I'm doing Science/Arts (International Studies) and I've been thinking of transferring to Science/Law next year. This is what I can say about the Science faculty:
Facilities:
Well, the UTS science building is probably one of the oldest around. That said it doesn't look very good at all. Despite this I would say the labs are well stocked and we aren't known for being short on supplies. Everything works well too, no broken taps or anything. They're just a little old.
Staff:
Like any uni, there will be lecturers, tutors etc that just shouldn't be in education. Maybe they hate students, or maybe they don't know what they're supposed to be teaching, but somehow you get the feeling that they just don't belong at the front of the room. Happily, I haven't encountered many of these at UTS. All of my lecturers have been at the very least competent, and all my lab tutors have been happy to help me with stuff. Another thing, they treat you like people. You can actually get to know your lecturers/tutors, and surprisingly they do care. I've had a few problems with semester and needed a bit of leeway (eg a death in the family meant I couldn't do an assessment). They were happy to accomodate me, unlike some of the horror stories I've heard from other unis.
Range of Courses, Reputation:
Not as wide as other unis. People go to USyd and UNSW because they have an excellent overall reputation and they have lots of courses - fair enough, they're big universities. However, something people often complain about is their particular faculty, department, course etc are worthless. This happens because people look at too wide a picture when the details really matter.
UTS is a relatively small university with a good reputation for quality. Now they don't offer every course under the sun, just ones they're good with - why else would the biggest faculty be Engineering (second largest is Science), while Arts doesn't even exist? Sure we have that Humanities and Social Sciences, but that's just Communications courses - no real "Arts" faculty. We don't have Psychology, like the other unis nearby...but my major is Nanotechnology, and the Institute for Nanoscale Technology at UTS is considered the leading institution for Nanotechnology research in the region - a hard act for UNSW and USyd to follow.
Basically, if I'd had a higher UAI, then at the time I would have preferred UNSW (and maybe USyd). However, now I know a lot more about how the academic and real worlds look at graduates, and for this course UTS is the only option.
Ok, now for your course:
Which major do you want to take in science? I don't think there's much question, since a UTS is already worth almost if not as much as a USyd or UNSW one (this is discussed elsewhere) so there's no problem in terms of what the degree is worth. What matters now is your desired specialty - there's a possibility that your major isn't offered at UTS. If it is, and it's a "good course" at UTS, then I'd go for it. Not for the reasons "lucky" gave (they shouldn't even be important to your career choice at this stage) but because you'll be getting a good deal.
