Quote:
Originally Posted by stuhawkes
Hi,
I am considering taking a course at Swinburne. I already have an Hons degree in engineering, but work and family prevents me from studying anything further full time. These online post grad courses seem very good, but as I am fairly new to Australia I don't know much about the reputation of Swinburne.
Would any of you recommend taking these courses?
http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/sao/
Stu
P.S. Please excuse my ignorance if Swinburne turns out to be the greatest Astro school in Australia.. I am new! 
[edit]
P.P.S. Just did a quick google and found out that the famous Trevor Barry studied there. I must be on the right track! |
Hi Stu,
I would highly recommend Swinburne, the unit instructors and project supervisors that I ran into were very supportive and obviously passionate about their particular subject. The interaction with other students within each units discusion group was most enjoyable and the essay topics & projects were very interesting.
I found the whole experience extremely stimulating and rewarding. I always thought people that recorded variable star data must have just been extremely bored but after doing a variable star project and researching the subject to great depth I became a convert and now have about 1000 obs with the AAVSO.
I think with this sort of thing you really get out of it what your prepared to put in. I had no previous tertiary experience, so had to work very hard at it. I put in about 10 hours a day. What ever the criteria were for any particular assesable element, I made sure that I exceeded them.
It was the totally unrelated info that I picked up along the way, while researching an essay, project or the answer to another students question that I found incredibly valuable. I was like a sponge sucking up all of this.
I note that Swinburne has now negotiated time on the Keck's for their research scientists. Sarah Maddison the head of SAO is an astrophysicist and runs a tight ship. She does an excellent job and if you have any queries then I suggest contacting her.
Regards
Trevor