A massive waste of money. Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

The Griffith professors were wonderful, and super understanding of the fact that we're unfamiliar with the Australian educational and grading system. Despite the fact that lectures have 100+ kids, they're willing to work with individual students and answer any questions.

On-site administration of your program

Only reason this gets three stars and not one is because of our on-site coordinator, Ann - what a lovely woman, she was super helpful and friendly and easily accessible to us when we needed her. Apart from her, though, we were basically left to fend for ourselves; KEI coordinated no activities for us and didn't do anything to help us adjust to life in Australia or meet other college-age people.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

The KEI website states that you'll be living on campus in the Griffith Village, integrated with the native Griffith students and other study abroad students - this is not the case, they place you in a residential apartment building a half hour commute away from campus completely isolated from other students (and don't tell you this until you're registered for the program and have paid, you get your housing assignment a mere few weeks before you leave). The other residents in the building are mostly the elderly or parents with small children, and noise must be kept to a minimum. There's zero way to socialize and meet other people, and it was a genuinely awful living arrangement for college kids trying to branch out and get adjusted to and comfortable with life in a foreign country.

N/A, we cooked for ourselves.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

Refer to the housing review above. We couldn't have been more isolated and cut off from other college students or other people in general.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

N/A, never dealt with it.

Wouldn't go walking down Cavill Avenue at night alone, it can get pretty seedy, but overall not a bad city. As a girl, I still felt pretty safe.

KEI staff were completely uninformed AND misinformed on Australian immigration policies and visa requirements. They were unable to answer the questions of concerned parents and students, and unwilling to do their job to help their students, which resulted in parents spending inordinate amounts of time on the phone with Australian immigration authorities doing the work staff members should have done. Educate/inform staff properly on international law and customs, specifically visa policies, and encourage them to actually do the job they’re paid to do. Staff were useless in terms of pre-departure orientation, and “on-site orientation” was an hour long meeting in our apartment with Ann. There were no cultural excursions or activities organized aside from a 2 night trip to Sydney. Ann did meet with us once or maybe twice a month, and she was the only thing that somewhat helped us assimilate, adjust, or made us comfortable. There were NO activities with local or international students - other abroad programs, such as USAC and IFSA, had regularly-planned activities, outings, and meals to meet people and check in on their students but KEI was excluded from all of those things, leaving the small group of three of us completely isolated and left out from our peers. Griffith University was the single positive part of this experience. The professors were incredibly understanding and accommodating when it came to the fact that we were all international students. Their Global Mobility office was helpful in getting an offshore completion based on compassionate grounds granted for me and were understanding of the reasons behind it. The work was challenging and definitely different than how work is given at Marist but I think it was an academically-fulfilling experience. Please see above. Additionally, the housing that’s listed on the KEI website is the Griffith University Village. The website goes on and on about the benefits and convenience of the Village and the different types of apartments that were offered; nowhere on the website is Surfers Century mentioned and we weren’t told that that’s where we’d be living until housing assignments came out. No one was warned that we’d be isolated off campus from other students in a residential apartment building thats full of middle-aged people and their families, with an uptight manager who expected a bunch of college kids to have “quiet hours” beginning at 9pm every night. Additionally, because the Village was where the website leads students to believe they’ll be living, we were unprepared for the expense of commuting a half hour to and from campus each day. Tram rides are $1.50 each way, which is $3 a day for every day you’re on campus. If you’re there 5 times a week, over a 15 week period, this is an additional $225 that none of us planned on spending, not to mention days where students have multiple classes with a long break between. Not only was Julie Pollard completely unknowledgeable, unhelpful, and totally incompetent, she had a nasty attitude towards concerned students and their parents who were in a state of panic when she insisted that we could not board a flight to Australia 12 hours before our scheduled departure time due to the fact that our student visas had not been approved yet - mind you, the reason our visas had not been approved is because Julie was completely ignorant to the change in process that extended the time for an approval from one week to one month and failed to send us the necessary information in time. I find it difficult to believe that conveyance of this information was the responsibility of Griffith University, as Julie claimed it was, because KEI students were the only ones who suffered an inability to obtain a visa in time. Julie was also unaware of the fact that you CAN enter Australia on a tourist visa as long as a student visa is approved before the tourist visa expires, information that my mother was able to find out after hours upon hours on the phone with every branch of Australian immigration. Julie adamantly insisted that a tourist visa could not be used, and had students’ families not been diligent enough to do her job for her and find out the real information, thousands of dollars that had been spent on flights would have gone to waste due to her incompetence, and thousands more would’ve been spent booking later flights. Her exact words regarding the change in visa policy were, “there was some speculation that the guidelines were changing, but the assumption was that it wouldn’t be taking place until August.” The words “speculation” and “assumption” should never be used when dealing with sending college-age students so far away from home to a country they’re completely unfamiliar with. This is an unacceptable way to handle students being sent 10,000 miles away - it is the job of the people responsible to know the laws and customs of the country they’re sending students to, and be prepared to send them the necessary documentation and provide accurate information and guidance. Julie’s work (or lack thereof) has tainted this entire experience beyond recovery from day one.

(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)

Probably would have been fine if it weren't for the fact that KEI puts you a tram ride away from campus. Trams to and from campus are $3 each way. That's $6 a day 5 times a week, maybe more if you go back and forth to and from campus multiple times in a day. That's at least $30 a week that we weren't prepared to be spending on transportation (as stated earlier, we were led to believe we'd be living on campus a short 5 minute walk from the classroom buildings).

Select all that apply

• Apartment

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• Americans
• International Students

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• Local Students
• Americans
• International Students

• Ann and Griffith University were the only positive parts of this program.

• Everything outlined above.

The Academic or Linguist