uts is mostly project based, whereas usyd is mostly academic, unsw is somewhere in the middle in terms of how classes are delivered / assessments. most content is gonna be very similar because they all need to be accredited by engineers australia though, so core content is pretty much the same. the unis do have different specialisations though, for example at unsw they have photonics stream available for electrical, uts doesn’t really offer that. so if you’re interested in a particular subfield under a discipline, consider looking at the core elective classes as it could play a part in your decision, but all the unis have a fair amount of variety in what you can take.
honestly i wouldn’t say one uni is the best, because all of them have their own strengths. uts is pretty well known for being super practical as in almost every subject has projects and there are also ~4 dedicated project based subjects along with ~2 “studio” (aka bigger project) subjects that everyone has to take, so it’s good if you want to get super hands on and aren’t as interested in theory, final exams are like 40-50% or lower sometimes. in contrast usyd has like 60-70% final exams and are pretty heavy on theory without as many projects, so if you want to get a bit deeper into the material behind what you’re doing it’s a good fit for you. unsw is again somewhere in the middle, a decent amount of projects but not necessarily as deep into the theory as usyd goes. so its just up to you to decide what learning style you prefer, all the unis are pretty respected by employers anyway in engineering.
the diploma in professional practice can be pretty good as you get a fair amount of experience and uts does help a bit with getting the internships eg they have spots available at basically their own internship consulting company and some of their research labs, but you still have to find the internships mostly on your own which can be a downside. however if you’re motivated, the extra year won’t hurt and it’ll be pretty good on your resume. usyd has a similar program where they make u do 300 hours of professional work eg conferences and the like in their engineering degrees, idk much about it, i’m pretty sure that unsw would have a similar thing too. either way you always have a mandatory 3 month internship because you need one to be accredited so
for having a high atar there’s scholarships, thats about it lol. ik usyd has some dayell scholars program or something but overall the atar is basically for scholarships and to get into the uni
