Bath vs USYD

Hi, I've moved your thread to the international study forum so hopefully you'll get some more insight from the Australian side

Ultimately I don't think it will matter whether you go to an Australian or UK university in this case. Unless it's a globally recognised brand name university (e.g. Harvard/Oxbridge/LSE/HEC etc) it's probably all equivocal. So I wouldn't really focus on that angle to be honest.

I'd also note that you wouldn't be "behind" if you started in Australia. ~4 months difference is basically negligible in the face of a lifetime career, and having a couple extra months to do stuff like getting your driving license as you say is actually quite valuable. Also worth noting in some EU countries it's quite common to start in the Winter Semester (e.g. Germany it's fairly common for unis to start in January there so applicants are post-qualification). Therefore you'd actually be aligning to their "timetable" better...so something to bear in mind.

I think really the biggest decision here is do you want to study maths, or science? Bearing in mind also that maths at degree level is very different to school maths - being much more abstract and the pure maths being resolutely proof based. The school maths you are used to is generally considered "mathematical methods" at degree level and forms a relatively small part of a maths degree usually.

Odd question perhaps, but I have an offer from Bath for maths (masters with year abroad) and have also applied to USYD and UNSW (in Australia but I have nationality so considered a domestic student) for Science, which would be 4 years with a year abroad and I’d get honours. I’m wondering which uni gives the best chance for employment ( which is more of a target Uni) in Europe, not just the uk necessarily also france, Germany etc …
Basically I don’t know how to decide between to two (technically 3) unis.
Extra info: I would start in Australia in February so would have a half gap year which I’m not a fan of as I’d be behind but I would be able to get a driving license and work for a bit.

I'm going to Bath for my maths degree this september/october as well. I've not looked too much at UNSW or USYD but just wanted to give my input. Bath seems to be getting more reputation as of recently, sure it's not the same as Oxbridge etc but that's a given, but don't let global rankings sway you, keep in mind it's based on research rather than an employers look of where you studied. It really depends what you want to go into, but I'm pretty sure the mathematics degree gives you loads of more options for a career than mathematics applied with science. I doubt that any employer would be swayed from your application if it was in Australia though, just doesn't make any sense for that to be the case. Hope this helps.

Yeah thanks, does help, and you’re right about bath being on the rise. Just so you know the course in Australia would still be maths like it would be in bath it just falls under the course name science (should’ve made that more clear). Anyway, right now the plan is to go into investment banking, so the question would be which of the mentioned unis would help the most with getting a place there.

I can't answer this without bias but this is why I think Bath. Investment banking in London is your best bet (obviously), and multiple banking firms come to Bath on recruitment fairs. Very prestigious firms such as Goldman Sachs have accepted students who do mathematics at Bath. I'm trying my best not to be bias here as I'm practically doing the same thing as you, but I'm looking about being a quant instead of investment banker. I don't know too much about the other unis but that's what's going on for Bath.

You can look at what post-grads doing mathematics at Bath went into after their degree somewhere on the website.