• 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
  • Register with us

    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

A lot of parent's policies will cover children's contents for 1 year out of home in the hall-of-residence so check that. Also, I'm not sure you apply to MAS as a health science student? In regards to the halls, they are very security conscious but I can think of one or two incidences where items were stolen when people left their room windows unlocked that were open to thoroughfare.
 
thanks a lot for helping me it means a lot, i will report back to my dad with my newly acquired knowledge :D
(as a side note, i realise that the likelihood of my stuff being stolen at my hall is slim but i always like to be prepared)
 
A lot of parent's policies will cover children's contents for 1 year out of home in the hall-of-residence so check that. Also, I'm not sure you apply to MAS as a health science student? In regards to the halls, they are very security conscious but I can think of one or two incidences where items were stolen when people left their room windows unlocked that were open to thoroughfare.

Lol I actually caught someone in my hall while they were in the middle of drunk-stealing my transformers poster off my wall.

I think you and frootloop are right though, MAS can usually only cover some health professional students unless they have immediate family with MAS.

[OFFTOPIC] My cousin who works for MAS said that they are considering changing this and opening it up more after the Christchurch earthquakes caused a whole lot of trouble with exclusive insurers. Houses needed to be sold with insurance that carried over with sale as they were more-or-less uninsurable otherwise. But MAS used to have insurance policies that were exclusive and thus non-transferable with property sales. Unless you were selling your house to another doctor, you wouldn't be able to sell it at all. [/OFFTOPIC]
 
Do many people bring guitars down to halls?
Don't be that guy...

[offtopic] If you can actually play, then your neighbours may not hate it. If you know three chords and sit on your bed strumming incessantly, someone may strangle you. [/offtopic]
 
How else do I confess my love for that hot chick across the hall if not by composing a ballad on the ol' gui-tar and serenading her in front of all of her friends?
 
Hi all, I didn't have any idea for Thread of hsfy that are not in any of Residential colleges (either flatting or a local).
And I was wondering if anyone would have any advice (well-known [MENTION=10716]frootloop[/MENTION]? hehe) for these people

- about both making friends and available tutors..

I assume it's really difficult to make friends during your fresher year if you are flatting , as it is unlikely to have a long nice chat during lectures or in lab streams. Would there be any advice available for these people to get friends for GLMs, group studies?

The University has a locals program which you should get involved in. They offer free tutorials and social activities too. Have you seen any info about them yet?

Essentially they're trying to provide everything a residential college provides minus the accommodation

https://locals.otago.ac.nz/?page_id=5
 
Last edited:
Hey, I was wondering if it was ok to move into the hall the day after that most people move in? Will it be awkward coming a day late?
Thanks!!
 
Hey, I was wondering if it was ok to move into the hall the day after that most people move in? Will it be awkward coming a day late?
Thanks!!

Short Answer: No. Long Answer: No.

(People arrive at completely different dates and times, you will have plenty of time to get to know people once you are there).
 
Hey, I was wondering if it was ok to move into the hall the day after that most people move in? Will it be awkward coming a day late?
Thanks!!
In my experience - 70% of most Colleges move in on the Saturday (or earlier), about 25% on the Sunday - and about 5% filter in later. The Colleges I've attended always have key College-building events on the Sunday so I would try to get in before Sunday evening. Not imperative, but highly recommended.
 
In my experience - 70% of most Colleges move in on the Saturday (or earlier), about 25% on the Sunday - and about 5% filter in later. The Colleges I've attended always have key College-building events on the Sunday so I would try to get in before Sunday evening. Not imperative, but highly recommended.

Ok thanks! I have 2 options I can either come on the Saturday night or on the Sunday morning. Is there anything which happens on Saturday as well which is important?
Thanks!!
 
I went to St Margarets, they let you in from Friday onwards, but nothing really happens until Sunday afternoon. The rest of the time is spent meeting new people, but I met most of the people in the college at the Sunday afternoon event lol.
 
Do many people move into the colleges by themselves? I live in Auckland and my parents are unable to come down with me this Sunday and I just feel like I'll be the odd one out or it will be awkward or something lol maybe I'm just stressing out over nothing.
 
Do many people move into the colleges by themselves? I live in Auckland and my parents are unable to come down with me this Sunday and I just feel like I'll be the odd one out or it will be awkward or something lol maybe I'm just stressing out over nothing.

To be honest, no-one will really notice and you'll make friends pretty quickly. There's between 150 and >400 students at each hall. At my hall, most parents spent less than an hour or two total on hall grounds.

Coming to university is a big step for a lot of people in terms of independence: you're in charge of your own life and there's heaps of new people who'll be in the same boat. You'll be fine. Plus, the hall staff and RAs will make sure your move-in will be as stress-free as possible.

Physically getting to the hall would probably be the most daunting part because unless you know Dunedin well you'll probably feel a bit disoriented for a few days. It took me about 6 months to get my head around which direction was North lol. If you're flying down, try to book a shuttle from the airport. It costs ~$20 from the airport to the doorstep of a residential hall. Which is significantly cheaper than the $90 it costs in a taxi (the airport is 20mins out of town).

Good luck moving in, and hope you have a great year :)
-LM
 
Thinking about residential colleges

Hello,
I'm applying for HSFY for 2016, so this is a bit early. However, i'm going to the open day next week and probably wont have time to visit all the residential colleges, so need to narrow the list down. I was wondering what the reputations of all the colleges were in general, and how the food is (i'm quite a fussy eater). Also, which colleges had the best results last year for HSFY students getting into med? and which colleges are the best for HSFY, as well as fun?
Any opinions would go a long way!(y)
 
Hello,
I'm applying for HSFY for 2016, so this is a bit early. However, i'm going to the open day next week and probably wont have time to visit all the residential colleges, so need to narrow the list down. I was wondering what the reputations of all the colleges were in general, and how the food is (i'm quite a fussy eater). Also, which colleges had the best results last year for HSFY students getting into med? and which colleges are the best for HSFY, as well as fun?
Any opinions would go a long way!(y)

Hi Aestusa,

Welcome to MSO!!

Although you shouldn't read anything into results of a College (as it's 95% about the work and determination you put in yourself), the most successful College for Med Entry would have been Carrington. This is because 70% of their College is Health Science and also because they only select the highest academic achievers.

In terms of food, I’ve found that Arana, Carrington and Aquinas are all pretty mint. Aquinas are the College chef champions for 2014. Unicol, Toroa, St Margarets don’t seem the best from my limited experiences at those places. Te Rangi Hiroa have their food supplied by another College so that can sometimes be a bit cold. Toroa have to walk offsite for meals, to the University Union.

Best for HSFY? Well it depends if you want "everything Health Sci" like Carrington and St Mags or if you prefer a more balanced environment like the other Colleges (usually 30-40% HSFY). Generally the more HSFY students, the less fun because things can get a little stressful around key test times. However on the upside, you'd probably have quieter environments.

Most the Colleges are fun, and they all provide HSFY tutorials. It's really what you make of it.

If I was doing Health Sci again, I would be choosing any of (in alphabetical order) Aquinas, Arana, Carrington, Hayward, Selwyn. But that's just me, have a look around the Colleges during your tours and try to pick up on the culture of the College and what suits you.

All the best!
 
Thanks for the recommendations, its really helped! i noticed that you didn't mention Knox, Te Rangi Hiroa, or Cumberland college. I was considering those also, is there a reason they wont be so great for HSFY?
Thanks so much!
 
Agree with @stevo140 on this one @Aestusa :)

I wouldn't look too much into the success statistics of colleges: those statistics are probably more of a reflection of the people who tend to apply and get accepted into to those colleges (and get accepted into medicine) rather than services they offer that would make you more likely to succeed. Whilst it can be motivating to be surrounded by people who do well in HSFY, it shouldn't be the only thing that you consider when applying to a college and in some cases it can be detrimental (eg mass-hysteria during exam periods).

In reality, from an achievement perspective most colleges would suit most students. Most (if not all) offer tutorials for HSFY papers; the food at some may be slightly better than the food at others; some are very close to campus whilst others are far away; some also offer shuttle services to compensate for a further distance; there is a wide range of sizes; some colleges have sports/gym equipment on-site. I was at Aquinas in 2011 when I did HSFY, and I loved it there. Whilst many people at other colleges thought it to be a drag living so far away, it was actually great. The distance thing meant that more people tended to hang around the hostel rather than spend time in town or study at uni, which meant that there was a real collegial atmosphere and you saw people in common areas much more frequently. Our statistics for entrance weren't too good, but I don't regret going there at all and have made really good friendships.

All I could say is think about the things that are the most important to you and try not to restrict that to purely academic aspects. Think about what you'd like doing in your spare time and how easy this could be at your hostel of choice; what new things you may want to try (eg maybe pick up a sport, join a club/society, nearby parks/tracks); the social environment of hostels (smaller hostels can feel more close-knit, the academic/social balance). I chose Aquinas because it was the only hostel with a volleyball court and sport is quite important for me :)

I feel that academic achievement is a strong reflection of social, physical and psychological well-being: pretty much, it's much harder to succeed if you don't have balance in your life, and having a good balance in life can give you more resilience if things don't go so well. I've noticed that a lot in medicine: the vast majority of our cohort have stuff that they do outside of class to keep themselves balanced. Many play sports; there is a large extra-curricular involvement; many people do volunteer work; and there's a lot of med-specific interest groups that you can join. I'd recommend having a real good think about what helps you to succeed in your work and the stuff you do during down-time, and ask the hostel staff about those things when you narrow down your list of colleges :)

Health science is tough. It can be very tough. But it can be very rewarding and that's regardless of what happens at the time that offers are made. When I think back to first year, I honestly don't really remember much about how difficult I found it, but 5 years on what stands out the most is how much I enjoyed what I was doing and the people that I met. Maybe if I was at a different hostel, I may have been more focussed but I may also have been more stressed being surrounded by so many other HSFY students. Perhaps I'm just much more socially-focussed than others, so it all comes down to perspective.

Good luck with your choice, and good luck for next year too!! :D

-LM
 
Last edited:
Back
Top