I'm in my final semester at Wollongong Uni and have moved 6 months ago to Sydney cuz of an IT job. I'm planning to do my honours year in computer science (not IT so bye bye UTS) in either MQ, USyd or UNSW. I need some feedback from those who plan to, are studing or have studied CS honours in these unis.
I'm a computer security and distributed systems major, and my interests are UNIX systems programming, network security (not hardcore cryptography though), distributed/parallel/grid/high performance computing and networking in general. I'm mainly a C and C++ coder and I love/am proficient in network sockets programming...so I wanna do lots of that. Anyway... here's my take on the 3 unis I've mentioned:
MACQUARIE
* on top of my list because of their strong computer security research like Wollongong...and because security is my major.
* However my lecturers tell me they're very theoretical and have less room for more practical honours projects. True enough, their honours subjects are very theoretical (lots of optimisation, algorithmic stuff, computational CS subjects, etc).
* A pass (50+) will get you third class honours.
UNSW
* lots and I mean LOTS of honours projects to choose from. I saw a lot of interesting projects in their honours list in a wide variety of fields...networking and network reliability, security (though not as intense as MQ), and operating systems
* many subjects to choose from
* A pass will not get you any honours class. You need at least a credit (65+) to get third class honours.
USYD
* Strong networking research.
* A pass will not get you any honours class. You need at least a credit (65+) to get third class honours.
--
These are of course, observations from an outsider based solely on things gathered from their websites. I would love to hear feedback from students about:
a. difficulty/workload - UNSW requires 6 coursework subjects compared to MQ's 4
b. academic/research experience - what's the atmosphere? interaction with academics/students?
c. USyd and UNSW needs at least a 65 to get third class honours. Is it that difficult to get upper 2nd or 1st class in these unis?
d. more details on each uni's research areas
Thanks!
I'm a computer security and distributed systems major, and my interests are UNIX systems programming, network security (not hardcore cryptography though), distributed/parallel/grid/high performance computing and networking in general. I'm mainly a C and C++ coder and I love/am proficient in network sockets programming...so I wanna do lots of that. Anyway... here's my take on the 3 unis I've mentioned:
MACQUARIE
* on top of my list because of their strong computer security research like Wollongong...and because security is my major.
* However my lecturers tell me they're very theoretical and have less room for more practical honours projects. True enough, their honours subjects are very theoretical (lots of optimisation, algorithmic stuff, computational CS subjects, etc).
* A pass (50+) will get you third class honours.
UNSW
* lots and I mean LOTS of honours projects to choose from. I saw a lot of interesting projects in their honours list in a wide variety of fields...networking and network reliability, security (though not as intense as MQ), and operating systems
* many subjects to choose from
* A pass will not get you any honours class. You need at least a credit (65+) to get third class honours.
USYD
* Strong networking research.
* A pass will not get you any honours class. You need at least a credit (65+) to get third class honours.
--
These are of course, observations from an outsider based solely on things gathered from their websites. I would love to hear feedback from students about:
a. difficulty/workload - UNSW requires 6 coursework subjects compared to MQ's 4
b. academic/research experience - what's the atmosphere? interaction with academics/students?
c. USyd and UNSW needs at least a 65 to get third class honours. Is it that difficult to get upper 2nd or 1st class in these unis?
d. more details on each uni's research areas
Thanks!