I applied for semester 1, i. e. our summer semester 2016 at UNSW. The MicroEDU staff were at my side with all questions about university selection and applications, so there are usually no problems here.

1. Flights

I decided to add a few more stops to my semester in Sydney, i. e. I flew back to Germany via Los Angeles and therefore booked all my flights one way. This was of course a little more expensive, but I can still recommend it because you can see a lot more. As a rule, return flights from Germany are not more expensive than 1000 – 1200 €.

2. Introduction at UNSW

Shortly after my arrival, the 5-day O-Week started, in which the entire (huge) campus is full of newcomers, in which you get to know an incredible number of new people and in which, in the case of UNSW, all of the more than 100 study organizations introduce themselves. Of course, you should always take these with you. I only spent the first money on food afterwards

3. Enrollment / courses taken

In the run-up to my semester abroad, I found out about the available courses online and created my schedule according to interests and times. Fortunately, I only had 3 days of uni in the end, so I could use the rest of the time for other purposes.

Ultimately, I attended the following courses:

Global Business and Multinational Enterprise: Very interesting, open book exam that was absolutely feasible → recommendable!

Financial Accounting: Accounting at the basic level, but the level rose towards the end, nevertheless recommended for people who like ReWe!

Business Risk Management: One of the most interesting courses for me that I have ever taken! Highly Recommended!

Overall, it should be emphasized that almost all Exchange / Study Abroad students were relatively surprised by the average workload. Basically, you were constantly busy with essays, presentations, readings or midterms. The courses were of course entirely in English, but in my case the lecturers were very easy to understand, so this was not a problem. The study was generally much hands-on with me and not so in theory scientifically, as one often knows from Germany.

4. Housing

The fundamental question here is whether or not you want to live on campus. Those who want to live as cheaply as possible are in better hands off-campus. However, since I was still writing exams in Germany until shortly before the start of O-Week, I decided to stay at my place to book the Barker Apartments in advance. These were one of the cheapest alternatives on campus, but they were still very, very expensive. Officially, these were advertised at ~ 260 AUD / week, but since this rate applies to the 6-month semester and you only live in it for 4 ½ months, I ended up paying ~ 330 AUD / week. If you don’t want to live on campus, you should plan a few extra days to look for a room and, above all, never pay anything in advance! Unfortunately, there are also questionable people out and about in Sydney trying to cheat. If I were to spend a second semester at UNSW which stands for University of New South Wales according to abbreviationfinder, I would take time a week before O-Week to look for an off-campus flat share, nobody I met would move into the Barker Apartments again.

5. Local transport / leisure

The local transport system in Sydney is unfortunately not as well developed as in other metropolises, but buses from UNSW still run every minute to Central Station (20 minutes) and Circular Quay (30 minutes). If you go home (to UNSW) a little later in the night, Uber was a good alternative, the buses were not always reliable here.

6. Conclusion

In the run-up, I had also considered going to Melbourne, but I’m glad I didn’t. For me, Sydney is absolutely the most liveable city, far ahead of Melbourne! In Sydney, UNSW is a compromise between proximity to the city center and the beach. The University of Sydney or the UTS are located directly in the city, but it is not possible to live directly on the beach, as is the case with the UNSW.

All in all, the time in Sydney was certainly the best semester of my entire study time. Living in a city like Sydney for a while was a great experience that is worth the one or two euro that this adventure and life in Sydney in general costs!