University application stress (2 Viewers)

[Kittikhun]

Hello.

I'm currently getting stressed out over my university application and it is making me procrastinate from work. I need to stop. I'm scarred that I will not be able to gain entry into university mainly because of my lack of leadership experience and extra-curricular activities of which I have not done much of. I have never been a mentor, never been in the SRC (rejected two times in 2006 and 2007) and I'm not a senior leader. I have practically done nothing for my school except being in the Gifted and Talented Class and helping out on Presentation Night. I have represented my school in sport in knock-out volleyball and basketball but my teams were both knocked out in the first round unfortunately. For extra-curricular I have only done volunteering at St Vincent de Paul (total hours volunteered are around 12. I just started this year and was unlucky in getting rejected three times for volunteering positions at the end of last year and start of this year), the Red Shield Appeal and Army Cadets (which I have just joined up this year. Still a recruit!). I plan to either go to USYD or ANU because they are the only two universities which offer both Arabic and French majors which I aspire both to major in at university. I know that these two universities are pretty selective in deciding who shall they take in so I want to ask whether these ECs and lack of leadership experience will suffice for my university application to be successful (in your eyes). So will they? If not is there anything I possibly can do that will make it successful? (I do not plan to make any further commitments to ECs besides the Lions Clubs International since I will then not have enough time to make a meaningful contribution in volunteering at St. Vincent de Paul.)

Also, if I do make it into USYD or ANU, is there a parachuting/skydiving club there much along the lines of the West Point Black Nights parachuting team?

YouTube - West Point Parachute Team Video

(if you're interested in watching the video it starts getting cool at 1.04.)

Thanks.

 

[spence]

Pretty much all courses just look at your UAI. So you should be fine, as I'm assuming you'll be doing a BA

 

[lychnobity]

Like the poster above said, it'll only matter if you're doing something like medicine or applying for a scholarship, or need to lodge a personal statement.

Or, if the course you're doing requires an interview (even then, I can only think of medicine where they would come into use)

 

[Kittikhun]

Am I in the league for a scholarship? I'm worrying how I am going to pay for my HECS/HELP or whatever they call it now since I plan to work overseas when I'm older. Will the government still chase me if I work overseas then?

Thanks for the very quick replies. Didn't expect that.

 

[lychnobity]

Am I in the league for a scholarship? I'm worrying how I am going to pay for my HECS/HELP or whatever they call it now since I plan to work overseas when I'm older. Will the government still chase me if I work overseas then?

Thanks for the very quick replies. Didn't expect that.

Heck would I know... you'll only get a scholarship if:
a) you apply for one
b) get an insane ATAR (99.xx +), in which case, would qualify you for the UNSW Scientia $10000 scholarship

Payment occurs when you start earning in excess of $35000/year.

Last bit? idk. Go find out yourself

 

[spence]

Am I in the league for a scholarship? I'm worrying how I am going to pay for my HECS/HELP or whatever they call it now since I plan to work overseas when I'm older. Will the government still chase me if I work overseas then?

Thanks for the very quick replies. Didn't expect that.

I'm pretty sure you don't have to pay HECS if you go overseas, because it's done through the Australian tax system

 

[Lukybear]

I think you do pay HECS fees even if you move over seas, as the above said through tax system i believe.

Hey you should stop worrying, i wanna do medicine and Ive got less extra-ciricular activities then you. I should be the one worrying.

 

[xeuyrawp]

Yeah start stressing when you're writing postgrad applications to 9 universities across 5 countries in 3 languages, to be honest. :-\

 

[xeuyrawp]

One step at a time

Step 1 (Get out of bed) is hard enough.

 

[Napstar]

I never understood uni application stress. Like, I pretty much put in my applications for whatever and then chilled until January. I was vice captain, but it doesn't count when it's in a shit school with 80 kids from k-12, and I didn't do extra curricular stuff either. I figured if I didn't get what I'd want, I'd just do whatever I got and work it out from there.

 

[Andi0390]

Its no use stressing. Its pretty much based on your UAI. Thats it. No one cares what you do in your spare time as long as academically you are doing alright.

Yes you do have to pay HECS if you are overseas. As they cannot judge your income you will be required to pay a percentage of your remaining debt each year. Do it. You are being offered a loan for an education and it is only fair that you pay it back, everyone else does and its not your money.

Besides don't go planning your future now, a lot changes in university. Go with the flow and chill. y

 

[Kittikhun]

Its no use stressing. Its pretty much based on your UAI. Thats it. No one cares what you do in your spare time as long as academically you are doing alright.

Yes you do have to pay HECS if you are overseas. As they cannot judge your income you will be required to pay a percentage of your remaining debt each year. Do it. You are being offered a loan for an education and it is only fair that you pay it back, everyone else does and its not your money.

Besides don't go planning your future now, a lot changes in university. Go with the flow and chill. y

The thing is with HECS is that I plan to join the British Army or US Army or the French Foreign Legion as a medic which means my salary would probably be around $12 000 US per year. How am I ever going to pay my HECS off with that?

 

[tommykins]

so all in all you want to do arts and major in a language?

lol, they only care about ur atard

 

[lolwth]

you dont have to pay off your hecs if you earn under a certain amount you tard

 

[onholidays]

Hey kid...stress out less... I understand. I was like you last year and I just felt like I couldn't handle worrying about whether I was going to make it into uni and trying to stay on top of ranks at school. It was tremendously overwhelming.

But in the end, stress isn't really going to help. Rather, just do what you can, take each step one at a time and you will be fine. Everybody's in the same boat.

In regards to your extracurriculars, they are fantastic! Wow. I considered myself to be pretty okay on extracurriculars during the HSC, but I had less than you and I wasn't worried. Anyway, important thing is to be confident about what you do, even if as you said it was only a few hours. If you're going for an interview, don't mention the short time period, elaborate on the things you did while you were there and make it sound like you had been doing those things for ages. And always be really enthusiastic. Enthusiasm makes up for a lot of things.

 

[jaimebien]

I never understood uni application stress. Like, I pretty much put in my applications for whatever and then chilled until January. I was vice captain, but it doesn't count when it's in a shit school with 80 kids from k-12, and I didn't do extra curricular stuff either. I figured if I didn't get what I'd want, I'd just do whatever I got and work it out from there.

Yeah, the important thing is to make sure you put in your UAC application and payment on time. Don't worry about course preferences too much yet or HECs. Come January, when your HSC results are out and you've got a better idea of what you want to do, then worry about the finer points of arranging course preferences (not much to it really--just put them in order of what you want to do most, not based on whether you think you'll get it).

 

[izzy88]

The thing is with HECS is that I plan to join the British Army or US Army or the French Foreign Legion as a medic which means my salary would probably be around $12 000 US per year. How am I ever going to pay my HECS off with that?

as someone has said- you only have to pay off your debt once you start earning a certain amount.

just a query (and completely off topic)- why wouldn't you join the australian army?

 

[jaimebien]

izzy88 is right. ADFA (in Canberra) employs you throughout your degree and you can study at ANU, which was one of the OP's choices right? They pay for your degree, your salary and they train you at the same time.

 

[lychnobity]

The thing is with HECS is that I plan to join the British Army or US Army or the French Foreign Legion as a medic which means my salary would probably be around $12 000 US per year. How am I ever going to pay my HECS off with that?

Heck would I know... you'll only get a scholarship if:
a) you apply for one
b) get an insane ATAR (99.xx +), in which case, would qualify you for the UNSW Scientia $10000 scholarship

Payment occurs when you start earning in excess of $35000/year.

Last bit? idk. Go find out yourself

If you bothered to read my post...

And why would you want to join a foreign army? The ADFA has some sort of policy about accepting all who apply, is affiliated with UNSW, pays you while going to uni, and requires you to work for them during summer breaks and work after you graduate for one more year than the length of your course. (eg you do a course that takes 3 years, you work for them for those 3 years, and another 4 years after graduation)

 

[Kittikhun]

The thing I worry about the most is getting a scholarship. My parents are both factory workers who earn less than $70 000 when both of their salaries are added up together and that's before tax and for a family that has to support four people and a dog. I'm not going to ask for them to pay for my HECs. That is one of the two main reasons why I am doing volunteering (the other is for experience since I won't be able to do it again after finishing high school) and why I'm stressing over my uni application.

Sorry, I was pissed off and I didn't read it all. If I become a citizen of another country will they still tax me for HECS? I'm not an avaricious bastard, I'm just curious since they take out your HECS using the Australian tax system.

I want to serve in the British Army, US Army or French Foreign Legion because in relation to Australian Army their armed forces have been into more combat and thus have sustained higher casualties in Afghanistan. I cannot possibly sit back and let others do the fighting and dying while I'm relatively safe in comparison to them. It's just not right especially when my country's media boasts about our small contribution to the war in Afghanistan. It makes me feel guilty, angry and depressed. The US has sustained nearly 760, Britain over 200, Canada over 150, France over 30, Denmark 26 etc. soldiers who have loss their lives in Afghanistan while Australia has only sustained 11 soldiers (12 if you count Stuart Nash who was born in Sydney and an Australian citizen that joined the British Army after finishing high school. He died in December 2008 after serving with The Rifles for a couple of months in Afghanistan. He was 21.). Have you ever heard about these men? Have you heard of the 5 18 year old British soldiers who lost their lives in one day this year during Operation Panther Claw? Not one mention of them was made in the mainstream news that the majority of Australians watch. Not even one mention of the 10 French paratroopers who lost their lives on one day on 20 August, 2008 was made on Channel Seven or Channel Nine. Most Australians think we are making a big contribution to the war in Afghanistan. We are not. We are making a good contribution but not a significant one (I'm not having a go on the Australian soldiers who died). I cannot and will not serve in the Australian Army until we make a bigger contribution to the war effort and until we do it in humility. I want to make a difference. So that is why I mainly do not want to serve in the Australian Army even though I love this country and am grateful to be born here. I'm going to be a medic anyway so I'm not going to kill anyone i.e. I won't be one of those rare trigger happy American soldiers.

Also, ADFA does not offer Arabic as a major. That is my prime reason plus everyone says that it is not that special and that there is no campus or social life (1000 cadets only). It has been criticised in the past too (go to wikipedia if you don't believe me) for sexual harassment of female cadets and hazing. I cannot study at an academy that cannot control its cadets or an academy that has a low espirit de corps and lack of trust. I hate jingoists as well and if I hear some cadet boasting about how much she or he loves Australia for four years I am going to go crazy. It looks attractive especially it's undergraduate sponsored program though but not for me. If I had to go to a military academy West Point or Sandhurst would be the academy (even though Sandhurst doesn't offer an academic program) but for that I must abandon my Australian citizenship for an American one which I'm still arguing over with myself to do (unless if ADFA offers an exchange program to go to West Point for one semester). I'm Australian at heart and not American but I still feel guilty every time I hear the news that an American, British or Candaian etc. soldier barely older than me has lost their life in Afghanistan. It's a hard decision.

Sorry for the long post.