<p>D is interested in a semester abroad for Spring 2012. She is an animal science major so having relevant courses is desirable, but perhaps not crucial, as she is trying to stack her schedule so she can fill her semester abroad with non-science electives. Any insight into programs and living in Australia or New Zealand would be welcome.</p>
<p>My son will be studying abroad in New Zealand next semester. The group he’s going through (The Education Abroad Network) sent me a huge parent packet of information. Anything specific you’d like to know? He did say that since NZ grading is different, the classes taken over there are graded essentially pass/fail and do not impact his GPA. YMMV, depending on the school. He is SO excited to be going! Their semester begins in early Feb and ends in late June.</p>
<p>Everyone I know who has gone there for study abroad has loved it. </p>
<p>I’ve only been as a tourist but Oz is a fantastic country to visit - just avoid Vegemite. ;)</p>
<p>I love vegemite - well, the English equivalent which is called marmite. But I am English - those not raised on it do not seem to care for it.</p>
<p>I am so vicariously jealous!! My daughter was looking into study abroad in Australia and I was really excited for her to have such a great opportunity. Then she started dating her now fiancee and decided not to go. She is happy, but I would love her to have had that experience. Oh, well.</p>
<p>My son spent a semester there from Tufts at U of Otago.The time he was there was very cold-he did a lot of amazing trekking and thought it was incredibly beautiful .</p>
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Which U is he attending and what is he studying?</p>
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But he still will be able to use the courses to fulfill requirements, either for his major or distribution requirements?</p>
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No worries, had marmite in Botswana, blech.</p>
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Maybe better outcome than my neighbor, whose D met a guy during her semester abroad and has now moved there.</p>
<p>He’s studying at The University of Auckland. His major is journalism, but he will mostly be taking sociology classes to fulfill his minor/concentration. He has been talking to his advisor and is making certain that these classes will fulfill requirements.</p>
<p>My daughter was at U of Sydney. I arranged for her to live in women’s college, it’s a residential college. She hated the first month there and ended up loving it. I am an helicopter parent, so even with me having had most of her communication stuff taken care of, it was still tough. They didn’t have unlimited calling, texting or Internet over there. Her best friend, who was with her, ended up having 500 cell phone bill. Her Internet service at the uni was not sufficient, so I had to subscribe to a wifi service for her. The public transportation was very unpredictable, she had to spend a lot of money on cabs. It is an expensive place. Many Americans have the idea that Aussies are easy going, free spirit, they are actually very hierarchal and status conscious. </p>
<p>One advice I would give is be very careful on what course your kid chooses, make sure they are not weed out courses. They will fail people who they do not want to progress in that major. Check with your program director, they will give you guidance. D1, who is a A- to A student in finance and economics at a T20, failed one of their finance courses. She had B+ going into the final. For 3 other course she had A to A+. Luckily, those grades do not count toward her GPA.</p>
<p>Hey Vegemite is great.</p>
<p>My niece went to Australia, U of Sydney, and loved it. Went last year from July to November. She said there were many students from a variety of other top US colleges. She’s still in touch with the many friends she made while there.</p>
<p>I have a grown daughter who spent a semester in New Zealand and Australia back in 1996 and absolutely *loved *it. It was called South Pacific Semester through CSU Fresno. She was a biology major with a concentration on marine mammals. They studied three subjects over there: Biology, Geology and Art History. The majority of her time was spent traveling around New Zealand and the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, among other areas Down Under. She became very close with the three professors who accompanied them. And they got to experience different living and learning experiences versus staying in one dorm or apt. and attending one university the entire time. It was our Spring semester, so the weather was gorgeous over there.</p>
<p>[South</a> Pacific Semester Home](<a href=“http://www.csufresno.edu/SouthPacificSemester/]South”>http://www.csufresno.edu/SouthPacificSemester/)</p>
<p>S1 has been living/working in Brisbane since last May. He has learned how to fit in and seen some amazing places, but he has mentioned that Australians do not particularly like Americans, in his experience. Initially, he couldn’t get past the bouncers into the club “hot spots” (he is 23) until he bought non-US looking clothes and shoes. He also found in talking to girls that if they realize he is American, they lose interest, so he avoids the topic of nationality. He would probably agree with Oldfort’s impressions.</p>
<p>He has traveled to New Zealand and loved it there, saying NZ had a more informal and relaxed vibe. However, his time there was just as a tourist.</p>
<p>Gosh, I have many Australians friends I met at tennis tournaments around the world.All are extremely friendly and have no problems with Americans at all. Have been friends with them for years. </p>
<p>Maybe this is something new with the younger generation.</p>
<p>To be fair, he hasn’t reported any problems with co-workers, most of whom are Australian of course, so this may very well be a young person thing that changes regularly based on international political perceptions of the moment.</p>
<p>drb,
D. is Zoology major (close to yours, but she is pre-med). She has spent about 6 weeks in hiking trip to NZ with group from her college (which has been her dream after “Lord of The Rings” was filmed there). She had an option to have 2, 4, or 6 credits depending on size of the project (free credits in her case, part of Honors deal). She got 6 credits although she did not need them. She liked it, although it was expensive trip. Huge learning experience, since she is not a regular hiker. She was very impressed with frindliness of people who went way above and beyond to please and accomodate, preservation of natural resources, unusual species of animals and various other new experiences. Yes, she went on a tour to see grounds of “Lord of the Rings”, although she did it on her own, separate from her group, it was not on their schedule. Hiking trips were extremely challenging but huge eye opener and made D. realized that everybody has limitations that needed to be dealt with.</p>
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<p>I agree with this, although most capital cities in Australia should have late night train/bus services.</p>
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<p>Now as an Aussie, I find this a little insulting. I would agree that some people may be like this - perhaps your D hung out with the wrong people - but most people really don’t care about your status, especially that of a foreigner (whose position within status would surely be labeled as “other”, right?)</p>
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<p>Regarding the OP’s daughter’s choices, I would suggest strongly to study in either Sydney or Melbourne. I currently study at the University of Western Australia, a good school, but too far from the action, hustle and bustle etc. I’ve visited the three below, and I would consider them the best universities for foreign ex. people to go to. </p>
<ol>
<li> University of Melbourne;</li>
<li>University of NSW or;</li>
<li>University of Sydney.</li>
</ol>
<p>The only massive difference I felt was that if you’re a beach lover, you might not have as great a time in Melbourne, since beaches are pretty far away from the university. Sydney is like the epitome of Aussie beach culture, whilst Melbourne is more artsy, sporty and diverse…</p>
<p>Sorry about the decreasing quality of my post 
but it’s late here. If anyone has any questions regarding the australian universities I’d be happy to help, although I have fairly limited knowledge on the experiences American exchange students have here.</p>
<p>Quite a few friends of mine have had kids who studied in New Zealand.Four were at the University of Otago and one was in Christ Church (don’t remember the university). She was the only one who didn’t have a very positive experience. Two of the kids (who were students at Colby) were able to enroll directly at Otago, which saved their folks quite a bit given the difference in tuition and the fact that currency exchange rate favored the US dollar at the time. I visited New Zealand in 1999 for two weeks and loved the country and the people. I’d recommend you go visit your D if she goes to New Zealand or Australia.</p>
<p>The first conversation D1 would have with anyone In Sydney would be where she was from, what private school she went to. Most students commute to college, only people who could afford it lived in a dorm, unlike in the US. Maybe people she met were a certain segment of population. I didnt know that when i signed her up in a dorm. She made some great friends at the end. She was invited to some friend’s homes and their boats. </p>
<p>We also have a lot of Aussi friend, both in NyC and Sydney. D1 and her friend, both inter-racial kids, felt they were discriminated (treated differently) by the girls in their dorm and in stores, people just outright ignored them sometimes. The girls weren’t sure if it was a social economic or race thing. But I have to say that they didn’t have any problem in getting into clubs in Sydney. D1 also interned at a finance firm in Sydney. She said it was a throw back to 20 years ago how women were treated on the floor. </p>
<p>Overall, it was a good experience for D1. It was an eye opener for her because she thought culturally it would have been very similar to US (she grew up knowing a lot of our Aussie friends). Many of her friends have come over to visit her. She and her partner in crime are going back to Australia for few weeks this summer.</p>
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<p>LOL. I think the standard is always a little different for guys, at least that seemed to be the case when I used to live in NYC.</p>
<p>I lived in Australia for several years growing up and my parents still live there. I would highly recommend it for the experience, especially if you love the outdoor lifestyle.</p>
<p>I spent 6 months back in Melbourne working after I finished undergraduate in the UK, and it wasn’t a great experience! I had loved living there, and really wanted to go back to be near my family (who are not Australian and have always moved around). However, while working I had an experience a bit like oldfort describes. Women were treated VERY BADLY! I felt like I was working in some kind of 1950s movie (or ‘Mad Men’). The whole situation really upset me, and I came back to the UK. It’s one of the reasons I’m not working in science now. I thought I had a dream job working in Zoology, and it was the job from hell. Clearly this was only one work place and not all work places will be the same, but I also found socially young men treat young women very badly. I am not sure why it was considered so strange a young female out and about on her own (not at 3am or anything, in broad daylight), but this caused many aggressive comments which was upsetting. So enjoy for study abroad, but I wouldn’t want to go back there to live and work now.</p>