5th student: R

Studying: In her third year of a Bachelor of Biomedical Science majoring in human genetics. Planning to do postgrad.

Lives: Renting a place with her partner. When she first arrived she joined a flat in Newlands, which was a good way to meet people.

Interests/about: Born and raised in Chile, Moved to Marlborough with family when she was 16. Has been in NZ for 7 years. Loves music and attending live music events, plays the saxophone and cello.

Influencers: Her dad, who is a scientist and went through university in South America and now works with fish in Picton."He knows me better than anyone, he can tell me what things are best for me and give advice." Dad doesn't push but she trusts his opinion.

Social media: Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Skype.

Devices: An iPhone and a tablet. Brings the tablet to uni.

High school: In Blenheim.

Picking a uni: A Victoria rep came to her school and spoke with great charisma about Science. People from Otago and Auckland came too. "The people from Victoria seemed way nicer. They gave me that, you know, welcoming feeling. I didn't get that with any other uni." "If someone talks about something and they are charismatic and they've got that energy then you want to go there."

Also, Auckland was too far from her home in the South Island and Otago was too cold.

Expectations vs reality: "I thought it would be hard. That everything would be hard - meeting people, learning how the city worked. Everyone told me that lecturers don't care about you. I was a bit worried about the workload. I didn't know then that there would be so much help available. I didn't know there was tutorials, I thought it would just be lectures. So it was actually way nicer."

First year: Used Student Learning Support a lot in her first year. Found living away from home hard - had to learn to cook and get used to being in a quiet house.

Wellington: Likes Wellington, especially after Blenheim. "There's always something going on here. Coming from Blenheim - nothing happens there."

Enrolment: "It was a bit confusing at first. I didn't know what to do or how to do it. I had to read a lot. I did it online." Proving residency with certified paperwork was the hardest bit. Picking the programme was easy after her talk with the person from Victoria. She also looked at the courses available and examples of previous student stories, including videos. "It gives you an idea of how things work."

Re-enrolment (course planning): Found it pretty easy. Uses a combination of MyQual in MyVictoria and Course Finder. Looks at courses, checks the times, checks pre-requisites. Usually writes it all down. "It would be nice if

Extracurriculars: Is connected to the Awhina support programme. They have mentors and she heard about some events and talks from them via email.

Future plans: "I always had a vague thought that I would do postgrad. This year I decided I need to get my grades up and go for it." Found out what she needed to know about doing postgrad from a friend. "She told me what she's doing and who to talk to." Also went to talks about postgrad organised by the faculty. Things she wants to know about postgrad: options, requirements, cost, how long it takes, what she needs to do (eg. getting a supervisor, do I have set hours or classes). She also goes to Careerhub to see what papers they have to read.

Jobs/career: Is thinking about her options but trying not to stress about it. "I'm deciding what direction I want to go - do I want to work in a lab, to I want to work with people, do I want to work away from people? I more or less know now what I want as a work environment." Has also gone to talk to people who have worked in that environment, like tutors or lecturers. First started thinking about careers in a general way after high school, when she was on her gap year. "MY dad helped me on that sort of thing." Is not worried about making big money, just wants a stable job doing something she likes.

News: Likes hearing about 'big' Victoria news - when we win major research awards or funding, when we're top in something. "It puts the university up. It makes you think "actually, I picked right. It will all effect the university and it's nice to be able to say to people 'my university did this'." Reads all the news that comes to her through email. Gets her science news from the Victoria Science Society. Doesn't get it from the School or Faculty.

Events: Occasionally goes to science talks but finds out the details of those from lecturers.

Channels:

Likes BB and MyVic - "All the links are there."

Also uses Facebook - follows:

Science Society (club?)
Vic
Student Association
Possibly Faculty? (unsure)

Email: Doesn't use that much.

Faculty website, school website - doesn't use them.

Victoria website: Mainly to go to MyVictoria and Blackboard. Sometimes uses the Library site to book rooms. Has used it to search for lecturers and find their offices.

Posters - yes

Screens - to find out what time it is

Text - no

E-newsletters - no

Behaviour: Finds the Victoria website using google. Starts at the homepage. Course finder in the quicklinks. Selects undergrad and bio medical science. Wasn't keen to use the type-in box as she doesn't "know course codes". Found the righthand filters easily (uses them a lot) and filtered for trimester. On the course page she checked the pre-requisits, timetable and assessment breakdown (internal v external). "It would be nice if you could 'click, click, click' and it worked it all out for you". Also looked at a staff page. Searched straight from home. "Office hours would be useful."

Searched for "postgrad", looking for general postgrad info. But the results were confusing because engineering's site came up first and then other sites. She couldn't find her area in the list. Biomedical wasn't there. Found science eventually. At first glance the page looked useful but then she came to the navigation, which had acronyms for the programmes. That wasn't useful because she had no idea what they meant or what the difference was between the programmes.

When looking at internal search results, ignored shaded (suggested) results.
Staff profiles - for finding their room number. Their research achievements are relevant when selecting a supervisor for PG.

Labelling: Thought 'learning and teaching' was where they would find information about learning services.