Studying in Melbourne Australia?

Question

How is it? How is the weather? What is there to do? Are living expenses a lot? I am looking to go for a year abroad to Melbourne, all information possible would be lovely

Answer 1

Where are you thinking of studying?  Melbourne is a big city (in the sense that it's very spread-out), so where you are going to spend most of your time can be important. Some universities have campuses right in the middle of the city - Uni. of Melbourne and RMIT, for example, while others are further out.  Of the other "big four" uni's in Melbourne, Monash and LaTrobe have main campuses that can take some time to get to from the middle of the city (around 1 hour on public transport).  It doesn't mean they don't have their benefits, but they have a very different dynamic to the central campuses.  Monash has another campus in Caulfield, which is a suburb not far out of the city, quite close to the "beachy" suburbs like Elwood, St Kilda, etc.

Obviously, the suburbs that are closest to the city are most expensive, but can be the most fun. Carlton, Brunswick, Nth Melbourne, Fitzroy, Northcote and surrounds are often thought of as "studenty" areas, but are become v. pricey.  On the other hand, as students want to live there, you can often find share houses where people split the cost between five people or so: cramped, but cheaper! You'll probably still be looking at $150 a week in rent for a room (if not more).  Other suburbs to check out are caulfield, st kilda, east st kilda, and around there.  Check out www.domain.com.au, www.realestate.com.au and www.gumtree.com.au to get an idea of rental etc.

Groceries ARE getting expensive, but you can get around that:  the Queen Vic Market.  Hit it at about midday on the weekends, and they're practically giving away awesome food.  My partner and I can eat like kings for about $120 a week.  If you want to compare prices of textbooks, etc, jump on www.bookshop.unimelb.edu.au

Weather is great here:  Winter can get "cold", but not too cold - overnight lows are generally about 5 deg c, winter highs can be around 17, 18 or so.  Summer can be hot hot hot, but there tends not to be more than a couple of weeks around 40 dg c: mostly, it sits in the high twenties to mid thirties.

As for doing stuff - I'm not  sure how tourists feel about melb, as there's no 'harbour bridge' type thing, but to live here is awesome.  Great night life, restaurants, live music venues, nice beaches (not of tropical paradise quality, but good for weekends etc), a great arts precinct (usually with cheap tix for students), fabulous sporting venues (the MCG) and so on.  People tend to be friendly, it's safe, and clean.

You know you want to..... :)

Answer 2

well im studying here atm, but im a citizen of australia...

which means, i can defer all my uni fees, or pay about (AUD)$5000 per year to study. International students here pay about (AUD)$18,000 per year, depending on the university you go to and the course.

books and materials are kind of expensive, but that depends again on what course you do!

as for living, colleges can be expensive, about (AUD)$250+ a week without meals, more with food. If you want to rent a share house, you would be looking at about an average of (AUD)$150 a week, including most things (but  not food)

Food here is getting more expensive unfortunately :( but its not outrageously high..

as for if its good, I love it!! Im from the country so i love the shopping here, and its such a great place, with lots of parks and things to do. Also we have a high multicultural population, so there is food from all around the world here. There is lots of sport and cultural events, and we have beaches, which is good because summer gets quite hot, average 36-37degrees in summer, its very dry also, but not high in humidity, and you get a nice breeze if you are near the ocean. It never (or very very rarely) snows  here, and average winter temperature is about 10-12degrees. It can get quite windy at times, and rains also.

anyway, hope this helped some!!!