Finally, a High Distinction

My uni results for last semester came out this morning, and I finally got an HD. 'Galactic Astronomy and Cosmology' (aka GAC) was probably the most difficult of the subjects I've completed so far towards my Master of Astronomy degree, so I was a little surprised to get an HD. Looks like none of the other MAstron students found this subject any easier than I did.

I recently came across the blog of Rick Boozman, a 58-year-old retired software developer who recently completed his MAstron from JCU (with nearly straight HDs!), was awarded the University Medal, and is now working on his PhD in astrophysics. Its reassuring to see another mature age student has successfully progressed from the JCU Mastron degree to a PhD, although my results aren't quite up to his standard ;)

Subscribe to Enough Wealth. Copyright 2006-2011

Some uni 'honours'

JCU must have recently completed some processing of last year's overall results, because in addition to finally receiving a 'Letter of Commendation' (for getting a GPA>=6.0 in 2010), I also got an invitation to join 'Golden Key International Honour Society' for a once-off fee of A$95 (I also paid an extra $19.95 for a GK lapel pin). Apparently the invite was sent via a mailing list provided by JCU of students with a result 'in the top 15%'.

The $115 I paid to Golden Key might be money down the drain - aside from not getting any benefit from the on-campus social activities (as I'm studying via distance education) I'm also not young enough to make use of the professional development or career assistance benefits. From various forum posts it seems that Golden Key is also treated with great scepticism by some students - with doubts raised about how much of the funds raised from membership fees actually goes back to members via services and scholarships, compared to the amount being used for 'admin' and paying salary to the executive officers of this "non-profit" organisation. But I'll be happy enough if I just receive my membership certificate and pin without any hassles. But the fact that the links to the most recent annual report and other regional reports are broken doesn't fill me with confidence about this organisation.

Anyway, I've wasted more than $100 on other silly expenses over the years, and at least this will give me something to put in the 'Awards and Honours' section of my application to enrol in the doctorate program at the end of next year ;)

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Another Term, Another D

Uni results for Semester 1 came out last week and I managed to get another Distinction in my MAstron coursework. I was hoping I might finally get an HD, but didn't realistically expect it as for two of my tutorial assignments I only scored 6/10 and 7/10, and the final exam included a few questions where I wasn't confident I had the correct answer. As the exam paper took about 14 hours to complete, I didn't have enough time to double check all the calculation questions, and some of my essay-style answers could have done with further consideration and a re-write.
Also, as there were only about a dozen students taking this subject, the university's policy on grade distribution made it tough to score an HD. With only one HD probably given out, you have to top the course to get one. My GPA of 6.0 is still pretty good, but not good enough for a university medal (which requires at least a 6.5 GPA, meaning I'd have to get an HD for ALL of the remaining three subjects - two of which are a literature review and a small "research" project, where the chances of getting an HD may be affected by what research project topic I am allocated).

The course is certainly interesting and fun though, so hopefully I can manage at least D's for all the remaining subjects, which hopefully will be sufficient to get accepted into the Doctor of Astronomy course in 2014.

Subscribe to Enough Wealth. Copyright 2006-2011

Start of the holidays

My workplace is shutting down between Christmas and New Year's, so all the staff have to take some of their annual leave days during this period. It isn't much of an imposition though, as most staff would probably want to take leave during that period anyhow. I've also taken a few extra days off before Christmas, so today was my last day of work until the 4th of January.
During the break I want to read through a couple of the planetary science textbooks I got from Amazon.com. I'll also have another go at using the Meade CCD camera I bought last year. I've written a first draft of an application for a student fellowship position at the Australian Astronomical Observatory - the competition for these positions is fierce (usually 30+ entries for the 2-3 available slots), so I'm not likely to get one. I'll revise the cover letter and CV during the holidays and send the 'final' version to the lecturer at JCU for some feedback before I send it off to the AAO in late January. It does no harm to apply, and some of the documentation can probably be recycled if I apply to the JCU doctorate program in a couple of years time. If I did get accepted I'd have to arrange to take the 10-12 weeks off work in June-August. Fortunately I have 8 weeks of long-service leave and 8 weeks of annual leave accumulated so this should be possible (although the boss might not like the idea).
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The down-side of ordering textbooks online

My textbooks order arrived from Amazon.com a couple of days ago, so I'll have lots to read while I visit my parent's farm for the holidays. Unfortunately the cardboard box had been broken in transit and 'repacked' by simply dumping the entire contents and box into a soft 'tote bag'. Obviously that didn't provide much protection for the books as they travelled airmail from the US to Australia, so all the books arrived with some damage. The heavier, hard-cover textbooks (costing over $100 each) arrived with damaged spines and covers. I emailed both Amazon.com packaging feedback and their customer service, but the response so far has been underwhelming. The customer service department responded within 24 hours of my complaint, but all I got was a boilerplate response offering either a refund or replacement books if I send the damaged books back to Amazon.com

That would be fine if I lived in the US (so postage costs and delivery time wasn't an issue), but sending the damaged books back for replacement would cost at least $50 postage, plus I'd have to wait two or three months for the replacement textbooks to arrive.

Since I want to start reading the textbooks NOW, I've emailed again reiterating my original request for some compensation by way of a partial refund. A small amount of compensation by way of an Amazon.com gift card would appear to be a win-win solution. I'd be able to keep the damaged books and start using them immediately, have some funds to use towards buying additional books from Amazon.com in the future, and avoid having to pay expensive postage to return the books to Amazon.com. And Amazon would win by the gift cards costing less than the cost of mailing replacement books out to me (which could get damaged again!), and would also benefit by my next order using the gift card most likely being for more than the value of the gift card.

We'll see if I actually get a "human" responding to my second email, or just another stock standard response to return them for a refund or replacement.

One especially irritating feature of the customer feedback process was that the customer feedback form doesn't allow attachments (so I could not include the photos of the damage to the books and packaging that I had sent to them using the packing feedback form), and the reply (with photos attached) I sent to their initial customer service reply bounced - so I had to reply using the same customer feedback form that doesn't allow attachments!

UPDATE: Amazon came back very quickly with a refund of the shipping cost plus a "goodwill refund" of part of the cost price of the books. In total I will get $146.46 refunded out of the $585.84 originally paid. Part (~2/3) of the refund is being credited back onto the CC I used to make the purchase, and the remainded will be credited as 'gift card' value onto my Amazon.com account (and will be automatically deducted from the total of my next order). Overall, I'm happy with Amazon's response as I don't have to wait for the books to be replaced and I get some compensation for the books not arriving in good condition. Although the box used for the shipment of 7 books (which included three hefty hardcovers) was obviously not strong enough in this case, my previous orders from Amazon had all arrived in excellent condition. So the problem could have been caused by excessively rough handling of the package through the postal system, rather than the standard of packaging - in which case it was not really Amazon's fault.

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MoA update

The results for my second semester subject (Astronomy Instrumentation) came out this morning -- another Distinction. Considering I was ill for a month in the middle of the semester it's about as good as I could reasonably expect. On the one hand I need to start earning some High Distinction grades if I'm to have any chance of getting a university medal, so I was hoping I might somehow still have done well enough on the final exam to get an HD. At the same time I was worried I might wind up with only a credit, as I had been too busy finishing off my assignment tasks at the end of the semester to put in enough time revising for the exam.

While I'm waiting for my textbook order to arrive from Amazon.com I've started reading through some of my old technical writing and research project management textbooks in preparation for the Literature Review and Pilot Research Project subjects I'll be taking in the final year of the MoA course. The last time I did a literature review and project (for a GradDip in Applied Chemistry more than a decade ago) I was woefully disorganised and just dived straight into reading papers and "doing the lab work" without spending any time defining specific goals or planning the overall project. I'm also re-reading the posts in the 'Study Hacks' blog (calnewport.com) as it seems to have some good pointers on how to narrow ones focus (and underload) in order to achieve excellence. This is the exact opposite of my previous approach (attempting to do too many things simultaneously - such as enrolling in two different post-grad courses at the same time!).

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Saving money buying textbooks online

Last time I checked, buying textbooks online from Amazon.com and paying for shipping to Australia was about 1/3 cheaper than buying the same textbooks "locally" from the Uni Co-op bookshop (even after the ~10% "member" discount). So, while the Aussie dollar is at parity with the greenback I decided to order all the remaining textbooks and recommended reference books for the rest of my MAstron course. Below is a comparison of what I'm paying for these books from Amazon.com and what the Co-op bookshop would charge:

Introduction to Modern Astrophysics, An (2nd Edition) [Hardcover]          $132.10
Writing Scientific Research Articles: Strategy and Steps [Paperback]        $21.86
Encyclopedia of the Solar System, Second Edition [Hardcover]               $102.53
How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper [Paperback]                     $24.56
Physics and Chemistry of the Solar System, Volume 87, 2nd Ed.) [Paperback]  $66.47
Scientific Writing: Easy When You Know How [Paperback]                      $47.95
Planetary Sciences [Hardcover]                                              $78.84
Data Reduction and Error Analysis for the Physical Sciences [Paperback]     $50.62
                                                       Shipping & Handling: $60.91
                                                         Amazon.com TOTAL: $585.84

Prices if purchased from the Uni Co-op bookshop:
Introduction to Modern Astrophysics, An (2nd Edition) [Hardcover]          $145.56
Writing Scientific Research Articles: Strategy and Steps [Hardback]        $109.20 *
Encyclopedia of the Solar System, Second Edition [Hardcover]                  N/A
How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper [Paperback]                     $36.35
Physics and Chemistry of the Solar System, Volume 87, 2nd Ed.) [Paperback] $128.31
Scientific Writing: Easy When You Know How [Paperback]                      $52.73
Planetary Sciences [Hardcover]                                             $181.09
Data Reduction and Error Analysis for the Physical Sciences [Paperback]    $111.88
                                                       Shipping & Handling:  FREE
                                                 Uni Co-op bookshop TOTAL: $765.12

If you add another $100 or so for the textbook that isn't even available from the Uni co-op, the total cost buying locally is around $865, which is 53% more than it cost using Amazon.com.

Most of the textbooks I could find searching the Uni Co-op website were also listed as "out of stock" - which most likely means that the Uni Co-op bookshop simply orders these items from Amazon.com themselves!

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And the answer is....

I finally managed to complete my last prac assignment for 'Astronomical Instrumentation' during my lunch hour and email it to JCU. When I checked my email again after work the lecturer had already marked and returned it! As I had expected, there was LOTS of "constructive criticism" feedback scattered throughout - so I was pleasantly surprised to still manage to score 8/10. Overall I averaged around 90% on the tutorial and prac assignments, so I might manage to scrape together an HD if I did OK on the final (and if everyone else hasn't scored even better!).

Nothing to do now but wait for the result to come out on 6 December.

Since the Aussie dollar is currently worth a bit more than the USD, I may order all the text books and recommended references for next years subjects. If they arrive from Amazon.com before Christmas I'll have something read during the 10-hour train ride to visit my parents up at Inverell ;)

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Exam 1, Student 0

Well, I just spent the past 24 hours doing the "open book" final exam for this terms Master of Astronomy subject, 'Astronomical Instrumentation'. I actually got about five hours sleep and slacked off (aka as lunch, dinner and a shower) for several hours, so all in all I "only" took 15 hours to complete the ten multi-part questions! I emailed my answers to the lecturer 30 minutes before the deadline - just in case there were any last minute Internet connection hiccups (our router and cable modem have been playing up recently). The questions in the exam paper were all fine - everything had been covered in the lecture notes or the textbook - but there were just too many of them. It took forever to check I was using the correct formulae, calculate the result, find reference material and image data on the web, double check my result etc. etc.

I had thought the exam paper last term was overly long (it took around 12 hours of effort to complete the ten questions), but this paper was even worse because the last question was worth 40 marks (the other nine questions were only ten marks each), and was basically a repeat of the last practical assignment - which unfortunately I hadn't finished yet (I was sick for a month in the middle part of this term and fell behind. Fortunately the lecturer had granted me extensions on the due dates, but I'm still finishing off the last prac assignment!). So for the final question I was working out how to do the question as well as researching the data and writing up my answer...

Ah well, as soon as I finish of the last prac tonight (or tomorrow) I'll be able to "relax" and start working on last year's tax returns for DW, myself and the kids. It will be interesting to see what grade I wind up getting for 'Astronomical Instrumentation' - I really need to get an HD to have any chance of getting a university medal for my MoA coarse (I got a D last term in 'Modern Astrophysics', and you have to get a GPA of 6.5 or better to be considered for a university medal. Basically that means getting Distinctions for 3 of the subjects, and getting High Distinctions for the other 3 subjects. And it may be difficult to get HDs for the final two subjects - the literature review and research project - as it will depend a bit on what research topic I am assigned).

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MAstron update: A dollar short and a day late - close but no cigar

The results for last semester's MAstron subject 'Modern Astrophysics' came out yesterday - I got a Distinction but missed out on the High Distinction I was aiming for. My raw scores for tutorial and prac assignments were sufficient for an HD grade, and the lecturer has confirmed that I got around 80%-85% in the final exam, so apparently I ended up missing out on an HD because so many of the students doing the course performed at a very high standard that the raw marks had to be scaled down to conform with the JCU policy regarding grade distribution (ie. only ~10% of students are awarded a High Distinction, another 15% get a Distinction, etc.).

I now regret emailing my final exam in at 5am and going to bed, rather than staying up until the exam deadline at 10am to double check my calculations as much as possible. Even though I wasn't alert enough at 5am to solve the final question, I could have slowly checked through the working of the first nine questions to look for 'silly mistakes' (for example, in one of the tutorials I'd lost several easy marks by using the area of a circle formula instead of the volume of a sphere when calculating a density). A couple of extra marks in the final exam might have been enough to get an HD. Although I probably also needed to pick up some extra marks in the weekly tutorial assignments, and the prac report that only scored 7/10.

To qualify for a university medal at the end of the MAstron course I'll have to get at least half HD and half D grades (in order to acheive the minimum required GPA of 6.5) - so there's a big difference between getting a D or HD. This first course was apparently quite easy compared to the rest of the courses - which could be a good or a bad thing. On the one hand I may struggle to get top marks in the harder courses, but on the positive side the other students may get lower grades and remove the need for adjusting raw marks to 'the curve'. In the final (third) year it may also be harder to get an HD in the literature review and project subjects, as the grades for those subjects will depend more on the talent and originality shown in the reports, than just putting in enough hours of effort.

The subject next semester, 'Astronomy Instrumentation', is a bit more mathematical, so I'd better spend some time brushing up on my differential calculus and intergration (I have three weeks left before next semester commences). It's been thirty years since I last studied calculus, and I haven't used it much since then, so I need to spend some time working through the revision material available from http://www.mathcentre.ac.uk/

I also want to have a first read through the textbook 'Astrophysical Techniques' during the "holiday break".

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MAstron Update: One subject done, five to go

I sat the "open book" final exam for my Modern Astrophysics course on Saturday/Sunday (the exam questions were put online at 10am on Saturday and we had 24 hourse to complete our answers and email our submission to the lecturer using our secure JCU email account). I downloaded and had a quick read through the ten questions on Saturday morning when I brought DS1 back from his piano lesson, and then I droppped off the family at the nearby shopping mall so they could spend the afternoon visiting the library and doing some shopping while I had some "quiet time" at home to work on my examination paper.

The good thing about an open book exam is that you don't have to memorise a whole lot of equations and constants for the exam (they're a quite a lot of constants and conversion factors used in astrophysics!), but on the downside everyone will probably do quite well as they can all look things up in the textbook, tutorial solutions and lecture notes. So I was hoping to be able to double and triple check all my solutions in order to get a good result. Since a lot of the questions were simply variations of the questions we had already done in the tutorial assignments, I expect most of the other students will "ace" this exam.

However, it turned out that the exam was a lot longer than I had expected (the ten questions had multiple parts and in total the paper seemed equivalent to about three of the normal weekly tutorial assignments - which usually took me 3-4 hours each week to complete, plus a couple of hours double checking the working before sending each assignment in). I started working on the exam questions when I got home around 2pm, and worked straight through (apart from a short dinner break) until I completed the last question just before 5am. The final question on how relativistic time dilation affects the observed half-life of muons travelling at 0.99c was a bit of a worry, as I got two different solutions depending on how I calculated the gamma factor (one answer was obviously incorrect, but I couldn't see why!) At 5am I wasn't in any condition to re-read the chapter on relativity and work out where I was going wrong, so I thought about catching a couple of hours sleep and rechecking the calculations before the exam submission had to be emailed prior to 10am on Sunday. In the end I decided to just call it quits, email my work in "as is" and go to bed.

As I had previously picked up on a couple of silly calculation errors when I was checking through my answers along the way, I expect I'll lose several marks in the first nine questions, as well as possibly getting very few (or no) marks for Q10. I'm guessing a raw mark of 80%-85%.

The exam cover sheet also reiterated that student marks will be scaled so that there aren't "too many" HD and D grades given out. Oh well, all I can do now is wait four weeks until the final grades are published online.

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Wait and you shall receive (and pay)

After waiting for more than six months the Personal Solar Telescope (PST) with double-stack hydrogen-alpha filter finally arrived from the US. As the price listed on the package was US$999 the Australian Customs held it upon arrival and I had to fill in three forms (one to get registered as an 'importer', one to register the US company that sent me the goods as an 'exporter', and another one providing details of when the goods were purchased and their cost). Any items that are valued at less than A$1000 are not assessed for duty/GST, and when I checked on my original order receipt I found that it had actually cost me US$999 minus a $50 'rewards' rebate from Scope City. Looking up the exchange rate (from the ATO website) that applied on the day I paid via Paypal (last November), the price worked out to be just under $1000. I filled in those details on the valuation form and also sent in a copy of my original payment receipt...

It turned out that I had to pay around $250 in GST and fees (a 'handling fee' of $50 is charged by customs!) - apparently they used the total payment amount (which included the $500 I'd paid for the Meade DSI CCD that had previously arrived last December - without any GST being payable) when calculating the GST liability. As far as I could tell from the information on the Customs website the two amounts could have been assessed individually, since they arrived several months apart (it says that if several items arrive within a few days of each other they can be treated as one order). But I probably should have placed two separate orders for the items, rather than paying for both at once (even though the PST was on six months back-order!). Next time I'll know better and make sure I order items individually unless they are going to be shipped together.

I'm still happy though - even with the $150 airfreight charge and $250 GST and customers fee the total price is about half what I'd have paid if I went to a local telescope dealer. Either the local telescope dealers apply more than the usual 100% mark-up on the wholesale price, or else they don't have any relationships with the suppliers and are actually buying their stock retail from US dealers.

Now I just have to wait for the weather to clear up enough to see the sun - it's been raining in Sydney for the past three weeks...

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Master of Astronomy update

My first semester enrolled (part-time and via distance education) in the Master of Astronomy course at James Cook University (JCU) is drawing to a close - the final tutorials and prac assignments for 'Modern Astrophysics' have been submitted and the final exam is only two weeks away. I'm currently in that transient period where I can still fantasize about acing the course - so far I have averaged around 90% on the tutorials and prac assignments, and there seems to be a good prospect of getting a High Distinction for this first course and a 'perfect' GPA of 7.0 (the final exam is 'open book' - every ones favourite!) - at least until next term.

This is definitely a severe case of counting my chickens before they've hatched - I haven't even sat the final exam yet (which is worth 40% of the course assessment), and I have NO idea how well the other 18 students enrolled in this course are doing. As the final mark will be scaled, my final grade depends somewhat on the standard of the other student's work and how 'the curve' ends up. It's possible that all the other student's have been getting high marks and we're all having pipe dreams of getting an HD for this subject!

Anyhow, for the moment I think I can reasonably (?) anticipate getting a HD or D this semester, and I think I can also do well in next semester's course (Astronomy Instrumentation) as I have considerable background in instrumentation from my previous post-grad chemical engineering and applied chemistry studies. If I manage to get a GPA of 6.0 or above for the whole of 2010 I may even get a 'Letter of Commendation' from the Faculty Pro-Vice Chancellor, which would be a first for me. In my previous studies I've tended to alternate between D/HD or P/CR results (and the occasional F) depending on how interesting I found a particular course*. Paradoxically, doing a course of no practical use (so the results really don't 'matter') but for which I have great interest, I'm finding it much easier to remain continuously motivated and producing consistently high quality work. Since there are only 6 subjects in total (done over three years part-time) for the MAstron degree, at this early stage I can even day-dream about doing well in ALL the subjects and possibly being eligible for a university medal (it requires a GPA of 6.5 or above - basically nothing but HD or D grades). After finishing the MAstron degree I'd like to be able to progress on to the Doctor of Astronomy (via coursework & research) or preferably PhD (original research) candidature, and a university medal would certainly increase my chances of being accepted into the PhD program (a lot will depend on the quality of my work in final two MAstron subjects - 'Literature Review' and 'Pilot Research Project').

As I said, this is just the pleasant 'day dreaming' stage that often comes at the start of a new university enrollment - so far, so good, with nothing but blue sky ahead. I'll enjoy the sensation while it lasts.

* I can strongly recommend you don't ever enrol in Partial Differential Equations or Mechanics or Solids unless you really like the topic! Attempting a compulsory course that is both difficult and boring is a recipe for disaster.

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Budgeting for the new year

Yesterday I received the official letter from JCU offering me a place in the MAstron course next year, and today I sent in the acceptance form and completed the eCAF (electronic Commonwealth Assistance Form) which is required prior to enrollment.

The JCU website indicates that the two courses I'll enrol in for 2010 are each 0.25 EFTSL (equivalent full-time study load) and are both "Band 4" (which determines how much Commonwealth sponsored students have to pay). However I'm still not 100% certain what I'll have to pay in 2010 for these courses, as the JCU site only lists the cost per EFTSL for Bands 1, 2, 3 and for those subjects classed as 'national priority' subjects for 2010 (science, math and engineering). I strongly suspect (since the MAstron course is run by the Dept of Engineering and Science) that these Band 4 subjects are included the 'national priorty' category, which means that the lowest cost per EFTSL will be applied. I intend to pay the course fees in full before the 'census date', which will mean I get an additional 20% discount. I think that the subject fees will end up around $850 each.

This month I'll prepare a detailed household budget for 2010 that includes paying the course fees in full each term, and I'd like to start tracking my financial data again in Quicken from the start of next year - my 'one off' expenses have been excessive for the past few months, and need to be brought under control.

I'll also need to carefully budget my time next year so I can get good results in my uni subjects - my previous study method of leaving assignments until they were almost due and only studying for exams the night before produced 'mixed' results. I've been browsing through the Study Hacks blog and there are a few tips that I'll give a go. So, this week I'm studying how to study ;)

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Astronomical Expenses

I phoned the JCU Centre for Astronomy again today to check that I'd mailed my MAstron application form to the correct address and had included all the required documentation. I didn't want to wait until next January to find out that my application was incomplete or had not arrived at all! I wasn't sure that everything was OK because the instructions printed on the 'one size fits all' post-grad application form had been different to the information provided on the Centre for Astronomy website. After putting me on hold for a while they were able to confirm that everything was in order and my application had, apparently, just been 'signed off' by the Dean. A letter of offer should be mailed out to me in the next week or two. When it arrives I'll then have two weeks to accept the offer, send in certified copies of my uni transcripts and pay the 2010 fees.

I haven't been able to find the originals of my uni transcripts (I think I mis-filed last time I took them our to make copies), so I had to phone UTS, UWS and CSU unis to order certified transcripts from each institution (total cost $65).

* * * * * *

Since applying for the MAstron course I've been browsing through online journals to find out what the 'hot' research topics currently are and checked out the publication lists of the JCU staff. I also browsed through the online catalogues of various US-based telescope retailers, and ended up ordering a Meade Pro II CCD digital camera ($499) to use with my Meade 10" SC telescope. I also ordered a Coronado PST Solar Telescope ($999) for viewing prominences, active regions, filaments, and other surface details of the sun (it has a 'Double Stack' H-Alpha system that provides a bandpass of <0.5 Angstrom) - unfortunately there is a six month wait due to a production back-log.

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How much will going back to uni cost me?

While I'm waiting to find out if I'll even be offered a place in the JCU Master of Astronomy course for next year, I tried to work out how much I should budget for the course costs. The MoA consists of 6 subjects each worth 0.25 "EFTSL" (equivalent full-time study load). You can either do the course in 1.5 years full-time, or 3 years part-time (either way the course is delivered via the Internet as "Distant Education"). The course has "some" commonwealth-funded places available, but I couldn't find out how many funded places are available, or how many students were enrolled in the MoA in 2009. If I have to enrol as a fee-paying student it will cost $2,500 per subject, but I think there is a chance that I'll end up only having to pay the government-subsidised HECS-HELP rate of fees. The subjects for this course are offered by the JCU school of Engineering and Science, and for HECS purposes the subjects appear to be classified in the "engineering" band (2), which determines how much the government pays JCU (and the maximum fee the uni can charge the students). This is based on the course cost being quoted as $11,350 by JCU, which corresponds to the Band 2 maximum fee rate. I guess the MoA subjects have been classified by JCU as engineering rather than as science so JCU can get a higher payment per subject from the federal government. From my point of view it would be better if the subjects were deemed to be "science", as that is one of the current "national priority" categories where the commonwealth subsidy is higher (and hence the student fee is lower).

I'll be choosing to pay any HECS-HELP fees "up front" as my "repayment income" would be so high that the full amount would fall due with each tax return anyhow. By paying "up front" I'll get a 20% discount on the HECS-HELP fee amount, so the total cost for the MoA course (based on 2010 HECS-HELP fee rates) will be $9,080 (plus textbooks etc.), rather than the $15,000 as a fee-paying student. If I get a HECS placement the commonwealth government will pay $22,734 in subsidy to JCU (I'm not sure if the 20% "up front" HECS-HELP discount is also paid by the government to JCU). Overall, it looks like I'd end up paying around 26.6% of the "full cost" ($34,084) of the MoA course if I get offered a HECS-HELP place.

Based on the $2,500 "full fee" rate per subject, it would appear that JCU makes a "profit" of at least $19,000 for every HECS-HELP place (ie. the $22,734 amount of government HECS contribution to JCU plus the student's HECS fee payments, minus the $15,000 of notional "full fee" payments). I assume that the $2,500 per subject charged to domestic fee-paying students is more than the actual cost of delivery for each subject. With the course being delivery via the Internet, the incremental cost to JCU for each student must be fairly low (just the cost of some admin overheads, plus marking of the exam and assignment work).

Doing the MoA will consume 1.5 of my remaining HECS-HELP SLE (Student Learning Entitlement). Fortunately the uni study I had done prior to 2005 didn't affect my initial standard entitlement to 7 years worth of full-time study assistance. To date my SLE balance has only been reduced by 0.625 for the subjects I attempted for the GradDipEd course I dropped last year, so I currently have 6.375 SLE remaining. In additional, it appears that if you're over 27 years old there will be an extra 0.25 SLE added each years from 2012 onwards, aimed at encouraging "lifelong study".

Aside from HECS fees, the MoA will probably cost me another $1,000 or so for textbooks, and a small amount for miscellaneous items. There may also be unexpected costs for software (eg. Hearne's "Origin" app for data analysis and graphing would be nice, but it's not worth the $1,000 cost) and there will probably also be some additional expenses associated with the literature review and research subjects.

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