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MQ or USYD??? (1 Viewer)

Manchie

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hey guys. i juz finished the HSC and i got 97.95 UAI.
I wanna do commerce-acc and considering if i should go 2 MQ or USYD.
hav researched lots of forums in these unis and got heaps of diff. ideas.juz feeling so confused..
some ppl said MQ is best 4 acc altho its hard 2 graduate/pass.
but usyd is more famous than MQ rite?
and how abt the teaching quality etc.?
is there anyone studying dis course and can give me some information??
 

AsyLum

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MQ.

USYD may be 'prestigious' but unless you're in Law or Medicine over there, that prestige is not going to matter.
 

Manchie

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Pwnage101 said:
u ruled out UNSW?
nah. coz i m living in northern part so i m not goin 2 consider unsw as its 2 far 4 me...
 

Manchie

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AsyLum said:
MQ.

USYD may be 'prestigious' but unless you're in Law or Medicine over there, that prestige is not going to matter.
umm..yea i got u. but the uai cut-off of mq is quite low. its only 82 and that in usyd is much higher which is 94.3. does it mean anying abt the quality etc..?
 
X

xeuyrawp

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Manchie said:
does it mean anying abt the quality etc..?
Bleh, yes and no.

No: in that the UAI "cutoff" is governed simply by supply and demand.

Yes: in that the demand could be argued to be higher for better courses.

No: in that better courses may not be higher in demand.

Yes: "surely the consumer knows best"

well then No: in that the supply may be hugely different in various courses.

etc etc.

It can go back and forth, so you need to make up your own mind.
 

spence

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Repeat after me: UAI does not indicate course quality
 

Manchie

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PwarYuex said:
Bleh, yes and no.

No: in that the UAI "cutoff" is governed simply by supply and demand.

Yes: in that the demand could be argued to be higher for better courses.

No: in that better courses may not be higher in demand.

Yes: "surely the consumer knows best"

well then No: in that the supply may be hugely different in various courses.

etc etc.

It can go back and forth, so you need to make up your own mind.

wow.. it makes me dizzy. lol.. but thanks anyway.. i m juz feeling 2 confused and worried.. also i m considering whether doing double degree.. it takes 5 yrs..which is sooooo long..
 

Manchie

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spence said:
Repeat after me: UAI does not indicate course quality
and how abt the reputation? u know wat i m thinking.. 82 cut off line means the ppl whose uai 82+ can go and also ppl whose uai +94.3 can go usyd , dat means the level of the students go 2 the uni is quite different... and i dun know in uni if the level of ur partners can affect u etc.. btw i heard dat there is lots of asians in mq?
 

AsyLum

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Manchie said:
and how abt the reputation? u know wat i m thinking.. 82 cut off line means the ppl whose uai 82+ can go and also ppl whose uai +94.3 can go usyd , dat means the level of the students go 2 the uni is quite different... and i dun know in uni if the level of ur partners can affect u etc.. btw i heard dat there is lots of asians in mq?
I'll give you the same example I give to every other person out there who is misinformed:

Suppose there was a degree called B Basketweaving, and for some unknown reason, the 30 people quota it has was filled by people with UAIs of 100. The UAI would then be 100 for B Basketweaving. Does this indicate to us whether the course is good or not? If they made the right choices? Now suppose that of those 30 people, 29 transferred to B Education in 2nd year, having discovered that Basketweaving wasn't it was all it was cracked up to be. Again the UAI gives you NO indication as to retention rates such as this.

The UAI system is designed as a supply and demand port of call, it does not cater for quality, reputation, prestige etc. That crap is pre-supposed or insinuated by external factors, PR from universities, misinformation from parents/friends/schools etc.

Also, you're comparing UAIs rather than courses, which is even sillier. Macquarie has some very high UAI requirements as well, it doesn't mean its any better or worse, at least not using UAI requirements in the way you are.

Why do you think that USYD Law is so high? Because perhaps there are people there who didn't get into Medicine which is higher, and are using Law because their parents don't want to 'waste' their UAI, therefore artificially inflating the UAI. (This is not to say this is the single reason, but you get the drift of what I'm trying to say, I hope).

As for your actual course of interest, MQ has a solid reputation in the business world in Commerce, though from what I hear UNSW surpasses it due to a number of factors (do a search lots of threads already asking the same question). As for USYD's reputation in Commerce, it has little to no reputation in that field afaik.
 
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spence

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Manchie said:
and how abt the reputation? u know wat i m thinking.. 82 cut off line means the ppl whose uai 82+ can go and also ppl whose uai +94.3 can go usyd , dat means the level of the students go 2 the uni is quite different... and i dun know in uni if the level of ur partners can affect u etc.. btw i heard dat there is lots of asians in mq?
Just because the UAI cutoff is lower doesn't mean the students are any worse. There will be people in the course with an 82 cutoff who got much higher. Similarly to AsyLum's example, assume a hypothetical course with 50 places. The first 49 places may be taken by people with UAI's 99+, where the 50th place may be taken by someone with 80. The cutoff would be 80, even though most doing the course got much higher. (Obviously this is unlikely to happen, but you get what I'm saying)

Also, the UAI hardly indicates intelligence, or capacity to succeed at uni, so to suggest that a lower cutoff course neccesarily has a lower quality of students is ridiculous.

And seriously, who cares if there are Asians. It's university, there are going to be Asians, as there will be everywhere. And you don't have to associate with them if you don't want to.
 

NEVAGIVEUP

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spence said:
Also, the UAI hardly indicates intelligence, or capacity to succeed at uni, so to suggest that a lower cutoff course neccesarily has a lower quality of students is ridiculous.
Agreed, totally!

spence said:
And seriously, who cares if there are Asians. It's university, there are going to be Asians, as there will be everywhere. And you don't have to associate with them if you don't want to.
Ugghhh!! When will people just stop being so prejudice??!!
 

BoganBoy

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lol, 'is there going to be asians' hahahaha. funniest thing ever.

but hey im not going to pass down judgments nilly willy. you might be an Asian who is asking simply because you like to hang around Asians.

yes there will be asians, especially if you are studying accounting. your lecturers and tutors will be asians as well. scared?

lol
 

Pwnage101

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i think why its lower at Macquarie, is that they specify the commerce degree 'bachelor of comemrce - accounting', whereas at UNSW and sydney, its a bachelor of commerce and you major in it

so the macquarie cutoff will only be determined by supply/demand of teh accounting major of commerce, whereas at other places majors like finance, actuarial, etc are popular with those with high UAI's (just a trend that is observed), so it strictly is possible for the quota at UNSW, FOR EXAMPLE, TO BE FILLED FOR COMMERCE, AND NOT ONE OF THEM TO WANT AN ACCOUNTING MAJOR (POSSIBLE, BUT HIGHLY UNLIKELY), WHEREAS AT AMCQUARIE THAT COURSE IS IN ACCOUNTING

U GET ME?

(forgive the Capital letters, cant be bothered going back and changing it)
 

lionking1191

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lol MQ accounting has quite an... unique demography

i wouldn't pay MQ for quality over USYD.. sure MQ's known for its accounting but by no means is accounting the best at MQ. again that is highly debated and it's probably a good idea not to dwell on it too much but give more weighting to other factors such as transport.
 
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AsyLum

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lionking1191 said:
lol MQ accounting has quite an... unique demography

i wouldn't pay MQ for quality over USYD.. sure MQ's known for its accounting but by no means is accounting the best at MQ. again that is highly debated and it's probably a good idea not to dwell on it too much but give more weighting to other factors such as transport.
Your 'advice' is really bordering on misinformation.

You are exactly the kind of people we are talking about in this thread, ie, those who figure 'prestige' or your pre-supposed idea of 'quality' is somewhat ingrained in USYD and taken as a must.

No one here is signalling its the best in the country, nor even in NSW, but between USYD and MQ, the MQ accounting school shits all over USYD in your beloved 'prestige' and 'quality' factors.

Its not 'highly debatable', in fact its been generally accepted that USYD is awful at Commerce.
 
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Supra

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MQ over Sydney. Choose a double degree with your Accounting.

With your UAI, you can get into BCom at UNSW, where you can double major in Accounting and Finance = win

Honestly, I live in the North and travel everyday to the city to work. Travelling is not that bad. Even though Mq would be convenient, I wouldn't forgoe the UNSW option on the basis of travel. Your eventually going to have to do it...
 

lionking1191

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AsyLum said:
Your 'advice' is really bordering on misinformation.

You are exactly the kind of people we are talking about in this thread, ie, those who figure 'prestige' or your pre-supposed idea of 'quality' is somewhat ingrained in USYD and taken as a must.

No one here is signalling its the best in the country, nor even in NSW, but between USYD and MQ, the MQ accounting school shits all over USYD in your beloved 'prestige' and 'quality' factors.

Its not 'highly debatable', in fact its been generally accepted that USYD is awful at Commerce.
i do understand what you are referring to and i probably only have myself to blame for what surely does sound like horrible advice.

let me rephrase that for you. everyone knows MQ has excellent accounting. however it should not be assumed that the best accounting school in australia. in terms of commerce UNSW has the best business school in sydney, with sydney hanging around 4~5th (note MQ isn't on the radar).

personally i don't like USYD much with its presumed air of superiority and prestige and always liked UNSW better in terms of flexibility and practicality of its courses. however when considering career options, other things being equal (even tho USYD got horrible ratings in the Good Unis Guide, a qualitatitive assessment of accounting at the 2 unis is far from practical) prestige obviously is nice, however little difference that may make.
 

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