(What they've deleted me off the database?! I just havn't been posting for 3 years...)
Arrrrrrh... I've spent the last hour typing the reply and the browser logged out on me...
As a person who has done the Adv Eng for the last 2 years, I highly recommend the 1st year Adv Eng projects. Who else, as fresh new 1st year Engineering students, get to design and produce a device that let an 8-year-old boy with a disability walk for the first time? There are no equivalents in the market when we designed it - we were the first!! You will never forget the smile on the boy's face when you see him walk for the first time unassisted. On top of that, you are almost guaranteed to get a Distinction (D)/High Distinction (HD) on 1/4 of your first year courses (Adv Eng is 12 Credit Points(CP), and you do 48 CP a year). There was only a person who got a Credit (C) (everyone else D/HD) in 1st Year Adv Eng in 2003.
The 2nd Adv Eng is the one you should tink about before enrolling in. If you hate business planning with a passion, the 2nd year course is not for you. In this course, you will learn a lot (and a lot more than you did in 1st Year Adv Eng), and you are almost guaranteed D/HD in 2 CP.
On to TSP. The Science TSP should not conflict with your Adv Eng. Adv Eng runs as a project with barely any class time over 2 semesters (actually, from the middle of 1st Sem to middle of 2nd Sem unless it's changed), TSP project runs from the beginning of the year to last half of the 1st Sem. You don't have to do the TSP project if you don't want to. other options include:
- Acceleration - I skipped my first semester of physics (authorised by School of Physics as a TSP student, as because I'm taking Adv. Eng.), freeing up my CP to do other subjects
- Taking higher level subjects - I did a 3rd year-level math course (3rd year is when maths get interesting, without needing prerequisite courses. 1st year is just backgound knowledge like intergration and differentiation)
- Attending special TSP seminars - Physics TSP gives you a broad, all-round knowledge of physics, unlike the standard Physics course whcih concentrate on specific topics
- Special specific TSP projects - These projects are separate to the standard TSP projects. You will be supervised by a world-class research group, using world-class research equipments, gaining knowledge way over your year level (typically at honours level). I've used over $20k worth of research equipments to research laser optics.
My philosophy? Might as well squeeze as much out of uni as i can. Other people pay ~$30k to do a standard Be/Bsc degree. for the same price, I get to learn more topics due to acceleration, challenge myself by learning higher level subjects, broaden my knowledge in physics by attending special lectures, use (and break) extremly expensive equipments (I can assure you nothing in the standard 1st year lab worth more than $2k, and I've used equipments worth >$50k and almost breaking it
), get my name in the media for designing a product never tought of before, then seeing how it helped a kid to walk, and get a "(Advanced)" next to my degree. So what's your choice?
Quincy Tse
BE(Telecom)/Bsc - USYD
STHS - class of 02