Combined Law (2 Viewers)

[Lazarus]

Well, Asquithian, if it gave you 96.80, it means that had you been sitting the HSC last year, you would have achieved that UAI. Whether or not that is a good indication of how you might perform this year is left up to you to decide.

In my opinion, Ozseek's UAISeeker is inaccurate if you attempt to use it to calculate UAIs from last year - however, that's not necessarily a bad thing, because that's not what it was designed for. It's claimed that it can predict UAIs for 2002. Exactly how they do that, when we're both using the same data, is quite beyond me.

Perhaps averaging the two results might be more accurate. It's anyone's guess.

 

[Minai]

how the hell could Ozseek claim to predict UAI's for 2002 when the scaling and all other factors havent been accounted for yet?
and since it uses the same data, how come its so inaccurate for last yr's results?

 

[Lazarus]

To be honest, I don't know. I once asked Evan Clark (the creator of their UAISeeker) the same question, and he said that "we use a powerful mathematics program called Matlab to plot the aggregate curve based on the probability sum of the individual subjects". Using probability density functions and so on would be fine if HSC marks were random variables, but they're not, so I'm not quite sure what he's on about.

With regard to its inaccuracy for 2001 UAIs - they scale marks in the same way that I do. The difference lies in the way they convert scaled aggregates to UAIs. I'm inclined to believe that they 'guessed' conversion factors so that they would fit their data. Don't know whether that's true or not though.

I should also apologise to Asquithian - I found out today that you are correct, LazSeeker very slightly inflates UAIs. The Technical Committee's Scaling Report, which I managed to obtain an advance copy of, says: "Students who received a UAI of 100 in 2001, for example, had aggregates spread across the range 483.2 to 498.2. They did not have to gain 500."

LazSeeker will report a UAI of 100 for an aggregate of 470+, which means any UAIs in the high 99s will be slightly too high. That will be fixed soon.

 

[Lazarus]

Uhm, well, realistically, you can't use any school marks to attempt to predict your UAI. Exam marks are 'aligned' and assessment marks are 'moderated'. LazSeeker takes the average of those two marks (the HSC mark) as input.

Which is why Ozseek's UAISeeker takes percentiles, not marks.

I guess I should write a little 'info' page or something - a lot of people seem to be doing the same thing.

 

[Lazarus]

You're meant to estimate them.

 

[mmhmm]

you all seem to be wanting to do law at either usyd or unsw.....how is law at uts??? considering the uai needed is 97 it seems a bit more realistic for me.....though i doubt i will get over 90....not sure about scaling and whether im doing good enough.

i have 12 units and im topping all my subjects (top 5) except in studies of religion (1u) and 2umaths. im really scared cause im doing standard english and im so crazy cause i dropped advanced. im not sure whether to be happy with how im doing or not....causing im always questioning the standard of the people at my school. my school does ok in the hsc....generally out of say 140 ppl we get say 20-30% getting over 90.

i really would like to do combined law...not sure if its the thing 4 me cause it is the only thing im interested in......all the courses turn me off. im preety confused about wat to do with my life and so every1 has been telling me do wat subject that u enjoy and r good at.....subject i most enjoy is legal and it is probably my best subject.....i know that oviously the level of legal is nothing at all in comparison to doing law but its the only thing that im interested in doing.

 

[Lazarus]

Law at UTS is still good - it was my third pref last year, I think I missed out by 0.3.

I've been much in the same situation with regard to not knowing what to do, not having anything that appeals to you and so on, and, perhaps somewhat ironically, am attempting to transfer into science/law at the end of this year for the same reason. It sounds like you should go for it. You certainly don't lose out on anything, because it's always easier to transfer into a 'lesser' degree than it is to go up a step.

 

[Minai]

Originally posted by Asquithian
I know !!! but what other marks can u use!

!!???

in order to more "accurately" predict your HSC marks, take into account how well u are placed in your school (ranks) and also if u goto a selective or top class private which historically does well

 

[chait]

Originally posted by Alex
Yeah. but after 10 years I will have a lot more money than you will after 14.

A barrister earns a 'minimum' of $2000 a day from what I have heard. What can you say to that?

I doubt that there is any minimum (or maximum) amount that you can earn because the fees you can charge will depend how good you are and how much experience you've had. If you became an SC, you could raise your fees by more than a thrid...

 

[chait]

Originally posted by Alex
I have decided I am going to do Law at USYD regardless of when I do it. I will probably do some computer science at USYD and than try and transfer and if not successful I will just do post-grad law. Either way, I'm going to USYD.

U syd isn't the most prestigious uni for law in Australia. It is more likely to be Melbourne Uni. I think that you shouldn't be so fixated on law at USYD. There are other unis which are just as good as (or better than) USYD. then again it depends on what you want to major in.

 

[Bambul]

From what I know, the USyd and Melbourne Uni Law Schools are the most prestigious in Australia, with UNSW comming in close (mainly because the first two have a much longer track record). There's not a huge difference between any of those and they all have famous people who have graduated from them (I know politicians so I'll name them: John Howard did Economic/Law at Usyd, Bob Carr did Art/Law at UNSW and Peter Costello did Arts/Law at Melbourne).

Keep in mind that there are other ways of doing law if you don't make it in through your UAI. Besides the examples mentioned before, if you are doing a BCom at UNSW you can major in Business Law. Although it is true that it seems that Law has become more of a screening subject, used primarily to determine the cream of the crop rather than for the practical uses of having an LLB.

I'm currently finishing my 1st year of a BEc at UNSW. I had Economics/Law as my first preference, but if I got the chance to transfer today then I wouldn't take it up because then I wouldn't be able to do a double major (Economics/Accounting) because one of them would be taken up by law subjects. That, and the fact that my acounting major almost needs a business law minor for professional recognition.

Anyway, I'm ranting again, better stop.

 

[chait]

Originally posted by Alex
Heya guys, im thinking of doing a Law course and I just want to get your opinions on what is better.

• COMMERCE/LAW at USYD
• COMMERCE/LAW at UNSW
• COMMERCE/LAW at Mac
• JOURNO/LAW at UTS
• IT/LAW at UTS

That is my wish list with IT/LAW being no.1

What u guys think?

Com/law @ ANU
com/law @ UNSW
com/law @ USYD

in that order.. i should have applied to melbourne as well

 

[!meeee!]

Re: Re: Combined Law

Originally posted by chait


Com/law @ ANU
com/law @ UNSW
com/law @ USYD

in that order.. i should have applied to melbourne as well

out of curiousity, why ANU first?

 

[chait]

Re: Re: Re: Combined Law

Originally posted by !meeee!


out of curiousity, why ANU first?

i know it seems weird cos ppl usually have UNSW or USYD first.. sorry if this gets lengthy. i originally had UNSW first and USYD second, ANU wasn't even in my mind. then I did some research and then I realised that had never really considered all of my options properly, I just followed this 'tradition' where ppl tried to get into UNSW or USYD. I looked at uni rankings, and compared what unis could offer me. It turned out that what I'm offered at the ANU exceeded what the others could give me. Although teh ANU is relatively young, it has achieved in it's short life what other unis took over a century to achieve. it's has won more than 3 Nobel prizes, when most unis don't have any. it also has the most qualified staff of any Australian uni (80% w/ Phds, the avg is 50% for other unis). Its staff have been cited more in international journals than any other uni in Asia (incl Australia). It has the best research reputation in Australia (good for an honours degree)..

perhaps the ANU may not be that well regarded in Australia (b/c of the Canberra's boring or the nothing's better than USYD or UNSW mentalities), but it is respected internationally. In the philosophy discipline it's been ranked in the same group with Oxford, Princeton and NYU (group 1), the next Austn uni was Monash (group 4). although it's or philosophy, it's an indication of how strong research is at the ANU. why else would Oxford and Cambridge both want to have an exchange program with the ANU? teh ANU is the only English speaking uni in the world to have this, Harvard, Stanford or Yale doen't even have it.

don't get me wrong though, if i didn't think UNSW and USYD were good, i wouldn't have put them as 2nd and 3rd. I'm still willing to go to either.

 

[!meeee!]

interesting, thanks for the info chait

 

[chait]

np my friends still think it's odd.. but anyway

 

[flyin']

chait were did you research off this stuff ... coz i want to some more research on my course ...

 

[chait]

research about the ANU?? well i looked at quite a few articles, contacted students, rankings, sites etc.. too many sources.. can u be more specific about what you'd like to know?

 

[kaseita]

if you put them in that order, wouldn't you sorta be guaranteed into ANU if you got the uai?

cause isn't usyd higher than unsw, and unsw higher than anu? (I'm prejudiced here, but that's what I'm guessing - I can't imagine the cut off being higher than 99.4!)

well, the cutoff for usyd is higher than unsw (based on last year) so why bother putting it down after unsw? it seems a little weird

 

[chait]

yeh i know well i expect that i'll get in.. remem, i'm choosing the ANU over UNSW. i put them in the order of where i want to go (which is what ur meant to do i guess).. my first preference was originally com/law @ UNSW (fee - no chance i'm getting 99 or more). well i'd rather go to UNSW than USYD b/c it has a better finance program (that's what the general view is in industry).

i have other reasons why i want to go to the ANU (that aren't academic) i just feel like a fresh start and new surroundings. i guess it's change i'm after. while i'm there, i might try for the oxford or cambridge exchange

hope to work o'seas one day, so the int'l rep of the uni is more important to me than the unfounded -ve things a bunch of ppl in syd have to say about my decisions (some ppl will undoubtedly look at me differently, but i'm thinkin of the long term). <-- btw, not directed at anyone here

anyway, if i don't like it there, then i can always transfer. i just have to at least give it a go or else i might regret it.