James Cook University? (transporting, universities, place to live)

[KayX]

Hi, Thinking about applying to JCU (know nothing about it--except from their website) I'm from the US, mid-twenties, never been to Australia (but always wanted to go!) Has anyone on here attended JCU (or are familiar with Townsville & Cairns?) If so, any info you could give me would be great! Thanks!

[minibrings]

Tough to give advice. Depends, if you are interested in marine biology, environmental science or tourism it is fine, however it is more of a regional University.

It is not ranked as a top 200 University in the Times Educational Supplement Top 200 ranking:
Times Higher Education - Education news, resources and university jobs for the academic world

It is ranked in the Shanghai Jiao Tang University global ranking (#321)
Academic Ranking of World Universities - 2008 (http://www.arwu.org/rank2008/EN2008.htm - broken link)

If you want a more prestigious or globally recognised degree, I'd look at one of the Group of 8 Universities:
(ANU, Adelaide, Western Australia, Monash, Melbourne, UNSW, Sydney, Queensland)
http://www.go8.edu.au/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_of_Eight_(Australian_universities)

In the US, try this agency for advice and if you apply through them to several Unis it is free...
AustraLearn: Study in Australia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific – providing semester and year abroad, internship, summer, and degree programs abroad

[KayX]

Thanks minibrings! I have a bachelors in biology and currently work as an environmental scientist (wow, sounds nerdy!!)--so interested in that area. Want to live by the beach, love hot weather, good night life...so JCU got my attention. Ill take a look at those websites though.

[Spindle]

You could go to JCU if you were doing a PhD since they're not marked by the University but by your international peers.

You'll get your fair share of beaches and hot weather. I must point out that you will not get surf because the Great Barrier Reef nulls it. I'm not sure about the night life since both Townsville and Cairns are only around 100,000 people strong so their nightlife will be limited. That said, you'll meet a lot of tourists in Cairns and a lot of Australian and American soldiers in Townsville.

I'd personally recommend Cairns as a place to live out of the two, though.

[minibrings]

Originally Posted by Spindle

You could go to JCU if you were doing a PhD since they're not marked by the University but by your international peers.

You'll get your fair share of beaches and hot weather. I must point out that you will not get surf because the Great Barrier Reef nulls it. I'm not sure about the night life since both Townsville and Cairns are only around 100,000 people strong so their nightlife will be limited. That said, you'll meet a lot of tourists in Cairns and a lot of Australian and American soldiers in Townsville.

I'd personally recommend Cairns as a place to live out of the two, though.

How are both Townsville and Cairns doing with the flooding? I still can't believe 60% of Qld (about the size of So. Australia) is under water..

[Spindle]

How are both Townsville and Cairns doing with the flooding? I still can't believe 60% of Qld (about the size of So. Australia) is under water..

To be honest, I haven't been following it other than reading that there's a $200 million clean up price tag so far, but in terms of actual flooding, I doubt Cairns nor Townsville are flooded themselves since they're on the coast so the water can run out to sea rather quickly - i think the major problems are transporting food and other goods to the region.

The 60% of Qld flooded statistic is rather scary - that's the size of France and Germany combined.