Hey Nick!
I'm just wrapping up my first semester of BA Commerce Mktg /Law so I don't have a huge load of experience with it yet but given it's been 2 days and no one else has replied I figured I might give it a crack...
1. Workload in any macquarie subject is theoretically calculated by the number of credit points the subject is by 3 hours... so you do 4 x 3 credit point subjects per semester first year so the expectation is that you will be doing 36 hours a week of work... this is made up of contact hours and at home study... I personally have 16 hours of face to face contact (classes, lectures, tutorials) and the amount of at home study fluctuated throughout the semester.
The annoying thing about the workload (but you will find this at most uni's in first year... i've been to 2 and they were the same) the lectures are all on different days, especially with economics, so you'll be lucky to end up with less than a 4 day timetable, which you may not mind... who knows... I'm at uni tuesday - friday... it's alright, just means between uni/work I never get a day off.
2. There is alot more maths than I thought there would be... go check out the handbook entry...
http://www.handbook.mq.edu.au/programofstudy.php?edition=2008&code=MKT03... it might look like a pile of random stuff but you might be able to tell there's some economics involved... and if you didn't do 2 unit or higher math in high school then you have to do compulsory university maths which is Math123 as a pre-requisite for the economics... it's my least favourite subject at the moment and I think there may be a chance I won't pass but it's definitely not a reason to discount the course... also i've heard that they may be changing the program to involve less econ... but i'm not sure how definite that is... Economics itself isn't bad to tell the truth... its just very dense.
But on the other hand the marketing subject I did this semester was incredibly easy and i've been getting good marks for only an average amount of effort... I've also heard that a few of the subjects I have to do next semester (I-systems, Business, Accounting) are also quite easy... but I can't be sure.
3. This is the question that I can't help you too much with except for that I've heard their commerce degrees are looked upon well and i've heard there's a fairly good employment rate.
4. This question is like "which do I like better? apples or oranges?" I can't tell you what would work better for you, especially since I have no idea what you want to do at the end of it or where your interests lie... I chose Commerce instead of BBA because I liked the varied subjects... BBA does alot of Human Resources subjects which, to be honest, didn't appeal to me... and I just don't want to go into general business. But BBA doesn't do economics, and I've heard it is a good program... and there's room to specialise and everything... so yeah... really you have to work that out yourself.
5. Macquarie prides itself on the attractiveness of its students... in 2002, 2004 and 2005 it was voted as having the most beautiful student body in australia and came runner up in 2007 to the University of Queensland. All undergraduate candidates have to provide head shots along with their uai and those who have acheived a high level of attractiveness are awarded extra uai points in order to get them into the program they want... i mean dude... wtf??? all i can tell you is that alot of girls do marketing... as far as their "hotness vs beauty"... just... i'm not even gonna comment cos it's kinda a weird thing to ask... yes there are girls on campus... there are even girls in your classes... GASP! YOU MIGHT GET TO SIT NEXT TO ONE! (sorry to take the piss =p)
So that was fairly lengthy... but i hope I've helped! Any more questions let me know...
