-
Welcome to MSO!
We are an online community for current and prospective medical, dental and allied health students and early career professionals from Australia and New Zealand.Please read: About MSO | Annual Welcome and Important Information | MSO Rules
Quick Links To Forums
Tests/Interviews: UCAT | GAMSAT | Interviews Entrance Discussion: Graduate Medicine | Undergraduate Medicine | Dentistry -
Please consider registering on MSO. Benefits of registering are:
- Able to post and participate in the forum
- After 10 posts: Private Message Other Users
- After 25 posts: Access to the Chatbox
- After 100 posts: Custom user titles and Ad-free experience
If you would like to get involved with MSO or have ideas, suggestions, comments, criticisms or other feedback please Contact Us
Otago Halls of Residence
- Thread starter Pineapple
- Start date
It's an individual thing. A hall may promote 'study' or 'fun' more, but what you do in first year is entirely up to you. I'm sure it's perfectly possible to have fun at St Margaret's.... The differences between halls is definitely over-stated, and you definitely can't make black and white statements like 'Smags is no fun' or 'UniCol has no emphasis on academics'. It's all on a continuum, and I think you'll find most halls promote a healthy balance between the two.
Caesar
Regular Member
I rather like formality too, in a balance of course. It's not too formal, like, collared shirt no tie on firday, saturday's casual and sunday is when you wear your sunday best 
mon-thur is as described in the post before. Knox first choice bro. Best decision ever. Btw are you a col. boy per chance?
mon-thur is as described in the post before. Knox first choice bro. Best decision ever. Btw are you a col. boy per chance?
Bluerock
Regular Member
Cumby used to be a lot rowdier - over the last few years it's improved pretty dramatically. I think first semester was the best results they've had for a while - even commerce got a 96% pass rate. They group everyone together by what you are studying, so currently there's about two floors with health science students. I wont lie - we are rowdy, but we've all had the work hard play hard attitude which has done our floor incredibly well. It's all about the balance really. And before Caesar converts you - I've heard the stories from Knox as well, they party bloody hard.
But to put it pretty basically - the hall you're in will have little effect on your grades. There are pros and cons for every hall. It's more the work you put in and how you do the work, compared to where you're sitting when you do it.
But to put it pretty basically - the hall you're in will have little effect on your grades. There are pros and cons for every hall. It's more the work you put in and how you do the work, compared to where you're sitting when you do it.
How does Knox choose its students anyway? I thought it would be hard but according to you Caesar, it's not all about straight E's and hundreds of extra curriculum stuff right?
Yes, by chance I'm a current Coll boy. Is it too easy to tell?(How do you do "offtopic" btw?)
Offtopic tages: [OFFTOPIC*] Insert text here [/OFFTOPIC*] (without the *)
Sam
¿umm?
How does Knox choose its students anyway? I thought it would be hard but according to you Caesar, it's not all about straight E's and hundreds of extra curriculum stuff right?
Yes, by chance I'm a current Coll boy. Is it too easy to tell?
From what I understand only Carrington and Smags really care about academic stuff (funny that Smags doesn't even do that well despite their "standards" - in terms of how many students make med), the rest I think as long as you can portray a good attitude you have as much as a shot as the next guy. If you do have an application where you can write something just try cater it to the college you want etc. The rest is in their hands
[offtopic] ew knox ew [/offtopic]
Zion
Regular Member
Thanks a lot guys. So I dropped Selwyn and Knox is on my list.
1) St Margaret's/Knox
2) Hayward
3) ?
I really can't decide St Margaret's or Knox though, even my school career adviser told me to not put any of those two in 2nd or 3rd. Any ideas what I should put in number 3. As tempting as Unicol sounds, it's out of the picture for me, I don't like crowded places much. Can we just put two instead of three options down?
1) St Margaret's/Knox
2) Hayward
3) ?
I really can't decide St Margaret's or Knox though, even my school career adviser told me to not put any of those two in 2nd or 3rd. Any ideas what I should put in number 3. As tempting as Unicol sounds, it's out of the picture for me, I don't like crowded places much. Can we just put two instead of three options down?
lalalarry
Regular Member
I think three is always better, just in case you don't get into first 2.
My options seem to be:
1. Arana (Probably a quiet floor though because I don't want every Thurs. and Sat. nights really rowdy.
2. Unicol (maybe? I think it's quite good as second choice. At least I'd probably get into Unicol if I don't get into Arana)
3. I HAVE NO IDEA
Cumberland perhaps? I just want to go somewhere that has the balance between work and social, study and play and won't be really noisy.
If you think you'll like St Margarets you probably will.
As a general message to everyone though, don't choose St Margarets because you think it will improve your grades or drive you to study more. A few people from my school chose it for that reason (despite not really suiting it as a hall) and had a pretty bad time tbh.
As a general message to everyone though, don't choose St Margarets because you think it will improve your grades or drive you to study more. A few people from my school chose it for that reason (despite not really suiting it as a hall) and had a pretty bad time tbh.
Does that mean I need good grades to have a chance to get into either St. Mags or Carrington?
Because...my grades from last year (which is what they'll probably be looking at) aren't even average...they're very much below average...
Still torn between Mags or Carrington as first choice..
But otherwise for others:
2) Hayward
3) Cumberland
Is Hayward too risky for second choice?
Because...my grades from last year (which is what they'll probably be looking at) aren't even average...they're very much below average...
Still torn between Mags or Carrington as first choice..
But otherwise for others:
2) Hayward
3) Cumberland
Is Hayward too risky for second choice?
Sam
¿umm?
They look at year 12 (NCEA2) grades I think..
Zion
Regular Member
Some of the guys at my school think so too. I don't really care though, I just want a good quiet Hall that has a good reputation and St Margaret's and Knox were just so happened to catch my eyes. But I guess staying somewhere like St Margaret's does give you a sense of security, academically, like you might feel more confident in studying.
Anyway, I remember one of the halls has a Ball with actual slow dance and one has a squash place, it is Knox and Selwyn respectively?
lalalarry
Regular Member
I think that for the big halls such as Arana, Carrington and St Mags, you have to have at least Level 2 endorsed with excellence.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
What's cumberland like as a third choice? Opinions anyone? Is it particularly noisy etc?
Sam
¿umm?
It's merit, not excellence.
lalalarry
Regular Member
I'm pretty sure for Carrington and St. Mags, they favor those who get endorsed with Excellence, Arana may be slightly more lenient. But I was told by one of the Wardens of Arana that first, they look at your academic record so i'd imagine that they'd be looking for the brightest as well as nice people.
I suggest you read back in this thread a bit. I recently posted my understanding of the selection process at Carrington (will be similar for all the competitive halls) - which included the fact that it's definitely possible to get a place if you have level 2 with merit. (Any lower than this though and your chances are probably slim)