Today I arrived home after a week-long family holiday at Yarrawonga, so it almost feels like my year is just starting now. In fact, it was only within half an hour of arriving home when Monash University gave me a call asking for documents in order to process my application for 2012. I was lucky that they called today, because had we arrived home half an hour later, I’d have missed the call and it would be too late to hand anything in – today was the deadline.

Last year I completed certificates III and IV in science at Swinburne University. During my time there, many issues arose with various students. I’m sure this is uncommon at Swinburne, I believe it was just a very unlucky year – a shame considering how great the teaching was. Swinburne handled the issues appropriately. Without going into detail, I was put behind 5 or 8 weeks (depending how you decide to count.) Because of this, I had to complete my work beyond the set course dates. Instead of finishing in late November or early December, I finished mid-December. In fact, there was so much work that I had to catch up on that it came down to the end of the last possible day – once I got home, I still had work I had to email in. The teachers were great, making time for me weeks after the course had ended, and in retrospect I’m still glad I was accepted into that course. Despite the bad experiences with other students (again, I was unlucky), studying science – and actually understanding it – is the most fulfilling thing I’ve done since I started coding nearly a decade ago.

Finishing in mid-December created some issues for me. The idea of completing these certificates at Swinburne last year was not only to expand my knowledge on science, but to also act as a stepping stone to university. I applied for science, computer science, and software engineering courses in various universities including Swinburne, Monash, and Deakin. Monash is probably the most appropriate university should I be accepted into software engineering or computer science due to my background with them. Swinburne is probably preferable for science, as the classes are smaller and I have science certificates from them too – there’s also some pretty cool nano stuff going on near by!

Applying for these universities through VTAC created a problem for me when I finished my course “late,” as explained above. VTAC needed the results in by the 16th of December (if I remember correctly), and my results may not have been submitted until after 5pm that day. So, as Monash were sorting through applications, they called me up. The timing was amazing. The first call was from the IT department one day before we left for Yarrawonga. I managed to get most of the documents together right before Swinburne closed, and then handed them in early next morning as we left for the trip. The remaining documents were gathered through contacting the amazing teachers I had at Swinburne, where I got emailed copies of the documents I needed to send to Monash. Once I had sent everything in to the IT department, I didn’t even think about needing to send a copy to the science department too, so you can guess what the call was about today. A last minute rush to scan the documents again (as the first time around we had brought the documents in rather than scanned and emailed) and email them in, we just made it before the absolute deadline.

I can’t wait to find out which university I’m accepted into this year – I likely find out on the 16th of January (just a few days away!) Right now I’m hoping for Monash purely because I prefer them for computer science (although, I’d still absolutely love the opportunity to study abroad.) If, for whatever reason, I’m not accepted this year, I think I’ll start a company.