I am majoring in statistics under the advanced stream (here, we have mainstream/normal and advanced streams).
Transport is pretty convenient, since it's roughly a 12-minute walk from Redfern Station to statistics/mathematics classes.
It's very normal to have a 5-day timetable (I've never had anything less, though it's perfectly possible, depending on your units). That said, lectures aren't compulsory (along with some tutorials), and several of my friends skip days with one or two lectures and watch them online.
The quality of education is very good, and at least on-par with the other unis. But there is a lot of variation, due to the fact that different lecturers do things differently. My current advanced stats lecturer is very hands-on and an all-round intense guy (he records marks for our weekly tutorial worksheet), whereas the normal stream equivalent course has a lecturer that is less intense. But in the end, it's just like any other uni: from time to time, you may end up with a boring, ineffectual lecturer, or get lucky and study under a highly competent one.
Mathematical statistics is a formal mathematics degree, and consequently it should be among the more conceptual and difficult majors you can do. Once again, USYD offers the courses in two streams: normal and advanced. Every normal course has an advanced counterpart which is either (a) a completely separate course with its own set of lectures, tutorials and computer labs, or (b) is just the normal stream lecturers, tutorials, and computer labs, but with additional seminars on advanced content, and tutorials and assessments has a couple more additional questions for advanced students. (First, second, and half of third-year advanced stats courses runs like (a).)
The advanced stream has more (and more difficult) content and is a lot more mathematically rigorous. In my opinion, it's also more interesting, though that probably has more to do with how interested and comfortable you are with mathematics.
The normal stream is more manageable in comparison. The workload isn't as high, and the assessments are much more manageable. In general, if you want to go through uni with minimal workload and maximise your WAM, the normal stream is preferable. But if you are interested in stats/maths, highly competent at maths, and considering postgraduate studies in statistics, the advanced stream is a good option (though be prepared to put in ton of effort).
Hope this helps!
