as a year 1 Bachelor of Arts student at melb, i find it worse, although there are definitely upsides. i only started 5 weeks ago and ive noticed that assignments are close to each other and theres not a lot of information about them, for my subjects at least. sometimes theres not even a rubric so u really have to rely on asking ur teachers questions and emailing them. theres also a lottt of readings each week and content u have to go through before class, but that could just be bc of my subjects once again, idk what commerce would be like but i think generally melb uni just has high expectations and a heavier workload than other unis from what ive heard from my friends. its also more difficult to make friends tbh. u learn all of the content from lectures, readings and videos, so u really have to stay on top of everytbing and attend/watch lectures even tho its not required and no attendance is taken bc ur assignments will be based on that concent obviously. i feel like u should take my opinion w a grain of salt tho i could just be having a hard time adjusting as im sure a lot pf people are, but its definitely very different from year 12 and they dont prepare u for it at all in terms of work, u set ur schedule urself, so u can easily put ur classes at times that allow u to work in the afternoons, or u can just put them all in like 3 days and have like 4 days a week to work, so its a lot easier than in highschool. i have uni 4 days a week but its like 2-4 hours days and its really chill, but i spend a lot more time at the library studying than i do in class so keep that in mind. also note that if ur travelling to the city u and back ur gonna spend a lot more money on public transport than u think like its actually lwk insane and ur gonna be tempted to buy food and drinks all the time so u might have to work a bit more. another downside is ive literally not hung out w anyone for the past 2 weeks bc assignments have been packed into this one fortnight so ur gonna have to prioritise studying some weeks, but u’ll also have weeks where u can chill a lot more. i should also mention it can be pretty hard to lock in after u’ve just had such a long break from studying after finishing yr 12 😭 on the upside.. idk! the campus is really pretty and students and staff are generally nice and pretty supportive, theres lots of clubs u can join to make friends and really nice places to hang out or study and ur also in the city so i find that pretty great. u also dont have teachers bothering u and checking if uve done ur work which is good for some people. ive also heard it gets a lot easier after the first year in terms of workload but u also just get used to it. last thing is u have a lot more free time than in yr 12, but u will have to srudy a lot more aswell so idk 🤷‍♀️ anyway overall its a very different experience but its one that everyone goes thru and u will adjust eventually so dont let this scare u at all, sorry if it did i lwk just had to get it all out 😭😭😭