You should be fine with 5 years of flute playing. If you do music 1 and get 80+ (I did music 1), there should be no problems at all and if you do music 2, there should be no dramas either.
There's a Bachelor of Music/Bachelor of Teaching course you can do. About half of the people in my course are doing that... the other half doing performance (not sure of the exact figures). The bmus/bteach course is a lot easier performance wise... e.g. your end of year recitals are much shorter and you arn't expected to perform at the same level as performance students. The audition expectations are about a grade lower then performance as well (grade 4 standard). bmus/bteach is for people specifically wanting to go into teaching in a school environment. You can do a bmus course specilizing in studio teaching... with the same requirements as bmus/bteach, though I havn't heard of anyone that has chosen to do that (yet).
(reply to ur PM) Life around the con is VERY relaxed. You are expected to goto ensemble rehersals, and you need to goto your Harmony/Aural (which is half of the Studies of Western Music course) lecture otherwise you will fall behind, but besides that... Haha... I have only missed one lecture the whole term (which turned out to be a Harmony/Aural ugh) because of a late assignment for Music History/Research.
My time table at the moment is a bludge. I have 7 hours a week lectures, practice (personally I try and do 3 1/2 - 4 hours a day but that varies from person to person) and the odd bit of homework. There will be a lot of time for you to do whatever you want
The most work you are going to do is practicle... thankgod! I'm personally not a writing-person so yeah... haha!
A lot of people have to catch the bus into town, which is pretty cheap. A few people have managed to find a place within walking distance... including me, though it is 20 minutes (with my cello and a ton of books) each way. Common Rent around the CBD ranges from 70-120 (though one place was advertising for $170 a week shared lol!). I got mine for $78 + $10 expenses. I think I'm paying too much, but that's what you get for moving into a place where the people there are already friends (grrr).
I chose Newcastle because a) I knew I had a decent chance getting in b) I liked my Cello lecturer (and still do!) and c) it was a lot friendlier and less competitive then places like sydney. People do practice, but it isn't like "I have to practice 10 more hours a day because I want to beat Joe blow!"... and if it were like that, I think it would ruin the whole atmosphere. You do as well as you want to do, though you still have the encouragment of other people.
The social life is great. People tend to be a lot friendlier (I've typed that word before and I don't think it's spelled properly ugh) then "non-conners" (haha) so I don't think you'll have any problems making friends around the place. There are bars (and other places) you can goto around the place with people, so you'll never be left with nowhere to go.
Just a word of warning: Do not go anywhere near gosford station between 11:00pm - 3:00am. If you do, make sure it's with a shitload of people. I was with two guys from the con and we were "nearly mugged" (long story), and saw a lot of dero's around the place.
Haha... that's about it. I can't think of anything more to say!
