ANU science vs UNSW science (1 Viewer)

[Jameswilmot2000]

can anyone tell me if there is any real reason why i should choose Bachelor of Science at UNSW as opposed to the same degree at ANU ...

i want to go to UNSW but my mother would prefer i would go to ANU ...

any helpful advice?

 

[Rekkusu]

On the grounds of the syllabus/course outline, most Bachelor of Science courses are the same within Australia.

I've looked before at ANU's integrity of B Sci, and it doesn't offer the extensive variety of majors that are also offered at UNSW. i.e. Check for Medical Immunology & Microbiology...Most Universities only offer microbiology, and some offer immunology, but not together.

If you're judging by facility-wise, I like UNSW's Labs more, in fact if you're planning to major in Chemistry you'll experience first-hand our Uni's newest labs that are due to open late next year.

The reason why your parents may want you to go to ANU, is because it did (previously, not sure about now) have a higher ranking than other universities (apart from UMelb). But by the end of the day, it's up to you. Did you check out UNSW's Courses & Careers day last Saturday?

 

[phrred]

can anyone tell me if there is any real reason why i should choose Bachelor of Science at UNSW as opposed to the same degree at ANU ...

i want to go to UNSW but my mother would prefer i would go to ANU ...

any helpful advice?

maybe shes tryin to kick u out

 

[blackfriday]

the PhB (hons) in science (ANU)/bsc (hons) (NUS) is probably the most impressive program offered in australia if you can get into it.

 

[Jameswilmot2000]

maybe shes tryin to kick u out

meh ... except we live closer to Canberra then Sydney ... lol

The reason why your parents may want you to go to ANU, is because it did (previously, not sure about now) have a higher ranking than other universities (apart from UMelb). But by the end of the day, it's up to you. Did you check out UNSW's Courses & Careers day last Saturday?

yeah i don't think they were aware of the ranking ...

i would have liked to have gone to the UNSW Courses and Careers day but i only live 6 hours from Sydney ....

 

[who_loves_maths]

Hi Jameswilmot2000,

Do you have any specific discipline(s) or major(s) in mind? It is actually very difficult to qualitatively compare the two universities in a field as broad as 'Science' in general.

There are specialties within both Universities that their counterparts do not possess.
eg. the standard of ANU's candidature and quality of courses in the area of Physics is quite exceptional... more students who have been on the Australian Physics Olympiad teams have chosen to come to the ANU than any other university (partly due to the fact that the director of the APO program is a lecturer at the ANU).

On the other hand, I'm sure there are many research fields in which UNSW possibly surpass the ANU.

It is true, as has been said by Rekkusu, that there is really very little difference in any undergraduate science degree across Australia.

It is also true that ANU is consistently ranked as a superior tertiary institution than any other university in Australia (with exception to 2005, University of Melbourne).

However, both of these above points can be misleading.
(1) Even though the content of a normal BSc degree is practically the same across all universities in Australia, you need to also think about what you might do after an undergraduate degree. In this case, the university you are affiliated with through you undergraduate degree will matter - it is always nicer on your CV to have a degree from a more prestigious university than otherwise; many employers are picky about this.

(2) The rank of a university has actually very little to do with undergraduate programs - the factors which determine the placing of a university are heavily related to the research activities, eg. citation numbers etc, of its staff. In a normal BSc, underdraduate usually have very limited access to such research.
So you should decide for yourself whether or not the 'rank' of a university is relevant to your choice.
If however, you plan to do research (eg. honours year) after your BSc, then obviously this rank would have more significance.


But in summary, as someone said before, it would have been good if you attended the Open days for both universities where you could have found out a lot about the BSc program in each university; but I guess it's a bit too late for that.

Anyways, hope this helps your selection somewhat.

the PhB (hons) in science (ANU)/bsc (hons) (NUS) is probably the most impressive program offered in australia if you can get into it.

Not necessarily the most impressive - but it is certainly the most prestigious and unique in Australia .

 

[velox]

Exclusive and unique, yes, but I wouldnt go as far as saying it is prestigious.

James, when you are only choosing between unis for such a generic degree, it doesn't matter at all where you go (go8 is a good idea though), since you're going(most probably) to need a grad/post grad degree to get you somewhere.

 

[Rekkusu]

yeah i don't think they were aware of the ranking ...

i would have liked to have gone to the UNSW Courses and Careers day but i only live 6 hours from Sydney ....

Aw ok, if you unfortunately missed out UNSW & ANU's courses & career's days, there are two alternatives left: -

(i) Talk to your career advisor in your High School after you've finished your final HSC Exam about what you want to come out as (Job-wise), some career advisors are very knowledgeable, and they can give you general information on which jobs are in high demand today. i.e. You wouldn't really want to go into Computer-based degrees nowadays (since alot of them are on contracts) unless if you're doing really well already with High school based accelerated computing, or unless if you really want to come out and get a job at google! (Just a thought - no offense to computer ppl)

(It is beneficial that you don't start thinking too much of which university you want to go to if you've already planned to do a Science degree (Since most science degrees don't have any icky, complicated pre-processes like in B Med, Aviation or Pharmacy.)

(ii) Phone UNSW's Student Central (google it), or ANU's Enrolment Enquiry Phone number and discuss your options with them, most of these people are very experienced, and can offer you important info.

Finally, as who_loves_maths stated beforehand, think about your major. Our UNSW's Science Faculty site:

http://www.science.unsw.edu.au/homepage.html

Is with no surprise very informative, have a look in particular at the Careers Brochure & 2007 Undergraduate Guide.

Obviously, if you intend to go to UNSW, Moving closer to the uni is a must, and most of us students are *well I think...* and plan to stay with their family till they finish their degree. Thus, if you go to UNSW, your whole family might need to move with you, and I daresay if your parent is 'attempting' to control which uni you want to go to, then they'll want to stick to you like glue to whichever uni you plan to go to.

On a sidenote, whoa I didn't know that ANU was really good with Physics as well...I was thinking that UNSW was, since they have all this nice spiffy looking Quantum Mechanics lab..

 

[Jameswilmot2000]

i) Talk to your career advisor in your High School after you've finished your final HSC Exam about what you want to come out as (Job-wise), some career advisors are very knowledgeable, ...

yeah ill have to talk to my careers adviser ... she is pretty good

i think i want to major in physics ... if i wanted to do the more theoretical research physics i am assuming that i will have to do post-graduate education?

like he said ...

James, when you are only choosing between unis for such a generic degree, it doesn't matter at all where you go (go8 is a good idea though), since you're going(most probably) to need a grad/post grad degree to get you somewhere.

You wouldn't really want to go into Computer-based degrees nowadays (since alot of them are on contracts) unless if you're doing really well already with High school based accelerated computing, or unless if you really want to come out and get a job at google! (Just a thought - no offense to computer ppl)

i had once considered doing computing but for this reason and a number of others i decided not to pursue such a career ... my mother suggests that I pursue computers more as a 'hobby'

Obviously, if you intend to go to UNSW, Moving closer to the uni is a must, and most of us students are *well I think...* and plan to stay with their family till they finish their degree. Thus, if you go to UNSW, your whole family might need to move with you, and I daresay if your parent is 'attempting' to control which uni you want to go to, then they'll want to stick to you like glue to whichever uni you plan to go to.

yeah i will be moving up to Sydney and 'hopefully' living on one of the colleges ... my family can't really move up ... my dad is an established accountant while my mum and step-dad own a farm ...

(ii) Phone UNSW's Student Central (google it), or ANU's Enrolment Enquiry Phone number and discuss your options with them, most of these people are very experienced, and can offer you important info.

i will most certainly do that ...

(It is beneficial that you don't start thinking too much of which university you want to go to if you've already planned to do a Science degree (Since most science degrees don't have any icky, complicated pre-processes like in B Med, Aviation or Pharmacy.)

i don't know why UNSW appeals to me so much (it is probably irrational ... lol) ... it probably has something to do with the fact that i did one of the GERRIC programs there one year


thank you very much for your assistance

 

[who_loves_maths]

Exclusive and unique, yes, but I wouldnt go as far as saying it is prestigious.

It is prestigious by virtue of the content and involvement of the degree, the entry level (ie. cut-off), and the institution offering it.

All PhB degrees are prestigious worldwide - eg. check out the PhB degree offered by Oxford University in the UK.

PhB degrees are rare in the world and are usually offered as postgraduate degrees where there is a large component of research involved, as opposed to a standard BSc undergraduate degree.

The PhB at ANU is modelled as such.

Perhaps the only thing stepping in the way of everyone's perception of the prestige of the degree is the fact that, admittedly, ANU has a lousy marketing team - they don't seem to know how to sell what the university has to offer to the public (from experience, not even to students who live as close as in Sydney).

eg. the number of HS students in Australia who seems to know about the degree is surprisingly small (I was lucky I found out about it myself actually), and given that the degree has been in operation for several years now.
Perhaps if we can get more people to take notice of it, its status of 'prestige' might be made more aware to the public.

 

[velox]

You can't compare Oxford and ANU lol. I really dont think the UAI required relates to the prestige of a course. That's just supply and demand.

 

[who_loves_maths]

Precisely. If you can't compare Oxford with ANU, then you can't compare it with any other university in Australia.
So this changes nothing about the prestige of the degree in Australia.

We all know supply and demand is a part of cut-offs.

However, the the supply is restricted in the first place because the intention is to restrict it to a minimal number of well performing students.

It is very possible for the ANU to allow more students to come into the degree every year - but they won't do it, because they want to keep it's rarity, exclusivity, and prestige.

So it is quite obvious that prestige is related to cut-offs.

Why does Harvard University keep its entry level requirements so high? Why do people think Harvard is so prestigious?

The link is blatant.

 

[velox]

Your Oxford comment seems to be quite redundant.

The cut offs are high (at Harvard) because so many people apply, and the most deserving should be allowed to study there. Harvard is prestigious because it produces great people.

 

[Rekkusu]

Your Oxford comment seems to be quite redundant.

The cut offs are high (at Harvard) because so many people apply, and the most deserving should be allowed to study there. Harvard is prestigious because it produces great people.

True, as Velox stated, all of those UAI-Related items are just Supply & Demand. Though, don't think that every student coming out of Harvard is good, lol Prince Charles or something was offered any degree at Harvard + Oxford, Stanford, etc, just because his dad is of royal blood.

I think that, it doesn't matter too much which university you go to (unless if you're heading into TAFE or UWS or something), as long as you aim for alot of HDs in your degree, then do a PhD then possibly a masters, you're bound to be as prestigious as a student coming out of Harvard.

i don't know why UNSW appeals to me so much (it is probably irrational ... lol) ... it probably has something to do with the fact that i did one of the GERRIC programs there one year

Aha, I know must be our new stylish buildings!! But seriously, if you do join up UNSW the coming year, or the year after that, most new buildings would have been completed, and you'd get access to those spiffy looking Chem labs in your First Year science. (Not sure about Physics labs since I don't do physics, but I have heard that they're quite nice)

 

[velox]

Actually in the EU and the US, they care about where you do your msc/mphil from, so it is important. However no-one cares where you do your phd as long as it is published in many journals

 

[Survivor39]

I can't really say why you should choose UNSW over ANU. To my knowledge, both are good unis. I think UNSW Science has more majors, and is a more diverse place.

Microbiology and Immunology at UNSW is fantastic too.