• Congratulations to the Class of 2024 on your results!
    Let us know how you went here
    Got a question about your uni preferences? Ask us here

co op scholarships (1 Viewer)

-pari-

Active Member
Joined
May 26, 2005
Messages
1,070
Location
Cloud 9
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
i'm looking at applying for commerce(marketing) unsw, and was wondering if you guys could give me some info regarding the co op applications

i was mostly curious about the extracirricular/UAI/interview weighting. while i'm performing great at school, and have good communication + public speaking skills, my extra-cirricular list doesn't look crash hot.

this is largely due to some personal factors that inhibited me from participating in much over the past 3years (would that be taken into consideration?) , but if you take that out i still have a decent participation in non-academic activities.

so in this case, if i go well in the interview, would my lack of extracirricular activities be a large drawback?

and also, i'm aware ppl start doing small extra circcular things (eg volunteering in charities, choir, etc etc) at this time to make up their lists, but how do the interviewers take that? considering it's kinda obvious if people start their extra cirricular activities in may, just a few months before the interview?
 

berrycrush

New Member
Joined
Nov 28, 2006
Messages
3
Gender
Female
HSC
2005
From what i've heard, they don't accept a lot of marketing co-op scholarships. The numbers are pretty limited, i think it was only three(ish?) when i last heard.

Anyway, they're not going to full analyse you about the time you start doing extra-cirriculars. I know for a fact that in the preliminary sorting of applications, a lot of them just see how MANY extra-cirriculars you've done and whether you've really attempted at a balanced lifestyle (just academics alone definitely won't get you through)

And last I recall (assuming your application form is the same as the one I've seen), there's a section for you to write about any significant drawbacks in your life recently and how you've overcome them. But again, the form I saw was for 2nd year undergraduates trying to get a co-op spot midyear.

good luck though =)
 

Seppuku

New Member
Joined
Oct 28, 2006
Messages
23
Gender
Male
HSC
2007
I'm trying to apply for a Finance co-op; what are the odds on that?? Is anyone else finding this application a major headache? :mad1:
 

yupkigirl__

New Member
Joined
Nov 6, 2004
Messages
27
Location
Fairfield
Gender
Female
HSC
2006
Teddy Lee said:
Also, if you're applying for the co-op scholarship in any of the business majors, do you always have to do a B Comm? Or can you do B Commerce (International) or B Commerce (Liberal Studies) as another option?
Yup, you can only do it as B Com.
 

nexu

New Member
Joined
Jul 31, 2007
Messages
23
Gender
Male
HSC
2007
I've got an interview for Business Information Technology and Information Systems and Management on the 27th. Kind of nervous about the questions because I really want a place. Graduating with such a scholarship is just so ...!

Anyone else get interviews?
 

bikapika

Member
Joined
May 10, 2007
Messages
186
Gender
Male
HSC
2007
I got an interview for actuarial studies, since there are like 15+ sponsors for actuarial studies, im assuming 20~30 places will be available. However, if you consider about the fact that 100+ will be interviewing for actuarial- -

lol for myself, most of my extra curriculum activities are in this year

why do u worry so much lol all you need to do is to be yourself. If they like you for who you are then u should get the scholarship, if they dont, then maybe you are not suitable for this scholarship and you should not waste your time on a whole 36 units of compulsory industry training which prevents you from doing an honours year or a co major.
 

redom

Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2006
Messages
139
Gender
Male
HSC
2007
i got an actuarial interview yesterday too!...theres 100 people getting interviewed!!....damn thats alot!
 

bikapika

Member
Joined
May 10, 2007
Messages
186
Gender
Male
HSC
2007
redom said:
i got an actuarial interview yesterday too!...theres 100 people getting interviewed!!....damn thats alot!
it was a hypobole -0- however since they have 15+ sponsors for actuarial, each sponsor are going to interview people for 2 days, and each interview takes 30mins, so they can interview maximum 10 people a day, thats

10 x 15 x 2 = 300 maximum interviews they can do

haha and generally speaking they may take about 15~20 people since each sponsor could support at least 1 student, so somehow we could have 5%+ chance of getting into actuarial co op

not too bad haha much better than trying to get 99.9+ uai for a 10k scholarship which you have only 0.05% chance

again, the whole assumption is just my immature speculation
 

stazi

Nightman
Joined
Feb 23, 2003
Messages
14,093
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2004
-pari- said:
i'm looking at applying for commerce(marketing) unsw, and was wondering if you guys could give me some info regarding the co op applications

i was mostly curious about the extracirricular/UAI/interview weighting. while i'm performing great at school, and have good communication + public speaking skills, my extra-cirricular list doesn't look crash hot.

this is largely due to some personal factors that inhibited me from participating in much over the past 3years (would that be taken into consideration?) , but if you take that out i still have a decent participation in non-academic activities.
so in this case, if i go well in the interview, would my lack of extracirricular activities be a large drawback?
and also, i'm aware ppl start doing small extra circcular things (eg volunteering in charities, choir, etc etc) at this time to make up their lists, but how do the interviewers take that? considering it's kinda obvious if people start their extra cirricular activities in may, just a few months before the interview?
I can't comment on the application process, but I'm not sure if co-op really is the best option. Firstly, you don't get paid for the internships you do, when you can really be getting industry experience yourself, and be getting paid for it, which would also lead to an excellent grad position.

Also, isn't the program four or five years? That seems to be quite excessive for what is basically a b commerce degree.
 

milton

Member
Joined
Oct 30, 2004
Messages
107
Location
Westmead
Gender
Male
HSC
2006
there are about 15 companies sponsoring 16 places i would guess (PwC sponsors 2). you'll find out all this on the open day day before your interviews

last yr there were about 60 ppl being interviewed, and it seems theres even slightly less applications this yr

its true you dont get paid directly for your work on IT, but then again, they're paying u a scholarship for doing nothing over the semester so thats really for the work.

the program is 4 yrs since you do Part 2 courses in your 4th yr.
you can actually do a co=major (in fact you have to), but its gotta be wthin commerce and you cant do a double degree if thats what u meant
 

xxJTxx

Member
Joined
May 15, 2006
Messages
266
Gender
Male
HSC
2007
I didn't get an interview for finance, or for any of my other preferences ... and i was like wtf. so i actually replied to the rejection email and specifically asked for reasons why and more about the process.

applications get graded twice by the scholarship office, then they get sent to the respective faculty where they are graded again and chosen from. apparently for the finance major, like 360 people applied, and i think she said 39 get interviewed or something.

in regards to my application in particular, she said it was "reasonable" and that there were many more people who had a "range" of extra curricular activities and non-academic achievements; people who were sports captains, school captains, involved in extensive charity work, and all types of other activities.

like wtf...how annoying. i guess my extra-curricular list just wasn't enough..just cause i didnt do much other non-acadmeic activitiy in yr 12..besides being coordinator of the yearbook. my list before tht was kinda impressive, but the key is apparently to have it balanced throughout all school yrs. sorry that some of us didn't want a million distractions when hsc is already enough, but i guess its important to show you can juggle all kinds of things!
 

misdreavous

Counterbalance
Joined
Mar 8, 2005
Messages
47
Location
Elsewhere
Gender
Male
HSC
2006
nexu said:
I've got an interview for Business Information Technology and Information Systems and Management on the 27th. Kind of nervous about the questions because I really want a place. Graduating with such a scholarship is just so ...!

Anyone else get interviews?
Congratulations for getting an interview for BIT.
I am a first year BIT...lol...no point being nervous...just be yourself...hopefully you have experience with programming or databases to talk about.
As for Industrial Training, you get the opportunity to go to some 'big' companies, I am going to IBM next year.
Good luck....the hardest question I got?...."What's the most innovative thing you've done?"....I had to quickly whip out my trusty pocket dictionary and look up such a big word in my first interview.....joke joke.

I got an interview for actuarial studies, since there are like 15+ sponsors for actuarial studies, im assuming 20~30 places will be available. However, if you consider about the fact that 100+ will be interviewing for actuarial- -
Sorry to disappoint your assumptions...but there are just less than 20 places in actuarial co-op. There are 20 in BIT right now, which is the largest group.
Forget about the probabilty...try all the permutations/combinations/binomial distributions you like...they won't help you in the interview....oh...wait....actuarial interview is a lot about MARKS...so if you are doing well in 3u and 4u....you have a good chance.

Just a final general tip...research your potential sponsor companies, knowing what they do as a business does help.

EDIT: You 07s should get off BOS...and study...stop lagging the forums....took like 5mins to post that....and will take another 5min to do this edit....having said that...I should go study for uni finals...
 
Last edited:

bikapika

Member
Joined
May 10, 2007
Messages
186
Gender
Male
HSC
2007
lol thx for your advice.
so approximately 60 ppl are getting inteviewed for actuarial co op, and 16 get it :)
good chance lol thats almost 30%
 

fraqqie

UNSW BIT Co-op 04
Joined
Apr 14, 2004
Messages
5
Gender
Male
HSC
2003
i've been thru the whole four years of co-op and it's really hard to say that there's an exact weighting on extracirricular, UAI and interview.

I'm sure if u have a great UAI and did a great interview that really showed ur passion within the field that you wish to succeed in and have the qualities that the interviewers are looking for, I'm sure having a less than stellar extracirricular (e.g. school captain, SRC president... u know what I mean) won't count against you, there can be only so many school captains and even being a school captain doesn't mean that you would have the best leadership skills or be able to work in a team. these qualities can be demonstrated through many other activities e.g. group projects, organising school events or yearbooks

you have to understand that there's tough competition for those limited spots and if ur in a strong or highly competitive co-op program then it would be harder to get that interview

chin up xxJTxx, u mite not get in to co-op now but you might be able to be one later on as the degree progresses

thats my 5 cents =p philip
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top