G'day Mates!

University of California, Education Abroad Program: Australia
-Immersion program where you live and go to school with the locals, versus with a UC specific course set and housing.

Now, the biggest problem is figuring out what campus to go to....
I have at least 3 options:
1) University of Sydney
2) University of New South Wales
3) University of Western Australia
4) La Trobe University (Melbourne)

I've been looking at possible classes (they call them "units") I can take, since I need to have a total of 24-quarter units (4-6.0 semester classes). I've been looking at each campus, in various departments (they call them "faculties") and am having some trouble. I also have to make sure they are all UD, and that I meet any pre-requisites. Sometimes I just get lost....

1) U of Sydney: great location, but very cosmopolitan. Lots of International students and immigrants from Asia. This is also basically of THE biggest, most attractive cities in NSW, and a popular destination (Sydney Harbour Bridge, Opera House, etc). As far as a cultural aspect, I'd probably be getting less of the actual "locals". As far as classes go, they have a wide variety of units ("units" = "classes/courses"; "course" = "major") of interest spanning multiple faculties.

2) UNSW: again, great location, same basic qualms as Sydney, as Sydney is in NSW, and the campuses are not very far from each other. Despite all the cosmopolitan stuff, I do want to see and do a lot of things in this region, so being there for the program would make this easier. The units here are comparable to U of Syd, but lacking a few (as I need 24-qu).

3) UWA: Western Australia (Perth). Far from the cosmopolitan Sydney/NSW on the East coast. This is said to give one a more cultural, local experience, as its less of a "destination" like Sydney. I'm still looking into units here, but I've found a few good ones so far. Don't know too much about this region. Another thing, is this campus is less impacted because its less cosmopolitan and touristy/international hotspot, so getting into the university wouldn't be as much of an issue as with the previous two campuses. Can't remember how impacted La Trobe is.

4) La Trobe: Based in Melbourne, SE Aus in Victoria, still somewhat cosmopolitan, and is known to be "in competition" with Sydney... haha. Blogs argue which city is "better" (its kind of like comparing SB and San Diego). Anyway, a nice city, and near the campus there is a Wildlife Sanctuary where they let students volunteer. MAJOR PERK. The website says that have a Zoology degree, but the classes are seriously lacking (in my opinion). I have not found anything worthy of my time, that I haven't already taken the equivalent of at UCSB.

So yeah. I have lots of books on Sydney, because at one point I had planned on moving there for a year with a former friend (big flake, big mistake). So I have more knowledge of Sydney and the surrounding areas. The flights are also a little cheaper ;) I also have a great book called "Watching Wildlife Australia" that tells where to see all the cool wildlife, which is really what drew me to choose Australia for my term abroad (other options were limited, due to language restrictions, and I don't think I want to take biology classes in Spanish.... but how cool would that be!?). So, the wildlife is everywhere, and I want to travel. A lot of stuff seems to be on the East coast, but generally a good distance North of NSW.

Not sure there was a complete thought there, but basically I'm not 100% sure where I want to go.