Haha agree. First comes with the wind. But pretty much hate the raining too. Imagine when the wind and the rain drops slaps into your face when cycling??

I encountered that like a week ago which is during so-called autumn. Got soaked really bad because I was cycling from the entrance of the uni to the business school [last building towards end of the uni area]. Can't imagine the horror of the winter.

Ps. And apparently I cycled with my hoodie on like an idiot running for her life.

This post has been edited by immabee: Apr 12 2011, 10:34 AM

Sorry guys for interrupting. May I know how do you guys submit your payment for GRADS card?

Exactly! I thought of that as well. Yup, agree with you. Might as well just submit all documents to the MAS office. Thanks to all who've responded. The temperature in Perth is going down. No more 25++ T.T.

Agreed!! 15-28 is my fav. =p. The worst deg I can bear without spoiling my mood is 12 degrees. LOL. Anyway I was randomly looking through my uni's faculty staff profiles and I was quite shocked some of them PHD right away after their Bachelor's degree. I wonder how do they do that. They must be real genius.

My friends who have settled as well for more than a year suggested that no doubt the temp drops to 0 deg at night. Probably 7-9 degrees max during the day. I would suggest you follow up what zekestah has suggested. Btw, I'm now in UWA too. Doing undergrad first yr. =p

Gosh guys, just received my mid-sem results. 3 out of 4 is in stable condition and the other 1 I was not really happy with, probably that was my first time getting used with uni's exam. I have 1 big assignment and 2 more weekly assignments to go before the final exam approaches. Tomorrow there will be a 10% test conducted. Next sem will be a pain in the ... My contact hours will increase from 11 to 16 hrs.

Anyway, just askin'. Do you guys like having lectures/tutes beginning in the early morning, or during afternoon. Prefer breaks in between or just go through all in one shot?

@Lawl, agreed. Sometimes I don't even have time to go through the textbooks. Lecture notes is a must! Some units I'll go through with online lectures, and some will go through textbooks.

Have not heard much about Rivervale till I took an initiative to search in google maps xP. But I have a UWA friend from China who lives in Victoria Park, which is one suburb nearer to the city before yours. She's planning to move out by 2nd semester because she spends too much time on commuting. It's actually not that far provided if you own a car and the city is small. But if you are to rely on buses and trains just like most of us do, then you would have to spend lots of extra time for the wait, multiple stops and certain slight delays. Although there are bus stops near to your residential area, that does not mean that it will lead you directly to the city's bus station because it pretty much acts like a hub that connects the north and the south. The average frequency for a train to arrive is 15 minutes during weekdays and for buses, it varies from 15 mins to 1 hour depending which bus you're using. I normally use the highest frequency of the bus, which is 15 mins per frequency from Subiaco 97 all the way to UWA so that I can be more flexible with my time. Even the time taken for the trip to UWA from Subiaco is roughly about 20 mins. So I would suggest you to live as close to the city [but not in the city] as possible. Best if you have access to buses that can at least bring you to the bus station or train stations so that you can you can switch to other buses easily later on. =)

Perth's gettin' colder and I already had my jumper on ever since I woke up shivering yesterday morning. Although the maximum temperature is recorded constant about 24 deg, but the time taken to get there is way slower as compare to last week. Not good.

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Added on May 13, 2011, 11:56 amThat was fantastic!. Am surprised your lect notes are really useless, don't you guys jot down important stuff during lectures?? My lecture notes are good enough as some textbooks doesn't contain graphs [e.g.microeconomics]. Keeping Friday as an off day too. Haha welcome to the night owl club.

@Hikari, agreed. Classes at 8am is a nono for me. I will have to wake up at 6:10am excluding shower. 9am is the earliest I can get there, and ofcourse I wouldn't put every uni day with 9am. xD

@Haya, I was in the uni yesterday till 8pm for other activities. Even now it's quite dark around 5:40pm [looks like 7:15pm in KL, a bit of sun fully set]. Up to date my lecture ends latest by 4pm. 5pm max for next semester.

About my current timetable, Mondays and Tuesdays start in the afternoon, while Wed starts at 10am till 4pm with 2-hr breaks in between. Thurs? 9am-8pm [actually my lecture ends by 2pm with 2 hr breaks in between but I've decided to stay for my cell group], beat that!

This post has been edited by immabee: May 13 2011, 11:58 AM

Canberra is not only dry, very cold with no snow =(, and also a city that's really laid-back. About the offer letter, it depends what English qualification you're holding. Some universities will accept your GCE 1119, while some like as you've mentioned, Uni of Melbourne will have to accept you only if you have IELTS results. As long as you're accepted by the university, if I'm not mistaken you have fulfilled the Australia english requirement as well [that happens in my case]. I believe the list of certification that they accept is available in the uni prospectus or in the web [googling it should be fine =)].

Applying student visa is pretty convenient. Best is to apply online and look for a list of hospitals or clinics that provides submission of medical results online. After you have fill in whatever that's required, look for your nominated hospital and clinics [have an appointment with them whenever possible] and they'll conduct the x-ray test and the urine test. Once everything's done, just have a check of your visa status in DIAC website if not mistaken. Someone please correct me if there's anything left out or if the information is incorrect.

Hope that helps. =)

Just started Swotvac. Can't wait for holidays. >.<

I guess medic students generally have their exams early. On the bright side, you have your holidays earlier.!

Yeap they do. Most of them are students doing double degree or have achieved at least top 10% in their year 12 examination.

Hi. Try UWA housing database for off-accommodation, even if you are desperate to look for a temporary accommodation.

Hi apsidewatch, welcome to Australia. Though I'm from UWA but I used to apply and received offers from UQ and Adelaide. First of all, what majors are you taking? What would you like to ask? I may be able to answer a few questions since I've done some research about Bachelor of Commerce course structures in both UQ and Adelaide.

Can't agree more about ethnic identity. Member apsidewatch, it all depends till what extent of cold can you bear with or you generally like "the colder, the better" weather. But you know, Melbourne is well known with 4 seasons in a day, pretty much unpredictable and unsure what to wear. Initially, I have definitely not seen more Malays or even Malaysians to be real honest although people back in hometown claimed that Perth's the second home for Malaysians [mainly Sabahans and Sarawakians]. I've wondered where are these people since it's quite difficult to find a Malaysian and it seems like most of them are all in Curtin University. In international students wise, my university is mainly dominated by Singaporeans [and you probably know why they are here today].

I guess you'll get the feeling of "not being abroad" if you're living in suburbs or universities that are dominated by Asians [mainly South East Asians] or if you have a family friend/relative/PR friend that stays in the same city as you and invites you over for dinner and other activities during the weekend. That's what I partially dislike about. I would rather go to a place as me, myself and later build up my identity, experiences and circle of friends. But unfortunately that's not going to happen because my dad would try his best to put me the same city with his connections [well also for safety reasons]. Not going to blame that either.

I have a personal feeling that QUT has more Malaysians in Queensland. No doubt in Melbourne you'll have a higher chance meeting up with Malaysians. And guess what... better Malaysian delicacies in Melbourne too. It's not something silly if you miss Malaysian food, that's normal. Talking about Malaysian food, or generally some Asian foods in Perth... pfftttt.

It's good that you would like to know more about the courses. Actually, have you read through the university's handbook? It helps a lot to me in that aspect because I wouldn't want to spend half of my university life studying certain core units that I definitely do not have interest in or not even relevant to what am I pursuing. What are you looking for in your degree. Do you like flexibility of a degree or just being as specific as possible?

This post has been edited by immabee: Aug 13 2011, 10:01 PM

Yeah. I guess your hard work paid off. No worries, everyone's indecisive at the first place. You deserve to go to a university that suits you. Ordinary commencing commerce students would just pick up that degree, and maybe along with a major and picks the university by preference. Initially I applied for UQ & Adelaide and I was offered a spot for B.Commerce. Alright, I should cut off the bull crap and jump start into what I need to explain.

People would have thought the structure of a commerce degree is practically almost the same. That's some what true, but I'm going to put two different universities as examples, same course and study duration.

University of Queensland [B.Commerce] 3 years
Course Requirements:

Alternatively you can read the course rules here: http://www.uq.edu.au/study/program.html?acad_prog=2024

Now move on to UWA, note: it's applicable only to this year's intake. Am showing this is an example in decision making. From 2012, UWA's following a similar path as Melbourne's model.
University of Western Australia [B.Commerce] 3 years
Course Requirements:


Alright, now I've a headache typing this. But I would like to point out that UWA is one of the examples that offers a flexibility of a degree. You can take other units beyond your current major and make it to an additional specialisation/skill that is recognised provided if you follow the course rules. I like the fact it overlaps. Besides that, I can take a minor beyond my commerce degree, currently thinking of a minor in Quantitative Economics from the Economics degree. Let's just wait and see.

UQ is great & way prestigious than UWA anyway. Who wouldn't want go to UQ? [I would, still!!] However, it didn't fit with what I really want in my degree. If you haven't noticed, as far as I know, a few units such as MGTS1301 Introduction to Management, MKTG1501 Foundations of Marketing are yet compulsory but it's not exempted in CA/CPA. Too bad these 2 units are totally not my cup of tea though they're useful in future. In UWA, cutting that 2 units off allows me to possibly get a minor/major or other electives that I have passion in. In that way, I can utilise the 3 years in learning what I like, getting full accreditation for the license through those compulsory units and yet able to gain various specialised disciplines. UWA has seriously plenty of majors within it's commerce degree [still not as many as Curtin]. It's very common among us if you undertake another major from the economics degree.

In UWA courses 2012, you'll still get to undertake another major from another faculty under any bachelor degree title. E.g. Bachelor of Commerce [Accounting & Chemistry] However, the maximum majors are still 2 majors = same as Uni of Melbourne as far as I know, yet still giving you room to include other electives. I think UWA may no longer offer minors as well in the new model. However if you're going for Accounting in Uni of Melbourne while getting full professional accreditation, do take note that you can only undertake the following breath tracks:
Education subjects and sequences
Historical studies sequences
Information systems and informatics sequences
Music subjects
Psychology sequence

and other breadth units.

Another downside in UQ is none of the units overlap when it comes to majors and again, it all comes down to either Accounting, Finance or Business Info Systems. You can undertake up to 2 majors only after completing the core units. That means if I am primarily majoring in Accounting, it's either I can take Finance or Business Info Sys within B.Commerce, leaving me no room to undertake other interesting units unless you're willing to have only 1 major and add-on with 6 random units/electives, everything in 3 years. However I am not sure whether you can undertake another major from another degree/faculty. But one good thing is UQ brings you real deep insights in those majors.

Well, that's just my personal opinion. Decision wise, it all depends what kind of degree, course structure, types of majors you're looking forward to. I almost fall into the pit due to my stubbornness and thank goodness Lord arranged me to somewhere I haven't even research properly and in which it turns out best for me, so far. Not sure whether is this good or bad, but most UQ commerce accounting units assess you in mid-sem & final-sem exams only, which sounds less tedious than what I've been through now, in a way.

I hope this does bring an insight to all of you out there and enjoy the read. . Have to go now. I have to help out my uni for open day early tomorrow morning. Damn! I'm long-winded.

Cheers

This post has been edited by immabee: Aug 14 2011, 02:07 AM

I'm fine with Perth's local western delicacies and I have it pretty frequent. It's just that I miss Malaysian food for the first few months abroad. I don't actively seek Malaysian food either unless friends invite me out to join them. Unfortunately after going out numerous times with my friends, Asian foods mainly Malaysian food in Perth is pretty much a joke, maybe not for Japanese.

Hahaha. Can't agree more. Been through that during those days. =(.

Is the cost of living in Sydney much higher compared to Brisbane?
Generally yes. Sydney is so much bigger and way more vibrant than Brisbane.

Are there many Malaysians in these universities? Many Asians?
They are basically everywhere! Most Malaysians choose to go either Go8 universities or ATN universities. Probably more Asians and Malaysians are in ATN universities. Again, most of them probably share the same reason as you studying in Australia.

Mix of culture?
Pretty much. Again it depends who you are very likely to mix with and what university clubs/societies/events you're joining.

Meanwhile have a quick look the comparisons for both universities (especially on cultural diversity and non-english speaking undergraduates). Please do not rely on this source too much. It's only here to give you a rough idea.

http://www.gooduniguide.com.au/ratings/com...onSearch=Search

This post has been edited by immabee: Nov 6 2011, 11:40 PM

To add on, the tuition fees per unit for Australian students in UWA undergraduate in 2012 can range between $597-$1,100 depending on the units they're taking.

For full fee paying international students in my course (Bachelor of Commerce) will have to pay $27,200 per year (increased by $800 from $26,400). In other words, international students in my course will have to pay a flat fee of $3,400 per unit (regardless whether these units are science, arts, commerce, law units etc). Note: 1 year = 8 units.

Hi. Since you are going to be new in Perth, I would suggest you to rent a place near UWA e.g. suburbs Nedlands/Crawley for the first semester. Once you are fully settled and got familiar with Perth, then you may move out and rent somewhere else during semester 2. Hope that helps. =]