Life at College

By Tara Brougham, University of Melbourne, Australia

Choosing accommodation for your year abroad is one of the most stressful and time consuming tasks, made even trickier by the fact you are likely organising it all from home. In Melbourne there are three main options for accommodation: a sharehouse (usually found through facebook), private student accommodation (such as UniLodge) or a college. I chose the third option, and live at Trinity College.

What is college?

The colleges at Melbourne are similar to what I would imagine Oxbridge colleges are: I have a private room in an old building, catered food 7 days a week and heaps of college activities throughout the semester. Although it is the pricier accommodation option, it’s worth it for the people you meet and ease of living on campus. As well as this, most events are free (and have free drinks!) and college provides an extra layer of support while abroad. For example, Trinity provided supplies such as a bedding pack and have a variety of extras you could not get elsewhere.

Applying to college:

The application to college is a pretty lengthy process. First I applied to all the colleges (there are 10) ranking them in preference order and providing a personal statement. Usually, if your first choice college does not offer you an interview, they will help you to get into another college. After this, you have an interview on zoom where two staff members will ask you questions about your interests and what you will contribute to the college community. The interview is quite informal, so not something to stress too much about.

Life at college:

Once you arrive at college you are made to feel welcome with an Orientation Week (O Week at Trinity) which for me consisted of activities with other Mid-Year Freshers (the name for people joining in second semester at Trinity) such as formal dinners, a corri crawl (think pub crawl, but themed and around college), and days exploring Melbourne. After this, the rest of college start to arrive back and I met everyone on my corri (corridor – about 20 people) and got to know them through more events, such as a dinner out. Throughout the semester there are college events, with Sports Ball, Senior Student Dinner and a fake wedding some highlights so far. There are also weekly bar nights followed by an AP (after party – usually at a club in the CBD). Aside from these events, there is also a sense of community in day to day college life as meals are shared and you bond with others quickly.

Overall, living at college has been the highlight of my exchange so far and certainly made the move abroad smoother and easier.