Windows is absolutely going to give you problems for Computer Science. If you prefer the Windows OS for your other activities and for your Media Arts degree, look up how to dual-boot your laptop with Linux. It's a free OS (or rather a group of OS; varieties include Ubuntu and Debian among...
I remember reading a few days ago that you can get your student ID 24 hours after enrolling. I'll edit this if I find the source.
EDIT: From http://www.gettingstarted.unsw.edu.au/enrolment-id-cards-it-support:
"You will need to wait 24 hours after you have completed your enrolment before you...
I think just OSX should be fine since it's Unix based, but if you were to dual-boot, I think the computers that we use in the labs run on Debian. Not that there's much difference between that and Ubuntu anyway.
Does anyone know which lecturers takes algebra and which take calculus? I'm enrolled in Tisdell & Coster (class 3446), but from the sounds of it I would want to turn up to Pahor's lecture for whichever component he's taking. On that note, how would you rate Tisdell & Coster?
I'm very happy with mine, took forever to plan out. Haven't looked at the campus map yet though, how am I going to go in terms of distance between classes?