Considering undergraduate ANU! (1 Viewer)

[jusdorange]

Hi,

All of a sudden I have an interest in ANU for next year (I finished HSC last year and deferred a business degree at Mac to travel..I've since decided that I probably won't be able to handle the accounting/statistics in business) - if anyone could answer my questions or point me to threads or websites with more information I would appreciate it Sorry if you get these questions all the time hopefully these aren't too general.

Oh and the degree I'm most interested in is B. Arts in International Relations. Any feedback on this degree or arts in general would be great! It looks so interesting and my UAI is 0.3 more than what was needed for this year so hopefully I would get in.

- honestly how hard will the move from Sydney to Canberra be? I am already getting a bit sick of the Sydney nightlife anyway and would rather have house parties with friends than go clubbing (plus it's not tooooo far to go to Sydney for special occasions like 21st's)

- is it a bad idea to move to Canberra without having a car? Since I'd like to come back home for a few days as often as my studying allows (once every few weeks?) is the public transport (buses, trains?) okay? I somehow doubt my parents would come and pick me up

- about accommodation, I would love to live on-campus but I'm not sure whether it would end up costing less to buy my own food or pay more to have food included with the room? I'd definitely be on a tight budget!
Also, do you sign a contract for the whole of your degree (Arts/Int Relations is 3 years) and if so, do you have to pay for the whole 3 years' in advance?

- what's the exchange program at ANU like? ... can you go on exchange long term (for 6 months to a year?) Is there a broad range of countries you can go to or can you only go somewhere related to the language(s) you studied? Are there any exchange scholarship type things?

- how long are the summer/Christmas holidays?

Thanks! Any information at all to persuade (or discourage ) me from applying for ANU would be really appreciated.

 

[Slidey]

IR? Another clone, eh?

You're looking at the right place.

1) Hopefully, but if not just enrol in normal arts and do all the IR subjects, do well, then transfer into BA(IR).

2) No. It's a bad idea to move to Canberra without having a bike. Just kidding. Canberra is designed for bikes, though. Buses are OK - they'll get you by. Trains... depends on where you live? EDIT: Oh, Sydney. That's fine. There's trains to Sydney. I come from close to Sydney, too - it's easy.

3) Trust me, you don't want to have to deal with catering for yourself in first year.

4) Excahnge is 1 or 2 semesters (roughly 6 months or one year). There's a large selection of universities to exchange to. You are only limited by your willingness to learn. Though obviously it is pointless to take a course in renaissance art in Norwegian if you can't speak it. Most places offer courses in English, though.

5) Winter holidays? 3 to 6 weeks or something. At least 3 weeks, perhaps 6 weeks if you have exams during the semester instead of exam weeks.

 

[loquasagacious]

Summer and christmas are the same holiday and exclusing exams last four months. If winter is also a question again excluding the exam period its basically a month. In both instances the exam period is ~2 weeks.

Oh and as a note late year arts (not sure about others) courses are typically only 11 weeks in duration. The semester is 13 weeks. Therefore you knock off two weeks before the exam period.

Returning to the original questions:

1)www.anu.edu.au It can be a pig to navigate but everything is there. Can't find info in prospective students then just hit current and browse that. Also have a look in the biki entry.

2)How hard the move is all depends on you. You mention you deferred to travel if by travel you mean overseas without parents or similar then you will likely adjust to the move well. Personally I had no problems moving, others I know did/do feel homesick.

As far as the nightlife/social side goes canberra offers say two differing scenes: the house-party (/hall/college party) and the nightlife. Over the sydney nightlife canberra has several things going for it:
Proximity between you and it eg walking distance/cheap cab.
Proximity between venues eg no hiking/cabbing across sydney between places.
No lines. Self-explannatory lines are infrequent and generally fast moving.
Variety/numbers. There are ALOT of places within a small area offering many differing experiences from nightclubs, to pubs, to cocktail lounges, etc.
Its cheap. Cover charges are rare and small. Drink prices compared to Sydney are low. eg $1 and $2 drinks on the cheap nights (pr every night with a discount card/similar). ~$5 normally.
Quality. Several venues are nationally award winning. Acadamy for instance being on par in music, design, audio equip, etc with top nightclubs in sydney/melbourne/brisbane think the establishment, etc.


3) Catered v non-catered costs all depend on how much it costs to feed yourself. If you can feed yourself on $40 a week then rent+food at ~$180 at the self-catered halls is cheaper than catered. Others such as neo have made catered work for them on Youth Allowance (with no job) testament to affordibility.

Personally my inclination is towards self-catered (I'm ex-Fenner) as I dislike having when and what I eat dictated to me. Also I like cooking and I like the social aspect of the kitchenettes/kitchens.

Contracts are signed for one or two semester lengths, bond and several others fees (~$1k) are paid up-front. Thereafter rent is paid fortnightly by direct debit.

On the note of the halls a new self-catered one will be opening in the beginning of 07.

4) See exchange web-site.

If you can I definantly recommend coming down for open day. (or just rock up anytime seize a map, wander around and collect pamphlets from faculties and get a feel for the uni in operation.

 

[_Benji_]

Don't be too upset if you dont get the IR degree.... just do BA (IR) then you at least won't have to do all the compulsory crap you have to do like Europe In the Modern Era which is the crappest course imaginable. *goes back to writing euro 60% essay*
oh and u dont have to major in a language! *goes back to studying for indon oral exam*

one other thing to consider: ITS COLD!

other than that, anu>everything

 

[Slidey]

It's not cold, Benita!

 

[loquasagacious]

False advertising!

 

[_Benji_]

Ohhhhhhhh well srrrryyyyy my byron bay i-wear-thongs-and-tshirts-all-year self feels like shes about to get frost bite everytime I walk back from a 5pm lecture!

And there was no false advertising about the crapiness of Euro!

It's so sad...i havent been on here in ages and im resorting to these forumns cos the Bruce ones have died down.

oi steele... i thght u were doing sociology? Ive never seen u in Ali G's lectures!

edit:: or was that not u who started out doing some random arts/sci degree with like sociology, microbiology and like geog or something

 

[sezy_jane]

i agree with euro being a waste of time... and there i was thinking that there might be some discussion of how the past has impacted MODERN europe... but alas no. it was still interesting, just not exactly what i expected.

bring on pols intro to IR!

 

[_Benji_]

If you could be bothered u could apply the concepts but they are so diluted in all that shitty brick reading we had to endure u'd have to really try.

It would have been good as a history course for those who are interested but not an IR course! *shudder* shit i really have to write this essay.... due on thurs (i got extension) STUPID NATIONALISM!

What i find really funny is the ppl majoring in IR who did Euro and it wasnt even compulsory.... you poor poor fools....

Yeah pols intro to IR should be ok.... but .... apparently Jim george is an arrogant wanker and there are 2 text books and 2 MASSIVE bricks (well they were last yr anyway)...i thght pols was bad this semester!

 

[Iron]

Do not be dissing the Jimmy George!
Yes, the reading was pretty ridiculous. And George's mundane prose, slavic, pinko commynism takes some getting used to.

 

[Slidey]

Ohhhhhhhh well srrrryyyyy my byron bay i-wear-thongs-and-tshirts-all-year self feels like shes about to get frost bite everytime I walk back from a 5pm lecture!

And there was no false advertising about the crapiness of Euro!

It's so sad...i havent been on here in ages and im resorting to these forumns cos the Bruce ones have died down.

oi steele... i thght u were doing sociology? Ive never seen u in Ali G's lectures!

edit:: or was that not u who started out doing some random arts/sci degree with like sociology, microbiology and like geog or something

Haha. It's ok. The people from Darwin are worse. They wear like 4 layers of clothing.

Yeah that was me. There's so many majors I want to do, but I have to choose like 2. I'm doing botany, maths and computer science atm.

And say hi to me one day!

P.S.: haha to all you people who do politics.

 

[sezy_jane]

It would have been good as a history course for those who are interested but not an IR course! *shudder* shit i really have to write this essay.... due on thurs (i got extension) STUPID NATIONALISM!

hehe, you're doing the same essay as i did.

 

[loquasagacious]

I liked Euro because I like history.

It is included as a compulsory/recommended course because an understanding of Europe is crucial to understandinf IR. IR is based on the modern-state, the modern state was born in and framed by Europe. It provides a historical backdrop to discussions of IR.

You will see Jim George labouriously introduce you to modern history intermingled with IR. His lectures are roughly as stimulating as a lobotomy and as rousing as valium.

The readings are however good. Though are for the most part eminantly skippable if you did modern history (ancient as well would be a bonus) last year and are proficient in the art of the 'wing'. Oh and if you think the bricks are big and the textbooks weighty then you may want to defer now as they only get bigger, weightier, etc.

The tutes were generally good fun, if you knew what you were talking about. They roughly divided into three groups: Alpha; those who knew what they were talking about and were likely argumentative, Beta; those with a rough (and often misguided) idea of what they were talking about (gleaned from cosmo and Rick Kuhn one suspects) and talked, finally the Epsilons; they knew not much and contributed even less.

Overall I disliked the Intro to IR course as only about two weeks were new to me as the rest was largely ancient and modern history I had already done. In this sense Jim George is stuck with a difficult task in making it interesting, perhaps the he can be forgiven for the lectures being shit.

 

[Iron]

As above.
The general principles, parallels with human nature etc were good fun, but the closer the course got to modern history, the more leftist rubbish was spewed forth. Waay too much apologising for the Ruskies.
They also take it very, very seriously. Marked almost as hard as law (i thought)

 

[loquasagacious]

Not much of a revisionist aye? Left you out in the cold while they warmed their hippy hands over a love fire?

I didn't find the marking especially vigorous, I did an essay on domestic german politics (as opposed to IR) and got a D for it. Their fault for writing a question begging me to do so.

I can't even remember the exam but considering I picked up a D for the course overall it can't have been that hard. And that was with the handicap of having split with my long term gf a couple of days prior to the exam (didn't apply for any special consideration).