<p>What is different about each Australian University? </p>
<p>How are the cities where they are located different?</p>
<p>James Cook Uni - Cairns & Townsville</p>
<p>Griffith Uni - Brisbane</p>
<p>Wollongong Uni - Wollongong</p>
<p>Thanks for your response.</p>
<p>D&R50</p>
<p>You may want to re-post this in the International Students Forum. Lots of Aussies there who may be able to advise you.</p>
<p>You can reach the International Students Forum by clicking on "Discussion Home" in the upper left of this screen, and then scrolling down.</p>
<p>I walked around Wollongong one day and one day was really enough time to see almost the whole town. What struck me as unusual, was that 90% of the university students appeared to be Asian and were not speaking English. There had been an article in the newspaper that week about students "paying" others to take an English proficiency test to gain admissions to Australian colleges. I have the feeling that Wollongong is much more conservative than other cities, as all the high school girls' skirts were ankle-length. There wasn't any good shopping in the town, but Sydney isn't far away. It's somewhat of an industrial city, but the university is across the street from a nice park.</p>
<p>Cairns is a beautiful town. Many of the Great Barrier Reef trips originate in that area. I didn't notice any colleges. It's very lush and green in that area.</p>
<p>If I were a student, I'd check to see what's available in Melbourne. That city seemed very cosmopolitan.</p>
<p>Hello, I'm accepted to James Cook University at Cairns, though not attending.</p>
<p>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).</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.</p>