Pro's and Cons of Macquiare (2 Viewers)

[will90211]

Pro's:

- Considered to have the best Anicnet history dept in Australia
- Naguib Kanawati is the voice of Egyptology not only in Australia but in the world (seriously, look him up)
- Is the only uni in Australia to have licensee to dig in the Valley of the Kings
- Has an extensive credit counting international aid experience program, PACE
- iLearn is a billion times better than what USyd uses
- All lectures are reccorded
- Conveners actually respond to your emails, want you to pass and are active on the forums
- The food court is amazing
- Smallish campus but it is really green
- AMAZING library with friendly staff
- We have our own train station
- Active society's
- Plenty of grassy hills and courtyards to sit/study on
- Good Campos coffee (a must)
- Has the widest ranging Roman coinage museum of any Uni in Aus (Ideal for a PhD)
- Changing majors/minors/degrees is hassle free, quick and easy.
- Lack of Arts exams, many are take home (winning!)
- If you like Roman history than MQ is the place for you (their Greek units are meh)
- EDUC units are good, has a ton of group work though
- Ubar is just the best place, pool tables, sunny. Just amazing.
- Amazing tutors for AHIS
- Very responsive IT Help Unit / General student help is very good
- Very safe campus, always people around, security hubs

Con's
- Lack of car spots
- Library too small (but a second one will be finished by next year)
- MHIS121 is unforgivably tough
- If it rains, good luck finding somewhere to sit inside
- A very annoying socialist protest group
- Fairly expensive on campus accommodation

 

[-may-cat-]

- Library too small (but a second one will be finished by next year)

There will be no second library. What there will be is a glorified child play room (complete with bright colours, sunshine decals and beanbags) where every dumbcunt on campus can hangout, eat pizza and pretend to study while actually watching youtube, shopping for asian housewares or playing COD.

 

[will90211]

By new library I mean more seating/group study area/more computers in the old library.

 

[-may-cat-]

Yup, exactly as i said

 

[will90211]

Oh you

 

[-may-cat-]

You laugh now. Give it a few more years, you will become like me.

 

[obliviousninja]

I'm not so sure about the coffee statement...got a burnt coffee a number of times at the cafe, apparently awarded, 'best coffee on campus'.

 

[AsyLum]

In a couple of years, look back upon this post and remember how positive, enthusiastic and innocent this all seems, for you will become jaded and want nothing more than to break free of this place.

 

[Clean Sweep]

- We have our own train station

Anyone who calls the train station "on campus" should seriously have their heads examined. It's too far away, which is why I catch the bus rather than the train even thought it takes 5 - 10 minutes longer.

 

[koreafantasy]

lol... im thinking of joining mcq socialist alternative... oh god im gonna be seen as annoying. maybe not... >.<

 

[will_]

pros: you are in a deserted isolated location, 1.5 hours away from western sydney and 1 hour from eastern sydney by public transport, so therefore no distractions

cons: its a lonely place

 

[Crobat]

pros: you are in a deserted isolated location, 1.5 hours away from western sydney and 1 hour from eastern sydney by public transport, so therefore no distractions

cons: its a lonely place

Wait what? It's like right next to a train station and Macquarie shopping centre... perhaps the biggest distraction you can have...



Also

Con: sghguos/theloorloor goes to Macquarie

 

[ilikecats]

Well my list is a bit different to a few others, but seeing as I attended UWS as well I think I've got a bit to compare it to

Pros
-Short bus trip from where I live to Mac; Tends to be less than 15 minutes thanks to the M2 upgrade!
-Nice leafy green campus. I remember walking back on campus after the mid semester break and seeing that all the trees had gone from being leaf-less to being so beautiful and leafy and spring like
-People seem to actually care about university. I mean yes a lot of people don't attend lecturers and tutes unless they have to, but even in my ACST101 lecture a fair few people would turn up last thing in the day. And I've found if I've asked for help, help has been given (fairly quickly too!) which I quite like
-Good wifi coverage across most places on campus
-Variety of food options on campus, and not too far across to the shopping centre either!

Cons
-It's a fair walk across campus in the rain to/from public transport. (I assure you nothing is more uncomfortable than having wet legs from the rain and then having to sit in an exam for 3 hours)
-Library (though clean and modern) seems to be constantly filled with students who are not at their desk but have left their stuff, and high school students (I'm looking at you, Baulko HS. I only started this semester so it's been a pretty constant battle to get a desk in the afternoon because they're studying for their HSC! And then there are the younger ones who aren't even there yet!!)
-You have the option of a campus card/debit card. I swear half the places in the food hub don't accept card, so you have to que for 6 hours to use the one ATM )
-Some rooms are quite dated compared to others. Yes I understand that it was built in the 60s and stuff, but at UWS Parramatta all the furniture was newish (ie. less than 5 years old) and all the buildings and rooms had, or were in the process of, being completely renovated.
-Some of the staff are extremely abrupt and rude when you ask for advice. I get they tend to give standard answers so as not to give people false impressions; For example when I did a course planning session, the guy didn't seem to acknowledge the fact I was a part time student or has just moved universities so the order I did things in would be different. Also on my enrolment day when I was
getting my exemptions, the lady was extremely rude and unhelpful in explaining why my accounting classes would not count.
-The SIBT/International students. Though some are good enough, most are not. When discussing contract law, one student replied "Yes it contract because we study contract" and another guy did a presentation which gave far, far to much detail on breast implants when we just needed to outline the case. Like, he basically told us to do perform a breast augmentation with images...

On another note, Enrolment day was pathetic. Needed to be completely overhauled.
Spent the day running around campus being shunted back and forth with the SIBT kids who either weren't listening or couldn't understand instructions. Eventually you get to the stage where you enrol in classes to find almost everything was full, and the one class I wanted/needed to do glitched and wouldn't enrol me properly. Ended up going home after 6 hours extremely frustrated and actually regretting leaving UWS... That's how bad my first experience at Mac was
Also, absolutely no consideration was given to people with jobs etc. Being told enrolment was over 2 days (some sort of extra thing at the end of the week? I didn't go after the first days awful experience)


I think in the end for me the pros have outweighed the cons, but I had a very very bad start so it's really only been able to get better

 

[crazy_paki123]

if given the chance would you guys stay at Mac or transfer to UNSW or USYD?

 

[-may-cat-]

-Library (though clean and modern) seems to be constantly filled with students who are not at their desk but have left their stuff, and high school students (I'm looking at you, Baulko HS. I only started this semester so it's been a pretty constant battle to get a desk in the afternoon because they're studying for their HSC! And then there are the younger ones who aren't even there yet!!)

Kick their asses out, honestly, you'd be surprised how afraid they are of you.

 

[obliviousninja]

Well my list is a bit different to a few others, but seeing as I attended UWS as well I think I've got a bit to compare it to

Pros
-Good wifi coverage across most places on campus

Cons
-Library (though clean and modern) seems to be constantly filled with students who are not at their desk but have left their stuff, and high school students (I'm looking at you, Baulko HS. I only started this semester so it's been a pretty constant battle to get a desk in the afternoon because they're studying for their HSC! And then there are the younger ones who aren't even there yet!!)

Try the library for wifi coverage solid/10 ._.

Also my apologies for taking up the library during HSC.
The number of times I nearly got kicked out the library.

 

[obliviousninja]

Kick their asses out, honestly, you'd be surprised how afraid they are of you.

lol...srsly? I was more scared of the security.

 

[Fizzy_Cyst]

Con:

Due to its 2nd-tier status, people often misspell its name

 

[obliviousninja]

Con:

Due to its 2nd-tier status, people often mispell its name

 

[-may-cat-]

lol...srsly? I was more scared of the security.

Hell hath no fury like an undergrad screwed out of their study space by an HSC student.