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Program Description
GlobaLinks Study Abroad Program at University of Waikato
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I studied abroad with AustraLearn for a year at the University of Waikato in 2004-2005. The university was full of friendy students and staff and the local to international student ratio gave me an outstanding chance to live and learn with local students.
I was the only U.S. student in my housing (1 American, 23 Kiwi's) so I was able to make friends quickly.
Hamilton is a great city for a semester abroad. It's location is ideal for travel, 1.5 hours south of Auckland, 1 hour from Rotorua, 45 minutes east or west to the beach... The proximity of Hamilton to all of these amazing locations made me want to travel every weekend.
AustraLearn was great when it came to setting up my program, their on-site orientation was a lot of fun and gave me a chance to meet other students before I set foot on campus. My AustraLearn advisor was friendly and always available to help me with my million questions.
I would reccommend this university and AustraLearn to anyone thinking about going to New Zealand!
The University of Waikato is an extremely diverse school with students from all over the world. Living on campus was both convenient and played a large role in the number of friends I was able to meet. Nearly every other international student also lived on campus and we formed a large network of friends. Also, living on campus made it easy to meet kiwis that I normally would not have met. During the week I would normally go to my classes, work out at the campus gym (and take one of the many AWESOME work out classes offered), and see all of my friends every single day. Typically 1 or 2 nights a week we would go into the bars in town or take a friday off to travel. Hamilton is probably the best location on the north Island. It is close enough to Auckland (1.5 hours) that it is possible to take day trips there, only 45 minutes from Raglan which has amazing surfing and black sand beaches, and centrally located to every other destination on the North Island (no more than 5 or 6 hours drive). While Hamilton is a 45 minute plane ride or an 8 hour drive + ferry ride from the South Island, we took our 2 week fall break to go to the south island. It was AMAZING. New Zealand is the most beautiful country in the world and truly impossible to describe. You have to see it with your own eyes.