Student profiles
Meet some students and read about their experiences
These profiles are written by students from a range of different courses, backgrounds and experiences. You'll find that some of them have cruised through their study, while others have had a few challenges along the way, but they all discuss how they found the help to guide them through.
These students' stories can give you an insight into what it's like to be at uni, and offer some advice: whether you've just started uni, or are thinking about it for your future.
Many of the students you'll meet here are also Transition Volunteers. You might meet them on a school visit, at an event on campus, or in an Orientation Host tour.
Want to read a more in-depth, week-by-week account of first year? Then go and check out our First Year@Unimelb blog, where you can follow students through the whole year. You can even keep up with their stories in second year and beyond, in the Back for Seconds blog.
Click on each of the profiles below to read more.
Amari: Commerce/Arts
My first year at the University of Melbourne was in 2006 and though having been quite familiar with the campus, as I attended University High School, my transition from high school to university proved to be a little more difficult than I had anticipated.
In my first couple of months at university I was confronted with the typical issues that face new students, such as making new friends and adjusting to the freedom and responsibilities that university life offered. Read more...
Louise: Arts
My physical transition to uni was a piece of cake! I still live with my family because our house is right near the city, so all I had to do was figure out the best public transport route. Finding my way around the Parkville campus was a lot harder. Read more...
Ronald: Engineering
“Yatta!!” as they would say in Japanese (learnt that from a friend over here). I did it!! University is finally here and I made it in, no sweat. But of course there is a huge difference between getting accepted by the university and accepting yourself into the university. Being an international student, the first hurdle I had to face was getting over to Australia in one piece and with the right ‘gear’. Read more...
Sameen: Engineering
I live in a student housing building in the city, in a single room, with shared toilet and kitchen facilities. I'll start of with the day I landed in Melbourne. I landed quite early in the morning and it was extremely chilly and foggy, which was surprising because I was expecting mid-February to be warm. What surprised me even more was how temperatures soared to 40 degrees Celsius the same afternoon. Read more...
Sarah: Commerce/Science
The most obvious difference between school and university is the sheer size of the campus which is spread across several blocks. Having classes in different buildings spread across campus was daunting. Needless to say, I carried a map around with me during the first few weeks of university.
However, despite thinking I would never be able to find my way around, I was surprised to find that only after a couple of weeks or so I was familiar with most of the campus. So don’t worry, you will get used to it! Read more...
Stephanie: Science
Uni is definitely very different from school and can take some getting used to, but ultimately it is great fun and if you put in the effort, you can really enrich your university experience. At uni you have to be responsible and organised regarding factors such as your enrolment, course plan, timetable and study. Read more...
Suzie: Arts
I’m an international student from China. My parents and I have been in Australia for three years. I did my VCE at Glen Waverley Secondary College. At the present I’m doing Bachelor of Arts, but as I study I learn more about myself, Media and Communication is the course now which attracts my interest. From High School to University, there is a big step that means difficulties and problems. To me, the biggest challenge in my transition is English, even though I have spent two years in High School here. Read more...
Teresa: Arts
I live in Ivanhoe and am hoping to major in Geography and minor in Anthropology. I came straight from high school at Our Lady of Mercy College in Heidelberg and found that there were many differences between year 12 and university. The hardest thing to get used to was that fact that in lectures nobody cares if you attend or not – it was good to have to take responsibility for my own learning and make sure that I could keep up with the work. Read more...
Tiantian: Commerce
I did live with a home stay family during high school but after going to uni, I moved out and now share a house with friends. This is harder than I thought. I not only need to prepare subject assignments, but also think about cooking, washing and cleaning etc. As of the beginning of the first semester in university, lots of things are totally different to the high school structure. Instead of 20—30 students in one class, there are hundreds people sitting in lecture theatre. Read more...
Umanda: Commerce
As a first year student of the Bachelor of Commerce at The University of Melbourne, Day One of uni can seem daunting. There are the large numbers of people to contend with, the many buildings, which to the untrained eye, look uncannily alike (and in some cases, even sound alike: Redmond Barry and Richard Berry), the endless list of lecture theatres named after prominent Melburnians whom you know very little about, and, once you manage to find your lecture theatre, a slow dawning of comprehension that you are no longer a member of a cosy class of twenty-five, but a member of a class of over four hundred! Read more...
Want to read a more in-depth, week-by-week account of first year? Then go and check out our First Year@Unimelb blog, where you can follow students through the whole year.
Want to read even more profiles? Read some more on the University's Future Students site.