Program Reviews

School - okay, but the teachers aren't that good at teaching, nor well qualified. hardly any of my "professors" are actually professors, or doctors. the facilities, like the gym, all cost money as well so be prepared for that.

Housing - this is the biggest disappointment at this school. the price is extremely ridiculous for what you get. expect the facilities to never work..this includes elevators, lights in the hallways, and washing/drying machines. shower temperatures change when sinks are turned on. no heating or air conditioner in the rooms. quiet time every night of the week at 22:30 and midnight on the weekends. security will literally remove you from the building or fine you for breaking this. expect to clean your room every 2 weeks for inspection or mom will ground you like when you were 10 years old. awesome housing events actually means eating a hotdog on white toast.

Country - the only reason to go here is for the people and the attractions. new zealanders are generally cool people, especially outside of auckland. the scenery is amazing. awesome hikes and trips to do every weekend. the night-life in auckland is cool. you meet a lot of good friends from all over the world.

AUT is a unique university that strives to foster and challenge each student. Every day was exciting because the teachers truly cared. AUT has rather cool facilities and equipment that helps you be prepared for the real world and post grad jobs. One thing that was exciting was its openness to Māori & Pacific culture. Learning about those cultures was a once in a lifetime experience.

AUT also has interesting activities aside from school. AUSM and WSA plan events year round that forces you to be social and meet new friends. There are so many clubs on campus you can be involved in, including Debate, a weekly student led magazine.

Most importantly, its location right near the city is prime for going home or going to lunch. Travel here isn't that bad.

When traveling abroad it makes you realize even the smallest things you did back home. You discuss topics that are unique to your country and not others and makes you realize why we don't do things a different way. The way other people describe there home environments makes you realize how different the world is. You're able to almost visualize what its like to live in the other countries that people you meet are from. Once you get to know people and make friends you make road trips which will be the best part of any study abroad. Exploring a country that no one is familiar with makes the trip that much more enjoyable. Plus not knowing what lies around the next corner only adds to the excitement of getting to the destination. But with all the trips and exploring you must make time to study as well. The best way I found was to get to know people in the class and form study groups. This makes the learning experience more interactive and in the process your able to learn more than reading the books yourself.

AUT is a modern university with a lot of facilities that can help you very good. The Noho Marae weekend was the best thing that I had experienced of this university. The university dedicated a lot of time and effort in that. It is great to see how the want to bring their culture over to other people.

Last weekend I did one of the Great Walks out near the eastern coast around Lake Waikaremoana. On the way to the walk, there is a long gravel road that takes about an hour and a half long to drive down before you reach the backpackers accommodation at the foot of the trail. Halfway driving down this road, we heard a loud pop! And discovered the front left wheel of our car had hit a rock and we had a flat tire. After tirelessly trying to get the tire off, we were advised by a car passing by that the wheel was stuck on and that we needed roadside assistance. We graciously took a ride back with this man to the closest place we had service (an hour back the way we had come) and called roadside assistance who came to pick us up from Rotorua (another hour back) and drove us carefully back up the mountain to help fix our wheel and put on the spare. We ended up getting back to the vehicle at 10:30 pm and to our accommodation at 1:00am. We were supposed to arrive at 7:00pm. So much for a relaxing evening and early bedtime before starting the longest hike I have ever been on (46km total)! Not the best way to start our walk, but definitely worth all of the trouble! To top it off the roadside assistance guy told us that there would have been no possible way for us to have gotten the wheel off ourselves as two of the bolts of the rental car were broken to begin with.

I'm so glad I chose to study abroad here in wonderful New Zealand! I never thought I would call another country for my second home, but both New Zealand and AUT have definitely become a home to me, and I'm so thankful for that.
I'm gonna miss the great study facilities, the amazing teachers, living with awesome people, traveling around, having crazy spontaneous nights out and all of the social events!

5 friends and I decided to go to South Island for spring break. While there, we did a lot of amazing things, but something that really stuck with me was the Edoras hike at Mount Sunday. For those of you who don't know, Edoras is Rohan from Lord of the Rings. As a huge Lord of the Rings fan, I was so excited to do this hike. Because of unforeseen circumstances, we had to hike and extra hour to even get to the base of the hill. But once we reached the top it was so worth it. We were almost 360° surrounded by mountains, with a view so stunning that my mouth dropped open in wonder. It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to. As we were hiking the extra hour back to our camper van the sun set and an amazing amount of stars appeared in the sky. You could even see the Milky Way. It was extradordinary.

Well, talking about Wellesly Student Apartments is rather difficult. On the on hand you pay a hell lot of money for an old, dirty place with tiny room with old and broker furniture. On the other hand it is one of the best parts you will ever live at. All your friends only 2 minutes away, it is really awesome. If the would invest some money to make the place nicer, ans stopp treating everyone like 10-year olds it could be heaven on earth.

During my time here at AUT I've met countless people from all over the world. The student apartments were the perfect scene to allow these meetings to happen and promote a great community. I can't count the amount of great times I've had with the students I've met in this building and the fun nights we've shared out in Auckland. One of the greatest experiences I've had was on a Thursday night. Friends from the building gathered together, they were from everywhere around Europe, North America, there were even Kiwis! We pitched in for ingredients for a pulled pork dinner, we cooked it in the common kitchen in WSA and enjoyed a movie afterward. It wasn't a wild night or anything. Just bunch of friends hanging out and enjoying each other's company. This is one of the most memorable nights I have here in WSA because of its simplicity. No one was looking to go somewhere else or check out another apartment, everyone was happy where they were.

While Auckland is great location for school, it lacks the culture and beauty of the rest of the country. I would encourage everyone to get outside the city as often as possible, even close places like Waiheke and Mission Bay have a completely different feel than Auckland. Make sure to encourage students to have out-of-city excursions as often as possible, and help plan/offer suggestions when possible because the best parts of NZ are often hard to get to/unknown to non-locals.