Firstly thanks to dichotomy for that info.
phizzy said:
My only concern about going to anu is it's 'hole' reputation and there being nothing to do, which would be rather unfortunate. i think someone's organising a roadtrip down to canberra next term to check out the campus, question:will that put me off or make me wanna go even more?
It does depend on what you're into however Canberra is generally speaking NOT a hole - and this is coming from a convert to 'canberran-ism'. You will be a uni-student and thus 'things-to-do' largely consists of socialising with your fellows and for that you're in luck as ANU is a large uni, and UC isn't exactly small. There's lots of uni students around for you to socialise with and because of the numbers involved there's lots of things uni students like to do.
Because of the huge uni student population there is a very active night-life in civic (canberra city). Because its the national capital there's lots of 'national' events. Because the ACT govt is loaded with NSW/VIC GST and people want things to do there's lots of festivals, cultural events etc etc. If you're a commie you can march in protests at parliament etc etc. Lots of live music of varying sorts.
Socially/to-do I don't think the ANU is exactly a step down on Sydney. And it has the space advantage - you will live an easy walk/cycle and a cheap taxi from everything going on in the inner north (centre of canberra) and an easy/cheap bus from everywhere else.
