SC2SEA.com - Starcraft 2 SEA eSports Community Site

I wouldn't worry about there being a bunch of dicks to get you down or anything. it's TAFE/uni. I found people mature really quickly from about 17 onwards. I can't remember having a single person I really disliked after highschool. Either at uni or anywhere. Sure you will always get people who's personality grates on you a bit. But all in all I've no doubt you will find the experience awesome. Especially because you wont be living with randoms who might bitch about the way the fridge is packed or something stupid like that.

In regards to mac vs PC. If you are doing digitial stuff you might wanna seriously consider a mac just because of the software available. But if you don't need a mac I would say steer clear. But mac vs PC is the age old religion vs science question... so whatever man :P. What I dont wanna hear from people though is mac are more stable or get less viruses or something. IME PCs are perfectly stable and don't get viruses if you arent stupid.

Ask your TAFE teachers what their thoughts are. They would be more likely to know what kind of software you want and whether or not you can get away with a PC. And dont worry about not being able to take a computer to class. I think they are far more distracting and doubt many students actually know how to use one in effective learning any better than they would a pen and paper (excepting of course if you need to do workshop stuff on the computer, obvioulsy).

Leaving your parents house and going in another city to study at university is one of the bigger step you will face in your life. It will have many consequences you must manage well in order to not waste time, money and your future chances.

The consequences are those:

• At first you will be shy and the first 3 month you will study well as your external activities, temptations and comfort in your new life will still be low;
• Then you will discover that you are basically completely free now. No more parents to fix you rules to follow, teacher in Uni won't follow you either. You work or not, that's your problem, not their. You will be proposed any sort of stuff and activities there because people will know you have no more "protections".
• Those temptations are very very hard to resist to because that's new sensations and work is still work and might often be more boring than just enjoying pleasure and activities.

What you must do:

• You're no more protected by rules fixed by other people to you. It's time you fix your own limits, that you give yourself objectives and that you consider that making those objectives will define you as a adult.
• First thing is to continue to work. Just as usual. You don't have to pass all your time working, but never reduce the time you have to apply on work.
• Second thing to do is you must protect yourself. Don't endanger yourself and your health (by beginning smoking for example, doing drug, having sex without protection) while enjoying the activities you will have.
• Sleep : You might think sleep is a waste of time because you can still do stuff and sleep 5 hours a day. But it will lower your willpower do do the boring things and you will end up not doing those anymore.
• Make your own choices : You don't have to do things to look "cool". Do what you want to do. Being cool will give you very momentary popularity. Being solid and stable will earn you long term respect by others. Believe me.

I didn't followed the "work" and "sleep" rules when I was at your age that lead me to waste at least one year and opportunities quite stupidly. I still regret them to this day, more than 15 years after.

It is pretty common for many young people to go through TAFE in order to get into University so don't feel ashamed or anything about that. Personally after finishing uni, the workload in comparison to HS is pretty different. Don't expect them to spoonfeed, they will just give you notes, lectures and assignments, however they are always more than willing to help out if you have trouble understanding related to your subjects.

There are a lot more mature people in TAFE/uni even though there can be drama, can always ignore some people if they are idiots. It is always daunting moving out of home and living amongst your peers but you will get comfortable over time. Try not to hit the pub too much, otherwise you will fall behind on your work.

Having a macbook is an easy way to meet people. "Oh hey, you have a macbook too, we should be friends". As others have said, ask the people running your course.

People I've talked to that have done similar things regret it. Afaik you're much better off with ComSci then majoring/choosing electives as you want.

Some gun posts from people above here.

You should be really excited, first year uni/tafe is a truly great experience. The one thing I'd add to the truly excellent posts above is to socialise LIKE CRAZY in your first year. In my experience the friends you make in first year uni/tafe will stick with you a long time, but by second and third year people tend to have found their niches once more and it becomes a lot more time consuming to form new social circles.

First year uni is kinda like the first day of primary school "do you wanna be my friend!?", " sure - let's play!". And off you run holding hands.

Good luck, have fun

I too am moving out of home in the next two months to go to university. I find out whether I am going to UQ, QUT or JCU this Thursday (might have a gaming buddy already! haha) I won't have to do TAFE before hand, but I will be studying a joint Law/Psychology degree, and all of these answers have helped so much to calm the nerves just that little bit . Thanks guys

. . . Uni/Tafe is like anything in life - you get out of it what you put in. The friends you make in first year are most likely the ones you'll start an indie dev company with too, depending on how you go with job hunting, so like Nemo said, socialize, but don't forget your commitments! Don't be afraid to try out something new - that's how you meet people too, by doing stuff outside your comfort zone. I look back at my first year of uni as the funnest but don't forget to try and make choices to give you a broad foundation for your career and social circles!

Stick to your thoughts blogs mate

Don't go out and specifically buy a Macbook. Decide on a budget, then buy the best machine you can find for that budget. Maybe it'll be a Macbook, Apple's hardware prices have dropped a decent bit recently, but don't be dissuaded from buying something just because it's not branded. SSD's are cool I guess, but not necessary.

Moving out is easy, and badass. Just make sure you have some cash lying around for the first few weeks to cover incidental expenses. They are inevitable. Sometimes they are beer, sometimes they are more necessary. But they will happen.

Having not done uni in Australia I can't speak to that specifically, but here the jump in workload between highschool and uni depends on how much effort you put in.

Join clubs, groups, whatever. Talk to people in your classes. Talk to random people. At uni, you can safely assume most people are reasonably intelligent. Having reasonably intelligent friends is awesome.

gl bro.

Mate, the Bachelor of Games and Interactive Entertainment degree at QUT is the best educational decision I've made in my life. The lecturers are mostly good, the content of most of the classes is fascinating, and the facilities are fantastic(not to mention we have a sweet Games Lab on level 4 of S-block, come over to it and I'll play some games of SC2 with you in it :P). If you have any concerns about getting a job after university in this degree, just put it this way... I'm not concerned, there are plenty of options out there in Brisbane alone that recognise and praise the degree, so why should you worry?

Yes, you will still get immature, rude people in your classes, for some reason the degree in question attracts a few, but not too many. They're just a part of life though, just ignore them unless you have to work with them.

DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT get a Macbook. If you're doing the same starting courses as me, you'd be much better off getting maybe an ASUS or a Toshiba (not an Acer, the build quality is crap, I'd know, I have one), or anything else that runs Windows. The reason for this is because no matter what major you go for, the software for some of the classes will either work better for Windows computers, or it runs only on them.

Can I ask, which major are you going to take at university? Who knows, I might be able to tutor you in some classes if you want

Oh yeah, one last note, if you're looking for a club to join while you're at TAFE/uni (doesn't matter which one), then join the University of Queensland Starcraft Society, otherwise known as UQSL, Moonglade is even a part of the society

I generally decide pick my enemies based upon whether or not they own a macbook :P

Uni is hard. Stupid hard compared to high school.

And bring back My Thoughts!

I was hoping I might find someone on here doing that course . Thanks all for the responses, all very helpful