Student Life: UTS vs USYD (1 Viewer)

[hoomanraviola]

Seeing as I dont know anyone who actually goes to UTS, I figured this would be the best place to get the general concensus of people who actually go there....

Whats the student life like at UTS? Everyone I've been talking to recently (all of whom go to USYD) go on about how its really hard to actually make friends at UTS....apparantely the lack of any grass or other open areas means that everyone just leaves the campus for lunch etc and there arent really many places where everyone just hangs out and you can meet people. Opposed to Sydney with their giant campus, which is meant to make it easier to meet other people for some reason

Is this true in any way? Have any of you guys been unhappy with the student life/oppurtunities to make new friends at UTS? Or do you reckon its just the same as all the other uni's?

thanks in advance!

 

[Huratio]

Unfortunately USYD students think of us UTS'ers as the ugly building in broadway. They simply cannot make a judgement on ease of making friends as a large percentage haven't been on the campus at all or even studied a subject here. Same goes with me trying to conclude on the ease of making friends @ USYD.

There are many places and opportunities to make new friends, it all starts on the first days of university life- camps, orientation week, social gatherings, union groups etc.. the list goes on. I am certainly not unhappy about student life at UTS. Maybe the smaller campus brings people together- I know alot of people now from other faculties that I may have not met without these gatherings.

On the side of opportunities for future careers I must say UTS has offered me even more that what other universities could offer. I entered a straight IT course, and after 6 months I am now in a Business/Computing course where I can expand my knowledge base into other areas, which would be much more limiting in other universities.

You can judge for yourself; threads about/similar to this are located here:
- '10 reasons why someone should study at UTS': http://community.boredofstudies.org.../10-reasons-why-someone-should-study-uts.html.
- 'Why did you choose UTS': http://community.boredofstudies.org...ology-sydney/113592/why-did-u-choose-uts.html

There are a couple of Open Days and Information Days where you can learn more.. they will probably appear somewhere in this thread when more information comes out. Or here: http://www.uts.edu.au/

 

[dark`secrets]

how an individual make friends depend on the individual. I think there are alot of places to make friends despite the lack of green scenary.

sorry too lazy to make a long reply lol

 

[Affinity]

But you got to admit that environment is better at Usyd

 

[hoomanraviola]

Thanks guys!

And yeah, I had always figured it would just depend on the individual rather than the amount of open spaces...but I started getting a bit freaked out when I had like ten different people tell me otherwise.

A friend of mine told me yesterday that "if you go to UTS, you'll never see anyone from that uni again after you leave it, but if you come to Sydney, you'll make friends that you'll know for the rest of your life"....and a lot of other bullshit like that which I didnt take seriously but which sort of motivated me to ask all of you

But yeah, I'm not going to bother worrying about all that stuff now...I'm sure if I make an effort meeting people at UTS isnt really going to be any different from meeting people at other places

 

[Huratio]

A friend of mine told me yesterday that "if you go to UTS, you'll never see anyone from that uni again after you leave it, but if you come to Sydney, you'll make friends that you'll know for the rest of your life"....and a lot of other bullshit like that which I didnt take seriously but which sort of motivated me to ask all of you

What are they on about? I'm sure alumni students here can prove that statement wrong.

 

[Logistics]

I can't say anything about USYD as I have never attended classes there.
I can tell you that I have no problems making friends at UTS.
I make new friends each semester with new classes. I know people ranging from 1st year to 5th year. This is great because you have someone to help you out

The Eng department has that camp, you make friends there and you don't feel like a stranger on your first day of UNI.

 

[dark`secrets]

the most important thing of all is the course you want to do not where you'll make friends.

If you put in the effort to meet new people then you will have no trouble

 

[dark`secrets]

oh yeah take advantage of orientation.. you'll meet newbies.
i wish my faculty had a camp i think Comp faculty has one too
if you're doing bridging courses- you'll make friends there easy!

 

[stazi]

Well, an interesting indication is the number of smokers. UTS seems to be more stressful, perhaps because of the environment, lack of scenery, beautiful buildings, etc. My girlfriend attends UTS and is amazed at how rare it is to see a smoker when she comes up the road to USYD, as opposed to at UTS.

 

[stazi]

lol stas, heaps of fuckers smoke at usyd.


she see's less because the campus is xxxxxx times bigger and moar spread out with a much larger (like my penis) number of people.

ECMT1010, representative samples.

not necessarily. People still smoke in certain areas around campus. For instance, outside one of the Merewether entrances, on the balcony at Manning, etc.

I really don't know many smokers though, do you? I maybe know three I can think of. Out of the dozens of USYD students I know quite well.
And if you walk past the entrance of Merewether (with the butt bin) you hardly ever see anyone smoking (apart from the security guard). When you do it'd be one of a few people.

 

[stazi]

haha i'd like to e-wank you

I think there'd be more people starting smoking after finishing high school. At school it's more of a rebellious thing. After school you see a lot of people start smoking that wouldn't have done it at school. Out of the 3 people I know who smoke, I know 2 of them started during uni, and the third, I don't know.

 

[jase_]

From my general observations of people that I know, the ones from USyd seem to just go to uni and go to class and leave straight after, whereas the ones I know from UTS hang around and do stuff. I had no trouble meeting people at UTS and I think it has a great environment if you make the effort. You mainly meet people in class anyways, so whatever the campus looks like it doesn't really matter. I think it's easier to meet people at UTS around campus because people will be less lazy to come meet you, whereas at USyd I find people don't like to leave their corner of the campus.

 

[stazi]

From my general observations of people that I know, the ones from USyd seem to just go to uni and go to class and leave straight after, whereas the ones I know from UTS hang around and do stuff. I had no trouble meeting people at UTS and I think it has a great environment if you make the effort. You mainly meet people in class anyways, so whatever the campus looks like it doesn't really matter. I think it's easier to meet people at UTS around campus because people will be less lazy to come meet you, whereas at USyd I find people don't like to leave their corner of the campus.

haha that sounds so weird. I find it difficult to go to class at USYD and just leave without finding someone to pressure me to go to Manning or Hermann's afterwards. People usually come into USYD for social purposes more often than to go to class

 

[hoomanraviola]

What are these orientation camps like? Is there one for future communications people? If I get into my ideal course (law and journalism combined) I'll probably have to go to the law one though I'm not sure if I want to yet...I dont know how much fun I'll have stuck in a 'mystery location' for three days with no one I know. And I'll hopefully have a job by then so there'll be that to think about as well

 

[stazi]

stuck in a 'mystery location' for three days with no one I know.

Isn't that meant to be the point? So you can get to know people and make new friends at a place you wouldn't normally be at?

 

[kami]

What are these orientation camps like? Is there one for future communications people? If I get into my ideal course (law and journalism combined) I'll probably have to go to the law one though I'm not sure if I want to yet...I dont know how much fun I'll have stuck in a 'mystery location' for three days with no one I know. And I'll hopefully have a job by then so there'll be that to think about as well

There isn't a communications camp unfortunately, though you'll see alot of communications/law people at law camp anyway and I've noticed they tend to stick together in class rooms alot.

As for friend making, I tend to think that UTS is a tad more difficult to make friends at than other unis simply because there is very little reason to stay on campus and casually hang out with people outside of class hours... unless you already know them. This is compounded by the fact that, at least for communications, most classes are in (relatively) close blocks without gigantic gaps which means few people go on break together - they just go home when class is finished, especially those who live a fair distance away (of which there are many). On another note, its rather difficult to drop one of your uni friends a line and say 'lets hang out!' if they live near blue mountains and you live near the illawarra, though I imagine this problem would arise at any uni you might attend.

On the other hand, communication students are amazingly chatty (except for some of the writing people) and there is alot of group work and discussion in almost every subject so at the very least you'll make the aquaintaince of quite a few people. It also helps that in first year you all do a core set of subjects so you'll know of most of the people in your course.

Societies also exist at UTS, as they do at every university, which helps you get to know a bunch of people .... and give you all an excuse to get your arse back on campus together.

I have to say though, that in my general experience, USYDers are more social because they often have these hulking breaks between classes that they spend on campus. Which generally means they take to hanging out with someone in their breaks instead of going home. Heck, if you know anyone at USYD while you go to UTS then chances are you'll be roped into spending time there as well.

In the end though its all up to the individual and whether they'll make friends or not, or as the saying goes: 'a bad seed won't grow no matter how much you water it'.

 

[hoomanraviola]

Isn't that meant to be the point? So you can get to know people and make new friends at a place you wouldn't normally be at?

yeah I know it is...though I would still like to have one or two people I know there as a sort of safety net- in case everyone else turns out to be really unsociable for some reason. Because unlike the orientation week I dont get to just go home if Im having a crap time

And the USYder's were basically saying what kami just said; i.e. lack of campus life= lack of oppurtunities to make good friends....I was just hoping everyone at UTS would disagree. But Ive decided to not think too much about that stuff in terms of my preferences- its the course that matters the most and UTS communications sounds heaps better than USYD media and com. And lectures and tutes seem to be the place to meet people anyway from what people are saying

 

[stazi]

I agree with that kami-baby. Making friends really does depend on the individual. If someone isn't sociable, they won't make any. Having lots of grassy areas won't change that. I don't know anyone who'd come up to some random and strike up a convo on them just because they're sitting on the grass.

Next semester I'm going to purposefully make sure I have certain slots (such as Thursgays lunch) free so I can hang out with the krew at theatresports and the such. Activities like that really do bring people together.

Societies are also a great way to meet people. I've made a shitload of friends being on the execs for CumSoc.

 

[stazi]

yeah I know it is...though I would still like to have one or two people I know there as a sort of safety net- in case everyone else turns out to be really unsociable for some reason. Because unlike the orientation week I dont get to just go home if Im having a crap time

And the USYder's were basically saying what kami just said; i.e. lack of campus life= lack of oppurtunities to make good friends....I was just hoping everyone at UTS would disagree. But Ive decided to not think too much about that stuff in terms of my preferences- its the course that matters the most and UTS communications sounds heaps better than USYD media and com. And lectures and tutes seem to be the place to meet people anyway from what people are saying

Hahah there's a very low probability of everyone being unsociable. Unless you are unsociable yourself, then you won't have as good a time.
I was one of the organizers for the CumSoc camp and everyone had a fantastic time. Well, one person didn't as she couldn't speak much engrish. Then again, we had an overabundance of alcohol at the camp, which meant lots of sociability.
Finally, think of it this way. Communication = mostly women. = sexy time! and if you're gay, it also = sexy time, as the other guys wouldn't have many other guys to choose from thus you're pretty much a shoe-in.