Transferring to a college in New Zealand.

DarwinsFavoriteTortoise

I live in Las Vegas now, attending UNLV.

I would like to transfer to Victoria University of Wellington next year, mainly because I backpacked across New Zealand last summer and fell in love with the country.

Anyone have any experience dealing with the university? Is it good, bad, average?

Would you recommend any other colleges in New Zealand (not really interested in Auckland)?

Also any general tips for me?

Thanks.

Zombiemambo

I hope you really like sheep.

DarwinsFavoriteTortoise

Like I said, I've already been there, so yeah, I'm cool with sheep.

They beat this ugly desert any day.

HK5

I recently used these guys to apply to a school in Australia and they helped me out a bunch and I believe they handle some New Zealand schools as well so maybe give them a try. It's all free, they know a lot and will talk you through the process.

http://australearn.org/

Kalkino

I went to Victoria for a couple of years post grad back about 5 years ago - and I generally found the university ok to deal with - but that experience was with post grad and I was a domestic student whereas you would be going through the International programme I guess. However, if you are looking to do Law then ask away

So I'm not going to be much help on getting you signed up to courses. I would hope they are pretty good to deal with though, as NZ universities generally have huge numbers of foreign students and they all seem to have a small but regular numbers of American undergrads, so you hopefully won't be asking them to consider new and weird things.

If you have any general questions about Victoria/Wellington like looking for flats/ where is good etc then ask away, I lived about 5 minutes walk from the main campus for about 5 years or so, so that is my neighbourhood I guess.

TheRealBadger

What are you studying?

Keep in mind Vic has a tuatara enclosure, which is almost reason enough to come study here

Kalkino

TheRealBadger wrote: »

What are you studying?

Keep in mind Vic has a tuatara enclosure, which is almost reason enough to come study here

That did weird me out the first time I walked past it - was a classic WTF moment.

For me, the new campus was one of the coolest things about the University - the Law and parts of Commerce faculties are based right opposite Parliament - Law is based in an amazing building, which is apparently the biggest wooden building in the Southern Hemisphere. Look!

firewaterword

DarwinsFavoriteTortoise wrote: »

Would you recommend any other colleges in New Zealand (not really interested in Auckland)?

I've got a lot of Kiwis in the family, and have spent a good deal of time down there. While I never actually took courses there, I can vouch for the University of Otago in Dunedin as being a pretty awesome place. I guess it depends on what you're looking for though. The South Island is pretty much my favorite place on the planet, so I'm biased. Wellington (Windy-Welly) is a very cool city though, and it's just a few hours via ferry from the South Island.

Lewisham

I worked there for 18 months on the Computer Science tech support team, while my fiance was doing her Masters in Environmental Studies there. I'm a Brit and she's American, so I guess we'll have similar perspectives to you.

Things that spring to mind:
* Unless you have a kiwi or Aussie passport, you will be paying overseas fees, which may or may not be comparable to what you're paying at UNLV.

* The sad truth is that many Americans will have no idea what value to place on your degree because it's from a foreign country. You will need to work harder in interviews to prove your degree was of worth.

* Vic, as an entire university, is not a world-class university, whereas Auckland is. Unfortunately, you'd then have to live in Auckland, which would suck. That being said, Vic does have some isolated pockets of extreme expertise: my fiancee's Environment Studies program seemed to be very good, the Software Engineering research group in the CS program was very good, the CS department had professors who got their PhDs from MIT, Berkeley and such. Investigate the quality of the subject you want to take.

* If I'm remembering the right figure, Vic makes on the order of 200 times less per student than Stanford does. Resources that you might take for granted are not necessarily available cheaply at Vic. It's a small "campus" (if you can call it that). You have to pay for gym membership. There was a policy that made you pay per MB for your Internet access (unless you were in CS, where we gave it to students for free). I hope to the heavens that policy has been changed, because it was anti-student, anti-research and not costing the university that much anyway.

* New Zealand, for non-kiwis, can feel isolating after a while. My fiancee and I both had this. Even though we had no wish to leave Wellington, the fact that we didn't feel like there was anywhere to go (either to day visit, see family or old friends, or something) began to play on our mind a lot. This was certainly the most difficult day-to-day issue I had to handle about living there.

* Things cost more, especially food and electronics. There's no Costco and no IKEA, so a larger chunk of your finances will be used on goods you would have found cheaper in the US. The flip-side is that you probably won't need a car if you live in Welly, so you save a good chunk on that instead.

These are the sort of "smack the taste outta your mouth" questions about the hard reality of transferring to Vic. You need to answer them honestly, and remember that you're probably making trade-offs by going to UNLV as well. You just need to make sure you aren't going in thinking it's all candy and unicorns.

This all having been said:

* I loved my job at Vic. Like, really, really loved it. The only reason I left was because I felt I had hit the pay ceiling. Perhaps that's more my job than it is about living in Wellington, but it's the truth.

* I loved the kiwis. They're all great blokes, I miss all my friends I made there terribly.

* Wellington is a beautiful, exciting city, with echoes of San Francisco. There are loads of free community events happening all the time. You can go and see the rugby or cricket at the Westpac for not that much money, which is probably the most beautifully situated stadium in the world. If it was anywhere in Europe or North America, I can guarantee I would be living there now. My quality of life there was very high.

* It's a good jumping off point for visiting the South Island, which I am sure you want to do.

Both my fiancee and I miss Wellington, and our friends there, a lot. We ended up leaving as I had a PhD acceptance in California, and her family are here. The isolation issue was probably the biggest push to leave, coupled soon after (for me at least) with a frustration that consumer goods cost so much (I'm a capitalist whore, apparently). The reasons why we left haven't gone away, but we are very much keeping it as an option as somewhere to go back to. If I'm offered a faculty position at Vic once I get my PhD, I can't see many situations where I wouldn't take it. Perhaps that is the highest praise I can give?

Kalkino

Lewisham wrote: »

I worked there for 18 months on the Computer Science tech support team, while my fiance was doing her Masters in Environmental Studies there. I'm a Brit and she's American, so I guess we'll have similar perspectives to you.

Things that spring to mind:
* Unless you have a kiwi or Aussie passport, you will be paying overseas fees, which may or may not be comparable to what you're paying at UNLV.

* The sad truth is that many Americans will have no idea what value to place on your degree because it's from a foreign country. You will need to work harder in interviews to prove your degree was of worth.

* Vic, as an entire university, is not a world-class university, whereas Auckland is. Unfortunately, you'd then have to live in Auckland, which would suck. That being said, Vic does have some isolated pockets of extreme expertise: my fiancee's Environment Studies program seemed to be very good, the Software Engineering research group in the CS program was very good, the CS department had professors who got their PhDs from MIT, Berkeley and such. Investigate the quality of the subject you want to take.

* If I'm remembering the right figure, Vic makes on the order of 200 times less per student than Stanford does. Resources that you might take for granted are not necessarily available cheaply at Vic. It's a small "campus" (if you can call it that). You have to pay for gym membership. There was a policy that made you pay per MB for your Internet access (unless you were in CS, where we gave it to students for free). I hope to the heavens that policy has been changed, because it was anti-student, anti-research and not costing the university that much anyway.

* New Zealand, for non-kiwis, can feel isolating after a while. My fiancee and I both had this. Even though we had no wish to leave Wellington, the fact that we didn't feel like there was anywhere to go (either to day visit, see family or old friends, or something) began to play on our mind a lot. This was certainly the most difficult day-to-day issue I had to handle about living there.

* Things cost more, especially food and electronics. There's no Costco and no IKEA, so a larger chunk of your finances will be used on goods you would have found cheaper in the US. The flip-side is that you probably won't need a car if you live in Welly, so you save a good chunk on that instead.

These are the sort of "smack the taste outta your mouth" questions about the hard reality of transferring to Vic. You need to answer them honestly, and remember that you're probably making trade-offs by going to UNLV as well. You just need to make sure you aren't going in thinking it's all candy and unicorns.

This all having been said:

* I loved my job at Vic. Like, really, really loved it. The only reason I left was because I felt I had hit the pay ceiling. Perhaps that's more my job than it is about living in Wellington, but it's the truth.

* I loved the kiwis. They're all great blokes, I miss all my friends I made there terribly.

* Wellington is a beautiful, exciting city, with echoes of San Francisco. There are loads of free community events happening all the time. You can go and see the rugby or cricket at the Westpac for not that much money, which is probably the most beautifully situated stadium in the world. If it was anywhere in Europe or North America, I can guarantee I would be living there now. My quality of life there was very high.

* It's a good jumping off point for visiting the South Island, which I am sure you want to do.

Both my fiancee and I miss Wellington, and our friends there, a lot. We ended up leaving as I had a PhD acceptance in California, and her family are here. The isolation issue was probably the biggest push to leave, coupled soon after (for me at least) with a frustration that consumer goods cost so much (I'm a capitalist whore, apparently). The reasons why we left haven't gone away, but we are very much keeping it as an option as somewhere to go back to. If I'm offered a faculty position at Vic once I get my PhD, I can't see many situations where I wouldn't take it. Perhaps that is the highest praise I can give?

As a Kiwi I hate to admit it but a lot of that rings true. But if you must chose anywhere to do a semester (which I assume you are doing) rather than a degree course then Wellington is the place. I knew a few Americans who were doing a semester in NZ and it seemed to not affect their later lives in the slightest as it was seen as an experience as part of their US degrees. I would assume Canada would see it in a similar light. If however you are doing a whole degree here then you might pay more head to Lewisham's comments. This is of course degree specific. Something like Law for example Vic has a good rep (and law is so fucking similar across the Commonwealth). I would also note I had a crap load of Canadian lecturers, or Kiwis with Canadian experience at both Dunedin and Victoria, for both my degree courses, so there is a fair amount of academic cross-over it seems

However, Dunedin (University of Otago) is also cool - that is where I am roughly from, and where I did my undergraduate. Word of advice though, Dunedin for all its charms is very much focused on a mad undergraduate experience. It isn't so much a post grad town even granted there is a lot of that. The difference being North Dunedin, where the University is based, is a undergraduate student ghetto, whereas Wellington is a regular city but with all the nice bit that a capital has. So if you are under 25 and just want to have a blast (e.g. drinking your brains out) then you will love Dunedin.

DarwinsFavoriteTortoise

Lewisham wrote: »

Things that spring to mind:
* Unless you have a kiwi or Aussie passport, you will be paying overseas fees, which may or may not be comparable to what you're paying at UNLV.

-Could you elaborate on these overseas fees? Are you basically just talking about an "out-of-state" cost or is it something else?

* The sad truth is that many Americans will have no idea what value to place on your degree because it's from a foreign country. You will need to work harder in interviews to prove your degree was of worth.

-Well this is not a problem. A UNLV degree (unless its in Hospitality/Tourism doesn't hold much weight either.

* Vic, as an entire university, is not a world-class university, whereas Auckland is. Unfortunately, you'd then have to live in Auckland, which would suck. That being said, Vic does have some isolated pockets of extreme expertise: my fiancee's Environment Studies program seemed to be very good, the Software Engineering research group in the CS program was very good, the CS department had professors who got their PhDs from MIT, Berkeley and such. Investigate the quality of the subject you want to take.

-My major is Sociology. Can you comment on the quality of staff for that field?

* If I'm remembering the right figure, Vic makes on the order of 200 times less per student than Stanford does. Resources that you might take for granted are not necessarily available cheaply at Vic. It's a small "campus" (if you can call it that). You have to pay for gym membership. There was a policy that made you pay per MB for your Internet access (unless you were in CS, where we gave it to students for free). I hope to the heavens that policy has been changed, because it was anti-student, anti-research and not costing the university that much anyway.

-Well I already have to pay for my gym membership here (they automatically charge 450 a semester...wtf!). That internet policy seems killer though. Thats only for on campus though, right? I can get my own internet in my own loft or whatever, right? Also can you comment on the speed of the internet over there? I doubt it would be very fast, but how much does it cost, whats the speed, etc? Thanks.

* New Zealand, for non-kiwis, can feel isolating after a while. My fiancee and I both had this. Even though we had no wish to leave Wellington, the fact that we didn't feel like there was anywhere to go (either to day visit, see family or old friends, or something) began to play on our mind a lot. This was certainly the most difficult day-to-day issue I had to handle about living there.

-I will consider this.

* Things cost more, especially food and electronics. There's no Costco and no IKEA, so a larger chunk of your finances will be used on goods you would have found cheaper in the US. The flip-side is that you probably won't need a car if you live in Welly, so you save a good chunk on that instead.

-This works out fine for me. I don't spend much time with electronics (outside of my computer).

These are the sort of "smack the taste outta your mouth" questions about the hard reality of transferring to Vic. You need to answer them honestly, and remember that you're probably making trade-offs by going to UNLV as well. You just need to make sure you aren't going in thinking it's all candy and unicorns.

This all having been said:

* I loved my job at Vic. Like, really, really loved it. The only reason I left was because I felt I had hit the pay ceiling. Perhaps that's more my job than it is about living in Wellington, but it's the truth.

* I loved the kiwis. They're all great blokes, I miss all my friends I made there terribly.

* Wellington is a beautiful, exciting city, with echoes of San Francisco. There are loads of free community events happening all the time. You can go and see the rugby or cricket at the Westpac for not that much money, which is probably the most beautifully situated stadium in the world. If it was anywhere in Europe or North America, I can guarantee I would be living there now. My quality of life there was very high.

-My I ask why you are not living there now? I mean, you said you're going to school in California, but you specifically specified Europe and North America.

* It's a good jumping off point for visiting the South Island, which I am sure you want to do.

-Haha of course. I am a very outdoors type of person.

Both my fiancee and I miss Wellington, and our friends there, a lot. We ended up leaving as I had a PhD acceptance in California, and her family are here. The isolation issue was probably the biggest push to leave, coupled soon after (for me at least) with a frustration that consumer goods cost so much (I'm a capitalist whore, apparently). The reasons why we left haven't gone away, but we are very much keeping it as an option as somewhere to go back to. If I'm offered a faculty position at Vic once I get my PhD, I can't see many situations where I wouldn't take it. Perhaps that is the highest praise I can give?

Lewisham

DarwinsFavoriteTortoise wrote: »

Lewisham wrote: »

Things that spring to mind:
* Unless you have a kiwi or Aussie passport, you will be paying overseas fees, which may or may not be comparable to what you're paying at UNLV.

-Could you elaborate on these overseas fees? Are you basically just talking about an "out-of-state" cost or is it something else?

No, you're paying international student fees, which I guess are roughly like "out-of-state" fees, except becoming an NZ citizen is going to take longer than becoming a state resident, if you can do it at all. Look at this calculator, where it looks to be about $26 000 USD per year for tuition and living.

* Vic, as an entire university, is not a world-class university, whereas Auckland is. Unfortunately, you'd then have to live in Auckland, which would suck. That being said, Vic does have some isolated pockets of extreme expertise: my fiancee's Environment Studies program seemed to be very good, the Software Engineering research group in the CS program was very good, the CS department had professors who got their PhDs from MIT, Berkeley and such. Investigate the quality of the subject you want to take.

-My major is Sociology. Can you comment on the quality of staff for that field?

I'm afraid not, look and see where the faculty got their PhDs, and where they are publishing in. Be wary of publishing records that have a disproportionate amount of conferences held in Australia and New Zealand, these are typically conferences only people from those countries attend, so they're easier to get into.

* If I'm remembering the right figure, Vic makes on the order of 200 times less per student than Stanford does. Resources that you might take for granted are not necessarily available cheaply at Vic. It's a small "campus" (if you can call it that). You have to pay for gym membership. There was a policy that made you pay per MB for your Internet access (unless you were in CS, where we gave it to students for free). I hope to the heavens that policy has been changed, because it was anti-student, anti-research and not costing the university that much anyway.

-Well I already have to pay for my gym membership here (they automatically charge 450 a semester...wtf!). That internet policy seems killer though. Thats only for on campus though, right? I can get my own internet in my own loft or whatever, right? Also can you comment on the speed of the internet over there? I doubt it would be very fast, but how much does it cost, whats the speed, etc? Thanks.

Yes, that is on-campus. Off-campus, internet access is slow to international sites. NZ has limited fiber optics to Australia, and then out to the US, and your ping times go through the floor once you hit the "Global Gateway" that routes international traffic out of New Zealand. You'll need to get used to queuing up YouTube videos by pausing them and waiting for them to buffer. That said, I found Xbox Live to be playable with US servers. You're also download capped, which throttles back to dial-up speeds once you go over it, or you can choose to pay through the nose per MB you are over.

I can't comment about the quality of internet access at Vic's residence halls.

* Wellington is a beautiful, exciting city, with echoes of San Francisco. There are loads of free community events happening all the time. You can go and see the rugby or cricket at the Westpac for not that much money, which is probably the most beautifully situated stadium in the world. If it was anywhere in Europe or North America, I can guarantee I would be living there now. My quality of life there was very high.

-My I ask why you are not living there now? I mean, you said you're going to school in California, but you specifically specified Europe and North America.

The isolation thing, mostly. It takes a long time to get back to the US, and you're travelling halfway round the world to get to the UK. We both saw each other's parents once in the two-ish years we were there, and you lose all your existing friends too. It can play on your mind, make you feel lonely, even though you have loads of new friends who would look after you. My fiancee would often refer to her "safety net": all her friends and family that would support her. They were no longer an option. I felt the sting of losing contacts less than she did: I was used to it after spending a year in Davis, CA (where we met), and I played Live with my UK friends each Sunday, but she grows much closer to people than I do. It's not like going to college, even out-of-state, because getting home for Thanksgiving, Christmas, family get-togethers and such remain relatively easy. If you have nice parents who will pay to fly you home every Christmas, then perhaps this will not be a problem.

For me, it was less social and more island fever: I felt like I had nowhere to go. Living in CA, I can go to San Francisco, LA, Las Vegas: I have options, even if I don't excise them. NZ is much more limited, especially if you like city breaks vs outdoor holidays.

If Wellington was in the EU or US, getting to see one person's social network would be enough to really make a dent in that friend feeling, and would obviously end my island fever feeling.

Of course, now we're back in her home state, she misses all her NZ friends and keeps talking about how we should go and visit them, so it rubs both ways.

I wouldn't see this as a reason not to go, you'll be in a tighter friendship network as an undergrad, meeting lots of new people living away from home the first time and such, so you might not ever get that feeling.

Kalkino

Everyone's experience in living in another country differs though - where you might getting hideously homesick another might be satisfied with with a trip back every few years. You probably won't know what type you are till you try it.