Typical support from Aus Schools?

[markdc]

As someone about to move to the other side of the world, I was wondering how much support you've recieved as international students. I've been accepted to a few schools in Australia and I'm getting the impression that alot is left up to the student to arrange. There are lots of details to take care of and all I've received so far is a letter of acceptance and a request for a big cheque. Is this pretty much all I can expect or are some schools more helpful than others?

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[DesOMalley]

Mark, I think you'll find that once you accept the offer they have made you they will provide you with all sorts of support and assistance. There is no point in them spending time and money "supporting" students who may not even be accepting their offer. It makes sense, right?

Regards,

Des

 

[markdc]

Already responded to them so it will be interesting to see if things improve...

 

[Winged Scapula]

Depends on what you need help with. I found that beyond the typical Aussie of attitude of "No worries, mate" they aren't really used to helping North Americans who might be older and have different needs than the more typical SE Asian international student (ie, they weren't much help when I wanted a REAL house to live in, not just some crummy flat).

That said, I was able to do a lot myself and pretty much got the help I needed if I couldn't.

 

[pitman]

As far as Flinders is concerned, they send accepted students a link to a private forum to help hash out details before coming. The uni also has an excellent housing office, with helpful staff and a big book of all available apartments and houses throughout the region. I think Flinders though may be an exception with its attention to support.

UQ sends an international student packet with URLs to various support sites.

I don't know about USyd (haven't heard from them yet ;() or the other schools.

 

[redshifteffect]

Originally posted by markdc
As someone about to move to the other side of the world, I was wondering how much support you've recieved as international students. I've been accepted to a few schools in Australia and I'm getting the impression that alot is left up to the student to arrange. There are lots of details to take care of and all I've received so far is a letter of acceptance and a request for a big cheque. Is this pretty much all I can expect or are some schools more helpful than others?

- my experience from Tasmania was a lot different. They picked me up from the airport set me up at the college the first year and then helped me find a house in my second year.

- i guess it depends on the school and/or international student office...

- this year i volunteered to take the new students around to all the various rental agencies here and to make sure they didn't get ripped off....from my experience the help i received was excellent.

 

[tl47]

Hey pitman, you sound like a lovesick child waiting to go to USyd. Hope you get in. If not, well... come on over to Flinders. They have decent support like you said.

Anyway, back to topic: Flinders (the only school I know about) is decent like Pitman mentioned. They will also pick you up from the airport, help you find for permanent housing, etc.. They also sent info for financial aid (Stafford, FAFSA stuff, etc.). If you accepted their offer, they also have a nice pre-departure guide which even talks about the culture, Visa stuff, opening bank accounts (before arrival), etc... So you are definitely not totally in the cold.

However, I think some of us have found that the people might be a little laid back. I suspect this is partly the culture in Australia (laid back), and partly because we are the ones leaving our comfortable places to go to a foreign land. Understandably we are the ones who get edgy and annoyed at slower replies. They, meanwhile, might not see it from our viewpoint, so they will reply normally, without realizing the difficulties in direct communication. As an example, an inquiry for temp housing came back with a terse reply saying that they don't provide temp housing. Great! Now I'm stuck without any suggestions or answers to my 2, 3 and fourth questions... (she only answered my first question... and that was not even a real answer). The provided info seems to indicate that the University Hall is available for temp housing too (my first question was how to apply for that). So, that is one example where I'm here shaking (with fury, anxiety, etc.) and over there, I'm sure people are still sleeping soundly . Keep that in mind when you deal with them. Then perhaps, you understand why you are all anxious here and they seem to be unbothered by it.

 

[trkd]

At USYD, I can't say that you will get much support. That is primarily why I am on the message boards to answer questions. As far as housing goes, I was pretty much on my own. We have been in talks with the dean about getting a forum going so that people can chat before they get here. I don't really know when that will get going but it will hopefully be before the next application cycle.

At the moment, it seems as though the only help with housing that you can get is from the International Office site (http://www.usyd.edu.au/su/io/). The student accommadation service can be emailed at [email protected]. I don't know if they are any good though. You can also set up a place to stay on campus from the international student site.

The international office here is not a part of the medical faculty and in my opinion they suck. Apparently (due to their suckiness) they are getting a overhaul at the moment. Realistically, I don't think they will change much but we'll see. Good luck.

 

[MD1088]

Flindophile is spot on - service is not like it is in America. They do not exist to support us, we are cash cows that keep them from bankruptcy. Do not come to Australia expecting American service and efficiency, you will be disappointed.

 

[redshifteffect]

Originally posted by MD1088
Flindophile is spot on - service is not like it is in America. They do not exist to support us, we are cash cows that keep them from bankruptcy. Do not come to Australia expecting American service and efficiency, you will be disappointed.

- Maybe you guys just had bad experiences with Sydney/Flinders; in my case I was probably happier with the service i got from tassie than the service i got from Waterloo (Canada).

 

[DocRuth]

So far the support I've gotten from Flinders feels like plenty - I've had all of my specific questions answered, whether about housing or academics or whatever else. But then, I did my undergrad at the University of Calgary (Canada) so what redshifteffect says about Waterloo sounds about right to me. Perhaps Canadian schools are just less service oriented than US schools and so Australian schools seem normal, or slightly better than normal, to Canadians. Personally I found dealing with U of C bureaucracy to be excellent training for my year in central Europe.

 

[markdc]

Well I originally started this thread because of the impressions I've been getting of the schools through dealing with admissions and administration people. It's kind of hard to tell how you will be treated once you arrive (ie. things could be better or worse than your interactions with the school as an applicant). I wanted to know how things are once you are over there at each school. So far it sounds like Flinders and Tas do a good job of helping out their international students so that's good to know.

 

[trkd]

Once you get here and are actually enrolled, there are a lot more services offered. But by that point, you would have already found a place to stay and all that. At Sydney we just got an International Student something something (I don't know the name of her position) who is a full-time support person for the international students in the program. We can go to her and discuss concerns and issues we want addressed. She is also in the working on getting established relationships with universities back home so that we can do more clinicals there (this was a major issue for the students). We also have international student forums every few months where we meet with administration and sometimes the dean to bring up concerns and questions.

I am quite happy about the service since arriving here. It was before arriving here that concerned me.