Study Abroad at the University of Auckland, NZ

One of my favorite part about studying at the University of Auckland and studying abroad in NZ is the chance to immerse myself in the bustling city of Auckland, but also indulge in the beautiful nature outside of Auckland. I really enjoy the little things, like walking 15 minutes away to the cutest little farmer's market. This weekend a friend and I went to the Night Markets and almost had a food coma.

I have been in UOA for two months so far and I love it so much. In term of study, UOA has a pretty awesome study environment. I didn't feel stressful here due to the beautiful campus and also the delivery method of lecturer. Moreover, New Zealand is definitely the best place to travel around, touch the nature, and challenge yourself. I will never feel enough for NZ's breathtaking view as all of these view can simply cheer me up and it is free. To be honest, I feel like travelling all the time here. I am so thankful to myself for choosing UOA and NZ as my study abroad choice. Never regret!

I studied at the University of Auckland for their second semester, and overall I think I just learned how to live on my own a lot better.

As I wasn't part of a study abroad program, when I came to Auckland I was immediately left to my own devices, and it was up to me to sort everything out. My first grocery shopping trip resulted in me buying a lot of expensive canned and pre-packaged goods, but now I'm buying enough fruits and vegetables to go with my Tim Tams and to make my mom think I'm at least trying to be healthy.

While I think UoA definitely leaves everything more "up to you" when figuring things out, I think the independence has helped me grow a lot as a person. I've gotten a much better hand on my time management, organization skills, and cooking skills since I've arrived... as well as being more capable of navigating new social/administrative situations on my own.

As for exploring the rest of New Zealand, I ended up doing a hop-on hop-off bus tour of the South Island during the mid-semester break -- easily one of the best, most unforgettable experiences I've ever had.

Overall my experience has been okay. I do not find the rigor of the courses challenging enough. I am often times very bored in my classes and doing the homework. I wish that it was more challenging. I also do not understand the grading scale here and I think it would be a good idea in the future to have a session on grades during orientation for study abroad students. I have heard from many other study abroad students that they do not understand the grading scale.

Studying in New Zealand has given me a good opportunity to meet people from New Zealand, as well as, all around the world. I'm glad for the chance to live in a community with people who are going through similar experiences as me. The two week mid semester break was a great time for me to explore what New Zealand has to offer. I managed to tick horse-riding and sky diving off my bucket list and I intend to do more once the semester is over.

Overall my experience in New Zealand was phenomenal. I'm currently sitting in the San Francisco Airport typing this as I end my abroad experience, which is a bit surreal. In general, if you like adventure, the outdoors, and in general pushing your limits, I'd say New Zealand is the perfect place to study abroad. For me, I chose New Zealand because I needed an English speaking country to learn my engineering classes in and New Zealand, especially the University of Auckland, is great for that. And then on top of that, New Zealand just seemed like such a unique destination… Not to mention that I heard is was unbelievably amazing. That it certainly is. I promise you there are places and sites in New Zealand that you could have even imagined existing on this planet, they are so beautiful. I wasn't much of a hiker before and to be completely honest, I'm still not- but with that being said, it was nice to have a completely different dynamic. The great thing about New Zealand is that its smaller size allows you to travel throughout almost the entire country in your time here, regardless of what city you are in. As my title said though, choose the city you study in wisely because even if you go away every weekend, you are still going to be in your abroad city for the most time! Something I wish I could have read some where before deciding is what it's like to live in the New Zealand cities as a student, so I'll quickly try and give my best impression of the main cities. Auckland (where I studied) is the biggest city in New Zealand, but that doesn't automatically make it the liveliest. It has the tallest buildings and the most people, but ironically, it's a bit dead there. In terms of the social scene, Auckland is definitely not the best, but it also definitely isn't the worst. If the social scene isn't a priority for you, then you can disregard that, but even with that, I must say that Auckland was missing a sort of character. IF you want a city with character and soul, I would say your best bet is Wellington. Although I was only there for a long weekend, you could see the the city really had culture, and that carried over into awesome places to eat, good bars, and a good nightlife. To be honest, if I could do it over again, I probably would have chosen Wellington over Auckland, BUT that doesn't mean Auckland is bad in anyway. Weather-wise, Auckland is the best because it stays relatively warm there for most of the year, which isn't true for the south island and even for Wellington because of how windy it is. Two cities on the south island that you could potentially study at are Christchurch and Dunedin. In all honesty, I got bad vibes from Christchurch as a place for a student to live. I was at a restaurant with my friends at 7 PM there once and we asked the waitress where we could go to get ice cream after and she was like " Oh lord, well it's much too late now- they're all closed. But earlier on you could have gone to…" and then brain cut her off because she acted like 7 PM was 3 AM. Christchurch is definitely not the liveliest city, but I guess it has a quaint vibe? And it's also in a pretty great location for a lot of awesome points of interest, like Arthur's Pass, Mount Cook, Queenstown, etc. Dunedin, on the other hand, is the opposite and is said to be the party capital of New Zealand. I only drove through the city once and it was definitely smaller- but in a good way. For my first time in NZ, I passed houses that looked like fraternity houses and I saw students walking around and I thought to myself "Ok, this is a cool college town." I can't really judge Dunedin much because I wasn't there for long, but I've only heard great things about it. I would definitely have considered that city much more had I known that Auckland wasn't much of a party city. Just remember though, that cities do get colder quicker on the South Island (Christchurch and Dunedin)… Like, for example, I traveled the south island during mid- April when it was still around 70 degrees Fahrenheit, and there it was around 50 degrees instead. Not that big of a deal, but if you are a brat from Miami, LA, Houston, etc., you might not appreciate that. Altogether though, whichever city you end up studying in, you will learn to love for its individualities and you will be able to see all the wonders that NZ has to offer. In addition to that, you'll be able to go out out to bars and clubs as much as you want to in any of the cities… It's just that in Dunedin and Wellington they may be a bit more lively.

The University of Auckland is a superb place to study abroad, no matter which country you are coming from! The campus is situated in the heart of the city, nearby all necessities and some incredible tourist locations. The location is safe and the campus is incredibly simple to navigate. The variety of coursework is large and diverse, much like the student body. I recommend taking advantage of the student organization fair, for that is how I found a strong network of people and friends! I actually had to back out of a few organizations--that's how many interested me and how many accepted me! I will miss grabbing a coffee from a shop on campus and going to sit with a good book in the incredibly beautiful Albert Park across from campus for the hour I had between classes. I will miss living in the University Hall Apartments, which provided me (at most) a ten minute walk to class, and had a lovely view of the Domain. I will miss the friends I've made, who come from over five different countries and whose friendship I will hopefully never lose and certainly will never forget. I will miss the opportunities I had, including directing an original short play, riding horses on a beach, going on incredible hikes in lush greenery, seeing the wonders of the North Island, and much, much more! And finally, I will quite simply miss the University as a whole. My experience was exceedingly positive, and I would recommend it to anyone planning on studying abroad in New Zealand!

I've had an amazing time in New Zealand for my study abroad program! However, this was largely due to the travel and adventurous clubs I took part in. My experience at the university was subpar, especially compared to Canadian education (it pains me to say this, but it's true).
By all means, come to New Zealand if you're hoping to have incredible outdoor experiences and meet lovely people! The country is ridiculously easy to travel around, and the people (outside of Auckland) are very friendly and accommodating.
If you have the choice to study at Dunedin, I would recommend studying there rather than Auckland; they are supposed to have an amazing Uni culture! Furthermore, the education at UoA wasn't as challenging as I'm used to back home, but in a sense that allowed me to have plenty of free time and created a very stress-free environment :)
New Zealand is beautiful and unique, and that is what I have loved most my time abroad.