So sad to leave Dunedin -- a Second Home Past Review

By Ella Rohm-Ensing (Middlebury College) - abroad from 07/11/2016 to 06/21/2017 with

University of Otago, New Zealand: Study Abroad Programme

What did you gain/learn from your experience abroad? Was it worthwhile?

I gained such an appreciation for exploring other countries and meeting people all over the world. I have so many new friends and cherished memories. This experience is easily one of the best of my life.

Personal Information

How much international exposure did you have prior to this program?	2 weeks - 1 month

Review Your Program

* Overall educational experience Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.	Completely dependent on what classes you take -- can take easy classes but 300-level classes were definitely still a challenge
* Host Country Program Administration On-site administration of your program	Mostly N/A -- I didn't come on a program. International orientation was short and to the point; other than that the international office didn't do much, but was overall helpful if you go to them with questions/problems.
* Housing: How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?	Uniflats is very very helpful. You pay for the convenience, but not having to worry about rent, heating, etc. is worth it. How nice each flat is varies, but they are overall very good and uniflats is good at quickly responding to concerns about things breaking or similar things.
* Food:	You're on your own for food -- learn to cook! Somewhat expensive, so cook with what's in season. Fish and chips, pies, Whittakers chocolate... all so good.
* Social & Cultural Integration: How integrated did you feel with the local culture?	Meet as many kiwis as you can and stay as long as you can. I stayed for a year, and although I had lots of international friends, making kiwi friends was easily one of the most valuable experiences I had here. Try to join a club or team to meet people -- being the only international student on a rugby team helped with this a lot.
* Health Care: How well were health issues addressed during the program?	Didn't have any experiences with this.
* Safety:	Overall generally very safe -- as a woman I felt safe walking home at night from town back to uni. Some street harrasment, though, worse in semester 1 (spring semester)
If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program?	Yes I'm glad I did direct enrollment because it allowed me to branch out and meet new people, not just Americans.

Finances

* Money: How easily were you able to live on a student's budget? (1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)	Food is pretty expensive. Other things not so much, unless you want to do super touristy things.

Language

* Did your program have a foreign language component?	No

Direct Enrollment/Exchange

* Did you study abroad through an exchange program or did you directly enroll in the foreign university?	Direct Enrollment

Other Program Information

* Where did you live? Select all that apply	Apartment
* Who did you live with? Select all that apply	Local Students Americans International Students
* Who did you take classes with? Select all that apply	Local Students Americans International Students
About how many local friends did you make that you will likely keep in touch with?	10+

A Look Back

* What did you like most about the program?	People I Met New Zealand Landscape Living Independently
* What could be improved?	Cost of Living
* What do you know now that you wish you knew before going on this program?	I wish I had known that I couldn't work, or found a way to be able to work part time on my visa.

Reasons For Studying Abroad

To help future students find programs attended by like-minded individuals, please choose the profile that most closely represents you.	The Nearly Native or Trail Blazer Craving the most authentic experience possible, perhaps you lived with a host family or really got in good with the locals. You may have felt confined by your program requirements and group excursions. Instead, you'd have preferred to plan your own trips, even skipping class to conduct your own 'field work.'

Individual Course Reviews

Course Name/Rating:	MAOR110 Introduction to Maori
Course Department:	Maori Studies
Instructor:	Craig Hall (Taipa)
Instruction Language:	English
Comments:	The class was easy and very interesting. I would recommend taking this class over Maori Society if you enjoy learning languages -- you also learn a lot about the culture. This class was completely internally assessed so there was nothing to do during the exam period.
Credit Transfer Issues:	N/a

Course Name/Rating:	COSC 344 Database Theory and Applications
Course Department:	Computer Science
Instructor:	Haibo Zhang, Yawen Chen
Instruction Language:	English
Comments:	The class was not all too interesting, in my opinion -- I skipped many lectures because the slides were online and I didn't find the lecturers very useful. I've heard that if you went in asking for help, Haibo was actually good at helping, though. Both instructors were relatively difficult to understand even if they seemed like they knew the topics well. The group project (3 parts, composed 30% of my final grade) was a bit of a nightmare since I didn't know anyone and was paired with strangers (the groups were way too big)
Credit Transfer Issues:	N/a

Course Name/Rating:	STAT 242 Multivariate Methods
Course Department:	Statistics
Instructor:	John Harraway
Instruction Language:	English
Comments:	John Harraway is very very sweet and so excited about what he's doing, and it shows. He's been teaching here for 50 years now. The assignments were not that hard but were how I really learned what I was doing. Most of the course was using SPSS and learning how to read/interpret the output -- I do wish I had a deeper understanding of what each of the statistical analyses actually did and how they worked.
Credit Transfer Issues:	N/a

Course Name/Rating:	STAT 261 Probability and Inference I
Course Department:	Statistics
Instructor:	Matt Parry, Ting Wang
Instruction Language:	English
Comments:	Matt and Ting were both great lecturers. Matt was excited about class and engaging, and very good at teaching the information. Ting was very very sweet and cared so much about every student. She would go through assignments with each student when she gave them back to show them how to correct their mistakes. Ting was a little disorganized, though -- I'd recommend printing her slides and writing on them.
Credit Transfer Issues:

Course Name/Rating:	COSC 341 Theory of Computing
Course Department:	Computer Science
Instructor:	Brendan McCane
Instruction Language:	English
Comments:	I loved Brendan. He's such a sweet guy and very fun. The material in this course was HARD but Brendan is great at explaining it and has very helpful tutorial questions. Go to every lecture -- you learn so much more from Brendan than just from his slides. His assignments are tough but if you spend the time you can get good grades, and he is lenient.
Credit Transfer Issues:	N/a

Course Name/Rating:	COSC 343 Artificial Intelligence
Course Department:	Computer Science
Instructor:	Ali Knott, Lech Syzmanski
Instruction Language:	English
Comments:	Ali was great, very engaging. Lech was not as much so -- his lectures were very boring and the slides had too much math on them.
Credit Transfer Issues: