1st student: Sc

Studying: third year of a BA in Psychology with minors in German and Educational Psychology. Will do Hons next year. 

Lives: with mum and dad in Karori. Walks to and from uni whenever possible.

Interests: Music - teaches piano to kids. Used to study it at uni but doesn't any more. Not into sports but likes to walk and get out in nature. Does bushwalks in Wellington. Loves showing visiting German friends Wellington's bush areas. Travels to visit family in Malaysia. Has Sri Lankan and Indian heritage. 

Social media: Has Facebook but that's it. Friends know she only checks it in the evenings. "I like to be a bit remote." Follows VUWSA, and the VUW main page, plus club pages. Checks personal email regularly.

Devices: Old Android smartphone, only used for txting. Samsung Note tablet for email and notetaking in lectures. Laptop at home.

High school: Private school. High academic focus. Small classes, tight-knit community. 

Picking a uni: Victoria reps spoke at her school and she liked the sound of it. Got packs in the mail and looked online.

Enrolment: The process was fine but took longer than she thought it would. Had a meeting with someone in recruitment and went through the planning process. Was confused about the points system - "Why do I need points and what do they add up to?" Initially took music as an elective course. Enrolled online. "Obviously it's a bit of a deal to make sure nothing clashes." Found it very different to the school system. 

Expectations vs reality: Had heard lots at school about how university was all about self-directed learning. "You won't have all these teachers feeding you and caring for you. Lecturers are more removed." "I thought I was going to be a little fish in a big pond." When she arrived she did feel "teeny" for awhile but quickly adjusted. Enjoyed meeting so many people from all over New Zealand. Organised and focussed on staying on top of coursework.

Re-enrolment: Picks the required courses first, which doesn't leave her with a lot of room for optionals, so she chooses the ones that fit in her timetable. Writes it all down on paper and the puts it into a Word or Excel file and looks for clashes. "I have to set aside time for it."

Extracurriculars: 

Future plans: Wants to be a Psychologist. Trying to keep her grades up so she can do an honours year. After honours she wants to take a break and work or travel, then go back to study - maybe a Masters?

Jobs: Started thinking about employment in second year of uni. When she applied she knew a job would be at least three years away. "That seemed like a long time away at the time." Is getting worried about jobs. Wishes there was a good way to find out about jobs or internship opportunities that she could realistically get. Finds it hard to be presented with lots of opportunities that probably aren't realistic. Not so worried about earning big money. "I just hope I get a job right now, it doesn't matter that I get really well paid. I just want something stable."

News: Follows student news from VUWSA, representation, politics. Gets their emails. "I don't use Facebook that much for what I do, but I know a lot of people do." 

Events: Goes to German Club stuff but not really anything else. "I like to stay in - one of the many reasons I didn't go to Otago." Also gets emails from other German things in Wellington (Gerta (sp?) Institute?). Sees fliers around university for people giving talks on their research and that sort of thing.

Interactions with faculty:

• Courses. They helped her do a degree audit. This enabled her to have her degree planned out in advance.
• To double check what has seen on the website – would talk to Faculty or call them. (Issue of incorrect information.)
• When needed an academic transcript (for scholarships)

Interactions with school:

• More specific things about courses
• Email lecturer – what is this course about (if website doesn’t tell them)

Sources of info on scholarships:

• Emails from Vic Careers because has subscribed to this.
• German programme – lecturer tells them about scholarships through BB
• Scholarships database is ‘huge’. Difficult when was new but when she knew what she was looking for, it was easier – found what she wanted.

Sources of info on internships:

• Would go to Careers site and/or email lecturers.

Behaviour: Look for job information. Started from homesite. Went to current students "that's what I am". Went to Graduation and beyond > Vic Careers. "If I didn't already know what Careerhub was I wouldn't have clicked. 

Back to the homepage. "I would usually get to Faculty or School sites straight from google. I also have them faveourited."  Looked for courses. Used the middle search box on the home page. Was confused by the results because there were a lot with different faculty names in them, but not her faculty. In the end she chose the top result, which went to a non-faculty based homesite page.

"I use Course Finder a lot when course planning. In first year we used the book (GUS) which is given to us as future students." "I'm not a fan of having to change courses. That would stress me out. I want to get more information the first time, and I would probably ring someone if I wasn't sure." At the moment, she feels like she has to guess what a course will be like based on the title. 

Channels: 

BB and email are really good. “I don’t feel I’m missing out on anything.”

Email:

• Things she has signed up for
• Student emails

BB:

• Checks before uni starts (each semester?) – eg, set-up tutorials.
• Gets BB notifications through email.
• Info from lecturers.
• “Very good.”
   

After email and BB, would choose Facebook; then screens/posters

MyVic – timetabling:

• The balance you owe for course fees
• And to check grades

Text – eg, if volunteering

Vic website (and faculty and school) – courses I’m in. PG study requirements. Course descriptions. So I know it’s something I like.

• Info she's looked for: courses – Faculty and school site; coming to Vic – main site: “but now I know”.
• If wants to contact someone, uses main site.

Impressions: Very organised and focussed. Likes to take in as much information as possible to inform decisions and isn't afraid to call someone for help. Uses navigation when the path seems like it would be obvious and search when it wouldn't.