Fun if you know where to look for it! Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

I come from a small, private liberal arts college that is similarly highly ranked for our academics. That being said, I took three 100-level gen ed course and one 200-level for my major back home (two labs went with the 200 and one of the 100s). Overall, I would say classes are a lot "easier" at UoA than back home.. my 200-lab met fortweekly rather than weekly, we had no lab reports and everything would be finished within the 3 hours of lab. My 100-lab met weekly, but it wasn't hard to finish the work within the lab time. I didn't have much in terms of homework/major assignments either: for the whole semester, just 3 mid-semester tests, 3 essays, and weekly homework for one of my classes (which was just answering 4-5 multiple choice/short answer questions online each week). Classes felt more relaxed as a whole because of lecture recordings, so you didn't have to feel too worried if you skipped a class or two... I appreciated tutorials since they were a little more of the size that I was used to, but then again, my tutorials similarly didn't require attendance and the quality of them varied... UoA was sorting out some new technical things (new management system, Canvas) while I was here, so both teachers and students were just getting the hang of figuring out where to put up class information/hand in assignments/etc... overall I think while the resources are certainly available here, it takes a bit of digging to find them.

On-site administration of your program

Because I did Direct Exchange, I was mostly left up to my own devices in terms of figuring out housing/classes/traveling around New Zealand. I wished that I was given a little more information beforehand about how things at UoA worked by the on-site administration -- not to be spoonfed everything, necessarily, but more like there were so many things that I wasn't aware existed when I arrived here, no matter how much research I did beforehand -- it would've been nice to be given a few pointers beforehand instead of more or less having to fend for myself entirely from the start.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

I lived at Uni Hall Apartments, which was self-catered (cook for yourself), got you a single room off a shared kitchen/bathroom/living room with 4 other people, and was 5 minutes from campus (gym membership and utilities (TV/water/electricity included!). About 10 minutes down from the main street/shopping centres, 20 minutes from the Auckland Domain/Grafton campus. My living place was super convenient but I wished it was set up so you could meet people more easily! A decent amount of people live off-campus so you're sorta stuck meeting people who live around you. However, since most people were cooped up in their apartments, it's a little hard to just pop your head in a door and meet new people.

Stuff is expensive, like everything else in Auckland.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

Being so close to the city centre and being a student, social drinking is quite prevalent.. I'm not opposed to it but I definitely wish it was easier to get around town without having to spend money on drinks first. You have to get out there yourself and figure out what you want to do! Do research beforehand and figure out where you want to travel/activities you want to do.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

Didn't have issues myself, but the pharmacy was very accessible for little, minor things. Res staff was also easily reachable for things.

Overall I felt really safe, even walking around by myself in the city centre at night!

Definitely wished I was with a program instead of just going around solo. I met people but not as readily as I would've if I originally came in a group!

(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)

Buy smart.. is all I can say... Auckland is very expensive. Housing alone was $540/2 weeks, and I brought $400 USD with me in cash -- I've spent it all on just repaying my flatmates back every week for our weekly dinner shops (~$20/week, split between 4 people). On average I think I spent about $30/week in just personal groceries for the week. If you're going traveling, expect even higher costs around NZ....

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• Apartment
• Hostel

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• Local Students
• Americans
• International Students
• Other

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• Local Students
• Americans
• International Students

• The travelling!!!
• NZ specialty foods.

• slightly more guidance
• meeting more people

The Avid Adventurer