the first week of school has been pretty relaxing and slow paced....nothing too overbearing or hard to digest.

i had this conversation with rachel today about investment banking and the big money involved....and it just set me thinking for the whole day. its especially "distressing" when u hear all these stories about ur friends in the US doing internships with investment banking firms and earning astronomical paychecks. of course...they work their asses off. for eg, my friend's sis just graduated from U of Chicago and is now working for Leyman Brother's in NYC for a starting pay of about SGD7000. but i should mention that she works a 100 hour week. weekends included. Another JC friend, Mira, is apparently doing an intership with Goldman Sachs. wow.....how our lives have diverged since JC!

it just makes me wonder if i should hv gone to the US to study finance instead. Medicine is great, but the thought of 6 years ahead is rather daunting. i do draw inspiration from some of the 50 year old post grad students though.

looking closely at the finances involved for college education, a bachelor's degree in a US uni will probably not cost more than a medical course here at Melbourne uni. furthermore, the difference in fees for an in-state and out-state student in the US is not as drastic as the diff in fees for a local and international student here at Uni Melbourne.

which brings me to the point that here in Australia, the unis are just ripping off international students to subsidise the HECS fees. its the same story in the UK. but in the US, if u go to a private college, everyone pays the same fees...in the tens of thousands of US dollars. maybe that's why US unis can higher top notch professors and offer a first rate education.

a UK exchange student was just complaining to me about how he get's his books for free back in edinburgh...and here....he has to fork out quite a sum for it. it seems that nothing is free at Uni Melbourne.

i wonder what's the big fuss about VSU. we pay an amenities fee to the uni, but we still gotta pay really big bucks (almost commercial rates) to use the gym, swimming pool and badminton courts. so what's the whole point of the amenities fee?

abolish it! let's all support VSU! (voluntary student union)