Moving away from home & choosing a university, advice?
I’m meant to be leaving for university in less than two weeks. Problem is, I still have no idea which one I’m going to. I got good final results so I’m into my double degree any university I want to go to (I live in New Zealand), but there is a huge hostel crisis at the university I had planned to go to and, like all the girls from my school, I’m not into a hostel there. I spent my last seven years at a small private school that has an extremely bad (and sadly, partly justified) reputation at this particular university for producing stuck up, drunken, badly behaved little snobs who ruin things for everything else. My uncle is on the board of one of the hostels (not a blood relative so he can’t get me in) and he has told me that despite my great references and impressive application, coming from that school definitely stopped me getting straight in.
My other option is to go to Auckland University, which is probably the better university for my degree, but in NZ Auckland is the only really big city and is considered by non-locals to be like a different country… you get a label over your head as soon as you move there. Being country girl and having friends who moved there and hated it, the thought of going there for four years is really, really scary. I’ve got myself to the top group of the waiting list at the other University (Victoria university in Wellington, which is a city I love) and there should be some places available the week before Uni starts, but the arrival date for there is a week after Auckland’s one so I could end up missing out on going to Auckland and being in Wellington with no place to live. Flatting is definitely not an option, I’d way rather go to Auckland than miss out on living in a hostel. For all I know I might love Auckland… but I just don’t know! I’m starting to freak out just a little.
So does anyone here have any advice on moving away from home for the first time? Did you find when you moved to university that where you were located was important, or was the actual experience that counted? Are there any Aucklanders out there who can tell me about moving there? Any other general advice would be muchly appreciated also, in NZ the age you leave high school and the age you can legally drink are the same (18), so it will definitely be an experience. I know I’ll need spare changes of underwear and painkillers but I’m sure there are other things I haven’t thought of, as well as things that someone that’s moving away from home for the first time should know.
Any advice?