Australian Universities! JCU, GU, UoW

elinck
Sat, 28 Feb 2009 22:27:27 +0000

(I posted this in the other thread as well, but I wasn’t sure if it would be moved/deleted).

Hello, I’m accepted to James Cook University at Cairns, though not attending.

The strength of JCU is clearly its tropical science research; it’s Australia’s best tropical university, which puts it at the head of the pack worldwide. For marine biology, tropical ecology, agriculture, tourism, and medicine, it has fantastic programs. I know the Cairns campus is smaller, and Townsville offers more programs, but I think the culture in Far North Queensland is more appealing (whereas Townsville is an industrial city on the gold coast).

Cairns can at first seem like a tourist run city at first and little else, but the development tourism has brought has benefited the locals as well, and there are tons of great cafes and bars, as well as a vibrant “party culture” ebbed on by many international visitors. Kuranda, a smaller ex-hippy town in the mountains nearby, regularly gets great concerts, and the Atherton Tablelands are a wonderful rural community. To me, the location could hardly be better, and I’m still a bit bummed I’m not going at times.

I can’t speak for the others, but I think JCU is the highest-ranked. PM if you have any more questions about it, I’ve visited and know a fair bit.