:wave: Hello, i am too about to go to uni next year, but i have done a fair bit of research already:
The whole UAI 'gag' is all about supply and demand - the UWS campuses want to attract people from the western sydney area and so their UAI cut offs are quite low in comparison to other Unis. UWS is quite a new university in correspondance to other Unis, and so the UAI cut off is also kept low due to this - hence to attract more people....
But the 'TRUTH' is - the UAI cut off is determined by - say 100 people are selected that are doing a particular course - the person with the least UAI out of those people who is applying for the course becomes the 'cut-off' UAI for that cousre - so since say the city has more people (higher-population density per unit area, the UAI cut off is high as it is more likely there will be more people with higher UAIs) - and this variates amongst all unis. Conclusively as i have already mentioned - Unis just want the best people to attend but have sufficient numbers attending also - "supply and demand" reasons.
As for this pristige thing - it concerns:
(1) The Unis sponsors - like businesses
(2) The widespread recognition that the Uni is there - USYD is the oldest Uni and so is said to have 'pristige' for these reasons as well as what i pointed out in (1)
However, as for employment once u hav a degree, Pristige would maybe influence an employer about 5% (and this mainly applies to business degrees as businesses are more likely to employ graduates from the unis they sponsor - UTS has about 20 such sponsors i think)...to which the whole prstige thing would be regarded less again for degrees that do not concern that of business)...all the rest is ur interview, but most of all - Your QUALIFICATIONS (regardless of uni u go to) - as noted by a USYD Professor himself!!! :uhhuh:
So in conclusion, i would say UWS and UOW are both GOOD Unis to go to - both would have sufficient academics as do most Unis - due to the fact that they CAN host the certain courses, so they would definately have all the resources u would require for it
In terms of 'Pristige' at UWS compared to UOW, i'm not sure on which has more 'pristige' as it is quite hard to measure...pristige mainly concerns the so called 'city unis' and a few other unis around New South Whales (not sure which ones)...but then is consideration, pristige is NOT a MAJOR influence on an employer as i have noted before (unless u do business where it 'may' actually count if you try to obtain a job with the unis 'business' sponsors), so i recon it rlly wouldnt matter which one you go to - there is not a giant difference in pristige measure between UWS and UOW anyway - well according to what i know...
But the whole 'pristige' thing is a load of Bolaxe - a degree is a degree and once you have it, you have the full qualifications for a career, just like anyone else with that degree - especially since ur planning on doing medical science or biological science, 'pristige' wouldnt matter that much at all (UTS only had a mere one medical company sponsor...not much aye) and it is supposably said to be a 'pristigous' uni...geez
If you are still concerned about 'pristige', you may want to explore the UWS and UOW websites for more information about the so called uni 'sponsors'...but this shouldnt be considered too much as it is rlly just a small thing to worry about.
You might want to consider travel distance to the uni you want to go to, well that influenced me anyway - i would rather travel to a uni in 40 mins rather than 1.3hrs (and this time doubles with regard to travelling back home after the day ends - hence i would rather travel about 1.5hrs a day than about 2.6hrs a day)...but if you want to go to a particular uni, and if your willing to 'travel the distance', you still can i guess, if you really want to....
Hope that helps
o, and im also interested in doing biological sciences (bachelor of science)- UWS Parramatta