Honestly I feel like i would be fine going away to uni. I never really been away from my family for any reason in my life. Leaving and being on my own is one of the reasons why I'm still looking into it now.
Then, you should be fine in regards to moving state for university. As for Canberra specifically, mahler's got you covered. Funny thing is, I'm actually at home so little, not much would change if I were to actually move out... So, based on your thoughts now and how I felt in year 12, I think you'd be okay.
I'm planning on studying maths / physics if that helps at all. You guys said that they have very good departments in these fields. I know that you have undergrad experiences won't differ too much wherever you go, but say you wanted to follow through with a research pathway once you have finished, how much would a more reputable department help you in terms of post-grad opportunities?
Department prestige is nice, but I personally find that names are more important. Think about it - if you did honours with the person who found the cure to cancer, and you studied at well-known-but-not-the-best-university, people will see you more highly than if you did it with a person who has no major accomplishments and you studied at best-university-5eva. I also have friends who have gotten job offers -whilst still in undergrad- because of working with a well known and good supervisor for undergrad projects. (before honours, I might add)
I will add, though, that department prestige often has links to how good the undergrad program can be for many reasons. One of them being, if you're good at x, so you want more people to do x so you can stay at the top for x, you'll make your x programme top-notch. (see example: Monash is #1 for chemistry - from what I've seen across various universities, they also have some of the best undergrad programmes for chemistry. Similarly, I've yet to hear a single complaint about ANU physics, but I hear /loads/ from other universities) Also examples in pushing students so you can become the best at x, which can mean leaving behind the rest and having an overall appearance of shittiness for those who can't immediately see things.
There's also the advantage, if you want to do a PhD at ANU eventually, doing undergrad there gives you more time to associate with the lecturers, meet the researchers, etc. and so you'll have a better idea of who you want to work with when that final decision comes.
Basically, no real "official" advantage for picking one undergrad over the other, just a few things that seem to pop up.
As for why I want to study it / my endgame; I guess i just want to keep learning what I'm passionate about and find fun. Looking at my options from there, it would probably progress to some kind of research career. Not that I've planned it all out, i just can't really see myself doing much else.
Have you considered a career in academia?In that case, you want to try and put yourself into a university where you can be exposed to research - most upper end universities have this, /regardless/ of if you're studying in an advanced degree or not. (clearly PhB has more research opportunities, and at some universities people in advanced degrees get given more opportunities [such as Monash or UQ], but they're present in all of them) So, not really an issue if you go to monash/unimelb/ANU/other university here.
Hopefully this is in the right board, I thought it was the most relevant one.
Sorry, didn't mean to say it wasn't - I just replied as if it were somewhere else, because I read badly, hahah.
Also, if I am serious about applying for ANU, how do i go about it. I obviously don't think i'd be able to attend any open days for example. Does the UAC system also have a change of preference time once we get our results, so maybe depending on the score i get i can reevaluate my options then and put them into my preferences if i choose?