Is UWS all that bad or is it an ok uni to go to??? (1 Viewer)

[Here]

Hey all,
Since the uai cut offs at all the big unis ( syd, unsw, uts and maq) are skyrocketing im not that confident that ill be able to get a place into one of them, so UWS seems to have to be one of my options.

i heard a lot of bad things about it and practically nobody at my school wants to go there since it has a pretty low reputation.
One of my other alternatives if to go to ANU since i heard its pretty good, but i kinda wanna stay in sydney, i dont think im ready to move out just yet.

So what do you guys think of UWS? any and all types of feedback are welcome.

 

[hipsta_jess]

once you get your degree and your in the workplace no-one will care where you got it from..i mean, think of your teachers, they would have all gone to diff. uni's, but no-one cares which, do they?
i mean, sure, western sydney probably isnt the best, most desirable place to live, but the uni would be fine..they all teach the same thing and you end up with the same qualifications..
and if you get in and dont like it, transfer to one of the more prestigious uni's after a year.

 

[user]

There's nothing wrong with living in Western Sydney, it's a perfectly nice place to live.

A lot of the UWS courses are better (as in more practical, more modern) than the big 3, but it's just the other unis are more prestigious.

 

[hipsta_jess]

Originally posted by user
There's nothing wrong with living in Western Sydney, it's a perfectly nice place to live.

yeah, but its not exactly the safest..and a lot of the people arnt exactly credible...not everyone, im sure theres some lovely people, but theres also a lot of bad ones

 

[anti]

UWS is a perfectly fine uni.

The problem most people have with it is that it's so far out from the city. Then again, think about UTS Ku-rin-gai campus

It MAY be limited as to the courses it can offer (eg. you may not be able to do subjects in certain sessions because of a smaller candidature), and the degree combinations (if you're interested in doing a double degree). You'll have the same problem with ANU though, and most other small unis (ie not UNSW, USYD, UTS etc)

 

[anti]

Originally posted by hipsta_jess
yeah, but its not exactly the safest..and a lot of the people arnt exactly credible...not everyone, im sure theres some lovely people, but theres also a lot of bad ones

most suburbs are the same imo.. it's just because "west" gets a bad rep because it happens in many suburbs "out west" with a bad rep, as opposed to one per shire

 

[frenchy]

Hey i live in south western suburbs, and not all of it is bad as some people think, just the media makes it sound bad.
I'm going to be putting uws in my preferences.

 

[White Rabbit]

UWS is fine - My sister went there and is in Medical School over in Canada now.. She transfered from UNSW and said UWS is heaps heaps better.

It has less snobs and the lecturers are alot more aprochable. I've spoken to a few UWS lects. and they all seem really nice and friendly. USYD and UNSW seem a little too confident of themselves..

Just because it's out West, don't dismiss it. I've got UWS on my prefs.. Maybe you could look at Wollongong as well. You can get the train down - it's not like you'd have to move down there

 

[christ_ine]

From a person that's been to both a high demand uni (UNSW) to a supposedly less in demand uni (UWS), I would say UWS is better in the fact that it has less people since the number of students are spread over 6 or so campuses.

Asquithian is correct in the sense that there are less snobs. The fact that there are less people means lecturers/tutors probably have more time to answer emails/questions and such. (As White Rabbit explained.)

But yes, when it comes down to it, a degree is a degree.

 

[Generator]

Originally posted by hipsta_jess
yeah, but its not exactly the safest..and a lot of the people arnt exactly credible...not everyone, im sure theres some lovely people, but theres also a lot of bad ones

I could easily say the same thing about Newcastle and country areas in general, couldn't I?

 

[Here]

Originally posted by frenchy
just the media makes it sound bad.

Yeah, i agree with you there. unfortunately UWS does get some prety bad rep from the media, i saw an article in the paper earlier this year about how uws penrith was understaffed and there werent enough rooms for tutorials and some classes had to go to penrith RSL club to have their classes!

The article was quite negative, it also said that some subjects had become lecture only subjects because they didnt have enough tutors.

I also heard a few years ago as well, i think it might have been when uws parra just opened that things were really bad there as well. Things such as overcrowded lectures where people had to sit on the floor or outside, and where lecturers failed to turn up and sometimes 3rd year students had to lecture instead.

So yeah the media does do uws a bad service, but whether it ever was as bad or is as bad as they say it is i dunno.

 

[sukiyaki]

UWs is good, jzu the rep of being a lower standard uni. Plus you communicate better with the lecturers.

lets take the situation (okay it might not happen but most likely)
a person with b economics (UNSW) and other with b economcis (uws) both applying for a job ,employer tend to go with the person from unsw

 

[Generator]

Why? The UNSW brand doesn't mean that someone from that uni will get a job over someone from UWS. Each degree is different, as are the marking schemes, and the employer is likely to go for the person who is most likely to succeed in the position being offered.

 

[Suvat]

Everyone wants the best start in life, so if even if 3 years at unsw is 1% better than 3 years at uws, the equilibrium will lie around 99% with unsw

ok, I'm just stating the obvious...

 

[Generator]

So grades mean next to nothing?

 

[user]

It's not that dangerous in the Western Suburbs. I'm more scared wandering around the city at night than the west. Some suburbs may have a bad press reputation, but you can't generalise the entire Western Suburbs based on the occasional "Cutting press" report in the Sunday Tabloids, written by someone looking down with scorn at any place not North of the Harbour Bridge.

The overcrowded lectures and tutes at UWS is due to lack of funding from the Government. Unlike the big unis, UWS doesn't have the reputation to get research grants, doesn't really have the history to get rich and famous graduates to donate large lumps of money yet and is caters to an area equal to the larger half of Sydney.

People come out more satisfied at UWS and better trained, but they get a lesser starting salary.

 

[christ_ine]

Lesser salary based on what? The fact that they have a degree from UWS?

I'm going with Generator on this one.

 

[hipsta_jess]

Originally posted by Generator
I could easily say the same thing about Newcastle and country areas in general, couldn't I?

newcastle is a hell safe area, there is like hardly any crime..and the 'country area' im from also doesnt have crime, simply because everyone knows everyone

 

[user]

Not sure, the starting salary for graduates is less than graduates from other unis. In general anyway. Think it was in the Good Unis guide last year. But then again, theres a reason not to believe it, a guide that disses usyd is a guide not to be trusted

 

[Generator]

Originally posted by hipsta_jess
newcastle is a hell safe area, there is like hardly any crime..and the 'country area' im from also doesnt have crime, simply because everyone knows everyone

That's amazing, because from what I have gathered from the media, country areas are full of dangerous dole bludgers, while newcastle is suffering from high unemployment due to industrial shutdowns...
It isn't nice, is it?

Try talking only when you know the facts. Western Sydney, which can potentially stretch from Strathfield to Katoomba (depending upon your definition), is a very large area, and it defies common sense to brand all cities, shires and suburbs within the generalised area as unsafe and undesireable places to live.