I am an Intl student after deliberating between curtin sarawak and Swinburne I decided on Curtin but after reading some of the posts here I am here at this point asking myself why am I studying in Curtin, I won't go to Australia after I graduate and Curtin is not even better than universities like USM or UM , UPM or UTP. Sadly it is too late to apply to any of these universities. My question is if I study in Curtin's foundation in science and engineering can I go to a public university after that? Is it impossible to to join one of these public universities after that? I have an american high school diploma but my grades are bad, so what can I do? I know this is a difficult situation but this is life right? nothing worth it is easy.

This post has been edited by Azain: Jan 3 2017, 07:50 AM

Okay I remembered something, I have a good Sat score isn't american high diploma equivalent to spm? I think the high school and SAT together equal SPTM. I'll ask around.

Another question if I do A level and get good grades (which I am sure I will do because the last time I wasn't serious) am I able to guarantee admission or do public universities have a quota system?

I am Indonesian la, okay I asked a friend he confirmed private to public= No but if I study in curtin I can move to about any private uni especially the Australian ones. He also said UPM offers foundation in agriculture but it is competitive and I should ask if I am interested. So everything you guys said here was right, thank you and have a nice day!

Yeah, Malaysians come to study Vet here, and it's near Jakarta. We also have Universitas Indonesia but it's only good in social sciences and language studies and there is also Universitas Gadjah Mada.
Yeah my English is good but most of the unis here use Bahasa and I am horrible at it lol (even if the language is English they revert to Bahasa while discussing or teaching and I really don't understand it well) My parents already said it will be hell if you don't improve your language skills so I am taking the coward way out lol. The textbooks are still english though.In MSIA atleast everything I found related to science is in English. I don't mind agriculture for me any science is good but I still don't have a specific field I want to study but since going to Curtin is easy since I already have an acceptance from them, I will probably study Chemical or environmental engineering there. Chemical is obviously better because more job prospects and the fact that a chemical engineer can be an environmental one. I guess what I really liked about the public unis here is the use of English language and they have a high research activity and their rankings are quite good for example USM chemical engineering is 46 and UPM agricultural is top 100 and the best thing is the PHD fast track you guys have here , I am not sure if we have that.

Which university? If you mean Institut Pertanian Bogor for agriculture and Veterinary it's suppose to be good but if you want agriculture go to UPM they even have a foundation and it is one of the best in the world I think top 100. I don't think we have a university like UM or USM these are good universities and if your Malay is bad you will struggle here cuz no English and even if there is expect the lecture to be mostly Bahasa. The cost of living in Jakarta is higher than Kuala lumpur atm in Bogor it's a different story it's mostly cheaper than Kuala lumpur, the rent is cheaper by alot .

Oh btw CyberSetan thank you for your help, I decided to just go to Curtin I mean it's not bad.

I think it's because they are subsidized for locals hence increased competition but for foreigners it's all about the money after all universities are businesses even the public ones.