mishdoob1

Does anyone have any thoughts on the following choices for study abroad in Australia next spring?
Looking for a good organized program in a fun city to spend a few months - will probably take basic courses in poli sci or economics.
Wondering if any other parents have researched or had their own kids attend any of these -

Monash University, Melbourne
University of Wollongong
Griffiths University - Gold Coast campus

I've tried looking for info on this subject, but there's not too much. Thanks for any input.

cheers

Australia study abroad programs

The 'fun' city in Australia is Melbourne, full stop.

The gold Coast is similar to the southern Florida coast--without the truly urban bits of Miami.

However, Univ of Melbourne is the world class institution. Particularily for politics, you might want to try to get in there.

http://www.australian-universities.com/rankings/

mishdoob1

thanks - unfortunately, U of Melbourne isn't an option - haven't seen much on Monash, but that's in Melbourne - or actually in Clayton...

cheers

Hmmmm...well Southport is more of a suburban strip than a city per se.

The other two are deep in suburbia.

AFireInside530

I just got back from spending a semester abroad at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. It was by far the best 6 months of my life. So many great memories. Im already planning on going back to Sydney the next chance that I get. If you have any questions about Australia feel free to ask me.

anonamous

Monash is not in Melbourne. It's a 10 minute bus ride, and 40 mins train to get to Melbourne CBD.
I am studying at Melbourne Uni, but my girlfriend studies at Monash. Monash is absolutely boring, its campuses are in the middle of a farm, thus it really lacks restaurants and entertainment.

Im not sure about Wollongong, but Griffiths is not a bad choice at all. I have been to the university myself, but gold coast is absolutely beautiful

kathiep

My son, soph. english major, is investigating study abroads. He would like an English speaking country but England seems so expensive. A friends son spent a year in England for a study abroad and said that the cost of living was very high and that the weather was damp and gray for most of the year. Son and I are wondering how Austrailia is for cost of living. Any thoughts? Also, since the seasons are switched around how does one do study abroad for one semester? Is it still Sept - December, late January-May?

marny1

kathiep- the semesters are a bit different than in the USA. I believe the semesters generally run July to November and February to late June.
I found Bond University in the Gold Coast area (not too far from Brisbane) follows our semester schedule.
D may check out that school (for next year) as it may be beneficial for her needs.
If you haven't already, click onto previous discussion about Australia that is in Post # 2 by Cheers.

kathiep

Thanks marny and recentgrad. I should have done some reading/researching on previous threads before I posted. I will look further into Bond and see what son thinks. I've become a little discouraged because of the semester difference. I think our son needs time to save money for expenses over the summer so leaving in July would be hard. Another possiblity is Japan, which wouldn't help with his major but has a direct transfer arrangement with his college and he might have enough gen ed credits to just use them.

marny1

Hi kathiep- since I last posted, it looks like Bond may not work out so well for my sport management major. It seems Bond limits study abroad students to take only certain courses and the full curriculum may not be available to study abroad kids.
This might not be an issue for the "liberal arts" or business majors as there would be sufficient courses to choose from. but for sport management, the pickings seemed slim.
Her other option may be Internationam Management school ( in sydney and affiliated with McQuarie)- which is actually geared to Toursim, sport management and a few other pre-professional majors. I am just not aware of any other programs in Australia that follow the USA academic calendars.

or I may just wave the white flag, let her go to a school sponsored program like Griffith U. She'll get back end of June/ early July which may be too late for her to get a job or internship. If that happends, I may suggest she take one course at the local community college so at least she'll get some college credit.
a summer of her sleeping late and going to the beach doesn't quite thrill me!!

kathiep

The negatives that I've heard about Austrailia study abroads is that there is mucho partying and not alot of challenging coursework and the scheduling. My son is thinking of doing a May term (has to do it this year or next) and then we have a family vacation at the end of June. That would mean leaving within days after getting back or forgoing family vacation. Second semester- Feb- late June really hurts with job hunting or internship. darn!

onetwothreefour

Monash is a wonderful university in terms of its academic quality (comparable with Melbourne Uni), but it's also in Clayton which sucks unbelievably. So it really depends how much you value your social life

I wouldn't say that the work is unchallenging though. Certainly there are opportunities to slack off if you're clever or lazy enough (anyone can avoid their work and then do it at the last minute), but if you're a committed student the seminars are typically stimulating and students intelligent. The work, then, is any many ways what you make of it.

We Melburnians do like to party a ****load however. I'm pretty sure beer is our national religion

On the negatives, I often recognise an undercurrent of nationalism (i.e. racism) in the outer suburbs. I guess it stems partly from our detachment from the rest of the world, and the eleven years of conservative government we've just endured. That said, we just elected a left/centrist government (****ing hooray!), and our states are all governed by lefties too.

Besides, university campuses are notoriously liberal. And I probably shouldn't assume that *no one* is conservative here.

toledo

I'm a parent and I actually stopped briefly at Wollongong University two years ago. Wollongong, the city, isn't very large, but the university seemed fairly large. It was about an hour south of Sydney. There was a nice beach near the downtown area. Most of the students appeared to be foreign, primarily Asian. I took the public bus from the university to my hotel downtown and I belive I may have been the only English-speaking person on this over-crowded bus. The day I left, the local paper had a long article about foreign students paying others to take their language test in order to be admitted to universities.

Melbourne was a very hip city, but I don't know anythng about Monash.