i can give a perspective on first year engineering as a whole...
pretty boring at first, alot of general maths, physics, chemistry stuff, pretty boring and not very practical, but it gets better
as to materials engineering....well.....put it this way, in first session everyone does an introductory materials engineering subject, i did it last session,.....was the most boring subject ever (and i aint just sayin that cause i couldnt do it, i got 91) but yeah, pretty damn lame, my mate is on a $42,000 materials scholarship and he hates it so much he is considering transfering to civil even if it means he loses the money which will be quite dayem lame...
so yeah.....contact the uni or go 2 one of those days 2 ask more, but dont do materials, however id recommend uow for engineering as a whole, with bluescope nearby and many links 2 the rta, its pretty good hands on work in later years