I'm looking to study engineering next year and when you look at the university rankings there is a general consensus that UNSW comes out on top. To what degree does this actually have an effect? For example will how much will it trully effect your uni experience, quality of degree/chance of employment, and job readiness? At the moment my ATAR is projected to be able to safely get me into just about any course, but the cost of living in Sydney is ridiculous. Is it actually worth coughing up all that extra money to go to UNSW then say Uni of Newcastle, or is there virtually no difference other then beautiful sandstone buildings? Walking through the uSyd and UNSW campuses is next level but is it really worth it for a non trust fund baby who is going to get no financial support from their parents?
I'd really appreciate some help on this topic.
not really for most people. firstly a lot of hiring processes these days don’t take into account unis, of course there are some companies (the very very top ones) who may do this but besides that you’re not really at a huge disadvantage. secondly especially in fields like engineering, companies are as interested in things outside of your degree as things inside of your degree - take a look at basically any job listing, there will be more criteria than just “bachelors degree” in there. lastly for engineering, content is somewhat standardised under engineers australia and you’ll be learning effectively the same thing at newcastle as at unsw - yes the difficulty, teaching, etc can differ but you’ll graduate with very similar skills in your degree as those from unsw/usyd.
university of newcastle is also still a pretty good uni, and especially if you plan on working near newcastle after graduating employers won’t be biased towards people from sydney unis since most of the grads they’ll want will be from uon (im assuming you currently live somewhat near newcastle or will be moving there to study). also consider the uni experience, true unsw is one of the best unis in australia but they have trimesters, much more content in a smaller amount of time etc. that environment certainly works well for a lot of people because it’s very “accelerated” but it might not necessarily work for you, in comparison uon will have a somewhat slower pace because of semesters which may make understanding a lot of the content easier. again this is really a personal choice you should consider because the learning style is something you’ll be spending a large chunk of your time with, and if you’re gonna be unnecessarily stressed with the extra content crammed into trimesters it’s not gonna make succeeding easier
, otherwise I think you are right