What Students Say About Studying At Macquarie
Jesse: I think, I would tell Year 12 Jesse, you're going to be okay. Because I think the natural anxieties and confusion and worries and anxieties of a high school student when choosing their tertiary education and whether or not they'd like to pursue university. I tell them you're going to be okay. There is so much support available.
Jesse: I was potentially worried you might be on your own. You know, you're not going to be forgotten about. People are not going to want to be friends with you or things like that. But it's actually just the next stage in your journey.
Rob: Hi, I'm Rob and I'm on campus at Macquarie University on Garigal Land in Sydney.
Rob: I'm here with Jesse and Nithya. Current and former student of Macquarie Uni. Guys, thanks for joining me on the Choosing a Uni podcast.
Jesse: My name is Jessie Peek and I'm studying a double degree of Psychology and Media and
Nitya: Communications. My name is Nithya. I studied a Bachelor's of Commerce and I majored in Marketing and Consumer Insights and I now work as the Social Media Advisor.
Nitya: Thanks for having us. So excited.
Rob: And it's pumping out here today, isn't it? We're here on Open Day. Oh, yeah. And you guys are here working for the uni as current and former students. That's right. Firstly, tell me a little bit what it's like, the atmosphere here on campus.
Jesse: Oh, electric, electric. I mean, we've got such beautiful weather today, so a fantastic day to be exploring the 126 hectares of our campus.
Jesse: So it's certainly a ways to get around and there's just so much to do and so much to see. So. What are you most looking forward to food?
Nitya: That's my favorite part about campus. We have so many amazing like restaurants around like food court. It is electric, especially when I have food in my stomach after class, that's the best part I would say, but it's also so good to see so many new students or like potential students around campus today, like the biggest day of the year for Macquarie uni, and it's so fun.
Nitya: Cause we have so many activities lined up as well, and we're working and we get to see a lot of smiles on faces. So
Rob: maybe let's start on the campus side of things to begin with. Jessie, describe for those people who are listening at home, what the Macquarie campus is like.
Jesse: Well, I think the best way to describe it is green.
Jesse: Which is something that I feel sets Macquarie apart. It's got so much beautiful, open, natural spaces. And you know, our beautiful campus has a lot of green. beautiful environments to just sort of be by the lake, be present, and I think it offers a nice break from, you know, inside the classroom to be able to actually step outside and just take a breather when you need to.
Jesse: I think being, you know, sort of in the outdoors means that it's not that clinical environment and you sort of have the freedom to be able to wander around and explore.
Rob: And Nithya, you mentioned food. Now that's something that's changed significantly, and Declaration of Interest, I studied here at Macquarie, We didn't have very many food options, but now that's completely changed, hasn't it?
Rob: Yeah,
Nitya: it really has. Even including our new central courtyard building. So before I joined, apparently it was just like a shipping container with like two or three restaurants inside. But now it's a massive building with an incredible bar. And we have the best pizza there. And around we have, you know, Korean, we have Japanese, we have Malaysian, we have Everything that you need.
Nitya: You know, one day I just wake up and I'm like, Oh, I feel like I want Malaysian today. Go to Papa Rich. I feel like I want a kebab today. Eat Istanbul. It's so great. Yeah.
Rob: Jesse, we're standing here looking down on the courtyard. It's a lovely open areas covered with students today. Tables are outside. The sun's shining down and actually there are booths everywhere out here that are full of clubs and societies.
Rob: Can we talk a little bit about. That sort of social clubs and societies element of Macquarie?
Jesse: Oh, it's one of my favourite elements to be able to sort of tell prospective students about who are wondering or maybe even apprehensive about finding their place on campus. If you have an interest, there's a club or society for that interest.
Jesse: I mean my favourite example is, there's a Taylor Swift Appreciation Society, so we really have both sides. sort of sides of the coin there. And then most of our areas of study are also represented as well, being accounting, psychology, law, business, clinical science. So there's such a huge diversity of areas of study, both academic and then areas of leisure as well.
Jesse: So really great opportunities to get involved, meet new people, and then also make friends outside of your course who you might not encounter otherwise. Nithya, what made you choose Macquarie?
Nitya: The campus. I'm an international student and when I first saw Macquarie's campus, because it was only then, you know, renewed, developed, yeah, re innovated.
Nitya: So it was, it's a beautiful campus. It's 126 hectares of land and we have a lake. I don't see any other uni having a lake, but it's also the rankings of the uni and the teaching in particular. So I chose a business degree and for business, I would say Macquarie is the best because we do have about two or three degrees that are number one in Australia at the moment.
Nitya: And as a marketing student, given that the, you know, our marketing degrees are the top in Australia, this was the best uni for me particularly. And given that it's in Sydney, even better because I did not want to go anywhere else. Same
Rob: thing, Jessie, what, what made you choose MQ?
Jesse: I felt like a person and not a number.
Jesse: And I think that might be a little bit of a sort of cliched thing to say, but I feel like the student support here is sort of unparalleled. There were so many different options for pathways into accessing your dream degree. So you never felt like you were locked out from achieving your aspirations or achieving the certain goals that you would like to.
Jesse: There was a, Constant support, stream of support right from initial stages in high school from those touch points in 11 to year 12. So I felt like Macquarie even saw me through my high school journey and made that transition into my tertiary studies so simple and easy. So that's always felt like the unique touch point for me.
Jesse: Castle Hill High School. So the Hills District, so very lucky to be connected on the Metro line as well. The only uni to have its own Metro station.
Nitya: Yeah, I was also going to say, I was a Markabella and we won nationals in 2019 or 2018. So when I saw that, I was like, I want to go there. I want to be one of them.
Nitya: So that's also another reason why I picked Macquarie Uni.
Rob: Guys, let's dive into your degrees. Nithya, you've got the microphone. Let's talk about what you studied. Yeah. Tell us about it.
Nitya: So I did a Bachelors of Commerce again, and I majored in Marketing and Consumer Insights. So your first year, you basically do.
Nitya: All the subjects, like all the majors, and then try to figure out what you're interested in. So I picked marketing. And then I also, as someone that doesn't like numbers ended up choosing consumer analytics for some reason, but it was actually pretty good.
Rob: Oh, can I just pause you there? Yeah. To jump in on that, because I think a lot of people might think that analytic is kind of boring and it's only for the data nerds and everything.
Rob: But tell me, like you've done commerce, how important is analytics to analytics? Everything that happens around very,
Nitya: very important because I do work in marketing now as well without analytics, without knowing what our consumers like, without knowing what our opponents are like, what we're up against, we're not going to get anything done.
Nitya: So it's extremely important to know what they're actually interested in, what they're engaging with, because if we don't know that aspect of things, we can't really, you know, offer them or give them what they want. We're just going to be making what we think is nice, and we're not going to. You know, connect with our audience, which is why analytics is extremely important.
Nitya: It's not just like a computer thing or not like a an IT or a math thing. It's also a commerce and a business thing for sure.
Rob: Super good. What do you enjoy most about your degree?
Nitya: I absolutely enjoyed class 'cause I do remember building Lego in class once, as an activity. I know I walked in and they were like, oh, we're building Legos today.
Nitya: Lego
Rob: Serious play.
Nitya: I have no idea. Don't remember. I have no idea it was with fish. That's all I remember, . But it was really great. I mean, it was. It's so easy to make friends as well. And I also really like that we have exchange options and I got to do part of my degree abroad. So, all of it was just so good.
Nitya: So Nithya,
Rob: let's stick on that topic of friends, because let's face it, probably one of the biggest anxieties. That young people have when they're choosing uni, they're making that big step from high school. Absolutely, absolutely. Tell me about that process.
Nitya: For me, it was relatively easy. I'm an extrovert as well and I just, I tend to just go say hi to people when I see them.
Nitya: But it was also easy because I lived here on campus at student accommodation. So you live with other students. You naturally get to make friends with other students because they only get to see you get to see them. So that was how it was easy for me. And it was also because I was a student ambassador and a Macquarie Business School student assistant.
Nitya: So, you know, my colleagues became my friends because, you know, we're in the same age group. We're all doing a degree and we're all doing the same job. So it was very easy for me to connect with them on that basis. But otherwise, I would say people at Macquarie, they don't bite, you know, like if you go say hi, they'll say hi back, take them to a coffee, they'll say yeah.
Nitya: And like, just everyone on campus is friendly, mostly. Yeah, I can't speak for everyone, but a personal experience, I would say everyone on campus is just really friendly. Very welcoming to new students.
Rob: Just a quick note for those people who are the introverts. I've got a great piece of content with a specialist from the USA who talks exclusively about being an introvert at university.
Rob: And I'll drop the link to that in the show notes because. You actually won't feel out of place in a uni, you will find your tribe here. Nithya, let's go on. You mentioned exchange. It's a subject extremely close to my heart. Tell me about what you did and where you went.
Nitya: So, I went to Denmark, to Copenhagen Business School.
Nitya: So great, loved it. It's a smaller city, of course, and like, I love that people were just so nice and so friendly and they actually, you know, they kept to themselves. They didn't button to any anybody else's business. It was really nice. I did one unit abroad. So I did a social entrepreneurship unit. It was not really connected to my major.
Nitya: It's something that Macquarie also does. So we have flexible options. So that means you can study anything either within your degree or outside of your degree, any subject that you want. So I decided to do a winter exchange in Denmark and I did social entrepreneurship and honestly, it was so great. I honestly missed that place so much when was like, Oh, I don't want to go back.
Nitya: But you know, my friends, my family, everything's here. So it was good to come back as well. But exchange was absolutely lovely. It also definitely gives you that experience the international world, what uni is like on an international level, but not just like your comfort zone of your home uni. So yeah,
Rob: just to speak really quickly to that.
Rob: Having an international study experience is part of your degree and Macquarie does have an amazing range of options here. Declaration of Interest actually helped run that program for about five years.
Jesse: So
Rob: that Copenhagen Business School program I set up back in the early 2000s. That's like, personal bias aside, the research is overwhelming.
Rob: If you have an international study experience on your resume, employers absolutely love it. Shows that you're resilient, you're flexible, you're adaptable. You've got that kind of intercultural knowledge. These are all amazing things to add in.
Jesse: I actually spent last year overseas in London as part of the exchange program at Macquarie and actually had the opportunity to both study, work and travel whilst on a Macquarie international exchange program.
Jesse: So the opportunity to be able to not lose any time on my degree but still be able to study the same units that my sort of host university would be studying at the same time was great, but having the flexibility to be able to travel, make new international connections, and then also be offered an internship program through my study at my host university was fantastic.
Jesse: I mean, talk about a resume builder, being able to add international skills, international travel, navigating new and foreign experiences, but then also building employability skills as well. And adding that onto my resume was such a highlight for me, really made my whole semester abroad just. I
Rob: went
Jesse: to Roehampton University in South West London.
Jesse: It's fantastic. Oh, and they also have a lake. So I think that's where we had the Macquarie in common there. I was like, I feel like it's my second home.
Rob: Yeah. Awesome. G'day,
Jesse: Hey, are you a
Rob: parent or a carer of a student thinking of going to uni in the years ahead? Did you know that Choosing Your Uni has a whole bunch of resources that are just for people like you?
Rob: And you can find those at parents. choosingyouruni. com You're going to find things like links to our Facebook community, downloadable worksheets and heaps of advice.
Rob: It's all the sort of stuff that you need to help guide your student on their journey to uni and beyond. Check it out now, parents. choosingyouruni. com Let's back up to that question I was asking Nithya just before about making friends. How did you form that transition? Well,
Jesse: as a sort of local to the area, I'm sort of in the catchment zone, just in the Hills District, so not far away.
Jesse: So, it was expected that I would have people from my school coming to the university, but surprisingly, on the campus, you don't actually bump into them a lot. And so, you are in that environment where you go, cool, it's time to forge new friendships, break out from your high school sort of barriers and really sort of test the waters.
Jesse: And I was pretty apprehensive about doing that. I'm not somebody who jumps out there and is the first one to say hi. And so I was like, how is this process going to go? And as I mentioned, those societies were an excellent first step. point for me to be able to connect with people on common interests. So starting off in the psychology society was great because I had people who were studying my area who could offer support to me whilst I was studying.
Jesse: My degree was fantastic. But then even taking advantage of campus wide activities like Trivia Tuesdays at the U Bar was a great way to connect with other people and just sort of have a bit of that social element. And you mentioned before, you know, finding your tribe was for me, where I also found an employability experience at the uni as well.
Jesse: So working as a student ambassador, again, connecting with those people who I might not have interacted with throughout the duration of my degree or met outside of university. That was definitely where I sort of cemented those friendship connections. So you're going to be connecting with people throughout the entire duration of your degree, and it's not difficult.
Jesse: People are looking to connect with one another. So, yeah, I think that's it. Definitely not something to be concerned about or worry about.
Rob: Let's talk about your degree then, Bachelor of Psych.
Jesse: And Media and Communications.
Rob: And both strengths here at this university.
Jesse: A fantastic place to be studying this degree purely because I also say the work experience is unmatched.
Jesse: So our professional and community engagement programs really offer those networking and employability skill building right from from the get go. So when I graduate, I can be confident that I've actually got a sort of, I've got things on my resume. I've got experience that I can actually use so I can show my future, a potential employer.
Jesse: Hey, I actually know what's going on. I've got something here that might set me apart from other competitors or other candidates. Also a great way to sort of apply your skills. That you've learnt in the classroom into the real world. And obviously being a media and communications student, we've got such amazing facilities like our own independent community radio station here on campus.
Jesse: So becoming familiar with the tools, the tools of the trade, using the green screen, all things that I never thought would be possible. from within a classroom and as you're part of regularly scheduled learning. So a massive difference from high school to university to be able to use these skills and actually apply what you're learning on paper into practice.
Rob: Now for somebody that hasn't been to university before. You know, school classes are very different to studying at uni. Can you guys talk a little bit about what it's like to study at uni? What those classes like, class sizes, that sort of stuff.
Jesse: I would say there's a big difference in terms of the flexibility and both as well.
Jesse: University does require you to to take initiative to be independent and proactive with your skills because you won't necessarily have that same familiar classroom teacher who's looking after you to make sure that you've handed your assignment in on time. So it does force you to actually take the initiative to take control over your own skills.
Jesse: which I think is great for building those core life skills. Again, you do have the support of both your unit convener and your tutor. In terms of uni speak, a tutor is the sort of teacher for your classroom. So you do have your mandatory classes called tutorials, which you will attend. And they are typically a little bit smaller class sizes.
Jesse: Nithya, would you say around. 20 to 30 students in your classes and then we have our lectures which is a sort of in our theatres so a lot more students available to attend and that is sort of where you'll have your academic or your professor being able to deliver content where you have the opportunity to take notes and then in your own time go over those notes and and solidify that content however of course we've seen mad changes to this because of the pandemic so we've seen the adoption of a of a hybrid model.
Jesse: To university as well, which is great for offering people flexibility and also be able to to choose how and when they study. So great for people who have maybe full-time jobs who are studying uni on the side. The option to be able to study university online is great, to be able to sort of manage extracurricular activities, life commitments and balances and things like that.
Jesse: But then also. the opportunity to be able to work at your own pace as well. So if you're in an online lecture, you even have the potential to be able to pause the lecture, rewind, go back. And I've missed that. I didn't quite understand that. Go back and go do it again. So there's a lot of benefits to online learning.
Jesse: If there's a preference I had, I'm definitely still an in person kind of gal. I do love being able to connect with my classmates and, and sort of be in that present and environment and sort of remove the. Potential for me to potentially slip into a Netflix tab and, and diverge from my studies. So it's definitely the in person keeps me on task.
Jesse: Nithya,
Rob: you seem to be glowing about this place. Why? Why?
Nitya: I love it here. Love it so much that I decided to work here after I graduated. It's just the environment, the energy in the place is just booming. And it's so nice to see. So many people are on campus because sometimes, like she mentioned, the flexibility of your class timings.
Nitya: That kind of reduces the size of people that are on campus each day. But to see all of these people come together, especially Choose Macquarie Uni to attend like an open day at, is honestly so great because we work for this place. And to see that, you know, everything that we've worked for so far is actually paying off.
Nitya: It's so great. Plus, I'm also glowing because lunchtime is soon and I need to eat. I need to eat. I need to reach, yeah. What's on the menu today? I have no idea. I think we're getting
Rob: You guys get fed today.
Nitya: Yeah.
Rob: All right, Jessie, last question for you. Thanks, Nithya. What do you wish you'd known about studying at uni before you came, that you now know?
Jesse: There we go. I think, I would tell year 12, Jessie. You're going to be okay, because I think the natural anxieties and confusion and worries and anxieties of a high school student when choosing their tertiary education and whether or not they'd like to pursue university, I tell them you're going to be okay.
Jesse: There is so much support available, I was potentially worried you might be on your own, you're not going to be forgotten about, people are not going to want to be friends with you or things like that. But. It's actually just the next stage in your journey and it's not the beginning, it's not the end. It's certainly fantastic to be able to have the flexibility to be able to change your mind.
Jesse: Uh, a big thing for me is that you're not locked into a degree once you choose it. I actually started choosing a Bachelor of Law, uh, and then decided, Ah, I, I really, this isn't what I want to do with the rest of my life. It was fantastic and it was great experience, but it wasn't where my passions were.
Jesse: Lie. And so to know that I didn't sign a life contract and sign my life away and I was able to change degrees and find my new niche and find my new passion in my current degree, that was such a relief for me. So you can change your mind and you're going to be okay on my top two takeaways. Anything
Rob: to add, Nithya?
Nitya: From an international student's perspective, so, university is very different back home. So, it's kinda like high school, you know, you have a class teacher, you probably mug up your work from class and then go to an exam and do that, but it's so different here because we have very different assignments.
Nitya: You have like one or two exams at the most in like my degree at least. It's very assignment based as in you write essays, you do your research, you write papers on that. That's something that was super foreign to me, cause of the difference in how uni works back home and back here. So just to know how like the curriculum actually works here, how independent you have to be because you're not going to have somebody Hold your hand and tell you what to do every step of the way.
Nitya: And also, like Jesse mentioned, take help when you need it. You do have so much help around. You have, you know, advisors that can help you. You have a writing center that can help you with your writing and help you with paraphrasing. And for international students like me, if that is a foreign concept to you, you have all of these facilities that are there to help you out and help you throughout your journey.
Nitya: your degree. So it was that aspect for me that I wish I would have known sooner that there's something there to help me out and that I'm not gonna lose my mind. But it's also that, you know, uni is, it may seem easy, but it's not always easy. There are times when you're going to be like, Oh my gosh, I want to drop out.
Nitya: I'm having a mental breakdown, but just take a breather. Know that you have help available. And then you'll get through it because look at us, look at me, I have a degree now, I didn't drop out. But it's just so great, you know, the feeling at the end after you've completed is so great. So just breathe it in, do your research, see what is there to help you out, and then good luck, I would say.
Nitya: Yeah.
Rob: And with that, It's now lunchtime.
Nitya: It's now lunchtime.
Rob: Nithya and Jessie, thanks so much for joining me on the Choosing Your Uni podcast. Thank you for
Nitya: having us.
Rob: At Choosing Your Uni, our mission is to make finding your ideal institution and your degree fun, easy, and stress free. So if you're looking to save some time, to discover more, and to get personalized advice for every step, of your journey, check out tutingyouruni.
Rob: com. Our theme music is composed by Parsha Shoghi and his band Flow, and this episode has been researched and constructed on Garigal land in Sydney. Until next time, have yourself an awesome day.