Studying at Otago was 'sweet as'!

Housing-

I would highly recommend making accommodations through Uniflats. Having a Kiwi Host to show me around Dunedin and explain words like "sweet as!" and "jandals" definitely eased my adjustment to New Zealand. It also helped living with other international students who were going thru the same adjustments I was. It didn't take long to grow close to my flatmates and feel like I had a family away from home. Overall, the Uniflats community provided great facilities and a friendly atmosphere.

Academics-

Coming from a small liberal arts school of 3,000 students where classes are discussion based and the professors know all of their students names, studying abroad at a school of 21,000 students was a harder adjustment than I expected it to be. It wasn't that the classes were more difficult per say, they were just different from what I was used to meaning that I needed to adjust my learning and studying styles.
My largest class at my home university has been 28 students. Here, my largest class had 500 students enrolled in it while my smallest had about 50. Since the classes are so large, each class has a weekly tutorial of about 20 students where a Teacher's Assistant reviews materials and questions can be asked. I found these tutorials helpful as they provided more one-on-one interaction and were more engaging than listening to a lecturer.

Dunedin-

From walking along George Street to explore the various cafes, restaurants, bars and shops, to walking on St. Clair and St. Kilda beaches, Dunedin has a lot to offer. The best way to describe it is as a lively college town. It's also easy to travel to other parts of the South Island, like Queenstown, from Dunedin. There's truly no other city in New Zealand that I would have wanted to have this study abroad experience in.