Transferring from USYD to UNSW (Engineering) (1 Viewer)

[Horses88]

I am thinking of transferring to UNSW after my first semester at USYD due to poor teaching and facilities. My main concern is the trimester system at UNSW, it seems extremely fast paced and I see a lot of complaints regarding it. Therefore, how are you doing at UNSW and are you coping fine over there?

I am also an international student and don't have a part time job or anything like that at the moment, so not sure if that would affect my trimester experience. It also does not matter if my holiday don't align with my friends.

any input would be greatly appreciated

 

[wollongong warrior]

Trimester system is fine
I reckon the only reason for its bad rep is because people don't want 3 intense final exam seasons per year, which is fair
As long as you keep on track with problems sets and content, e.g. some light work between start of trimester and midterms, and then focus up until finals, you'll do great

 

[Horses88]

Trimester system is fine
I reckon the only reason for its bad rep is because people don't want 3 intense final exam seasons per year, which is fair
As long as you keep on track with problems sets and content, e.g. some light work between start of trimester and midterms, and then focus up until finals, you'll do great

I see, thanks. I haven't done physics in a while and my mathematics foundation isn't strong at the moment so I am a bit worried that if I don't understand the content, I will probably have a really hard time catching up.

 

[wollongong warrior]

I see, thanks. I haven't done physics in a while and my mathematics foundation isn't strong at the moment so I am a bit worried that if I don't understand the content, I will probably have a really hard time catching up.

For engineering, the first physics course (Phys1121 or Phys1131) are pass fail, so literally just do problem sets and you'll get a minimum 50% which is all you need
The first math course (Math1131 or Math1141) can be difficult but it's definitely HD-able, just keep on top of content and do problem sets
There's nothing in first year that has such a high difficulty that you'd have to worry about even passing or not. Those courses appear in 3rd year+ from what I've heard

 

[SMARTYPANTS_SINGH]

I am thinking of transferring to UNSW after my first semester at USYD due to poor teaching and facilities. My main concern is the trimester system at UNSW, it seems extremely fast paced and I see a lot of complaints regarding it. Therefore, how are you doing at UNSW and are you coping fine over there?

I am also an international student and don't have a part time job or anything like that at the moment, so not sure if that would affect my trimester experience. It also does not matter if my holiday don't align with my friends.

any input would be greatly appreciated

Could you please tell me what did you find wrong with USYD’s facilities and teaching specifically? Cause I’m planning on going there but I’m still having a difficult time deciding between UNSW and USYD, so any input would help.

 

[Horses88]

Could you please tell me what did you find wrong with USYD’s facilities and teaching specifically? Cause I’m planning on going there but I’m still having a difficult time deciding between UNSW and USYD, so any input would help.

I had the worst experience in the coding subject for engineering (ENGG1810), it started off being relatively easy and then by week 3 or 4 the learning curve had risen quite significantly. Worst of all are the lectures, they were quite useless since I don't understand them at all, this is not an accent problem but rather the lecturer's ability to explain the stuff. The support is also quite vague when we ask a question, so do expect to learn the contents by yourself. The other engineering subjects (AMME1705 and AERO1560) had poor support and were quite disorganized, especially for AMME1705 labs. In my opinion, the best faculty is mathematics, so if you are doing it here then I don't think it should be a problem.

I know the facilities shouldn't be the main point when choosing the course but the engineering facilities are very old and located a bit far from the main campus (the quadrangle and the law buildings). On some day you will have classes in the engineering building and a lecture on the other side of campus so it can be quite a trek. You will also have classes in the business building which is quite new. The main problem is the engineering building so if you are choosing to study usyd for engineering then do consider visiting and facility.

 

[wollongong warrior]

yikes, I didn't know usyd room planning was this bad
All my classes are in middle campus, some in the same building
The most i've had to walk was to upper campus which is like a ~7 min walk

 

[Horses88]

yikes, I didn't know usyd room planning was this bad
All my classes are in middle campus, some in the same building
The most i've had to walk was to upper campus which is like a ~7 min walk

The mech and aero building is quite small and I believe it doesn't have a lecture theatre. Hence, the lectures are in the business or near the quadrangle. It isn't super bad but definitely tired after a long day.

 

[idkkdi]

yikes, I didn't know usyd room planning was this bad
All my classes are in middle campus, some in the same building
The most i've had to walk was to upper campus which is like a ~7 min walk

unsw is a far smaller campus compared to usyd tbf