HSC, Scholarship, UAI and USyd

Sadly I need to be rapid. I would love to recount this tale in full, but it's 03:33 and I need to be up in a stupidly small amount of time for the drive up to Adelaide - hurray.

HSC - 19th of December
At 5:30am Adelaide time (6:00am Sydney time) I received this shockingly simple SMS.

Course - Mark (out of 100 or 50) - Band
EngAdv 85 5
EngX1 41 E3
EngX2 46 E4
Maths 83 5
MathsX1 33 E2
Music1 85 5
LatnC 86 5
VET IT 89 5

None of the marks were horrible, but none of the marks were great - except for one - my English Extension Two mark - quite glad with that =]

Later that day I received a phone call from UTS - the University of Technology Sydney - saying I'd made been offered a place in their Bachelor of Information Technology and they were offering me the $13k a scholarship. It was damn tempting, so very tempting, but I honestly had my heart set on University of Sydney. The second I said no though my doubts flared up - I'd just basically ripped up a $39k cheque - and there was no assurance yet that I'd get into the course I'd want at USyd.

Smerity began to enter panic mode...

That night Smerity went clubbing with his cousins Laura and Kate - it was a pleasant form of distraction and beneficial apart from the alcohol keeping him up until 5am.

UAI - 20th of December
Woken up by a phone call from my friend Stui, I checked my UAI in a somewhat zombie-like state. Oh - 90.15? I didn't know exactly how to react at first - it was in the 90's - that's good. Only issue is I remembered the course I wanted - Bachelor of Information Technology at USyd - had a 96.60 UAI.

Smerity upgraded from panic mode to high definition surround sound terror...

Did I make a huge mistake? I couldn't quite decide. Either way, I wasn't straight into the course I wanted - I'd need to rely on the Experienced Programmers Portfolio to boost my mark. Only issue was 6 points seemed to be stretching it.

Luckily here some friends reminded me of a very fair point - Ben Taylor especially. USyd has a flexible first year, meaning that "students who do well at university [have] the opportunity to reapply to higher cut-off programs which they may not have been successful in gaining entry to on first application" - so I could get into BCST and transfer up. Smerity was reassured from this, but he still wouldn't mind getting straight into BIT.

USyd - 22nd of December
Usually it takes USyd a fair while to sort out and evaluate the Experienced Programmers Portfolio submissions, and even then applicants can be required to go through an interview process to be considered. I received a strange email tonight however, marked simply "Application for Engineering at Sydney University". At first I thought it was just another push for students - they'd sent out an email with the subject "You've got your results...what's next?" only a day or so before - but I began reading the email and something was different. In the second paragraph however my interests were peaked -

The extra information supplied has helped us determine that your UAI will be sufficient to meet the flexible entry cut-off requirements for your 1st Preference of Bachelor of Information Technology (expected cut-off of 95).

I reread the sentence about three or four times in a slight shock. Then I reacted in a somewhat childish and giddy way - but I reserve my right of excitement for times like this =]

So, simply put, this shall be my new home =]
Smerity

Schoolies

I returned yesterday from possibly one of the best weeks of my life. A group of my friends decided to avoid the main and raucous schoolies area of the Gold Coast and simply rent a house right on the edge of the ocean near Nambucca called The Glen.

The view from my bedroom window

Nearly every day we went out on the boat, and nearly every day someone suffered some sort of injury. I suffered a badly grazed knee after a seagull flew at me whilst on an extremely treacherous rock, James was struck by a car, Hayley suffered a concussion, and later I was bruised raw by a loose life jacket.

Miss Hayley and me

Beyond all that however was my drinking story. Deciding to get drunk I ingested the majority of my bottle of absinthe - a fiery burn which I've learned to love! That wasn't the issue however - the issue began when I was offered the rest of the butterscotch to finish off. Having a gulp or two I decided I could easily finish this - it tasted like a thick gluggy water, and for the alcohol I could easily put up with that. The next morning I woke up sick as a dog however - it turned out the butterscotch wasn't butterscotch - they replaced it with Home Brand Olive Oil. I downed half a bottle of olive oil and didn't even notice O_o
Luckily however I still maintain my record of never having been sick due to alcohol - even when the alcohol is tainted with olive oil =] I never plan on having to throw up to offset my inefficiencies of drinking - and I hope that plan remains in effect.

The Culprit of Smerity's Drinking Story

Overall it was a splendid week. Among other things was the fact that I got up first time in water skiing - so far I've yet to fail a take off =]

The Crew

-in jokes- Oh Fifi! Oh Fuck! Star! -/in jokes-
Smerity