!!!
7) What oppurtunities are there to express myself creatively in IT?
8) Is the BIT secluded from the rest of the uni??

I can only answer a few of these questions... I'm sure the native BIT (Jess aka help_me_please) can answer the rest. I'll attempt everything, though I know a few are of questionable accuracy.

1) Some may be WoWfags. You'll probably find more WoWfags in the BScIT course. Then again, I would doubt even half of these students have any experience playing it, and even less would be 'weirdos'.

2)You can do whatever the hell you want. It's not like UTS has put a leash around your neck. If you have to sign a contract with a company, you'd certainly have to wait for that contract to expire, but outside of that, it's just a regular university course. HOWEVER, you will need to transfer via the UAC (which will take your university marks into account if you've completed 1 year+ of study). You'd potentially need to give back the part of your scholarship you haven't yet earned, but I don't know exactly how that would work.

3) I guess it's theoretically possible... I've heard that time management is very difficult in the BIT.

4) What you do after uni is entirely up to you. If you start working in the IT field, then 20 years down the track think "oh yeah, I wanted to study law and psych", you're still able to do so. If the other universities are like UTS, you'd need to write a letter of application that describes why you're worthy of studying with them (because they're not going to use your UAC or past exam marks that late in the game) but unless the IT field has made you less intelligent or your work ethic is poor, you shouldn't have a problem. Still, I can't fathom why anybody would want to study psychology (hyped up arts degree).

5) I can't answer this in much detail. I know that BIT places more focus on business analysis, including project management and systems modelling, and less on the technical side of things (programming, networking etc), but outside of that, my knowledge is limited.

6) No idea. Probably somewhere around 50k-60k

7) Not many, as far as I can tell. IT, much like science and mathematics, is more fact-based. I guess you can wiggle the occasional flair into essays, and programming and web-design involve a certain level of creativity, but I can't vouch for how much you'll enjoy those topics.

8) When you're working with a company, sure, you'll be secluded from the rest of the university. Outside of that, the BIT students share a lot of classes with the B ScIT and BBus/BScIT students, and of course you can choose electives from the Business and Law faculties, so you have the potential to share classes with them, also. It's not like it's shoved in the back of an old building a few kilometres away from the main UTS campus.

 

[Scinery]

I can only answer a few of these questions... I'm sure the native BIT (Jess aka help_me_please) can answer the rest. I'll attempt everything, though I know a few are of questionable accuracy.

1) Some may be WoWfags. You'll probably find more WoWfags in the BScIT course. Then again, I would doubt even half of these students have any experience playing it, and even less would be 'weirdos'.

2)You can do whatever the hell you want. It's not like UTS has put a leash around your neck. If you have to sign a contract with a company, you'd certainly have to wait for that contract to expire, but outside of that, it's just a regular university course. HOWEVER, you will need to transfer via the UAC (which will take your university marks into account if you've completed 1 year+ of study). You'd potentially need to give back the part of your scholarship you haven't yet earned, but I don't know exactly how that would work.

3) I guess it's theoretically possible... I've heard that time management is very difficult in the BIT.

4) What you do after uni is entirely up to you. If you start working in the IT field, then 20 years down the track think "oh yeah, I wanted to study law and psych", you're still able to do so. If the other universities are like UTS, you'd need to write a letter of application that describes why you're worthy of studying with them (because they're not going to use your UAC or past exam marks that late in the game) but unless the IT field has made you less intelligent or your work ethic is poor, you shouldn't have a problem. Still, I can't fathom why anybody would want to study psychology (hyped up arts degree).

5) I can't answer this in much detail. I know that BIT places more focus on business analysis, including project management and systems modelling, and less on the technical side of things (programming, networking etc), but outside of that, my knowledge is limited.

6) No idea. Probably somewhere around 50k-60k

7) Not many, as far as I can tell. IT, much like science and mathematics, is more fact-based. I guess you can wiggle the occasional flair into essays, and programming and web-design involve a certain level of creativity, but I can't vouch for how much you'll enjoy those topics.

8) When you're working with a company, sure, you'll be secluded from the rest of the university. Outside of that, the BIT students share a lot of classes with the B ScIT and BBus/BScIT students, and of course you can choose electives from the Business and Law faculties, so you have the potential to share classes with them, also. It's not like it's shoved in the back of an old building a few kilometres away from the main UTS campus.

oh ok thanks!

 

[help_me_please]

As far as I know the entry is UAI is 90+ with interview. Your interview is usually weighted more than the UAI - I know people who got massively high UAIs who didn't get in because they bombed the interview. There are people in my year who got mid 80s - but in saying that you should try and go as best as you possibly can.

1) Are the other students WoWfag weirdo's?
I don't think there is a single WoW person in any of the years at the moment

2) Can i transfer during the course if i dont like it? (I can't right?)
You can leave the course, but you won't be able to transfer back. If you do want to leave, then i'd recommend doing it in the first semester, so another student is able to take your place before the industry placements start. It is possible to leave (a student in the year below me left) but that's about it. You have to really want to be in the course to do the course.

3) Can i work/TAFE during the period of the course or is there no time??
They give you a scholarship so you don't have to do PT work, but you can during the semesters that you aren't doing industry training (so semesters 1,3,4,6). The second year (sem 3,4) are fairly intense so you might want to cut back hours then. Also, some industry sponsors may offer you a casual position during the summer holidays/next semesters which pay a lot better than Coles (think about $20-30/hr)

4) Will the work AFTER uni limit my ability to pursue education in another field?? because even if i LOVE I.T which i know i will, i still want a psych degree and to combine that with law would be useful learning.
You get 4 electives in BIT - a few students do psych and law as electives if you want to get a taste of that. BScIT (not BIT) can also be combined with Bachelor of Law: UTS:IT - Courses - C10245 Bachelor of Science in Information Technology Bachelor of Laws v1
By doing a BIT, it won't really affect anything except you'll have your foot in the door with a lot of IT companies. One of my friends at IBM who did a similar coop program at Melbourne has just been accepted to complete some sort of law thing whilst undertaking his graduate position, so you can mix work with uni - but you need to ensure that you get approval from the organisation you are working for.

5) What do u DO in the industry placements? What exactly IS the "business side of IT" ? ? ? Project management / analysis OF WHAT???
My first industry placement, I was at Unilever as a Business Analyst - where I analysed the technical requirements/needs of a project. I made some diagrams (system modelling) showing the flow of information throughout a system, as well as showing these diagrams to the business for approval. Pretty much a business analyst is the interface between the technical development and the customer/business for a project. My second industry placement I was at IBM, but it was a bit more technical in this one.. I designed and developed an automated metrics process for a leading financial institution for their testing.

You won't get the opportunity to do stuff like Project Management until the second placement, and even then it's dependent on business needs.

6) WHAT IS THE AVERAGE GRADUATE PAY?!!!
Due to GFC, the salaries have remained stagnant/gone down relative to last years - the average package (so includes superannuation etc) is in the low $50k. Usually big 4/consulting agencies pay lower than banks, but usually (not always) have a higher pay increase scale.

7) What oppurtunities are there to express myself creatively in IT?
- Developing a system (might not sound creative, but the User Interface needs to look nice)
- Game Development
- Web Design
- Human User Interaction

8) Is the BIT secluded from the rest of the uni??
Not reaaaaaaaaaaally - most of the core subjects are done with BScITs so we do have friends within other courses, but because the BITs do stuff by themselves and have the industry training they sometimes are a bit more tight knit than others. But you can make lots of friends if you join student societies, undertake electives in different faculties.

 

[help_me_please]

typo-- I meant 25.

[EDIT]- Fixed.

[RE-EDIT]- Jenny Donovan claims the 2008 intake was 33 students.

yep - it was 33 for 2008, but then dropped to 23 for 2009. A lot of sponsors have dropped out due to GFC, so it wont be up around the 30s for a loooooong time.